I need a simple lander design!

[thereaverofdarkness]

I'm looking for a lander design that meets a few qualifications:

1.) must be able to build completely stock

2.) flexible design--room for various upgrades without changing the basic setup, esp. after unlocking technology or if I choose to use mods

3.) a place to put cargo/payload - doesn't need to be anything more than a big enough surface to attach it

4.) a very wide base that makes it extremely stable on slopes, but still very easy to land

5.) easy to build on the fly - I have my reasons but I build almost everything from scratch and learn to build designs from memory as opposed to saving them as craft or subassembly files

6.) has to look "right", no apparent part clipping or design implements that look "wrong", for example separating an LV-909 from the fuel tank with a cubic octagonal strut would look "wrong". Sleek designs with everything fitted snugly are best.

7.) has to fit a docking port at the top, and must maintain vertical radial symmetry for balance, maneuvering, and docking. Stylish asymmetric designs a plus if they are controlled very easily. Extra kudos if you can solve the problem of fitting only one goo pod.

8.) Kerbin TWR minimum 0.75, preferred 2. Delta-V needed: minimum enough to land on Mun and take off again, preferred--as much as you can squeeze in minimalistically.

No craft files necessary, an image or two is the preferred method of delivery. If you wish to present extra images or video of the lander in use to show off, I'd love to see it!

What you get for showing me these things: I'll let you know which design concepts I like, and you guys get the good happy feeling of knowing you have saved me many hours of headache in my future years of playing this game. Also, if your design looks like you put a lot of work into it, I'll feature it in the OP whether I like it or not (unless you ask me not to). My favorite designs will be maximalist-minimalist--what I mean by that is that it's capable of doing just about anything while having as simple a design as possible.

Lastly, if you are struggling with designs, I can try to offer suggestions from my experience. I consider myself good at making stable rockets, easy-to-dock ships, and structurally sound fueling stations. I'm great at landing and lousy at getting off the ground. I'm absolutely terrible at making rovers and even worse at keeping them upright. You are all welcome to ask for ideas on craft types unrelated to the topic, as long as you post a lander for me and give me specifics on what design implementations you're looking for.

One of my landers:

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Submission Gallery:

From left to right: Cupcake, Wanderfound, Mesklin

WooDzor

Gratuitous space scenery from Rune (top), Batz_10K (bottom)

From left to right: sauliukas, r_rolo1, Redrobin

Edited August 24, 2014 by thereaverofdarkness

[Camaron]

I'd enjoy your challenge, but can you be specific about the technology limits? Maybe with a pic of your tree?

Also, what kind of cargo do you mean?

[Cupcake...]

This one's been serving me well for a while now. You can rip out the LV-909 and put in an aerospike if you need more grunt.

Cupcake...

[Wanderfound]

A good happy feeling isn't quite enough to get me to design something from scratch for you, and you won't find many landers with a Kerbin TWR of 1.5-3 (did you actually mean a Munar TWR?), but I'll toss you a few shots of my current standard lander:

[Mesklin]

Too many wishes , especially last one - Kerbin TWR > 1.5, for what are you need so big TWR, for Tylo you should make special design, for Eve also, but for another bodies TWR 0.5 - 0.7 is more then enough.

Simple design rules:

1. Do not use RCS on landers, keep it on main ship or make small RCS tug for docking operations

2. Place fuel tanks with legs and bottom engines around cabin - it is producing very wide and stable craft and it has a good space for additions and tunings

But, if you wish, here is completely universal lander with rover for all bodies (except Eve and Jool ) - "Tripod" lander, very stable, with adjustable TWR (on/off groups of engines), but big and very inefficient.

Top view

Bottom view

[WooDzor]

Fully RCS powered Mun lander. I'll be happy to upload if you're interested.

LEM inspired Mun Lander

Gemini inspired Mun Lander

Though they might not be very simple craft

[thereaverofdarkness]

I'd enjoy your challenge, but can you be specific about the technology limits? Maybe with a pic of your tree?

Also, what kind of cargo do you mean?

I'm intentionally keeping it somewhat vague because I want to see anything you guys want to present. As far as cargo I'm mostly interested in design flexibility; I didn't have any specific cargo in mind.

Maybe 1.5 Kerbin TWR is a bit overzealous for a minimum, but I like to make suicide burns. It's nice to be able to change the craft's velocity rapidly. I'll edit the OP and tone it down a bit.

These are some really cool designs guys! I am especially liking Cupcake's trend of fitting tanks sideways. I've seen a lot of folks do that and they make some sweet-looking designs. I find it tricky to get them to fit the way I want, so I haven't done much of that. Any pointers?

Waterfound, similar to mine but I like how you used the materials bays to widen the base. I'd put 4 engines on it instead of one but that's just me.

Mesklin, neat trick sneaking that lander under there, but I don't think I could copy that lander design very well. I might try something like that anyway though, even if my lander ends up looking like a fire hazard slinky.

