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Munar landing

Omnivore

By Omnivore
in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

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Entroper

Entroper

Posted
Posted

Congrats! Very nicely done and great pics. Impressed by the small size of your rocket design compared to my monstrosities.

Thanks. :) I was planning to Youtube this tonight, but I got sidetracked on important things. Have to wait for tomorrow. :)

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Jarnis

Jarnis

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Wow, I thought it took a lot more fuel to get all the way to the moon. Anyways, good job.

It all depends on the amount of weight you are moving around. If all you are hauling is a pod, everything beyond Kerbin orbit takes very little fuel. Now if you are instead hauling a full two-stage lander complete with RCS + RCS fuel etc. you need quite a bit more. And getting all that into orbit takes quite a bit more and... well... it becomes a Big Rocket at that point.

Weight...weight... all about weight. Same reason why a very tiny return stage off a two-stage lander can easily return to Kerbin (or why you can reasonably easily build a lander that has still enough fuel for the return trip as well)

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frenchie16

frenchie16

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Out of curiosity, how many people actually have separate ascent and descent stages? So far I\'ve only done separate stages, but a lot of people seem to be having more luck with combined single-stage landers. There is something wonderful about leaving the descent stage sitting on the surface of the Mun, though...

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SmiteZero

SmiteZero

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Previous attempt saw the lander descent stage run out of fuel halfway through deceleration. Popped the interlock and started on the ascent fuel. Coming in REALLY hot using only RCS thrusters for braking (ran out of ascent fuel, too), moving fast, skimming the ground. Suddenly an explosion and the ascent engine has disapeared! The LEM is now skidding across the surface at 200m/s, sparks flying. BOOM! The ascent tank gets ripped off and explodes behind. The mess of a mission continues it\'s hellish joyride across the dirt. BOOM! The RCS tank gets stripped off. BOOM! The last decoupler becomes unhinged, parts company and explodes as well. The capsule continues skidding scross the dirt for another hundred meters or so and eventually comes to rest. Things are still exploding.

It was awesome.

After the dust settled I remembered I wasn\'t recording. :\'(

So, okay. Nova\'s lander tank doesn\'t pack enough juice to slow down from a low orbit. Hell with it, I\'ll use everything I brought with me next time:

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Omnivore

Omnivore

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@frenchie16: Initially I had planned to use a two stage lander, but I found that it was more efficient to use my cruise stage to do most of the initial braking and jettison it at low altitude. This let me conserve enough fuel for the actual lander that getting home even with a single LFT lander was a breeze.

@SmiteZero: Wow, exciting ride :) UPDATE: Awesome video, great music too, and congrats on the landing!

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Zeroignite

Zeroignite

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Out of curiosity, how many people actually have separate ascent and descent stages? So far I\'ve only done separate stages, but a lot of people seem to be having more luck with combined single-stage landers. There is something wonderful about leaving the descent stage sitting on the surface of the Mun, though...

I use one LFT for Munar capture and descent, then jettison it a few hundred meters above the surface.
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Jarnis

Jarnis

Posted
Posted

Out of curiosity, how many people actually have separate ascent and descent stages? So far I\'ve only done separate stages, but a lot of people seem to be having more luck with combined single-stage landers. There is something wonderful about leaving the descent stage sitting on the surface of the Mun, though...

Combined single stage lander is smaller and easier as you do not need to carry two engines. The fuel requirement is also so low that a single LFT will usually do just fine.

I\'ve done two-stage landers as well (using Silisko pack - they would be too tall with stock parts)

Edit: However, if you look at the fuel remaining on those two designs... both could probably take off and get back to Kerbin with the whole lander, not just the upper stage. KSP and mod pack fuel tanks are just 'too large' for a proper two-stage lander that ditches the empty descent stage on landing.

Heck, I would love to see a 2M tank that is very short (to get the height of the rocket down) for a descent stage from Silisko pack. 50% shorter, 50% less total mass and it would still do fine to landing. Could then always use current tank if you want to do complex Mun orbit maneuvers before landing (say, inclination changes).

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Omnivore

Omnivore

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I\'ve been testing out a heavy duty two stage lander concept for pilots like myself using \'Tapioca\' parts (Vanilla + Wiser Guy\'s G Variant LFT and RDC). It isn\'t a very efficient design mass-wise but... the high impact tests were quite amazing!

The Mk IV model is even more robust (see last picture) - the ascent stage *still* works and manages to lift off.

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Omnivore

Omnivore

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Heavy yes, the HDL Mk IV masses 24.89 fully fueled. The Mk III is a bit lighter at 23.45.

I\'ve also been testing a pure vanilla variant, HDL-V Mk I which adds a center mounted LFT and LFE to the HDL Mk IV and replaces the 3 LFT-G + LFE\'s with SRBs. Assuming the SRBs have been fired previously in the voyage, the vanilla model masses only 16.97. Only problem the vanilla version is a few meters taller and somewhat top heavy in comparison.

Note: compare those weights to the \'standard\' vanilla easy lander with 1x LFT, 1x LFE, 1x ASAS, 1x RCST, 6x RCS, 3x RDC, and 3x R8 wings massing 13.49.

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Bobsama

Bobsama

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So I got there but I didn\'t get back. All stock parts, of course.

mun03.png

mun06.png

mun07.png

I didn\'t expect to reach the Mun on that launch--I was testing some launch vehicle optimizations. Apparently it\'s sufficiently optimized to get there. Now I just have to figure out how to get back.

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Xerillum

Xerillum

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Here\'s the rocket I\'m using. All stock parts.

screenshot20.png

First Attempt: I managed to get into a lunar orbit, but I didn\'t handle the fuel well enough to circularize it or leave. I ended up stuck at the border between Kerbin and the moon\'s spheres of influence somehow.

Second Attempt: I tried to do a close (1000m) orbit, but some clumsy finger work resulted in hitting the windows key when I was about to shut down the circularizing burn, and somehow KSP crashed.

Third Attempt: I managed to do a powered descent that sheared off most of the return stage.

screenshot17.png

Fourth Attempt: I tossed on another few fuel tanks to the main stage for this one. I managed to touch down on the moon with a powered descent, and used the last stage to return to Kerbin. If I had remembered to toss a parachute on, it would have been a success.

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