selfish_meme

What I meant by TWR was the efficiency of your engines or ISP, like Rune said, you have a very high TWR indicating low ISP engines. I just said it in a much worse way without ads

You may be wondering why go to pathfinder at all, there is no need. We cannot use any part of pathfinder to complete the journey, it's only symbolic. That may be true now, but in the future with 1.1 we are going to have ranged antennae. This means the DAV and Pathfinder will have the only antennae that can talk to Kerbin or a satellite in space. So? Well I am thinking ahead to when maybe this scenario involves tasks (contracts) and information is provided via radio (maps maybe?). So what do you guys think, keep the pathfinder side trip or leave it out for now?

Thats pretty wicked looking

I like the look of it, and it looks well made, one question, is it a replica if it hasn't been built yet, wouldn't it be a concept or artists impression?

You know you don't accept submissions, you sort the forum for the last week and pick your own favourites?

Someone else can do the modded version, or even do it in parallel with us. In the book he recharged every day, but had an oxygen day every four or five days. The batteries in KSP last about 5 to 10 minutes, so I need RTG's to make them last longer, so you can get an hours drive, then recharge. Overall I don't want people to have to drive the rover too long it can be a bit boring. That was my longest rover trip to date, just to get to pathfinder. The leg to get to the DAV is currently three times that. Edit: after getting past 10 minutes the urge to do donuts or something equally stupid faded. I think the more time you have invested in the trip the less you want to crash.

Spent about an hour and a half and am probably within striking distsance of the pathfinder location, the rover handled very well, was watching TV with my finger on the button so I didn't see what caused the roll, so far it has handled even quite steep slopes well, even going across them. Top speed so far 35m/s, so here are some beauty shots. You can see the crater I came out of behind the rover Just after the roll, just lost the roofs, didn't even undock, the self righting system helped stop the roll The image is centered on the rover looking south, not much further to the end of the valley. So I could have gone straight south instead of going to the lowest part of the crater rim first and then turning south for the valley mouth. Would probably be at pathfinder right now. Good to remember, leave base and head 180 degrees south to get to pathfinder.

Well done in trying circumstances. Kudos.

OK I am rovering, the new rover is handling well, no problems with terrain so far, I went west to the edge of the crater, but that was a mistake, the terrain is gentle enough I could have gone straight south and saved some time. Took me 15 minutes to the crater edge. Having two batteries and four RTG's means there is hardly any current drain, I went full speed the whole way. It's probably full again in the time it takes to type this. Will have to reduce the RTG's. I have climbed about 1000m.

I think your problem is twr, too much engine

If you are building it for this theres no need to remain completely truthful to the film, let practicality with stock parts have a hand.

It would be pretty cool, reverse fairings, when you stage them they erect. Good idea for a mod. If we could fill them with lighter than air gas it would be even better.

I watched the video, was very impressive.

I was just keeping it flat out, but it wasn't particularly rough terrain, I went to map mode and back and found it flipping, no idea why. It was almost out of charge so that was the end of the journey. I am adding a system to right the rover in case of a roll. You are right about the engineer, I blew one tyre in earlier testing, lucky I had Bill on board.

The bits are coming together

Docking alignment went much easier than expected, one tiny change to the front of the rover and everything docked easily Rover craft updated, docks to itself and the hab

So I headed due west (270) from those co-ordinates and I finally got a view of the crater walls by the time my batteries (plural) ran out. About 10 minutes in. I had added 2 RTG's but they did not provide a great deal more range. So I think with the trailer rover we will get somewhere north of 15 minutes out of a charge before needing to stop and deploy. A Duna day is 18 hours long, so there is no way to run out of sunlight, so a straight run is possible with stops for recharges. The rover is good and had no problems, it is still possible to flip it if you really try. I am making a couple more adjustments. I included a Science Junior just in case we want to at some point add a science run as part of it, the hab has a science lab. They should all have short range antenna's except Pathfinder and the DAV.

I have some ideas, but need a little time to test them out, just in case I don't here they are, rover wheels work on fairings, so you need a long fairing clipped through the door for the rover wheels to run on, also they seem to work on solar panels, so try some ox-stats too. - - - Updated - - - Did you know one of your wheels was backwards in the craft file? No it wasn't solar panels don't work Nope not fairings either

Aerogui and rcsbuildaid for in editor - - - Updated - - - Also as air runs out your wings lose control authority and your gimbal and sas are more important

Usually violent sudden pitch changes are due to drag or CoM change, so the nose drag increases with speed, the craft flips if it exceeds the rear. If the CoM shifts behind the CoL the craft again flips. It will be one or the other.

They are supposed to be somewhat broken, so the player can fix the problems and learn about how to do things at the same time

Alright so I built a new rover using all the trickiest suspension and CoL shifting ways I know. Simpler, less parts, lighter. I also removed any probe cores and only had the single battery. On the good side, on Kerbin it is virtually unflippable, I didn't manage it but I think I could given the right slope. On the bad side, on Duna it is still relatively easy to flip, I will soften the suspension some more, good on Kerbin means too hard on Duna. The real problem is how long the battery lasts, about 5.5 minutes in game time, obviously you are not going far with that, I could not even leave the crater. With the second rover it will have more battery but more weight to move, I am thinking of sneaking in an RTG or two to extend the range, not infinite but at least a proportion of the Duna day. Then the driver will need to stop and extend the panels on the second rover to recharge before nightfall. Edit: Have updated download links on first page. Also added JAFO to the contributors

I hear your into boring, do I have a rover trip for you!

Dammit, call off the Swordfish attack guys!