Tarantulae

Every time I try something like that, it seems like the rotor falls out/through the gear bays. Is there a limit on how much they can support?

How do you make a rotor in stock?

Yes. 2 vehicles. Though I am trying to get it to work through a single vehicle that has docked at one of the ports.

I think the input comes from the SAS wheels & clamp attraction. The 2 halves are shaped so they can't dock, and with SAS you pull the clamps farther apart. The clamp pulls the back half closer, which bumps into the front half accelerating it. So SAS pushes the front half away, the clamp pulls the back half closer, and when it bumps into the front it speeds up. Total violation of conservation of energy for sure. I'm wondering if i can keep them connected if I could reach orbit via slow acceleration. Or, maybe an electric glider on kerbin? Powered by clamps! Time to experiment.

Its not from docking/undocking. They are initially docked, and then I undock. After that it's from the ports trying to dock, but being blocked by parts of the ship. They get close enough to attract, but can't dock. Something about how it calculates the physics makes the active ship pull the inactive ship to it, where it gently collides, causing acceleration. Once the clamps are a certain distance apart, they continue to provide acceleration. I'm thinking it isn't calculating the same pull on the active vs inactive halfs of the ship. I think if I hit the ramp more carefully, I could keep the clamp forces attracting between the two halves. With any luck, it continue to provide acceleration during the jump. - - - Updated - - - Second attempt. Using trim instead of SAS to try to accelerate. 35.7m/s prior to hitting the ramp. Pusher cart still separated though. I think my weakness now is the ramp. 278 max alt. 1.9 max distance. 3.3km final stop. Need to figure out a way to keep the pusher attached after hitting the ramp. Maybe a more gentle slope? For those wondering, it is a 4.13T craft.

Ok, clamp proof of concept. Only things this craft has is aircraft wheels, clamps, sas and power. No powered wheels, no engines, nothing else. First I put a nice ramp up and drove it down near the edge of the ice. Part of it blew up when i blew the wheels off, but oh well, its still a pretty good ramp. Reached 26.4 (maybe a little faster) when I hit the ramp. was enough force that my pusher cart was lost. Max alt was 202 (plus a little, I didn't realize I'd max out so fast) Distance on touchdown was 1.5km. Final stop 2.5km. Jeb still happy in his chair.

Bwahahahahahhaha! GENIUS!

I'm testing my clamp theory. I've been able to get accelerated up to 80m/s but not reliably. Still working out the kinks I guess.

I just want to confirm, we can also start from a ramp as well as having a ramp for the jump correct? As long as both ramps connect together in the sph/vab as one unit initially?

Here's my first attempt. 589.8m(ish). I might play around with some of my other ideas to see what I can manage.

It doesn't directly say, but I was thinking pole-vault style. Have a large arm. Get good velocity, up the ramp and hit the back/top edge of the ramp with the arm via SAS for extra force. There is no criteria to how the rover jumps off the ramp. Last thought, how strong are clamp magnetics? Could we build a tug that pulls the rover on small gear bays via mag force (not docked) while the tug is powered via ion/other? Is that possible?

As far as the "jumping" portion of this goes. Seems if you have enough SAS you could use an arm of some kind to basically slingshot yourself off the ramp via SAS and your level arm. Is everyone just driving their rover straight off the ramp or is sas control involved during the jumpoff portion?

I was experimenting with a few things for this challenge, it seems that turning back and forth can get you some extra acceleration. With the TR-2L wheels I was able to get to 25m/s on the KSC runway, even though their part speed is 23. Should be a method to get faster speeds on minmus too.

I think he's got a pair of AV-R8 Winglet.

Here is my entry, let me know if you want me to refly it. I fell off the helipad just a little but stayed on the roof... however it broke one of my wings. Rushing for best stock time.

Well, its one thing to point the nose in a direction that it can hold in a glide such as somewhat noseup. If your CoG/CoL is dynamically stable then it should hold it. If you were in a dive or something when power died, then you'd hold in the dive. If your CoG/CoL is unstable, it'll slowly oscillate until it dives and rip itself apart.

How would trimming it out help if there are no control surfaces after the battery dies?

My ship had no control surfaces

You can see 36:41 from the splashdown. It took maybe another ~30 seconds to skip along the water to a stop.

Here's my entry. I don't think I get anything other than not breaking any parts... Those small craft are pretty impossible to beat!

Here is my entry. Unfortunately the resources don't show the fuel, as it was damaged when i landed in the water. Almost made it westbound to the next continent though. Hopefully you will still accept as the toroidal fuel tank can only hold a maximum of 10 units fuel. Edit: Here it is pre-takeoff

Sas and angled wings can make a sort of helicopter as well, somewhat hard to control, but would probably work for this challenge. Does the craft have to be manned?

Just jet engines or are rocket engines allowed too?

Thanks for the quick replies. I do appreciate it. I understand over estimating the strength of the radial connection, since they are basically just stuck together along a line, but I don't see why axial is so much weaker in comparison. I'll learn to live with it though.

I guess my confusion is that the curved side of a fuel tank should be more aerodynamic and reduce the force applied by a decent amount. Also, the fuel tank isn't breaking itself, the axial connection was breaking. I would think an axial connection would be stronger than the radial space glue connections that are normally made when placing things radially. Which of these is actually stronger? Axial or radial connections?