Has anyone made a landing sled..intentionally?

[inigma]

Ok so instead of trying to land pinpoint downwards on a body, I had a crazy thought this morning: has anyone developed a lander that intentionally lands by sledding? I then wondered about the possibility of developing an "ablative" sled...

[Banbite]

Destructive lithobraking, would be a fun thing to try.

[Redjoker]

I don't know about a sled but I know people of used combinations of structural parts to create a "cushion" that would slow down their lander on impact.

[Francesco]

sort of: I tried building unpowered impactors some time ago - had some luck with a "sandwich" technology to make them, uhm, impact safely on Kerbin.

subsequent tests on the Mun didn't lead to satisfactory results, though

[Landge]

I've tried using the plate parts to make a landing ramp of sorts but when I try driving off, the platform flexes too much and my rover wheels fall between the connected plates.

[Ford_Prefect]

Hm... Maybe use plane wheels?

[Sapphire]

I use my rocket as a cushion when landing my rovers. The rover is on treads, so it can take quite a fall. But I mount it to the top of the rocket, then when landing, kill thrust about 25-50m up and just let the rocket get flattened under the rover. It works pretty well!

[AmpsterMan]

I tried doing a horizontal landing on mun with landing gear. It's dificult and pointless but extremely fun.

Protip: Retrorockets are a must

[inigma]

Hm... Maybe use plane wheels?

Jebediah wants to go sledding, not riding.

[Vanamonde]

People have landed on wheels, but its very risky because at the speeds involved, even a little bump can send you on a disastrous arcing tumble.

[Pbhead]

Wheres Danny when you need him...

[inigma]

I wonder what it would take to make an impact resistant lander sledding shell tolerant of multiple 100 m/s impacts...

It might look like probe encased in a metal bullet-shaped shell designed to land at 100 m/s at an angle of 10 degrees...

Edited June 19, 2013 by inigma

[SiliconPyro]

A dodecahadron cage around your lander that lets you just cut thrust an nail the surface at around 100m/s would be amazing.

[inigma]

A dodecahadron cage around your lander that lets you just cut thrust an nail the surface at around 100m/s would be amazing.

Who wants to go sledding? If someone makes it, we could start a challenge thread.

[acealeam]

Structural Panels have an impact tolerance of 80. I'll begin testing.

[inigma]

Structural Panels have an impact tolerance of 80. I'll begin testing.

don't forget to slap a command chair on it when done.

[OtherDalfite]

C7's old pack, before he became a developer for KSP, had landing skids, since proper wheels didn't exist. They actually worked really well. He had some wheels, but they were static and were prone to bending over and exploding, resulting in the death of your Kerbals.

[firerider521]

Structural Panels have an impact tolerance of 80. I'll begin testing.

So do radial air intakes.

Bwahahahaha..........

[MBobrik]

I've experimented with lithobraking on purpose, I've even built some rovers that landed at ~50 meters per second and braked by bursting all their wheels and followed by punching into the grund down with their reinforced bottom. I however found out that pure lithobraking is unreliable because other, weaker parts become disconnected or forced into each other and explode during impact.I suppose this will be a problem too when sliding.

Edited June 19, 2013 by MBobrik

[acealeam]

Alright, so it works. But 80 isn't quite enough for it to be very useful. :/

[acealeam]

Structural Pylons have an impact tolerance of 999, however they don't like cushioning things. I tried this and they crashed into their pod and killed them.

[Festivefire]

this thread is a dedication to glorious kerbalism. the i-beam pylons make good skids, but you need lots of struts to keep stuff from separating.

[A Fat Pokemon]

Heh, I remember my first space plane landing on one of Kerbin's moons, Minmus if I remember correctly. Instead of going forward and attempting to brake slowly, I instead reversed my plane and landed backwards, going somewhere around 200m/s, then proceeded to slow down

[inigma]

Awesome landing. 200 m/s eh? I outta try that.

[chickenplucker]

Not quite the same, but I made some simple airbags for glancing/skidding landings on moons or planets with no atmosphere.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/cp-airbag-system/

I'm not sure how killroykill got those things to not explode at that speed/impact though, they are quite fragile at times. You could prolly coat the entire outside of your craft in landing gear and get away with something similar though. The landing gear is pretty tough if you can keep them attached and mounted. Maybe steel beams poking out like a sea urchin with landing gear and struts coating the whole mess. Dang, this could be a fun challenge!