parts [1.12.x] USI Exploration Pack - Small parts, big adventure! [v 0.6.0]

[vardicd]

RoverDude, Is it a known bug/issue with the pack-rat science storage containers that recovering just the box with the science samples/reports in them, doesn't recover the science? I don't see anywhere where it says such a thing, but I may have missed it. I'm just curious if that's an issue, or if I've borked something on my end.

[Snarfster]

RoverDude, Is it a known bug/issue with the pack-rat science storage containers that recovering just the box with the science samples/reports in them, doesn't recover the science? I don't see anywhere where it says such a thing, but I may have missed it. I'm just curious if that's an issue, or if I've borked something on my end.

Get close to them, use the retrieve science option like you can in a pod. If you store the box in a KAS crate, without pickup up the science, afaik the science is lost.

[vardicd]

Get close to them, use the retrieve science option like you can in a pod. If you store the box in a KAS crate, without pickup up the science, afaik the science is lost.

Okay, I had a rover going long distance to collect science and my plan was to store science in the crates and recover just the crates, so my rover and kerbal could keep going. guess that's not going to work.

Edit: Interestingly, I seem to have discovered, that dropping a crate with science in it, and using KAS to attach a basic antenna to the crate allows you to recover just the crate without losing the science. Not sure what difference the antenna makes, but so far that seems to be my result. {I'm also using the antenna range enforcement mod, which may have something to do with it?}

[Disclaimer: So far only one test has resulted in recovered science, your results may vary. Not responsible for lost science do to attempted use of my methods, please use crates and antennas responsibly.]

Edited January 17, 2015 by vardicd

[vardicd]

After several days of trial and error, mostly error. Lots of error. I present, my fully customizable, extended range, science packrat.

Using a basic quad core module from Universal Storage mod, and Universal storage compatible science containers from, Dmagic Orbital Science mod, the ERSP, can be configured with science modules, easily airdropped in the field, to perform science anywhere on Kerbin. My Kerbal's never need to return to KSC.

Thank You RoverDude for this awesome, and versatile mod.

{And so far in every test I've run, attaching an antenna to the packrat crates allows them to be recovered by themselves without loss of science.}

[nedlee]

Hello, I've been building mini sized jets and rovers with this mod and it's good fun. However, both AES and HERP pods are killing my fps...having one attached to a ship gives me a siginificant performance drop, and when I put several in one screen the framerate crawls into a single digit number...there is no error in the log, so I assume this has to do something with transparent window in both pods. Does anyone have similar issues?

[Enceos]

RoverDude, you're my hero! I'm so in love with these parts .

Made a small Personal Maneuvering System "Apple" yesterday for my kerbals who go on small tasks like career science and survey missions, sat maintenances, and ScanOMatic surface scans.

It has all:

- Lights and batteries

- SAS

- KAS Container

- Wheels

- Docking Port Junior

- Those cute RCS!!! With enough thrust and dV to land on the Mun and go orbit again

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Lovely!

Edited January 29, 2015 by Enceos

[Olympic1]

RoverDude, you're my hero! I'm so in love with these parts .

Made a small Personal Maneuvering System "Apple" yesterday for my kerbals who go on small tasks like career science and survey missions, sat maintenances, and ScanOMatic surface scans.

It has all:

- Lights and batteries

- SAS

- KAS Container

- Wheels

- Docking Port Junior

- Those cute RCS!!! With enough thrust and dV to land on the Mun and go orbit again

http://imgur.com/a/LvFFm

Lovely!

very small and usefull. Mind sharing the craft file?

[rabidninjawombat]

Im with Olympic! I love this that little thing. nice job Enceos! Im gonna blatently copy it for my savegame (or at least make something similar, Thanks for the inspiration!)

[klesh]

As a huge fan of .625m and all things tiny in KSP, I'm definitely going to have to try this pack out. Thank you!

[Enceos]

very small and usefull. Mind sharing the craft file?

Its kinda mod heavy, uses:

- Tweakscaled AIES MS-1 RCS orb tanks

- AIES OPL-Lum lamps

- B9 R5 RCS Thrusters

I cleaned the .craft file from other mods for you guys.

Aside from Exploration Pack, this cutie requires Tweakscale and KAS.

I removed the LS hexcan from under the solar panel, slap there any snacks container of your choice.

Scale the radial tanks to your dV needs or replace with any other RCS fuel container.

Here are the required part and craft files:

PARTS

CRAFT

On land its very easy to drive it in the stock docking mode with activated SAS. RCS thrusters will have same thrust directions as Kerbal EVA and no need to deactivate SAS because it will try to pull forward instead of flipping the craft.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Enceos

[Olympic1]

Its kinda mod heavy, uses:

- Tweakscaled AIES MS-1 RCS orb tanks

- AIES OPL-Lum lamps

- B9 R5 RCS Thrusters

I cleaned the .craft file from other mods for you guys.