WooDzor, those are awesome and I have no idea how you built those! O.O

[KingPhantom]

i made a simple lander for surface to orbit (15km) transfer on mun. but its really short on fuel and you have to do the rest of the rande-vouz with RCS... a return from the twin craters to 20km orbit with 180° inclanation costs all the resources. i got 20 mono left after docking.

but he can make all the science...

i have to do a redesign... he needs more power..

[Cupcake...]

I'm intentionally keeping it somewhat vague because I want to see anything you guys want to present. As far as cargo I'm mostly interested in design flexibility; I didn't have any specific cargo in mind.

Maybe 1.5 Kerbin TWR is a bit overzealous for a minimum, but I like to make suicide burns. It's nice to be able to change the craft's velocity rapidly. I'll edit the OP and tone it down a bit.

These are some really cool designs guys! I am especially liking Cupcake's trend of fitting tanks sideways. I've seen a lot of folks do that and they make some sweet-looking designs. I find it tricky to get them to fit the way I want, so I haven't done much of that. Any pointers?

Waterfound, similar to mine but I like how you used the materials bays to widen the base. I'd put 4 engines on it instead of one but that's just me.

Mesklin, neat trick sneaking that lander under there, but I don't think I could copy that lander design very well. I might try something like that anyway though, even if my lander ends up looking like a fire hazard slinky.

WooDzor, those are awesome and I have no idea how you built those! O.O

Glad you like the ship. It's built around a central core comprising of cubic struts with the top docking port as the root part (full subassembly compatability that way). It's a bit hard to explain but if you do an autopsy on the craft you should see how it fits together. Oh and here's a hill landing, it's quite good at those!

Cupcake...

[WooDzor]

@cupcake stop bragging about those flying beer cans of yours, doesn't look anything like a real lander ;-) .. mmmm beer :9

@reaver https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9346020/Saturn%20V%20%26%20Apollo.craft enjoy taking this baby to pieces

[Cupcake...]

@cupcake stop bragging about those flying beer cans of yours, doesn't look anything like a real lander ;-) .. mmmm beer :9

@reaver https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9346020/Saturn%20V%20%26%20Apollo.craft enjoy taking this baby to pieces

A beer powered lander! Why didn't anyone think of this sooner?

Cupcake...

[Camaron]

That's your new task, cupcake. And don't try to get away with cheap Light Beer either!

[WooDzor]

I feel a beer bottle shaped rocket challenge coming up (I love how the combination of those words sound)

..Craaaaaapp!!! Still 4 hours until the end of my working day :-/

Edited August 22, 2014 by WooDzor

[Rune]

A couple of things:

Re: A beer-powered rocket. Someone did indeed think of that before, in fact it was good 'ol Poul. There's actually an isp analysis of the idea in the awesome atomic rockets webpage, just above the entry for mass drivers:

Re: An "ultimate lander". I think my Tylo lander would qualify. You see, each of the two stages would comply with the requirements, with >4km/s at T/W>1 on kerbin's surface. In fact, you could do a Mun mission using the lower stage as booster and doing everything else with the upper stage. And it carries a full science compliment....

You can grab it form my Grand Tour pack in case the pic is insufficient in detail.

Rune. The upper stage works as my universal science lander in fact.

Edited August 22, 2014 by Rune

[WooDzor]

@ Rune Can we have a link to your grand tour pack or mission report? i do think I remember the craft though

[sauliukas]

You can try my 3 seater landers, they are for orbit-ground-orbit and work on almost any orbital body. It can land on Kerbin and come back to LKO.

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[Rune]

@ Rune Can we have a link to your grand tour pack or mission report? i do think I remember the craft though

Sure! Almost at the end of my main thread (R-SUV) you can get the whole thing, with links to the dedicated thread and craft files and mission albums and stuff included. A link to R-SUV is in my sig, BTW. Enjoy! Though be warned, the mothership is very much not the easiest of orbital asemblies.

[r_rolo1]

As I'm here, might as well add my own munar lander ( in the pic is docked with my half improvised science space station in the Mun ):

It has some clipping but is only for aesthetic reasons ( the fuel tanks are slightly above what they should, but they can be put lower with no issue ). The ladder is functional despite appearences ( and you can acess all science from there ... that is the only reason I didn't angled it to not clip through the goo ) and it has 2 normal docking ports + 2 juniors in top of the tanks ( I planned this to be able to retrofit parachutes/ more science/ mini sats for my Duna mission ... I am 90% sure it can land in Duna and get back if parachute assisted ). It is pretty capable on the Mun and Minmus ( in fact it normally ends with 25% of the fuel in tanks after landing, reorbit and rendevous with docking ( my station is in a highly inclined orbit , so there is always some dV spent in plane shifts ) ) ...

[Redrobin]

Someone say lander?

[Batz_10K]

This is what I use in the mid-game. Simple, light, stable and easy to fly. Has about 3700ms dV and >1.0 TWR on Kerbin.

[thereaverofdarkness]

I'd have to say my favorite is a toss-up between Cupcake and Batz_10K. Cupcake because awesome beer cans, and Batz_10K for being easy to build. Both have a very wide landing area and pretty sweet dV with an alright TWR. But that's not to say any others are less than stellar! =D

[Squamble]

Maybe this one:

LINK