The story of Munship-X3

[Newman]

Got bit by the 'stock parts only' bug. Just wanted to do a Mun return trip without mods. Well, after managing the standard Mun return trip that ends with the capsule parachuting back into the ocean, I wanted to try something different - I wanted to go to the Mun, land, take off again, go back and land on Kerbin using the main engines, using only stock parts. Well, actually, it would be a parachute assisted powered landing. So I made a larger lander with 3 engines, because overengineering is always a good thing in rocketry. I think. It worked for N1.. for at least 60 seconds or so!

Launch went without any problems. Ah, clustering.. Korolev would have been proud.

There is some wobble during the ascent in the lower parts, but it doesn\'t endanger the rocket and it\'s not that pronounced - so I elected to not use struts and save up on weight.

Time to toss stage 1, and finish orbital insertion using the second stage.

Who knew empty trash cans could be used as fuel tanks and actually work?

So, TMI complete, before I knew it I was selecting a landing spot and doing a Mun deorbit burn.

Slowing down for the final descent...

Hey, I\'m down! And I\'m not looking at my engines and tanks rolling on the terrain all around! Guess that\'s good, then!

Scientific analysis of the Munar surface: it\'s boring. Nothing to do but throw rocks and crush beer cans. And you gotta bring your own cans. So let\'s get out of here to someplace where they at least got cable. Hey, the lander kinda looks like a Viper from BSG from this angle.. cool.

Aerobreaking is nice when there\'s no heat and friction to worry about.. so I\'m exploiting this to save up on fuel for as long as it still works.

Going back home ass-backwards. As it should be.

Um, Jeb, whatever gave you the idea that deploying the drogue chute over snowy mountains is a good idea?

The Viper has landed. Back home, I mean. CAPCOM, could you ask someone to come and pick us up? Jeb popped the hatch open and broke the lock so now we\'re freezing. We\'re in some snowy white area, right next to a texture seam. Also, we kinda started the breaking burn a second too late so we bumped the lander a bit harder than anticipated. A bit of duct tape, super glue and various office supplies and she\'ll be good as new!

Now, I realize this is far from the best 'stock only' Mun round trip designs, as my goal wasn\'t to actually build something that\'s super efficient but have fun with a powered descent of a much larger lander. I\'m attaching the .craft file in case anyone wants to play with it. Not that it\'s all that original, pretty much everyone and their grandmother used a similar winglet config for a lander using stock only.. but here it is anyway.

[Guest ThatCrazyPilot]

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

Purists...

[Newman]

Purists...

Heh, just needed to get it out of my system. I\'m happily using mods again. It\'s not really cheating if you use the balanced, more realistic ones, especially since the stock selection is rather poor and leaves you with limited choices.

[SilverSurfer]

When I DL and try it there\'s not enough thrust to leave the ground...

[Spearka]

i always seem to find out that if you are paracuting entire crafts as well as the pod, you will need to assist it by retrorocketing

[Tim_Barrett]

Purists...

Kerbalists 8)

[semininja]

Purists...

ahaha. haha.

I have the opposite problem...

I got so into the KW Challenger pack and my custom parts, I ditched most of the stock ones.

[Newman]

When I DL and try it there\'s not enough thrust to leave the ground...

Sorry, didn\'t see this before. I just re-tried, it takes off fine, but you do need to set throttle to maximum. It doesn\'t get off the ground at default throttle position, which should be about 50%. You need to be at 100% otherwise you\'re going nowhere, and not particularly fast If it\'s not a throttle issue, the only thing I can think of is that you might be using an older version, or have modified .cfg files of the stock parts. But I kinda doubt it would even work with much older versions..

i always seem to find out that if you are paracuting entire crafts as well as the pod, you will need to assist it by retrorocketing

This depends greatly on the mass and velocity of the craft. Too much strain on the chute will cause it to break off. I didn\'t need to retroburn on this one, but the chute does tend to 'disappear' a few meters off the ground, so if you\'re not ready for it with the throttle it can get painful. Last few meters of the Kerbin landing are extremely tricky with this one. I think the chute decides the ship is landed a tad too soon.