Aside from Exploration Pack, this cutie requires Tweakscale and KAS.

I removed the LS hexcan from under the solar panel, slap there any snacks container of your choice.

Scale the radial tanks to your dV needs or replace with any other RCS fuel container.

Here are the required part and craft files:

PARTS

CRAFT

On land its very easy to drive it in the stock docking mode with activated SAS. RCS thrusters will have same thrust directions as Kerbal EVA and no need to deactivate SAS because it will try to pull forward instead of flipping the craft.

Thx for sharing, and mods isn't a problem for me, I run a lot of mods atm

[Enceos]

... I run a lot of mods atm

Same here Feel kinda uneasy when Module Manager reads "8467 patches applied".

[oversoul]

OK, my first reply did boom for some reason.

1.Start with a ground pylon, attach the rover front end to it, rotate it correctly with MOD-B and MOD-N (alt on windows).

2. Store the front chassis in the front end.

3. Store the rear chassis in the front chassis.

4. Store the rear end in the rear chassis.

5. Store two wheels in the front chassis.

6. Store two wheels in the rear chassis.

7. Store a seat in the front end. It will appear on the side you are standing on.

8. Store the roof rack in the front end.

9. Store any other seats, science crates and/or data camera in the front end.

10. Board it.

11. Set the brake.

12. Get out.

13. Pick up the ground pylon.

Ready to drive.

thank you.

thank you!

THANK YOU!

This had me stumped!

[Snarfster]

thank you.

thank you!

THANK YOU!

This had me stumped!

Trust me, it took a lot of talking with the great kerbal in the sky before I figured it out myself.

[FuriousSquirrel]

So I learned two things when unpacking and building my rover as well as issues pertaining to when it lands on its side.

First off, let me say, the rover wheels can only be removed once from a KAS container, if you put them in, you will have issues with attachment when pulling them out again.

Secondly, When building your rover, build just the essential parts, do not add anything extra on the chassis except the 1 seat, then remove the ground pylon. I learned the hard way where the ground pylon would keep attached to the rover when I tried to remove it leading to very unexpected and explosive consequences due to too many parts attached.

Lastly, Always install the roof rack, its essentially a rollcage and not only is it helpful at protecting any sensitive equipment you may be carrying, but you can also use it to flip your rover back onto its wheels. Just EVA, remove the roof rack, reattach once it settles, and it'll pop the rover back onto its wheels due to the collision mesh! Its a cheap way of getting her back on her wheels but the most effective method.

[oversoul]

thought I wasn't gonna be able to drive out of this one, but...

WOOOOHOOOOOO!

[techno65535]

Now to paint the Southern' Colours on her 'cause the General lives again!

[Tellur]

So, I just spent about 2-3 hours assembling the packRat on the Mun. I wanted to do one of those 'go to location x, y and z and do experiment alpha' contracts - and what better way than to use a rover.

So I pack my pack rat into KAS containers (octocore universal storage) and land on the Mun. However, when I try to assemble the rover, things started exploding. Specifically, whenever I dropped the front, rear or any chassis part they would fall to the ground, stay there fore about a second only to spontaneously disassemble. Wheels worked fine, solar panels worked fine, even the Universal Store KAS containers were glad to lie on the Munar surface for hours (well, not that I tested it for so long, but I imagine they would have).

Bringing up the log, I noticed something interesting: It wasn't crash damage that caused a runaway exothermic reaction, but for some reason the parts clipped through the surface, got recognized as "inside the Mun" and promptly executed for breaking physics.

Don't know if this is a problem with the parts, KAS or the stock engine, just wanted to let you know. To my untrained eye it almost seems as if the collision mesh (or whatever passes for that in KSP) is buggy somehow.

For all those that encounter a similar problem: The way I finally got it to work was by hacking gravity and EVA-propellant and then scramble to assemble the front, front chassis and front wheels while the thing was still in the 'air'. The problem is that the gravity hack appears to only work for the active vessel/Kerbal, as the dropped parts would still fall down, even when I gave them a small upwards momentum before releasing.

Another trick that might work is using multiple Kerbals.

[goldenpsp]

So, I just spent about 2-3 hours assembling the packRat on the Mun. I wanted to do one of those 'go to location x, y and z and do experiment alpha' contracts - and what better way than to use a rover.

So I pack my pack rat into KAS containers (octocore universal storage) and land on the Mun. However, when I try to assemble the rover, things started exploding. Specifically, whenever I dropped the front, rear or any chassis part they would fall to the ground, stay there fore about a second only to spontaneously disassemble. Wheels worked fine, solar panels worked fine, even the Universal Store KAS containers were glad to lie on the Munar surface for hours (well, not that I tested it for so long, but I imagine they would have).

