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Rovers are cool : they are complex to build, launch and land (and crash). But they are useless. Biomes are simply too big to be explored by rovers and biome-hopping is much easier anyway. Moving kerbals with a rover is pointless when they can simply fly with a jetpack. I have almot never used rovers in my games because I never found any use for them. I think there should be some reward for using rovers, something you couldn't do with a simple lander or a Kerbal. Why not using terrain scatters ? They have no use neither (and that's a bit sad too) - There could be some experiments that need to be done next to a rock, and maybe multiple rock types, each type yielding different science, like the biomes. - There could have ressources in it : using a drill on a rock could give much more ore, but il would deplete like asteroids, so you have to move to get more. These are just suggestions, but I think rovers need some love too. (Sorry if that was already suggested before, I did search and found nothing)

getting no friction or grip with my wheels causing my rovers and space planes to either flip over or just slide around the place and drift... is this a bug with my modded install or 1.3.1 in general? I've put my ksp log up anyway if you need anything else just ask. KSP log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ndmh4cacjt40v8a/output_log.txt?dl=0

So I came back, and I bring an idea from two years ago, but improved: Omnidirectional wheels. In addition of other two new: Continuous tracks and Screw drives Omnidirectional wheels: Omnidirectional wheels are wheels and systems that gives the ability of move omnidirectionally without spin to the land vehicle. My idea is basically add these three types of wheel (and variants by company or size, of course): - Omni wheel (little). - Mecanum wheel (small and medium). - Liddiard wheel (medium and big). Omni wheel: Omni wheels are basically primitive omnidirectional wheels. They are common wheels with added little wheels to the edge, in perpendicular to the main wheels. These wheels would be slightly hard to use, possibly would need the use of action groups. However, with this you can make functional omnidirectional vehicles with octagonal, triangular, etc shapes. Mecanum wheels: This type of wheel is a multi-wheel that contains small wheels aligned 45º over the extreme of multi-wheel, and aligned 45º degrees over de radius of multi-wheel. How it works? Small wheels deviate the multi-wheels when these multi-wheels spin each in different direction, this causes a lateral or spin movement of vehicle, much more useful. These wheels would be easier to use than omni wheels, using like controls AWSD, and also Q and E for move to left and right without spin. Basically, vehicles with this type of wheels would have a better maneuverability and bigger left-right speed than the other two types, but it would have a big lack of friction. Liddiard wheels: Liddiard wheels are basically toroidal wheels which inside has rollers and tires has an special rolling system. This type of wheel move like common wheels, but its toroidal tires can spin from inside to outside for move right or left. These wheels, like mecanum wheels, use AWSDQE controls. Basically, vehicles with this type of wheels would have a big friction and traction, however the left-right speed is the lowest of the three types of omnidirectional wheels. Continuous tracks: This is the drive system of tanks and several types of tractors. This drive type would have sizes from small to big. additionally, these could have an special modular building (ie, you can adjust the length of the continous track, longer will cost more expensive and shorter cheaper, obviously). Screw drive: This would have an extremelly big friction, plus the ability of move left and right without spin. Controls are, again, AWSDQE. The problem of the screw drive is its big size and mass. Screw drive in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afJ18eJeNgU What do you think?

I am trying to build a rover with the docking method, only i can't get these two to dock even though the docking ports are right on top of each other. Is this a bug or am i doing something wrong?

Everyone that has developed a rover in KSP knows that testing them is essential; unless you really like to discover you didn’t bring enough EC to transmit your science after you launch. What’s missing for this is a rover test range. What’s a rover test range? Well, in its most simple way it’s just a piece of land that has various hills etc to emulate the surface on other planets. This is especially helpful to test suspension. Like this Apollo-era rover testrange: Or this (rather small) ESA test range: Another example: Cool, what else? Hmm, well, suspension aside, things like “did I bring enough EC to transmit this stuff?” could be answered by testing at night. But that isn’t very handy, so a small garage/shed like building on the test range could help with this (park in the shade / out of the sun so solar panels don’t work). In order for this test range to be helpful you should be able to launch a vehicle from it (no point in having to drive to it). Any other ideas for this would be appreciated.

