Getting a massive rover up there

[grafdog1138]

Hey guys!

So I'm back from a long break, and I have this question begging to get answered: I see large rigs like the stock Crater Crawler, and I wonder to myself, how the heck do you deploy something that huge? It doesn't fit the biggest fairings available, so what gives It's not even assembled in LKO, there's no docking seams!

So tell me: how do you (in vanilla KSP) get something really huge up there and working?

[linuxgurugamer]

An even larger rocket, or Spaceplane

[grafdog1138]

Show me. I don't want just words in reply, I'd love some pics, part recommendations, the works! Thanks though, sorry i should have been more clear.

Edited September 29, 2017 by grafdog1138

[Vanamonde]

Fairings are over-rated. With enough thrust and control authority, you can fly anything anywhere. 

[Just Jim]

Skycranes:

[adsii1970]

Yes, what @Just Jim has said. But on my old computer, which I no longer have, I had screen shots of a different method...

I assembled my large rover in orbit above the Mun, then used the skycrane technique to lower it to the surface. Wasn't as easy as what you see @Just Jim doing, but it did give me an excuse to practice docking in orbit...

[invision]

you can jam anything into fairings and fly it like a boss

[grafdog1138]

Alright!!! That's what I'm talking about @Just Jim!! Also that's a rad user pic

So yeah, the message I'm getting is that I've completely overestimated the power of aerodynamics. My inner drive for realistic game play cringes at the sight of the skycrane approach, but I still wanna get friggen huge things into space, so it might not matter.

The only other thing I'm wondering is, is there some really good mod that allows actual construction of craft via Kerbal EVA?

[Just Jim]

1 hour ago, grafdog1138 said:

Alright!!! That's what I'm talking about @Just Jim!! Also that's a rad user pic

So yeah, the message I'm getting is that I've completely overestimated the power of aerodynamics. My inner drive for realistic game play cringes at the sight of the skycrane approach, but I still wanna get friggen huge things into space, so it might not matter.

The only other thing I'm wondering is, is there some really good mod that allows actual construction of craft via Kerbal EVA?

Thank you...

You definitely have to think outside the box, so to speak, when building skycranes... I ran into the same issue at first. You need to toss realism out the window.

As for EVA mods I use KIS and KAS to make stuff.

 

[grafdog1138]

Sweet. Been thinking about installing those two. Alright then guys, thank you!

[Helmetman]

I Don't have pics at hand. But what kind of massive rover? Does it have wing parts?

Aerodynamic surfaces (wings or control surfaces) will affect the rocket on ascent if not put in a fairing.
Generally rovers are long with little cubic characteristics. 

You could thus strap it vertically against the side of a rocket. Then you rotate the engine on the ascent stage to center the thrust (center of thrust :pink arrow in VAB: with the CoM (center of mass) 'which is the yellow ball in the VAB/SPH'

This will make it like a spaceshuttle. Basically your cargo is on one side and the rocket on the other. If the Center of thrust (CoT) is through the CoM it will lift up vertically.
Does it flip due to the aerodynamics of the rover on one side? Either fair it or angle the engine more to any of either side to compensate for the drag or put a counteracting fin (wing piece) on the other side to compensate for it.

Another idea is to put your cargo at the bottom of your rocket. 
This means you have to use radial engines on the outerside of the center stage and have most if not all rocket nozzles radially attached on the outer boosters or outer sides.
This way you can tow your rover to orbit and beyond. This will still have the aerodynamic drag involved but will overcome the instability having the rover at the top, as you would classically expect.

Sorry for not having any pics. I picked that part up but I don't have any of this nature, sorry...
I hope you kinda figure what I was on to. GL with this by the way.

 

Edited September 30, 2017 by Helmetman

[Ultimate Steve]

Finally, after days of business, I got back to LagFest (also known as RP-0). Now with extra lag!

Before today, I don't remember if I showed this or not, but Emerald Station is in the sky.

Because you either forgot or haven't been following my endeavors, you're probably wondering what it's for. Quite simply put, it is my savior - after a year in space I'll get eight million funds. That is huge - at the moment, I'm running dangerously low on money, at 600,000. Just in the near term, I have 500,000 funds worth of missions planned.

Emerald Station is my fifth space station, after Ruby Station (really tiny, like 3 Mercury pod sized), Sapphire Station (about half the size of Emerald), Avalon Station (slightly smaller than the ISS), and Eclipse Station (LLO, 80t so far). It also contains one of the three crews I hired in Astronaut Class 3 (total of 9 people).

After the year in space is up, a crew vehicle, probably Melody, will come and return the crew. Oh, did I mention Emerald is actually spinning to create artificial gravity?

Now, for today. Today was mostly design. I built Venus and Mars landers for the upcoming window. The first launch I did was the final module of Avalon Station on a Neutron III.

Except, due to the nature of the module, the fairing was wide. Coupled with the insane TWR of N3 late in the first stage burn, meant I had to launch 5 of them in order to actually have success.

Eventually, it made it.

This module, Module 18, is called LASER, and its purpose is to test out inflatable space habitats, much like its real counterpart BEAM.

And here is the completed Avalon Station, in all of its glory, comprising of eighteen modules, two crewed vehicles, two resupply ships, and one RCS tug!

Current future plans for the station involve a minimum of three years of research (and those are just the LEO experiments!), visitation by 27 more crew (3 crews of 3 per year for 3 years) (I'm going to need to hire a lot more astronauts) as well as possible visits from a partially reusable crew vehicle.

Final mass is about 350 tons, compared to the ISS's 420 tons. Final part count is nearly 400... I need to do something about that...

...And so I launched the third Illectro/Skye combination. But first I had to undock and de-orbit Melody 3, as it was time for another crew launch anyway.

Anyway, Skye/Illectro 3. I have stated in the past that it was an overly expensive piece of junk. It is expensive, and slightly junky (low TWR on S3 and the SM) but necessary for some jobs, such as removing 20-30 RCS ports from the station (it has a KAS/KIS bay in the SM).

It was at this point that I realized - Skye/Illectro is a very picturesque rocket.

This led to three or four five minute EVA's to remove the excess RCS ports and fit them into Skye's payload bay. However, since their volume is too big, Kerbals can only carry one at a time, meaning I have to fly back and forth to every RCS port with the jetpack... at 3 FPS... Fun!

One or two hours later in IRL, I had most of the ports removed, but unfortunately Skye's bay wasn't quite big enough. I still have at least 3 (probably more I'm missing) ports on the station.

So, who knows, maybe I'll send them down 3 at a time on Melodies, or I'll build another Skye and send 20 down, although that might be overkill...

 

Hopefully coming up in a few days are the Venus and Mars windows. I plan to send a 4 sat comm network to both Mars and Venus, send two Mars landers, one Venus lander, and a Phobos (or Deimos) lander. Hopefully contracts from these landings will tide me over until I get the 8 million from Emerald Station.

Here's what I plan to do with my remaining 600k:

150k - Eclipse Station M5 (or is it M4? I forget).

150k - Eclipse Station M6 (or M5, IDK).

100k - Lunar Rover.

100k - Venus Comm network (the only flotilla ship not yet built)

100k - Lunar Rover.

If I can scrounge up another 100k, I'll send a crew to Eclipse Station.

 

[Azimech]

My Space Charger isn't exactly small but does fit in a fairing. This is how I do it. No mods.

And here I'm driving next to the Big Wall of the Mün.

[NSEP]

You could make the rocket a huge rover and send that to the Mun?