RocketBlam

I further developed this idea into Artemis II, shown here. I flew it to Pol and tested it out. What I am discovering is that the wheels are essentially useless in gravity this low. Your traction is so low that it takes forever to build up any speed, and the extremely uneven terrain makes driving a very difficult task. Honestly, version 1 is much better at traveling around in gravity this low. In this version, the wheels are essentially just landing gear. Now, in higher gravity, like on the moon, the wheels would perform better, but the RCS flying performs worse, because you use more fuel to go anywhere. So I guess my conclusion is that the RCS thrust system is great on low gravity worlds, say, Minmus and lower, and wheels are better (or at least useful) on higher gravity moons like Mun. Also, in fairness, wheeled rovers with solar panels essentially have unlimited range.

Think outside the box, TripleStaff. Don't let definitions limit your imagination.

I've tried it now on the moon and on Minmus. On Minmus, it's a great ride. On Mun, it's still a good way to get around, but because of the higher gravity you just use more fuel, so your range is shorter. It ought to be great on Pol, or Bop and Gilly.

To my mind, it's a rover because it is designed to travel on a planet, not in space or between planets. It's function is that of a rover. But it's really just a question of semantics. Although it would work fine in space too, if someone needed a small craft to travel relatively short distances, but further than a Kerbal could get in his EVA suit.

Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it. I've added an image of the amazing Artemis Rover in action. PS: This rover is not a "car".

Traveling on a moon with a wheeled rover can be useful, but they have limitations. Have you ever driven a rover faster than 25 m/s? Hit a bump and your trip comes to a rapid end. And it just takes so LONG to get anywhere. The Artemis I rover solves this by getting rid of the wheels altogether. Why drive when you can fly? This rover allows you to travel rapidly across low-gravity moon landscapes like Minmus, Bop or Pol without having to deal with a low maximum speed, or hitting bumps and tumbling ass over teakettle, pardon the sailor language. The low gravity worlds are a particularly challenging environent, because a lightweight rover is difficult to drive there. It is powered entirely by RCS, and it has no wheels. Perfect for traveling to a couple of biomes and collecting science. Includes all reusable science modules, and a handy seat for your favorite Kerbal astronaut. Download here: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/artemis_i/ The Artemis I in Action! http://youtu.be/6j21IYD2FRw

That's pretty incredible. I'm conducting my own Mohole Probe right now... I'll post something later.

I don't understand, you can update the game engine without updating the game?

OK, here's my third attempt. It's a bit ungainly, but it weighs only about 1/3rd what the other one does. I decided to leave batteries, antenna and reaction wheel off. It handles like a pig without the reaction wheel, but... the other one handled like a pig WITH one.

Don't you have to bring back the materials bay and the goo canister? Or transmit them for less science?

Well those are great numbers, and it's a nice lander, but it doesn't have any science gear on it. I'll see if I can get the weight down on mine. I took it into orbit, and discovered I had forgotten a docking port. So I decided to take it on a shakedown cruise to Minmus, which is good, because I discovered I had also forgotten batteries.

What kind of DV does that have? Remember I need 3000 on the way down and 3000 on the way up, possibly more.

Alright, this is my second attempt. DV is a touch higher, but TWR is much higher. And the whole thing weighs a lot more.

I tried landing on Tylo using a lander based on the published DV necessary, which is about 3070. My lander had two stages and a total of 6300 DV. But by the time I landed, I only had about 1200 DV left in my second stage (after having transferred all fuel out of the spent 1st stage), which wasn't enough to get back to orbit. So... what did I do wrong? I believe I landed from about 20k feet. It took all engines in both stages to just get it slowed down enough to land. Was my TWR too low?

What do you mean? I'm sending a lander to Laythe right now that is designed to get back into Laythe orbit. Laythe takes about the same DV to get into orbit from as Tylo. Actually this lander is going to both. Tylo first. It's a two-stage job.

I put a base on Vall. It's good for a Kethane production point. No atmosphere and fairly low gravity makes it a good jumping-off point for all the Joolean moons. Putting a base on Laythe would be a challenge, but as far as a Kethane base it would be insane. Literally any other moon in Joolean orbit would be better. I have also thought about putting a Keth base on Pol or Bop. I like that they have a lot lower gravity than Vall. I chose Vall because it was close to Laythe, but if I had to do it over again, I'd probably put it on Pol.

Well, I made some progress and lost some progress. My save file bugged out so I had to rebuilt the rocket. Now, once again, that same decoupler is failing, even with two white tanks instead of an orange one. I guess I'll just have to launch this in two pieces.

Well, I think the orange tank was the culprit. I replaced it and now the decoupler at the bottom is failing - it is also attached to an orange tank. now fixing.

This is the whole rocket. It's the biggest one I've ever built because the payload weighs a crap-ton. Now trying with two white tanks instead of one orange, and no reinforcements. I'll let you know.

I've got a problem on one of my rockets. I'm using this big Decoupler here, and... it just keeps snapping half way through launch. Anyone got an idea how to resolve this? As you can see I'm trying to put in some reinforcing struts, but nothing seems to make any difference. This thing just snaps randomly in the middle of flight. I know it's the problem because after it happens, I can still select it, but I can't select anything below it.

I hit F5 at work to save a Word document and wondered for a second why it didn't work.

There is no usual amount, it varies, but less weight at the top is always easier than more.

As I understand it, the angle of incidence is a balance between drag and lift. If you make it higher, you increase lift but also increase drag. On Duna, increasing lift is very desireable, and increasing drag is not as big a problem because you have less to start with. Sounds like some wings installed with pivots on them would be a good experiment on Duna.

Don't know if you use mods at all, but the Infernal Robotics mod is straightforward - not too complicated, and it adds a lot to the game. One challenge I'm going to tackle one day with IR: Try to make a functioning helicopter with IR parts. It should be possible. Install a rotor in the middle with four wings sticking out to the sides (the blades of the helicopter), and some pivots on the wings you can change their angle of attack. Put rocket motors on the tips to spin the rotor. Actually this concept is used in some helo designs in real life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tip_jet

He said in the video this wasn't the most efficient way. But it looks a lot easier. I thought this was a pretty cool video. I learned a lot. Thanks for the vid!