The use of Rovers

[bjornbade12]

Sorry for asking this kind of question. I just wanna know about the use of rovers.

Is it just for exploring ?

Can we get science by rovers without sending kerbals to a certain planet ?

Thanks

[cicatrix]

Sorry for asking this kind of question. I just wanna know about the use of rovers.

Is it just for exploring ?

And for fun too!

Can we get science by rovers without sending kerbals to a certain planet ?

Sure, why not? Rovers are useful if you want to get science from several biomes. Without them you should hop from one biome to another on your craft and while it can easily be done on smaller planets, it can be painful on worlds like Tylo.

(I just thought that I've never sent a rover to Tylo, thanks for an idea )

[Lohan2008]

You build rovers for fun and exploring different biomes, note that Minimus is extremely hard to drive on !

[Tommygun]

You can get a bunch of science done just driving around and near the KSP launch facilities.

Maybe someone can confirm this, but I think each building area is a separate biome?

[StainX]

In current kerbal universe, probes and rovers don't have a great scientific value

[Pecan]

Rovers feel really slow. In reality, they're not - 40mph or so isn't bad - but on any but the smallest moons it takes a loooong time to get anywhere. Unless you originally land near the border of a biome that means they're not even practical for getting science from more than the one place. On that, yes, you can get science with unmanned vehicles. If you transmit the data home you get fewer science points for it, recovering the vehicle and bringing it back to Kerbin gets better results but is obviously a harder mission.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Pecan

[KnutG]

with rovers you have so much fun to explore all celestial bodys - and you can make stunts on low gravity worlds...

[theend3r]

Rovers feel really slow. In reality, they're not - 40mph or so isn't bad - but on any but the smallest moons it takes a loooong time to get anywhere. Unless you originally land near the border of a biome that means they're not even practical for getting science from the one place. On that, yes, you can get science with unmanned vehicles. If you transmit the data home you get fewer science points for it, recovering the vehicle and bringing it back to Kerbin gets better results but is obviously a harder mission.

To make bringing probes/rovers back useful we'd need a way to store experiments like kerbals can, otherwise you only get one of each experiment.

[Madrias]

To make bringing probes/rovers back useful we'd need a way to store experiments like kerbals can, otherwise you only get one of each experiment.

Not to mention a "Status Report" to make up for the loss of the Crew Reports. Sure, this means some people (myself included) would end up sticking probes on Kerbal driven crafts to better make use of the science program, but right now, all Career mode happens to be is one long grind.

As for the speed of rovers, I highly recommend a mod like Kerbal Foundries, throwing lots of wheels (and tracks) into the game that don't lead to immediate explosions upon attempting a turn. You'll still go 'slowly' (20m/s or so), but you won't violently explode as often.

[magnemoe]

Sorry for asking this kind of question. I just wanna know about the use of rovers.

Is it just for exploring ?

Can we get science by rovers without sending kerbals to a certain planet ?

Thanks

Rovers works very well for gathering science, they are very nice for doing the science contracts like do measurements at alpha, beta and gamma as you can drive from landing point to the locations.

For gathering science kerbals helps bring back far more science as you can transmit then do an second measurement and have the kerbal take the messurment.

Kerbals are also required for eva reports and samples.

[KerbMav]

Some contracts request surface experiments from different locations very close to each other - I have not done one of these yet, but I reckon they would be the ideal use for a rover?

[cantab]

For the most part, fun. In science and career mode the biomes are large enough that on most worlds it's quicker and easier to fly rather than drive between them. Rovers are notoriously easy to crash too, because we drive them fast - 30 m/s is 70 mph after all.

Rovers are useful if you need to go to a specific location - an anomaly, a survey site, a kerbal needing rescue, etc. - and you are bad at precision landing.

[-Velocity-]

I use rovers a lot. Most of my landers are in fact rovers, because why put landing legs when you can just put wheels? It makes it real easy to visit closely spaced things for contracts. The longest drive I've done with a rover so far before taking off and flying somewhere else was about 150 km, on Duna to fulfill a contract for accelerometer measurements. After that drive, I flew the rover back into orbit, refueled it, and landed it somewhere else and drove another long distance to get multiple measurements for some other contract (but it was only like 75 km total the second time). BTW, Mechjeb rover autopilot was used for this.

I do like how this contracts system forces us to drive long distances on the surface now. Before 0.9, my longest drive was only like 35 km, round-trip, on Eve (and yes, seeing as it was EVE, that rover was strictly a rover ).

[Pecan]

I use rovers a lot. Most of my landers are in fact rovers, because why put landing legs when you can just put wheels? It makes it real easy to visit closely spaced things for contracts. The longest drive I've done with a rover so far before taking off and flying somewhere else was about 150 km, on Duna to fulfill a contract for accelerometer measurements. After that drive, I flew the rover back into orbit, refueled it, and landed it somewhere else and drove another long distance to get multiple measurements for some other contract (but it was only like 75 km total the second time). BTW, Mechjeb rover autopilot was used for this.

I do like how this contracts system forces us to drive long distances on the surface now. Before 0.9, my longest drive was only like 35 km, round-trip, on Eve (and yes, seeing as it was EVE, that rover was strictly a rover ).

Doh! I meant to say a combined lander/rover is an excellent way to do things. Nicely desscribed too :-)

[NASAHireMe]

Because only 6 humans have ever driven one on an extraterrestrial world, that's why!

And surely Kerbals can do more and drive further.