Show off your landers MEGATHREAD

[Drunkrobot]

Light or heavy, manned or unmanned, show off your landing crafts here!

...yes, I do ulterior motives. I'm about to start a manned interplanetary program, and I'm terrified of leaving the little guys stranded on Duna.':l

Edit: this thread has been more popular than expected! I have learned a bit more about heavy landers, and I don't see a lander megathread anywhere, so I've changed the title. Please inform me if I have made a mistake anywhere.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Drunkrobot
More fitting title.

[rakutenshi]

Remember landers are better with a wider footprint, to reduce the risk of tipping over.

To make the lander as stable as possible, imagine an equilateral triangle, with the lander's legs at the bottom two corners. The center of mass should be at or below the geometric centre of the triangle. the higher it is the greater the risk of tipping.

Also it may not be a bad idea if you don't plan on refuelling the lander to leave to either make a two stage lander like the Apollo LEM, or have some radial fuel tanks that you can dump on the way in.

Edited May 29, 2013 by rakutenshi

[Christian365]

also, Always cancel your lateral velocity before executing your final decent. I remember my landers keep tipping over because I was still moving sideways while landing, oh the first days xD

[Tommygun]

OK, but you asked for it.....

[Drunkrobot]

My most capable lander I have right now is Mun-capable. It is little more than the smallest rockomax tank, a 2-man lander can and two 909 engines. I really want to make some heavier stuff, so I can bring more equipment to the Mun (rovers, hab modules etc, to prepare for resources) or at the very least, be able to lift off from atmospheric bodies, like Duna. In that case, I have no idea what sort of size of lander I would need.

[Drunkrobot]

That's amazing! Though I was thinking of stock part only...

[Nibb31]

[Zutha]

Stock only:

Duna's moon

The Tower

Uses parachutes to land on duna. Never tried getting it back off though.

[Yuming]

I have a fairly small low gravity lander that has done me justice on anything smaller than Duna.

and another pic

You have to be careful about fuel levels, but its easy to fly and has great thrust to weight ratio.

For interplanetary missions, I replace the chute with a docking port and add three radial parachutes for landing.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Yuming

[Rhyunix]

I remember yours Nibb!!! I've got a few but their kinda base parts, just not as bases yet

[Boffinbox]

minmus lander.

it's primarily for fuelling a ground base, but attatched on this lander are four smaller landers

they double up as escape pods back to kerbin for the minmus station

remnants of a launch stage on this one. for some reason i don't have a shot of just the lander...

[Brofessional]

This is the most recent Duna lander I've made. Margin of error is very low though, can't burn more than about 5-10% fuel on descent, so you have to be very accurate with your insertion.

After landing the parachute rig detaches with separatrons, one at a slight angle so it flies clear of the lander. The aerospikes break away after the ascent and there's an LV-909 in the center and two medium radial RCS tanks to handle the rendezvous.

The struts are probably excessive but I wanted to make sure the chutes didn't rip off.

Unless you're making an effort to play vanilla, the best thing to do is get the Kethane and KAS mods so you can refuel your landers on the ground.

[RoboRay]

Probes:

Crewed:

Rovers:

Edited May 29, 2013 by RoboRay

[ComradeGoat]

This is my air breathing lander for Laythe. It'll take off and attain orbit on Kerbin with fuel spare to dock, and being SSTO, is fully reusable. Should land elsewhere too, but carrying those jet engines around would be somewhat pointless:

[geb]

Light or heavy, manned or unmanned, show off your landing crafts here!

...yes, I do ulterior motives. I'm about to start a manned interplanetary program, and I'm terrified of leaving the little guys stranded on Duna.':l

If you are designing a Duna lander, you need to decide whether you're landing on rockets or parachutes.

Parachutes will let you use a low mass lander, but you need to have plenty of struts so it doesn't tear itself apart when the parachutes open. Rockets will let you use a simpler design, but it will be heavy.

Parachute type. Note: struts between the pod, the ASAS, and the fuel tank.

Rocket type. Note: works best when it lands upright.

[Guest]

[Spartwo]

take away the 2/3 from left.the two in the middle,all beyond the one with jet engines can land anywhere.

[Anglave]

All completely stock:

Mun - this only lands the rover

(the rover in action)

Duna - lands and returns to Kerbin

(here's the whole thing together)

Laythe (overbuilt) - lands, leaves a hitchhiker on the surface, returns to Kerbin

(cover shot)

Eve - lands (sea level) and returns to Eve orbit

Edited May 29, 2013 by Anglave

[Laughing Man]

If you plan on taking rovers, be sure that they detach right way up if on a heavier gravity body like Kerbin or Duna, otherwise getting them upright again can be a pain. This lander uses slides to do the job, although it should be noted you won't need them on the Mun since ou can just hit dock, hit the spacebar and rotate them.

It should be noted that this lander didn't even use half of the X200 tank, even after ascending to a 30km parking orbit.

[sporkafife]

I have a fairly small low gravity lander that has done me justice on anything smaller than Duna.

Where does the fuel go? 0.o

[ComradeGoat]

If you are designing a Duna lander, you need to decide whether you're landing on rockets or parachutes.

Parachutes will let you use a low mass lander, but you need to have plenty of struts so it doesn't tear itself apart when the parachutes open. Rockets will let you use a simpler design, but it will be heavy.

Here's my parachute type. Struts everywhere, so pretty solid:

[ComradeGoat]

Where does the fuel go? 0.o

Glad I wasn't the only one wondering that!

[Vanamonde]

Stock Duna landers, you say? Big and little:

[Tokay Gris]

To the left the "Castor", this being a testing mission for the planned landing on Duna (this explains the parachutes), and the "Bug" to the right.

And this is the "Falcon" (obviously not "Millenium"), the first vessel actually to touch down on (my) Mun. And that was pre-Mechjeb.

[Piggius_Max]

I have a fairly small low gravity lander that has done me justice on anything smaller than Duna.

and another pic

You have to be careful about fuel levels, but its easy to fly and has great thrust to weight ratio.

For interplanetary missions, I replace the chute with a docking port and add three radial parachutes for landing.

I don't can't see ANY fuel tanks on that.