Majorjim!

Don't sweat it matey, I don't mind either way. Like I said, its up to you.

lol I will try to stabilize it a bit, I made a tunnel too will add that. It will need to be welded, it lags a lot!

LOL well that didn't work...

I have an idea for a thing I could make, will throw it together this eve and post a pic. Should be quite fitting.

Yeah I'm really happy with the skycrane. I discovered that the central support of the real skycrane is a Hexagon, seen here: So the Probodobodyne HECS core is perfect for that part as its the only small Hexagonal part. I think with those engines, it could deliver much larger/heavier payloads. Will do some testing. MJ

Hi all, Thank you so much for the great feedback, kind words and the rep! I have now added some flight instructions that should be easy to follow. Thanks Rune, I would love you to try it! You mean without a cable to lower the rover? Yeah stock parts that do that would be ace!

Well I have my stock craft repository, relatively new and I haven't updated it for ages. I will do that today. LOL, good idea!

I haven't been posting decent craft for very long and I don't manage my threads very well, I tend to make something then forget about it and make something else. So I don't think I have a thread with over 100 responses. if that's a definite requirement I accept your decision to not add me. People seem to like my building style so I thought it would be nice for more people to see them. Anyhoo, up to you. MJ

High praise indeed! Thanks man. I watched your curiosity video a few times before making this. And yeah, I was trying to make a definitive stock curiosity! Now, all I need is movie making skills like yours! MJ

This is looking great Gus! I look forward to seeing this come together. MJ

Thank you so much Prof! It's a really fun mission to fly. I will definitely check this after work today. The rover wheels are in contact with the heatshield.

LOL cheers dude. Hmm, the brakes on the rover? Might be that. But, for me the launcher is quite controllable as long as you don't gravity turn too fast. Give it a go and let me know how you get on matey.

So true. Thank you Xoknight. Thanks man, i put a lot of effort into the aesthetics! Yeah it was drifting but I managed to reduce it so it holds course well now. It wants to spin ever so slightly during the turn, but again its very minor. There is definitely something amiss with the game code. As GusTurbo said in another post, the connections are still too weak for tall rockets. Oh well, it works so I'm happy! And thanks for the kind words mate!

Hi all, I am happy to be able to release my updated Curiosity rover and Atlas V541. Still the most accurate Curiosity replica on these forums, or anywhere to be honest. I used the stock fairings for the payload to reduce the part count. They are horrible to work with but look good if done right. I am using a mod that allows for clam-shell fairings. You will see that in the pictures and I recommend you use it. The fairings work fine without though. Some more detail was added to the rover itself too. It's even more accurate now! This is a very easy to fly rocket with a nice challenge at the end of safely landing the rover on Duna. You can see this in the video below. Here are some pictures: Flight instructions: -SAS on, full throttle press space bar! -At 300m/s turn east to 70degress or as close as possible -stage the boosters and start a slow turn to 45 degrees when at 500m/s -keep slowly turning as speed and altitude increases -complete orbit with transfer stage -shoot for Duna! on a collision course -stage into cruise stage for trip to Duna -adjust orbit for atmospheric entry to Duna at your chosen altitude -Stage cruise stage and enter the atmosphere -deploy chute and when open stage heatshield then the skycrane -land on Duna! Yes, yes, I know that's easier said than done but there is plenty of fuel so take your time. You can hover, land then fire off the skycrane. As long as the rover is intact it doesn't matter. See video for example landing. Thank you all for reading this, my old post is below. MJ DOWNLOAD ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi all, I am very happy to be able to share my newest stock craft with you. This is a detailed recreation of the MSL Mars curiosity rover. I have tried to stick as closely as possible to the real thing. I started by building the rover itself then the sky-crane then the rest of the rocket. I have made one of these in the past but it was very basic, and as most people seem to do it was made from a rover body, which wasn't good enough for this replica. I had to come up with a way to create a thin white part for the slim body of the real rover. I managed it with the trusty cubic strut and mirrored hard-points. I managed to cram in a few other details like the rear antenna, RTG, sample probe and camera. As I wanted to make the rover and sky-crane as compact as possible I had to turn part of the camera to accommodate the sky-crane arms. You will see that in the pics below. So, it is a very compact unit now. After that I spent many hours on testing various aeroshell fairings for the rover. I tried ailerons, they tumble in dunas atmos.. I made one from backwards solar panels but the part count was too high. So I used structural panels and managed to get a shape not unlike the real version. The rest of the rocket came together nicely but the launcher was drifting. I have no idea why and anything I tried didn't work. I have largely fixed the issue now with some fiddling and swearing. I find the rocket easy to fly, but as Rune said recently its tough to know if others will find it as easy. As I have launched this thing many times before its complete. The landing of the Sky-crane is a bit tricky but nothing major. So anyway, on to the pics and vid! Here is a sequence of KVV shots showing each part of the craft. And some shots during the mission. I also made a video of a flown mission, nothing fancy just some dramatic music, beautiful scenes and a rover delivered to Duna. Even if you dont want to fly it you can DL to see how it was made. Thanks again! MJ

Thanks for adding me Vagani. Just let me know what you need, and I will see what I can do.

Hi all, As my title says, the game crashed in the VAB and upon loading the game again all parts are missing and I cannot load craft. I restarted my PC and loaded up KSP and the parts where back. Anyone seen this before? MODS USED -EVE -KVV -EE -rootpart -advanced camera Thanks MJ

Hi guys, This looks like a great project! If I where to offer my services as builder what would we be asked to build?

Yup I'm with Gus on this. A tall rocket with a heavy payload still needs too many struts to keep it from flexing.

Thanks man, inside is a thing of beauty my friend!

Hi all, I have been very busy making a very detailed replica of the Curiosity rover and Atlas V 541 (AV-028) She is nearing completion so I thought I would post a teaser pic! I just need to make a few visual changes to the skycrane and rover, make a vid then release it tomorrow hopefully. MJ

Eeeeeeeeee! Thanks matey. Yeah balloons from the ceiling would have been nice..

LOL thanks man. :-) I like the modularity of the thing. And I can see that in doing so would require some clever tweaking. If I ever make a modular aircraft and have trouble with fuel lines, this will be my first port of call! MJ

Yeah why arent we up there with them?? OP please add us to the master engineers. We have more than proved ourselves worthy.

I'm sure they are exemplary! I never download peoples craft though. I prefer to imagine that I know it all, or at least can figure it out.

Ah, the Rune classic, whats new on these babies Rune?