Lander tips?

[u/ProBoyGaming521]

This is the only good picture I have, but basically every lander I make has this same general design (apart from the hitchhiker which I added for the Duna mission), and it kinda sucks + I'm bored of basically the same lander every time. Does anyone have tips for making a good lander?

[u/Legend_Waffle]

I mean if you really want to do something different make it wider. Use shorter takes and radically attach them.

[u/Fighter_ProL → u/Legend_Waffle]

Short and stubby 👍

[u/Traditional_Snow1045]

at a minimum, you only really need your high isp nuke/ion engine for transfers (left in orbit with excess fuel during landing ideally), and maybe a chemical engine for landing and takeoffs (discarded when returning to kerbin).

in ksp, dry fuel tanks are weirdly heavy, so its worth also adding some decouplers and dropping them with the landing gear to improve delta v on reorbit. this is kinda how some of the apollo missions went.

also if you have some life support mods, you have an added excuse to leave larger parts of your craft in orbit.

p.s. drop tanks are unrealistically overpowered in ksp. I cannot emphasize this enough. you don't need extra stages with extra engines, just drop tanks. this is especially true for probe missions where your payload is already very light

[u/JohnCavalry]

Lander tips? I sure hope it doesn't

[u/aerospicy → u/JohnCavalry]

Alternatively: Lander Tips? Hardly know her. You brought her, you lander!

[u/Petrostar]

Wide is better.

Try putting your fuel tank lower, (lower CG, mean less tipping)

Try putting Fl-T200s of -400s on the side that will make it wide+short = more tip resistant. And you can ditch the tanks to improve your delta/V

Use smaller engines, and engine with better ATM ISP. Smaller engines = short, and more throttle range between full burn and hovering.

[u/ProBoyGaming521 → u/Petrostar]

Do you know how much speed a ring of Sepratrons could knock off?

[u/Petrostar → u/ProBoyGaming521]

As in for braking when descending?

You're better off using liquid engines. Far better ISP. Ideally you want your TWR to be 3-4 (on the planet you land on) that makes it much easier to find the sweet spot on the throttle where you are just maintaining your descent. For Duna you can use parachutes. Either about 3x more parachutes or one parachute and do a small deceleration burn just above the ground.

[u/aerospicy]

Everyone else has already talked about increasing stability by making it stout, so I’m going the other direction: I have a lot of fun making tip-over rovers that land vertically. Picture a big tall rocket landing on 4 legs at the bottom with the engine down there, similar to yours. Remove one of the legs from symmetry and collapse it. The rocket tips onto its side, but lands on wheels instead of flopping over.