Hi, I'm having a strange problem with the Payload aerodynamic cowling *Fairing) separation on my "Rover Payloader". Basically I'm trying to place a Science Gathering Rover at a location on opposite side of KSP spaceport, and using a rocket launcher to place a cargo pod into sub-orbital trajctory, so it re=enters, and through staging eventually lands my rover on parachutes. The problem is when I STAGE the Fairing, the shell itself detaches but not the support structure holding the rover, nor the base - so I am left with the base and this structure attached to my rover which is now quite overloaded both for the parachutes!, When it lands (hard) there is a small explosion which usually cripples the Rover. The few tmes when I got lucky I managed to get the lander down in one piece, but still with the payload flange and support structure attached, and the Rover was basically struck (payload fairing far to heavy!). What am I doing wrong? Do I need to use a stage separate inside the cargo bay (between the back of rover and the base) to force a clean separation? I tried using one of those small blue separators but this didn't get rid of the base plate or supports! Also, if it matters I'm running V1.2 in Career mode. Thanks in advance for any advice, Jonathan Stevenson

The stock game does not have parts to fully enclose a rover and encapsulate a rover during descent. Most people will use the fairings, but the issue is the fairing base will be stuck under your rover and your landings to Mars will not be authentic. There is an outdated mod that did this, but the author has ceased to kerbal. I now will maintain this concept and bring even more parts to the game. In this release I have issued 3 parts to your VAB. This is phase 1 which means I will roll out more parts during which will follow a time-line of events. I think these 3 parts are a good starting compromise. Here is a breakdown of the 4 phases. HIghlighted in red is what phase we are currently on. PHASE 1 = Aeroshell, Cruise stage, Heatshield . All basic parts. Player will need to mount their own chutes and radial engines if need be. PHASE 2 (1970's) = Viking lander is a possibility. Vintige version of the aeroshell design. More texture choices. Radial monoprop engines for the cruise stage. (RO version will use REAL FUELS by NathanKell) PHASE 3 (Late 90's early 2000's) = MER rovers (Spirit, Opportunity) . EDL system such as the terahedron and airbags. PHASE 4 (Present) = Curiousity Rover. EDL system such as the skyscrane You get 3 parts in phase 1 of this pack. There are configs included for realscaled parts to use for RO. Aeroshell "backshell" Includes RSC attitude control thrusters and texture changing so you can use the JPL logo. Parachute not included! Heatshield....you know , to protect from atmosphere devils Cruise stage which includes texture changing for JPL logo, solar panels that will recharge your EC, and has built it fuel tank. You provide the engines of choice*. SPECIAL FEATURES! Aeroshell can thrust jet in flight as seen here: Mars Science Laboratory only requires: 1. Firespitter and Texture Changer - To change the logos 2. Tweakscale if you want more freedom of payload sizes CHANGELOG: 1.0.4 [12-27-2016] *Changed RCS module to the newer stock supported ModuleRSCfx -MeCripp *Collision boxes re-done -MeCripp Cruise stage is in a more appropriate menu category and now acts as a pod -MeCripp *Heathshield is moved to Thermal category -MeCripp *Small rebalancing of some parts 1.0.3 [12-18-16] -Inline-patched to clean up cloned configs and to recognize when player has RO installed -Stock now has attitude jets for backshell -Fixed decoupling when going through strong aero forces, however player must angle craft a bit before ejection to prevent "back splash" of heatshield and/or backshell. The real Curiosity mission had to do this same manuever. -Fixed stock cruise stage to now have resource monoprop. 1.0.2 [12-16-2016] -Fixed issue where VAB crashes when placing cruise stage which was the fault of the RO configs overridding the stock ones when player did not have RF or RO installed. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License I WANT I WANT !!! SPACEDOCK LINK http://spacedock.info/mod/1119/Mars Science Labratory *This is my first parts mod, there might be bugs. If you report a bug please be patient as it takes a few days for me to have time to tackle the issue.* Credits: MeCripp - Collision work, Fixed Unity pass, Module Improvements JPL - reasons NASA - reasons Yogui87 -Textures from old mod

