Lander

Landers are spacecraft that can hold astronauts, workers, tourists, and cargo. They fly into space and travel between various celestial bodies. They require an Astronaut to fly them (not just a Worker), with the exception of the unmanned supply craft that cannot carry any people at all.

The first landers that you can access can only make a single trip to a moon or planet, and are then thrown away upon return to Earth (with any cargo being delivered to your storehouse). Later variants can launch to multiple places before returning to Earth, and can be repaired and reused after landing on Earth. However, reusable landers are far more expensive to research and build, so they cannot be treated as disposable. To take full advantage of their capabilities will require significant investment in refueling and repair infrastructure; otherwise an expensive lander may end up broken down and unusable, or stranded on a distant planet.

Details

It is important to understand that when leaving Earth, a booster rocket is automatically purchased to lift the spacecraft out of Earth's substantial gravity well. This rocket is included in the purchase price of the spacecraft for its first launch (and only launch, in the case of single-use landers), but must be purchased again each time a reusable lander is launched, with a cost depending on the mass and efficiency level of the spacecraft. As a result of the booster, the amount of fuel needed to leave Earth is typically much less than the amount needed to return. Before sending a lander to a moon or planet, you should carefully examine the projected fuel usage and consider whether it will be able to return to Earth. The game will warn you if a lander will need to refuel before returning, and will prevent you from launching if the lander would not be able to return even with full fuel.

Due to some missing validation logic, single-use landers can return to Earth even if they should have insufficient fuel to do so. As a result, the Mark 1 and 2 Bullets are an economical choice for establishing outposts as far as Jupiter and even Saturn, since they require no additional refuelling or repair. However, their build costs increase with every level of research. Once you have the necessary research and infrastructure to support reusable landers, they can become more cost effective to operate due to their smaller launch costs and higher capacity (both seats and cargo), as well as having longer range.

List of Landers

Lander	Research Needed	Build Cost (Cr)	Mass (t)	Cargo	Seats	Life Support	Fuel	Speed (AU/h)
Single Use Crafts
Moon Lander	Moonlander Tech Lvl 1	25+5	5	3	1	5	8	10
Bullet Mk 1	Chemical Efficiency Lvl 2 Moon Lander Lvl 1	50+10	8	9	2	6	11	15
Bullet Mk 2	Chemical Efficiency Lvl 3 Bullet Mk 1 Lvl 1	100+20	15	15	3	10	20	15
Single Use Supply Craft	Bullet Mk 1 Lvl 5	50+10	2.50	9	-	-	4	15
Medium Supply Craft	Bullet Mk 2 Lvl 5	100+20	2.50	20	-	-	4	15
Re-usable Space crafts
Dragon	Chemical Efficiency Lvl 4 Bullet Mk 2 Lvl 1	500	15	15	3	15	15	20
Dragon extended	Dragon Lvl 5	750	20	20	3	15	30	20
Aerospike Shuttle	Aerospike Propulsion Lvl 1	1250	25	12	4	20	40	30
Medium Aerospike Shuttle	Aerospike Shuttle Lvl 1	2000	50	24	6	25	80	40
Harpy Eagle (Colonization Vessel)	Chemical Efficiency Lvl 5 Dragon Lvl 1	1000	65	30	5	25	120	20
Black Hawk	Harpy Eagle Lvl 1 Plasma Efficiency Lvl 1	2500	75	35	6	25	130 (plasma)	25