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So, this is the start of the saga of my first Duna rover. And it hasn't been going well. I began with using my standard booster, the Heavy Orbital Booster Mk2. I developed the rover and IP transfer stage, and attached them, then built the fairing. I should have known that things would not go well when the main engines did not start when I first pressed space, which they usually do in this particular design. I staged again, and the rocket lifted off as normal, but with a slight wobble, which was unusual as this design had a quad-SAS core segment to keep it stable and maneuverable. At 6900m, I began my gravity turn. This is where things went wrong the first time. As I began my gravity turn, I realized why my engines hadn't ignited on the first stage. The rocket began tilting earthward, and I had the thought to zoom in to the fairing to see what was wrong. The IP transfer stage had separated from the rocket and was only held in place by the acceleration. As I began my gravity turn, it fell to the fairing and offset my center of mass. The rocket tumbled out of control, and I cut the engines and watched it fall into the ocean. I fixed that staging error and began the launch again. This time, the failure was even more catastrophic. It turns out that even with my faulty staging the IP stage would have fallen from its mounting. It was a heavy 2.5m payload on a 1.25m decoupler, and as I staged to my second stage, which had much higher acceleration for more efficient orbital insertions, the payload broke off the decoupler as I began my orbital insertion. It smashed into the main body and sent debris flying into the stratosphere, which luckily mostly burned up. I'm working on a new booster for this mission, due to the unreliability of the Heavy Orbital Booster Mk2. I'll post updates soon.

Saw a neat Dune Buggy on Reddit called the Duna Buggy, but the guy didn't want to share too many mods and such. It wasn't stock so I wouldn't have downloaded it anyway. I thought I could make a good enough version for stock though, so introducing the Stock Duna Buggy, along with some Vagani suspension (which will not stop things exploding if you jump the administration building like I did) it has about 500ms of dV (enough to get you to orbit on the Mun) *note: Warranty void if used off Kerbin 48 Parts Download Jumping the Administration building and other perfectly reasonable testing, music for video still a minute or two away

As in the title, this is a very WIP design, using slightly modified thermometer bearings. Here's some pictures of it in action: (alternate rover) If anyone knows how to make it less ugly, please tell me.

In this video I finish the two missions launched by the Skywalker reusable booster. (Click Here to See That)

Roverspeed now re-uploaded at spacedock.info Now Dead :/

With the holidays right around the corner I'm looking forward to further expand my little carreer game in the interplanetary sphere. So flying to Duna, Moho, Eve etc with Probes first, scanning the biomes and after that the first kerbaled landings to harvest more science. Which brings me to the main topic. In an actual carrer game, do you use rovers as a measure to cover different biomes and get more science by landing, or is it just a cosmetic / humorous gimmick to drive around and try some stunts? If your choice is the first, to what extend to you have the patience to drive around on the surface.(And is it a probe-rover or is it piloted by a kerbal). Looking forward to some ideas on how to actually use rovers in the game then. Cheers!

Is there, or could there be, a mod that allows my rover to drive on its own, even when not focused? I like the concept of rovers, but at the moment the reward is bottlenecked by my willingness to play the most boring car game ever. Yes, I know that there are mods like mechjeb that does this, but Ideally I would like to set my rover up so that it can drive on its own while I do other things in the meantime, including timewarp. I understand that following the terrain during timewarp will be a challenge/impossible due to the destruction of things moving across the surface with the on-rails system, but is it possible to emulate auto-roving by simply teleporting the rover an appropriate distance and placing it on the terrain? I'd love the ability to have my rover drive between biomes on its own.

I built and tested a rover at KSC - it happily drove all over the place at high speed / efficiency - it was like I couldn't lose power. Got it onto Minimus - after a LOT of tries (couldn't get a rocket into orbit with enough juice left over to get me to Minimus orbit). What I discovered, however, is that my lander wants to lose power very quickly. Now - it seems to me that Minimus should be getting effectively the same light output from the sun as Kerbal (it's in Kerbal's SOI, afterall). So, why the loss of performance? (... and no, I'm not operating on the shadowed side of the moon).

Sector 7 Space Laboratories Space - Exploration Division - Jeep S7JR The craft has been through many changes during the making of the video, you might see some small differences but no differences in the fun. This craft has a very strange but also unique way of boarding but its working great. Hope you enjoy exploring the Mun Jeep Style! Photo Album Jeep Assembly: Probodobodyne OKTO2 M-1X1 Structural Panels M-Beams TR-2L Wheels EAS-1 Command Seats Basic Fins Wing Type - D XL Solar Array OX-Stat Photovoltaic Panels Z-400 Rechargeable Batteries MK1 & MK2 Illuminators FL - T800 Fuel Tanks Advanced Inline Stabilizers LV-909 Terrier Engines Communotron 16 Antennas Launcher Assembly: Kerbodyne S3-14400 Tanks S3-KS25x4 Mammoth Engines KR-2LT Rhino Engine AE-FF3 Airstream Protective Shells MK1 Lander Can Sepratron 1 Flight Operations: Board all brave Kerbonauts, be sure they are a Kerman Engage RCS and SAS, throttle up to full then press spacebar Use your Piloting Skills to Orbit Kerbin, you will find the craft handles fairly well Jeep Controls: 1- Toggle Solar Panels 2- Headlights 3- Dual Mounted Search Lights 4- Single Center Mounted Search Light 5- Toggle Antennas 6- Toggle Ladders Craft File Jeep Only: Jeep Jeep with Launcher Controls: 1- Toggle Solar Panels 2- Headlights 3- Dual Mounted Search Lights 4- Single Center Mounted Search Light 5- Toggle Antennas 10- Toggle Ladders Craft File with Launcher: Jeep S7JR

I launched a mars rover to Duna. I planned interplanetary transfer by reading the wiki Tutorial. Actually you have to wait for the planets to align i.e., Kerbin and Duna should be around 44° with sun as center. Then I launched it to a 100km orbit around kerbin. And after the prograde burn my spacecraft was on the transfer orbit around the sun to Duna. I did a retrograde burn after arriving Duna so that my periapsis is beneath the surface for an aerobraking. Then I opned the parachutes to slow it down to around 10m/s. After that the engines of the skycrane were ignited to land it safely and later detachd the skycrane and crashed it somewhere. I will be uploading the pics soon.

No offense to the bloke who made this video but it's hilarious. For me it was great to see I'm not the only one who has problems getting bits to stick together where they're supposed to. I'm afraid I don't understand the ending where he flings the rover into the sea. I would have thought it had to come down a little more gently than that. However, it's an old version of KSP.

Hi all! I've been creating rover designs recently. I have made a few, but my main problem is the lack of ability to go up steep inclines. Any tips? Thanks in advance! -Barrrrry