KerbalX

Description

The Munniy Korabl (MK) munar lander is my KSP equivalent of the real-life LK. It’s a quasi-stage-and-a-half vehicle; it uses the same engines (a single Spark as the primary engine, plus a pair of derated Twitches as backup, mimicking the single-chamber primary and dual-bore backup engines of the LK’s Blok E propulsion stage) and fuel tankage for both landing and ascent, but stages away the landing paraphernalia (legs, HG-5 relay antennae, ladder assembly) to lighten the vehicle for ascent.

Like the LK, it doesn’t have enough Δv to deorbit, land on the Mun, and then return to orbit on its own, so a vehicle using the MK, such as the Koyuz MK-1, needs to use an attached upper stage to take care of the deorbit burn and most of the descent braking; the MK can then separate from the upper stage, land using its own engines, and still have enough fuel to return to orbit from the munar surface.

The MK has a single nose-mounted docking port, surrounded by a ring of attitude-control thrusters; the RCS works fine for pitching and yawing the craft and for translating backwards (for instance, to brake the MK so it doesn’t ram the vehicle it’s trying to dock to), but not so much for translating from side to side (due to their thrustline being way off the MK’s center of mass). It’s best to just use the RCS for rotation, and translate the other craft to in front of the MK (rather than the other way around).

A stock subassembly called Munniy Korabl. Built with 73 of the finest parts, its root part is Decoupler.0.

Built in KSP version 1.10.1.

Details

• Type: Subassembly
• Class: lander
• Part Count: 73
• Pure Stock
• KSP: 1.10.1