Bringing up the log, I noticed something interesting: It wasn't crash damage that caused a runaway exothermic reaction, but for some reason the parts clipped through the surface, got recognized as "inside the Mun" and promptly executed for breaking physics.

Don't know if this is a problem with the parts, KAS or the stock engine, just wanted to let you know. To my untrained eye it almost seems as if the collision mesh (or whatever passes for that in KSP) is buggy somehow.

For all those that encounter a similar problem: The way I finally got it to work was by hacking gravity and EVA-propellant and then scramble to assemble the front, front chassis and front wheels while the thing was still in the 'air'. The problem is that the gravity hack appears to only work for the active vessel/Kerbal, as the dropped parts would still fall down, even when I gave them a small upwards momentum before releasing.

Another trick that might work is using multiple Kerbals.

it's KAS. Best way to assemble the packrat is like Rover's video, namely build on top of a ground pylon.

[Snarfster]

So, I just spent about 2-3 hours assembling the packRat on the Mun. I wanted to do one of those 'go to location x, y and z and do experiment alpha' contracts - and what better way than to use a rover.

So I pack my pack rat into KAS containers (octocore universal storage) and land on the Mun. However, when I try to assemble the rover, things started exploding. Specifically, whenever I dropped the front, rear or any chassis part they would fall to the ground, stay there fore about a second only to spontaneously disassemble. Wheels worked fine, solar panels worked fine, even the Universal Store KAS containers were glad to lie on the Munar surface for hours (well, not that I tested it for so long, but I imagine they would have).

Bringing up the log, I noticed something interesting: It wasn't crash damage that caused a runaway exothermic reaction, but for some reason the parts clipped through the surface, got recognized as "inside the Mun" and promptly executed for breaking physics.

Don't know if this is a problem with the parts, KAS or the stock engine, just wanted to let you know. To my untrained eye it almost seems as if the collision mesh (or whatever passes for that in KSP) is buggy somehow.

For all those that encounter a similar problem: The way I finally got it to work was by hacking gravity and EVA-propellant and then scramble to assemble the front, front chassis and front wheels while the thing was still in the 'air'. The problem is that the gravity hack appears to only work for the active vessel/Kerbal, as the dropped parts would still fall down, even when I gave them a small upwards momentum before releasing.

Another trick that might work is using multiple Kerbals.

From a message a few pages ago:

1.Start with a ground pylon, attach the rover front end to it, rotate it correctly with MOD-B and MOD-N (alt on windows).

2. Store the front chassis in the front end.

3. Store the rear chassis in the front chassis.

4. Store the rear end in the rear chassis.

5. Store two wheels in the front chassis.

6. Store two wheels in the rear chassis.

7. Store a seat in the front end. It will appear on the side you are standing on.

8. Store the roof rack in the front end.

9. Store any other seats, science crates and/or data camera in the front end.

10. Board it.

11. Set the brake.

12. Get out.

13. Pick up the ground pylon.

Ready to drive.

Good luck

[WARodst10175]

The mod wont work for me. I don't get the cockpit, The revent save is broke, IVA crashs my game and the IVA GUI does not show with the staging. Also staging does not show. Fix. This.

[Snarfster]

The mod wont work for me. I don't get the cockpit, The revent save is broke, IVA crashs my game and the IVA GUI does not show with the staging. Also staging does not show. Fix. This.

Just a comment, being friendly goes a long way when trying to get help. "Fix. This."?

Try reinstalling the mod, it sounds like a bad download.

[RoverDude]

The mod wont work for me. I don't get the cockpit, The revent save is broke, IVA crashs my game and the IVA GUI does not show with the staging. Also staging does not show. Fix. This.

I should keep this post as a shining example of how not to get support. Ever.

[Whiteowl]

Firstly, thanks for this and your other mods RoverDude, they are really outstanding.

I have a couple of questions regarding the Rover Delivery System component. I did the following:

1. Built the rover starting from the roll cage and saved it as a subassembly.

2. Built a rocket and added the delivery system cage on top.

3. Attached the rover to the cage.

4. Launched from the VAB to test.

So, firstly, the delivery cage seems to be 3.75 and not 2.5 metres. But the docs say 2.5 form factor. I tried attaching the rover oriented upwards so it doesn't need the entire wheelbase but there's no way to attach it in that orientation.

Secondly, the only way I could find to actually release the rover from the delivery cage was by clicking release on the front, but that caused the rover to fall to pieces.

Am I missing something obvious here?

Thanks for your help!

[RoverDude]

Hey - yeah, it ended up being a 3.75 vertical stack - I should really make a 2.5m horizontal at some point.

The intent is to put a decoupler between the cage and the rover. Or, two clamp o trons. I recall that in testing if I used a pair of juniors, it was exactly the right height for the Rover to re-dock if I wiggled it in