Where would you land on Laythe?

[Aegrim]

So my Laythe mission is almost fully constructed, and my rover for scouting landing sites is on it's way. But since my lander and rover can only visit one Island I can't make my mind up on which to visit.

I want to pick either one with the best views, or a one NASA would pick but I don't know what criteria they'd go by to pick it (would they ask geologists?).

I'm thinking either the far western island because of it's lakes, or the far north eastern island or the one just to the south of it because they have some nice craters.

[Itsdavyjones]

I would land on an island that has a view of Jool. Barring that, a large, level island.

[CalculusWarrior]

On land

Since Laythe is tidally locked to Jool, I usually like to land so that I can see that gas giant on the horizon. It''s not exactly what NASA would try for, but it does ​make for some epic screenshots.

[Bigbootie]

On land

Since Laythe is tidally locked to Jool, I usually like to land so that I can see that gas giant on the horizon. It''s not exactly what NASA would try for, but it does ​make for some epic screenshots.

Agree with this. I recently landed my first mission there and the first attempt I landed on the "dark" side of Laythe. Couldn't view Jool. F9 FTW. Also I would suggest that depending on fuel and your inclination just pick one on the "light" side.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Bigbootie

[worir4]

If you can get half of Jool in the sky and the other half behind the horizon, you can get some really cool screen shots.

[Thomas988]

There's really nothing I can say that no one else has commented already. I'd land on that big island with Jool in the sky and call it good!

[Zephram Kerman]

To find a site where Jool is near the horizon, try to figure the point on a Laythe map where Jool is straight up, then draw a circle 90° away from that.

[Rithsom]

Other than a spot where Jool is on the horizon, maybe the volcano island?

[Aegrim]

Other than a spot where Jool is on the horizon, maybe the volcano island?

lol which one's this?

[1greywind]

I can recommend North pole as landing target:

Weird place where Jool is looming behind horizon and the other moons dance around.

[Zephram Kerman]

Oh yeah! The poles are nice. Big, flat, and silky smooth. Great for space planes. If you can stack up something to get a bit of altitude, you can watch the other moons wobble back and forth just above the horizon. The terrain is quite boring for rovers though.

[Mr Tegu]

Or anywhere you like (it has landing legs too..):

[SelectHalfling0]

I'm waiting for mine-able resources before going to jool. Then I can circumnavigate with a refueling space-plane.

[Rithsom]

lol which one's this?

I think it's this island:

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

Which one has the most biomes? (the KSP version of which one NASA would pick.)

I'm looking for a site for a permanent colony. (outpost really)

- - - Updated - - -

I'm waiting for mine-able resources before going to jool. Then I can circumnavigate with a refueling space-plane.

I'm planing on circumnavigation with fuel I brought from home.

and I just finished designing my 80 m/s Jet Speedboat!

[Aegrim]

I can recommend North pole as landing target:

http://i.imgur.com/Qme5WnJ.gif

Weird place where Jool is looming behind horizon and the other moons dance around.

I don't actually need a strip to land on just a flatish area, I specifically made it a vtol ssto for this purpose.

[regex]

I'm waiting for mine-able resources before going to jool. Then I can circumnavigate with a refueling space-plane.

Why wait? Someone, a few versions back (I think around 0.20?) planted a flag on every island on Laythe. I'm also fairly certain he didn't use a mining mod because he mentioned a fleet of refuelers in orbit. If your plane is small enough you should have no problems bringing enough fuel to do the job.

[theend3r]

Why wait? Someone, a few versions back (I think around 0.20?) planted a flag on every island on Laythe. I'm also fairly certain he didn't use a mining mod because he mentioned a fleet of refuelers in orbit. If your plane is small enough you should have no problems bringing enough fuel to do the job.

That doesn't sound too hard to do with a spaceplane. I've seen some return designs but mine unfortunately can only get there and not back without refueling. Of course you could always do a nuclear mothership with detachable spaceplane, that should cover all your Laythe needs.

[KerikBalm]

Well, for science, you should probably land near a caldera (I assume those are calderas, not crater impacts... one does have a central peak though.... that big ring though... I don't know what that is... its a circle in a flat projection map... but not nearly so on the 3d sphere...I doubt you could get an impact crater like that... or a volcanic caldera)...

I don't even know why Laythe has ice caps, if it has liquid water, its got to be due to tidal heating, not sun light.... so....

Anyway... I would choose that island south of that circled volcanic island, due to the low elevation, a presumable caldera, presuably and shallow bays and coves...

I don't know if it has a view of Jool though..

[r4pt0r]

I'll find out when 1.0 comes out.

[SpenSpaceCorp]

With my experience, the far Western island is not only relatively flat in many places (with a couple mountains), it offers an amazing scenic partial view of Jool

[Brotoro]

I've spent a lot of time going to most of the islands on Laythe (link also in my signature), and the thread has pictures from sites all around the moon...you may want to browse through it and find a site you like the looks of. Laythe has not had an art pass anytime recently, so the pictures still apply.

Bsalis's thread about planting a flag on every island on Laythe (linky) also has pics of the many islands.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Brotoro

[cantab]

Bear in mind Laythe isn't all flat gentle dunes, it has some intimidating terrain. For a first landing site I think NASA would choose somewhere easy. The island around 65 S, 80 E looks like the flattest outside of the ice caps.

But personally I just sent a boat

[Remkeau]

When I made my laythe colony mission using a few motherships (carrying SSTOs) I landed most of the stuff at what brotoro called Fido bay on Dansen Island. Also inspired by his detailed travel report thanks for that

[Spatzimaus]

But since my lander and rover can only visit one Island I can't make my mind up on which to visit.

There's your mistake. Make your rover amphibious, and this isn't a problem. Granted, this is a lot harder in stock, since Firespitter's all-electric propellers make things a LOT easier, but it can still be done using high-efficiency engines (jets, ions, etc.).

My 0.25 Laythe "rover", shown during its testing phase:

It's a rover, it's a boat, and it's a plane. In the water, only the lowest pontoons were submerged, and everything else was above the surface. The only real headache was that you had to transition from land to water SLOWLY (< 5m/s), which obviously made landing on water from the air out of the question. In 0.90 I've added a few more mods, which have made this process a lot better, but the same basic design is still valid.

There are other threads showing screenshots of interesting rover designs, some of which are amphibious. For Laythe, these sorts of designs are practically required unless you want to make a large static base.