If I'm honest, that cradle wasn't Mun ready and neither was the rover. You may have noticed the rover is now not the 4WD version in the previous teaser picture,
but the 12x12 version used in the Antarctic exploration. It's double the length and weight and thus the cradle has had to expand immensely to deal with that (and you can just see the top of the third (TMI) stage on the right of the picture with the off-centre bracing so it'd fly straight during burn).
But beyond the L/V balance I'd not flight tested or balanced the cradle itself and the bugs only started rearing their head during the Mun descent and a crash was pretty much inevitable (and killed 2 kerbals as well).
Not wishing a repeat performance, and probably going too far into MOAR CAPABILITY territory, I've completely re-designed the lander from scratch (twice) and dubbed it 'The Flying Bedstead' in homage to the British Rolls Royce TMR (Thrust Measuring Rig), the first jet VTOL craft in the world and of course NASAs LLRV (Lunar Landing Research Vehicle), which this technically is.
The mk.I bedstead was a re-hash of the original cradle with stuff just placed around existing equipment and it looked a bit badly built if I'm honest.
There's a bit more bracing and I've added reaction wheel clusters and downwards lighting but to get the balance right I've had to offset things like the relay antenna, the ladder is purely aesthetic and serves no purpose except weight distribution. The solar panels just look chucked on with glue and the equipment in the core is just...blergh.
So I deleted it and built this.
It has the same basic 6 legged adjustable based design with thud landing engines. I've kept the large amount of reaction wheels from the mk.I and added LOX powered RCS thrusters as well for stability and hovering control. The comms suite has been overhauled, centrally mounted and looks decent with direct and relay comms.
It's fitted with a drone core so it can be operated remotely, but also has space station components on the centre columns with EVA facilities and access ladders as a more permanent base station instead of a disposable landing system.
The lighting has been uprated from tiny marker lights on the legs to flood and spotlights fitted on the centre legs that are for illumination of the payload area as well as the on-rushing ground during landing. I haven't tested the light spread in the dark yet (annoyingly, the only time it's daytime at the KSC is when I need to test the lights. Every other test it seems to be pitch black, especially when I need to see what I'm doing) and may increase the lighting available.
Speaking of the ground, as you can see there's a lot of struts cobwebbed about the place. From flight testing the cradle and the mk.I, it bent like an old iPhone during load and lift as well as landing manoeuvres, and I've added these and will add a few more to the long core before delivering it to the VAB for a L/V build.
Power is sorted with a comprehensive solar and RTG set up and large amounts of battery power.
It's probably over-kill and is over twice as expensive as the mk.I, but when have I ever been subtle?
All this has brought the mass up substantially, dry mass in particular, with swapping fuel tanks for living and EVA areas whilst adding more heavy battery, power, comms and lights. TWR I'm not worried about, it's got enough thump to hover on Kerbin with a payload hanging under it, and the Muns gravity is similar to the Moon so I've plenty spare.
The hassle is available ΔV. I only need about 600m/s to get from LMO to a powered landing on the surface, but wanted a lot of extra incase I need to select a new DZ on the descent or move once landed to a better location. So inside the core tubes I've added additional LOX fuel containers next to the RTGs so it's got the same ΔV available as the first cradle despite being 12 tons heavier, with space still for more if required.
I'm not worried about launch weight, it's only 46 tons and that's well within my capabilities in KSP. The only question is will it fit under a fairing, and as you seen from the previous video (the one where everything breaks), the fairing is already enormous in comparison to the rocket itself which makes atmospheric flight...interesting.
And this one will be even wider and
will need my 5 metre covers.
Flight testing the mk.II went well though, after lessons learnt from the cradle and mk.I and incorporating disposable flight ballast cos the rover is so off centre itself.
I flew it with a payload
And without one
And she's pretty stable considering, but you have to be really gentle with inputs.
I need more practice flying it.
MUCH MOAR PRACTICE as hilariously enough I'm having the same problems as Rolls Royce and NASA did in the 50s and 60s and one version has already done a Neil Armstrong and rolled over in flight.