Landing gear for landing on slopes

[Kasuha]

One thing that I don't really like on KSP is that it forces people to make short wide ships:

Long ships are wobbly in general and are hard to be strutted against it.

Wide ships are quite easy to be strutted.

Long ships have no aerodynamic advantage over wide ships

Long ships are almost impossible to land on sloped terrain

In my opinion something should be done with all of these but for now I am suggesting to add landing gear that would compensate automatically for certain level of terrain slope by extending each leg by different amount to keep the ship's center of mass above the base covered by landing gear.

The idea is that legs would e.g. act as if they are hydraulically connected, initially extended to about half of their full extent. When the ship starts landing, legs in contact with ground would give way, extending legs not in contact with ground until either the leg is fully extended, or the pressure on each leg is equal. When the engine is shut down, legs would lock in their positions.

Of course it can be done many other ways, too.

Either curent LT-2 and LT-5 legs can be adapted to work this way, or completely new landing legs could be added for this.

[Floule]

I really like this idea. I would also enjoy new landing gears, and perhaps bigger ones.

The idea with the hydraulics is also really cool, so we could build some sort of bush planes

[khalidibn]

Whilst someone works on this, you can make this work using Infernal Robotics slider to adjust the height of each landing leg manually.

[lajoswinkler]

Unbelieveable, this just came up to me last night before bedtime and now I see it here. Yes, it's a good idea.

[NoMrBond]

Zitronen also released adjustable landing legs as a part

As for unfolding stuff...

Javascript is disabled. View full album

You can make that sort of thing with Magic Smoke Industries

[LeadMagnet]

An interesting idea, but this doesn't exist IRL. The reason being at take off/landing the angle of attack would more than likely cancel out lift. There are some larger cargo aircraft (IE: C5 Galaxy, Antonov 225, etc) that have a leveling system, but this is level the aircraft due to cargo weight.

As for "long ship" landing on a slope, try a perpendicular approach.

[Kasuha]

An interesting idea, but this doesn't exist IRL. The reason being at take off/landing the angle of attack would more than likely cancel out lift.

I don't understand your argument. Is it related in any way to vertical landings/takeoffs?

Anyway - even Apollo lunar module landing legs used mechanical dampers, balancing the stress on each leg. Yes, it was not an intelligent system but it took care of terrain irregularities.

As for "long ship" landing on a slope, try a perpendicular approach.

Basically you're telling me to make my rocket short and wide instead of tall and thin. That's exactly what I am complaining about.

KSP is clearly not intended for building short fat rockets, otherwise the orange tank wouldn't be that tall, it would be short and wide like the X200-8 container, just bigger. The fact that most successful rocket designs in KSP are short and wide is just result of rocket design evolution in the world of KSP physics engine and available parts.

[Guest]

Tractor trailers have air bags and leveling valves. That's so you can maintain a relatively smooth and level ride as you go down the road. If ,for example, one of the airbags on one of the rear axles gets a leak, the tractor will go down the road with the rear end sitting lower than the front, causing the driveshaft to rattle and vibrate. Adding a leveling system to landing gear would be nice, and make vertical landings much more stable.

[FrostOmega]

Zitronen also released adjustable landing legs as a part

As for unfolding stuff...

Javascript is disabled. View full album

You can make that sort of thing with Magic Smoke Industries

By the Emperor, a Drop Pod! Now I must find an Dreadnought.

On the subject, it's a nice idea. I would like to see some new landing gears as well.

[Specialist290]

Basically you're telling me to make my rocket short and wide instead of tall and thin...

I would like to note that it's entirely possible to build a craft that takes off vertically on a "tall and thin" launcher but lands horizontally.

[thereaverofdarkness]

I'd like to see landing gear be given a shock absorption mechanic to provide both this and a gentler landing, with different leg types having different shock stiffness values. Would be neat also to be able to adjust the shock stiffness. Less stiff means it will move further but might move too far if you land too hard.

[boomerdog2000]

That would be very useful. The current rigid ones can cause problems if you don't manage your descent well.