Alternative lander designs

[Cordeos]

I was just messing around with shipbuilding when I had a great idea, instead of building a lander and taking care with landing a craft, why not just build a cage and smash it into the surface. My first test was on Kerbal.

Getting ready for the maiden voyage of the Sunburst Mk7 Dropcage

Re-entry Burn

Impact!

The mission was successful! My next test will be to smash a rover into Minmus

Has anyone else experimented with different/crazy lander designs?

[technicalfool]

Lithobraking? I like it!

Nothing quite so crazy, but I got fed up with rovers on Gilly sliding around and having almost zero control.

So I added rocket engines.

The RCS thrusters also help with the problem of KSP refusing to let you back into the space centre unless you're doing precisely 0.0m/s velocity. Pressing the rover into the floor with monopropellant and madly hitting escape a few times will eventually give you the button to press!

[Princepapa]

I LOVE that cage idea! I had thought of doing something similar myself but didn't think it would work, so I never tried...

Guess I'll have to try now.

[Cordeos]

Minmus worked alright, I still had to do some slowdown as there is no atmosphere to slow the ship down. I just tried to get it to Duna, but messed up my intercept and missed the planet by like 20 km. I will try again later.

[Vanamonde]

Ablative landing gear? Bit tough on the crew/payload, don't you think?