Fairings and skycranes -- seems to be impossible

[Loren Pechtel]

I have long since given up on trying to incorporate a rover with a full science package into something that can fly within a normal rocket body.  I center it under a skycrane and accept the horrible drag penalties from getting such an abomination into orbit.  (And generally launch straight up until I'm well up into the atmosphere.)  1.4 seems much harsher to anything without perfect aerodynamics and I have yet to get my current abomination into orbit.  Since I can't actually balance the aerodynamics I decided to try a fairing--nope, no way to build it down.

I'm currently redesigning the rocket with a big procedural heat shield (with zero ablator) on top of it, this will keep the wind off it but since it's still exposed on the underside it will still mess with the flight somewhat.

Any better solutions?

 

(And I can't find the gameplay forum, hence this is here instead.)

[Cavscout74]

How big is your rover/skycrane?  Pics would help.  I haven't really made anything I couldn't fit a fairing around.

 

I can cover an entire Laythe floating base under a 3.75m fairing - granted, no skycrane, but the base is pretty good sized.  It included the pontoon boat in the picture, and it all (barely) fit inside a 3.75m fairing

 

 

[Gargamel]

Moved to Gameplay Q's. 

[pincushionman]

1 hour ago, Loren Pechtel said:

…no way to build it down…

Could you please explain what you mean by this, with pictures maybe? Fairings are usually built up from below.

[Loren Pechtel]

4 minutes ago, pincushionman said:

Could you please explain what you mean by this, with pictures maybe? Fairings are usually built up from below.

Exactly--they're built up from below.  Skycranes connect to the top of the cargo.  (Think of how Curiosity landed on Mars--the rockets were above the payload.)

7 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Moved to Gameplay Q's. 

Now the gameplay forum shows up.  It wasn't showing up when I posted the question.

[Cavscout74]

9 minutes ago, Loren Pechtel said:

Now the gameplay forum shows up.  It wasn't showing up when I posted the question.

Don't feel bad, I've had parts not show up in game, come on here to ask about it & the next time I start the game, they're all showing up again.

[Rauko]

8 hours ago, Loren Pechtel said:

Exactly--they're built up from below.  Skycranes connect to the top of the cargo.  (Think of how Curiosity landed on Mars--the rockets were above the payload.)

So can you elaborate a bit more about your problem? Is the rover +skycrane too big? Too wide? Can you fit them in other order (once in space, above and below are meaningless words) Can you lift them dissasembled and assemble them in orbit with docking ports?

A picture would help a lot. (F1, just in case you didnt know, and play on pc)

 

I dont think a heat shield is the best solution, since they are heavy (even without ablator) and draggy.

[Superfluous J]

Can you not flip it upside down, and build the fairing down that way?

Maybe there's something in doing sky cranes that I don't know about, but I've built plenty of upside down fairings and they work fine.

[Starman4308]

It should be entirely possible to build it on one consistent axis:

Skycrane
Decoupler
Rover
Decoupler and possible spacer
Fairing
Rocket

It may take a bit of fiddling with the staging order, but I'm not sure what your issue is.

[MajorTomtom]

What I tend to do is precisely curiosity-styles rovers. You build your rover, add a decoupler on top of it with some structures, a tank and a probe atop of it + 4 lateral engines and 3 chutes : that's your crane.

Below the rover I add another decoupler + structures, and then a fairing. Below the fairing comes a heatshield (so that I can do a direct aerobraking).

Below the heatshield comes the interplanetary transfer vehicle, basically a small tank/engine/antenna/solar panel (if you need course corrections)

Finally you add your rocket below

 

When you launch (e.g to duna) you send the whole transfer vehicle + fairing etc to duna encounter, course correction to get a precise aerobraking perigee at duna using your transfer vehicle. Slightly before periapsis at duna you jettison the transfer vehicle and begin reentry of your egg-shaped reentry structure (fairing + heatshield). Once at reasonable speed you drop the fairing and heatshield and deploy speed chutes, and once close to the ground you light the four lateral engines on your crane, drop the rover and fly the crane upwards and turn it sideways so that it crashes far from your rover.

Afterwards, you can roam the surface with your rover and realize how empty It is and that you should have made a simple lander

 

The only downside is that you have to use a rather small rover (such as curiosity). You can't launch a gigantic star wars rover with ISRU etc with this method

Edited February 5, 2019 by MajorTomtom

[Rauko]

Nice. I have to try it. Although with Remote Tech it a bit more dificult, as you need to mantain contact to control the deorbit. I supose I can put an active short range antenna inside the fairing and use the transfer vehicle as relay, or stablish a comm network prior the landings.

[Loren Pechtel]

4 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

Can you not flip it upside down, and build the fairing down that way?

Maybe there's something in doing sky cranes that I don't know about, but I've built plenty of upside down fairings and they work fine.

Why did I never think of turning a fairing upside-down???  Somehow I was stuck on the idea that the fairing builder would only go up.

1 hour ago, MajorTomtom said:

Afterwards, you can roam the surface with your rover and realize how empty It is and that you should have made a simple lander

When you equip a rover with a Bon Voyage controller you can use a single launch to gather science from all over everywhere except Eve and Laythe.

[septemberWaves]

On 2/5/2019 at 12:44 AM, Loren Pechtel said:

no way to build it down

Try turning the fairing base upside down before placing it.