Strongest Landing Legs

[Fueniker S.]

Greetings all, I was hoping someone could think of a simpler and more elegant landing apparatus for my Sauterelle rocket, because frankly, this doesn't look that great...

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Anything stock would be great, I don't want to have to get a mod just for some legs.

Thanks in advance,

-Fueniker

Edited November 15, 2014 by Fueniker S.

[Starman4308]

You probably don't need as many legs as you think, particularly if you still have the engines going at landing.

Alternately, you could try some unholy contraption of girders, but I still think your solution is going to be "just get rid of some excess legs". You might also consider widening your landing base to keep it from tipping over on slopes: tall and skinny is a good way to get a lander tipped over. Many of my landers have the legs on an onion stage: I'll have 4-6 tanks on radial decouplers, with fuel lines leading in, such that I can rid myself of both the fuel tanks and the landing legs on ascent.

Not guaranteed to function for reusable landers. Use at your own risk.

[Fueniker S.]

Seeing as this is a reusable first stage, I do plan on having the engines on when landing, yes. I have tried the girders in the past, nightmare it was.I guess I could try to remove some legs, but the reason I have so many is because the Rocket itself is really heavy, and when I land, the legs collapse, but I might be able to find a couple legs to remove. As for the wider base, I prefer to keep my rockets looking "life like" ish, plus using FAR makes it easy to fly as well.

Thanks for the response,

-Fueniker

[cantab]

Have you tried locking the suspension on the legs, you can set that in the VAB and it makes them much stiffer IIRC.

[Red Iron Crown]

Girders or beams can be made into more resilient landing gear, but aesthetically it's not overly appealing.

Believe it or not, those gear are about to snap back to shape.

Another option is to replace your engine cluster with the four nozzle SLS engine; it has an impact tolerance of 20m/s and is a good landing gear in its own right.

[Geschosskopf]

Another option is to not use landing gear at all. Instead, use enough parachutes to give it a soft landing, either vertically or horizontally. I tend to favor this option for reusable lower stages because then the stage doesn't need to retain fuel for a powered landing. This means its fuel can be used for more useful purposes, like lifting heavier payloads and/or getting the payloads higher.

[Agost]

Sorry, but what are those air intakes for? They're not very heavy, but you're still adding dry mass to your rocket... and strain to those legs

Moreover, I'd try with different motors. 8x Skippers have a total mass of 24, kinda heavy. With single S3 KS-25x4 Engine Cluster OR Kerbodyne KR-2L Advanced Engine you would have, respectively, 61.5% thrust and 40% dry mass OR 48% thrust and 27% dry mass, while still having plenty of thrust. If you're launching a big craft and you need more TWR, the good old MOAR BOOSTERS rule is fine.

[Red Iron Crown]

Sorry, but what are those air intakes for? They're not very heavy, but you're still adding dry mass to your rocket... and strain to those legs

It looks to me like they're meant to conceal the landing legs when retracted.

[Overfloater]

Maybe not the most elegant, but perhaps you could take example from my most effective ones:

Each segment is 1 i-beam, 1 landing wheel, and 1 strut.

Very strong, resilient, and good for landing on slopes - you can retract some of them to straighten your rocket.

...OR retract 2 sides, set steering, and roll your rocket downhill until reached desired destination... xD

(don't mind my rockets, they didn't fly too far...xD)

[Fueniker S.]

Girders or beams can be made into more resilient landing gear, but aesthetically it's not overly appealing.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61004449/KSP/AdamLGTest.png

Believe it or not, those gear are about to snap back to shape.

Another option is to replace your engine cluster with the four nozzle SLS engine; it has an impact tolerance of 20m/s and is a good landing gear in its own right.

Thanks, I might try that girder style, also I really do want legs for aesthetics.

cantab, the legs' suspension is already locked, yes

Geschosskopf, thanks for the reply, but I want this thing to be able to go up multiple times, either due to landing spot being wrong, or fun.

Agost, the intakes are indeed meant to conceal legs, worked better on one of my smaller rockets though, and I don't want to use the SLS engines because when it comes to mounting any form of landing legs, it just doesn't look right

Overfloater, I personally love that style of landing legs, I use them for my capsules, truly a great thing.

So I guess I'll try the girders and try to keep them fairly hidden, thanks everyone for your input, will see how things go.

[Fueniker S.]

Just to let you guys know, the multiple girder system worked well