Keeping Mun Rovers From Flipping

[cwfilson]

The title says it all. I'm look for strategies for keeping my wheels on the ground. The thing loves to flip. I'm curious what people do to make successful Mun rovers.

[Vanamonde]

Go slow, and build wide and low. That's pretty much all one can do. A few of mine as examples:

Even those will flip at times, though, depending on speed, terrain, and local gravity.

[Axelord FTW]

Putting landing legs to deploy upward (over the top) of the rover so it can flip itself.

Having a reaction wheel can also help (usually, you'd keep it turned off until you flipped and torque might be useful).

Like vanaworld said, low CoM and wide signature also helps.

[cwfilson]

On a side note, has anyone had a problem regaining control of your Kerbalnaut after flipping a rover? It seems if they go ragdoll in the control seat I can't doing anything with them when I have switched to them. It is as if they are catatonic from the rollover.

[Mesklin]

Make rover as wide as possible or use SAS for prevent flipping (also I recommend to assign different keys for rover control, for example: on digital keys).

ADD: another one thing - incline wheels, like on this rover

Edited February 19, 2015 by Mesklin

[eddiew]

To drive a rover with 100% non-flipping stability, all you need to do is:

- Fit a reaction wheel

- Turn SAS on

- Drive in linear docking mode (the blue LIN light should be highlighted; press space to change between this and ROT docking mode)

(Alternatively, as Mesklin says above; map rover keys off WASD so that you don't get reaction torque when you want to turn. Many people think their rover has flipped, when actually they've told it to roll over!)

Docking mode will try to keep you pointed the same direction, with the same side facing up. This tiny rover is completely stable, despite having a narrow wheelbase.

Turn to rotational docking mode, or flip SAS off in order to steer - and don't be going too fast when you do. If your rover hits a bump and ends up at a weird angle, just let your speed drop off, then disengage SAS to allow the wheels to settle back to the ground. Turn it on again before accelerating.

Happy roving!

Edited February 19, 2015 by eddiew
credit where it's due

[Foxster]

You don't have to go slow - you just need to build well...

A few tips:

1. Do build low and wide.

2. Power it with an ion engine at the back.

3. Get the centre of mass near the middle.

4. Angle the engine to thrust at the centre of mass.

5. Put a Small Inline Reaction Wheel onboard and turn on SAS.

Result (with a few deliberate aerobatics to show stability) ...

Minmus:

Mun:

Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/llifg1hlt20zsym/Sticky%20rover.craft?dl=0

Edited February 19, 2015 by Foxster

[eddiew]

You don't have to go slow - you just need to build well...

I'm not sure it's still a rover, but I've just worked out how I should have built my Minmus resource finder (Although I have sent an SSTO drone with an lv-n, technically it's not far off )

[Foxster]

I'm not sure it's still a rover...

Its got wheels and spends a fair amount of time on the ground

[eddiew]

Its got wheels and spends a fair amount of time on the ground

Yeah but the wheels don't provide the movement... and eventually it'll run out of fuel. It's still cool, but I'd argue it's a wingless plane

[Foxster]

Yeah but the wheels don't provide the movement... and eventually it'll run out of fuel. It's still cool, but I'd argue it's a wingless plane

Ah - there's rules for rovers?

[maltesh]

If you're not adverse to using mods, and you've got the torque for it, watching Mechjeb's Rover Stability Control is amazing.

On the Mun i'd wind up routinely ramping crater rims as 20 m/s, and the worst that would usually happen was that I'd have to stop and repair wheels. On Minmus, I'd drive off thousand-meter cliffs and spend several minutes bouncing before the wheels could be repaired. THere was little enough gravity and more than enough time to get the wheels under the rover.

This was not a problem for the stability control.

[cwfilson]

I am having much more success! I think the key was using linear mode with SAS. I was able to hit 100kph crossing the Minmus Greater Flats to go recover some science data. It still took way longer than hopping over on my lander, but nevertheless it was a fun little drive.