but-tail landing on the mun

[SpacedCowboy]

Yes I did, and I'm so proud of my self! *doing the happy dance and moon walk around the room* Yeah it was a space plane with some boosters but I did set it down vertically. Wanna send some pics for proof, but I'm ignorant as to how to do that. Need detailed instructions on how to go to "Imgur" and send them. Please help so I can gloat!

Edited November 25, 2014 by SpacedCowboy

[The Destroyer]

Press F2 to take screenshot IIRC.

Go to imgur

hit upload

browse to your KSP folder>screenshots

Click.

Upload.

Link it here with [image] tags.

If you're on steam, you can press F12 to directly take it, then open steam overlay to get the picture and upload it, and paste the link here.

[Rotsuda]

I did something similar this week. I decided that I should test my jool-jet carrier mid-construction and ended up landing it on the night side of the Mun.

I'll call it a success because only half of it blew up... and I forgot about the lights until AFTER I had touched down.

[Pecan]

F1 for a screenshot

F2 to toggle GUI (altimeter, etc.) on/off

Screenshots are placed in the KSP\Screenshots folder on your computer

In imgur.com, once you signed-in to an account (free up to 265 (IIRC) images), you can drag pictures from the folder above to an album or just 'loose' in your browser.

Change to the browser and select 'images' in imgur, click the picture you want here and there are options to give you the BB code you need to paste a link here.

I find the best is a linked large-thumbnail size. That's big enough to be seen here without hogging bandwidth. If someone wants a better look they can click the picture here to see it full-size in imgur.

[Spatzimaus]

Yeah it was a space plane with some boosters but I did set it down vertically

Building spaceplanes capable of landing on their tails is actually really useful. Here's my long-range SSTO spaceplane after a vertical landing on Minmus:

That first shot's of the underside; the ladder runs down the spine of the top. The landing legs do add a little bit of extra mass, but if your plane is a bit on the large side (mine's ~32 tons) it don't cost you much performance to add that sort of vertical capability.

Now that you've got a handle on the basics, try improving the design so that you don't need boosters. The best part about spaceplane design is just how much tweaking you can do; that plane of mine is on the seventh generation by now, because I keep improving it.

[KerbMav]

.

Holy-SSTO-Batman!

[Rotsuda]

What are those little blue engines?

[Wanderfound]

Incidentally, stock landing gear can cope with hits well above 10m/s. Coming to a stop via main engine about 30m up and then rotating forwards and dropping onto the landing gear works; you can soften the hit with Vernors, but they aren't strictly necessary.

[KerbMav]

I adopted the habit to land my decommissioned nuclear powered ships on a plane on Minmus.

There even the few RCS thrusters were able to keep my xx tons ship at the strangest angles while SAS was active.

I just kept tabbing F to gently lower it on its side after landing on its buttocks.

[numerobis]

In imgur.com, once you signed-in to an account (free up to 265 (IIRC) images), you can drag pictures from the folder above to an album or just 'loose' in your browser.

Change to the browser and select 'images' in imgur, click the picture you want here and there are options to give you the BB code you need to paste a link here.

You can upload to imgur without creating an account. If you do that you can't ever edit them and they may be deleted if nobody looks at them, but still, saves you a step (and no 256-image limit).

You can create an album in imgur, then embed it on the forum here using the imgur tag. The imgur URL will look like:

http:/ /imgur.com/a/abcdef

To embed the album you use:

{imgur}abcdef{/imgur}

but with square braces [] rather than curly braces.

(Fun fact: this forum mangles the HTML codes in different ways whether you're writing a new reply, editing a reply, or previewing a reply. Sigh.)

Edited November 24, 2014 by numerobis

[numerobis]

Incidentally, stock landing gear can cope with hits well above 10m/s. Coming to a stop via main engine about 30m up and then rotating forwards and dropping onto the landing gear works; you can soften the hit with Vernors, but they aren't strictly necessary.

You can land pretty hard on anything at minmus, gravity being so weak.

[Spatzimaus]

What are those little blue engines?

They're from the Ion Hybrid Electric mod, which added some great parts but hasn't been updated since 0.22. Basically, each of those four radial engines (each with two blue nozzles) is equivalent to about half of an LV-N engine; 25kN thrust, ISP of 900 in vacuum, but in addition to liquid fuel and oxidizer they also require xenon and electricity. I've posted a semi-stock version of that plane over in the Akademy Awards thread, if you want to see more pictures and/or download a .craft file. I've managed to take the plane to Laythe and back using only a single refueling stop (at Pol), and I've taken other trips to Duna, Ike, etc.

But back to the point of this thread, it's not hard to make a medium-sized SSTO spaceplane that's capable of reaching other planets or moons if you give it an LV-N, and landing on the tail on airless bodies is quite a bit easier than a horizontal orientation, since you don't have to worry about the fuel balance. All you need are something to land on (legs or fins) and a few ladders and you're set. The only headache I've found is that landing on slopes is a problem, as the height of the planes make them easy to tip over.

[Slam_Jones]

I see a Mun landing, and raise you by Minmus slope landing!

[Wanderfound]

I see a Mun landing, and raise you by Minmus slope landing!

http://i.imgur.com/I0LwZP1.jpg

On the flats, but bonus points for size:

[Spatzimaus]

I see a Mun landing, and raise you by Minmus slope landing!

I see your Minmus slope landing, and raise you a Pol slope landing! At night.

(Yes, my design can get all the way to Pol orbit without refueling. Barely.)

[SpacedCowboy]

I see your Minmus slope landing, and raise you a Pol slope landing! At night.

http://i.imgur.com/soPTuAp.png

(Yes, my design can get all the way to Pol orbit without refueling. Barely.)

O M G my thread is being taken over by a "Kerbal Hold'em" game!

[ElJugador]

I see your Minmus slope landing, and raise you a Pol slope landing! At night.

(image snipped)

(Yes, my design can get all the way to Pol orbit without refueling. Barely.)

But what the Hell ARE those strange blue thingies on the bottom? They look suspicious.