Foxster

Thank you. That's pretty useful. Not only do I get rid of the flames and stuff but it also makes the failure cause more obvious.

Here's something to get the challenge going...

Nice 'rover'! ...and I thought my last effort was tad dodgy! Just shows how many ways there are to skin a cat in KSP .

I was playing around with that kind of stuff yesterday too. A spinning machine with or without multiple wheels. Tried it with a releasable axle too. Even using nearly all massless parts I couldn't get much speed out of it though. Was kinda based on this contraption I made the other day but scaled down a lot...

I'll bet its for the Minmus jump challenge some of us have been having fun with. I'd guess its tearing itself apart with the strong SAS units pulling different ways. Try removing all but one and put a pod on that has no SAS.

Thanks for the suggestions. Its not my PC though. Its a top-spec gaming PC. Everything else about KSP runs fine, even at max detail. Its just that I have noticed that if a craft that I'm prototyping has a tendency to explode then after four or five returns to the VAB/SPH the game might crash. If I'm doing the same with a craft that I'm just tweaking and it stays in one piece then I don't get the problem.

Yea, figured that would be the case. The rule I bent (or rather snapped into tiny bits and peed on) was: No sources of propulsion other than electrically driven rover wheels. In a way the vehicle that I made my run with didn't have any other source of propulsion itself. Kinda. Maybe. Sorta. Eh eh. - - - Updated - - - If anyone wants to play or have a go at hitting escape velocity, here's the craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hdjxo3q283253x6/FourKing%20Big%20Blower%201.craft?dl=0

OK. Ready? - - - Updated - - -

I'm not going to claim it as an official entry. The crown remains with the previous wearer . I'll show you how it was done when I've made a cup of tea . But I will tell you that I tried completely cheating by putting an engine on the vehicle and I couldn't get it to work - it fell apart or crashed before I could get it up to speed. I may possibly have found the only way to get a rover up to this speed on the surface. - - - Updated - - - Ah. Nope. Started from level ice. *Off to put the kettle on*

Good guess. But no. I didn't change anything. Just built a vehicle in the SPH. Hyperedited it to Minmus inline with the ramp and set it off.

Umm, nope and nope. Its definitely not a glitch. There are massless parts (but it weighs a total of 0.424t) but that's not the secret.

One more go from me...first touchdown at 557km! At the first touchdown... I might have bent a rule just the tiniest ickle bit. But I can assure you that the rover started from a standstill and was exactly as you see in the shots above, unattached to any other parts, vehicle or structure. It had no engines or fuel of any kind attached and I used no physics exploits or non-stock parts. Right from the start of its run it did not gain or lose a single part and no other part touched it to act on it. It sped towards the ramp and took off from it. At which point it was travelling at about 200m/s. The ramp did not move or add anything to the flight other than by being a ramp. Anyone can build this and get the same results. Do I win a coconut? ========== Update ========== He hadn't landed and come to a stop when I wrote the above. This is after the first bounce. He is now passing the launch site after circumnavigating Minmus. Still in one piece... ======= Another update ======= Still going after the second bounce. My Kerbalnaut got cocky and carried out wheel repairs at 1058m from the surface. He was a tad disappointed to see the tailpiece had snapped off. And after about 10 bounces he's down!

I always sort my parts by mass and then choose my parts. Anyone know if I can make this the default everytime I open the the VAB or SPH?

And there we have it (give or take a meter)... - - - Updated - - - Getting the angle and shape of the ramp optimised and a much, much longer run up. To get 1km I started 4.1km out. Hit the ramp at 22.6m/s and was still accelerating very slowly. I really couldn't be bothered with a much longer run but might if someone beats 1003m Unless I can think of some drastic way of doing this differently then we are getting close to the barrier and its becoming a matter of who can hit their ramp from the longest run-up. I want to see if I can get into orbit now with an otherwise-powered vehicle.

918.7, so nearly at the 1K... 946.5...

Might be able to. But there's a limit unless someone can come with a drastically different wrinkle to exploit. All the four sets of wheels have a maximum speed they will spin up to and there is only so much optimisation you can do to the ramp. I've been looking at making an engine driven by multiple wheels but the wheels have no traction against other parts other than the ground and so I'm not making any progress at the moment.

KSP usually starts to fail and eventually crash after a number of crashes/explosions, like when I'm prototyping. So, anyway to disable the flaming explosions, maybe just leaving the craft falling apart?

Kinda funky, no? Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g3e4dwmeu1d1vjn/Engine%206.craft?dl=0 Hit space twice to free the axles. Then transfer the Kerbal. Then hit space to jettison the pod. Then use [ or ] until you have the front axles assembly. Hold the WASD keys to run the electric 'engine', its a bit odd so try all the keys to make the wheels spin.

I just tried this... Seems to be lots of traction but couldn't get it over about 3m/s due to trying to haul the mass. AFAIK the max speed on level ground that you can get out of the electric wheels is about 20-22m/s. Depends a bit on the gravity; you can get to 22 on Kerbin as the traction is better. If you can hit that then you are doing well and stand a good chance of a longish jump. Of course, you can make a really stable rover even in light gravity capable of 100m/s if you use landing gear for wheels and power it with an ion engine angled steeply towards the ground like this:

I didn't really understand how you were judging this so I just made a video and recorded the distance from my ramp to my first touchdown. That was about 770m or so. (See update below). Update Made a tweak to the rover by removing a wheel. This kept all the wheels on the ground whilst accelerating, seemed to help slightly with traction and steering... Here's a shot with the distance achieved from the ramp to the first touchdown , 774m...

Well, here it is with an ion engine pushing the machine down onto the surface of the Mun... Certainly tends to make it more sticky. Now if I could just make this gimbal much, much smaller...

On the Mun as requested... Just had an idea...As the inner craft is always upright I could put an ion engine on top and push the whole thing down onto the surface...*Goes away to play in the SPH*

Any small exhaust vents? Awesome job!

Agreed. I just don't drag RCS tanks around anymore. They always ended up at best half empty and so were wasted mass to haul into space. I only ever use RCS for docking and on little ships the vernors are a bit rough but nothing that can't be managed with a little care. You have to think a little more about placement as they are uni-directional, but that's like 20 secs of planning.