This racing series, the KSCRC, is held over 10 races (2 of them are non-points races), and 5 cars are involved. The races are based solely on time. The races are held over a certain number of laps. The time is on the TOTAL time to complete the number of laps (not the fastest lap). The race cars must have 4 wheels, and no cheats are allowed. A maximum of 12 RCS ports are allowed, but they must be the one-way ports that are powered by monopropellant (None of the OX and LF mix). DRS is allowed, and some cars like the AS-1A can have Double DRS (where the front and the rear wing slide down.), to increase speed. This can only be used on the Super-cup and All-star cars. Any setup is allowed (in fact encouraged), but Please share your design tweaks with me to let me know what is up (I'm going up against my friends and I could use the help). Make sure to follow the racing line! Any corner cutting or track extension could make you time disqualified! Make sure to state which type of car it is! That way you can get onto the leaderboard. Here's the cars: Endurance: These cars are meant for ANY type of race (Day, night, whatever), and are used for the first and last race of the season. However, they are MASSIVE and slower than a hippo. Rally: These cars, which look more like a dune buggy than a race car, have a wide wheelbase and great cornering, allowing them to take jumps and corners well. Sports car: These cars are somewhat large, but are good for most everything. The rear is prone to roll, though, and so make sure to be careful on the turns. Supercup: OHMYGODTHISISSOFAST!!!!!!!!! Basically imagine the child of an Indycar, F1, and a hummingbird. And last, but MOST CERTAINLY not least, All-Star: Oh my goodness this beauty... I made this with 2 ideas in mind: Unbelievable speed, and god-like cornering grip. With a maximum (tested) speed of 52 m/s (I was just halfway down the straight with RCS Blazing as well,) this thing has incredible speed and more. Note: YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN CARS!!! Just make sure to include what class it is, and setup info. I'll have pics up soon. Pre-season Testing (AS-1A)/ 1 Lap, Day: Race 1 (Endurance) 2 Laps, Night or Day: Race 2 (Rally) 2 Laps, Day: Race 3 (Sports car) 2 Laps, Day: Race 4 (Supercup) 5 Laps, Day: Race 5 (Supercup) 4 Laps, Day: Race 6 (Sports car) 2 Laps, Day: Race 7 (Rally) 2 Laps, Day: Race 8 (Endurance) 2 Laps, Night or Day: All-Star Race (AS-1A) 1 Lap, Day: LEADERBOARD AS-1A 1. DarkOwl57 using the KSCRC AS-1A (Time: 10:21.68) 2. 3. 4. 5. Endurance 1. DarkOwl57 using the KSCRC Endurance Car (Time: 13:11.91)* 2. 3. 4. 5. Rally 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Sports car 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Supercup 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. *-Flat tire on Lap 2 Good luck!

So this here is set up to show off race cars made by you guys! Here's what you're going to have to do. 1) Show the car off. (Show pictures of the side (Either side is fine), and the top. You can choose to add a third pic, but no more than 4.) 2) Tell it's features (i.e. RCS, Fins, etc.) And the part count. 3) (Optional) Take it around the test track provided here. (You can make your own track (Just make sure to include a pic or the map) 4) If possible, could you please let me know the setup on the car? This includes wing angles, spring/damper settings, friction control, etc. 5) Have fun! Here's the first car; the AS-1A, a fast, sleek open wheeled car with a tested top speed of 52 m/s with some speed ability still left. (I had to slow down for turn 1. I'll try to get a video of it doing a test lap up asap.

The new wheels are giving me some trouble fixing the rover on a slope. The slope is not all that big (5-10 degree at most) but my heavy rover slides down even on brakes. Even when the wheels are perpendicular to the direction of slope... even when landing legs are lowered. The slide always happens as if the rover is standing on ice. (this all happens on Eve). I tried playing with wheels set up, but no amount of tweaking the traction or friction, etc could not prevent the slide. Is it by design? Basically all I want is to make sure that when I enable the brakes the rover would remain still. Is it impossible on the slope now?

I tested each part of my rover and they all worked fine until I had them all connected, It consists of 5 parts 1 inner module with 2 identical rovers at each end and a pair of running boards or connectors holding them together. The main issue being that the whole thing flopped and bounced about until all the wheels were busted bar the inner mining module which was fine and didn't bounce about at all. The whole vehicle was launched as one vessel but it just went crazy flopping like a fish until all the tires were popped. This is my rover for the sake of so you can see what I mean and how it's built in case that helps any. any help or advice would be helpful. The wheels are from Buffalo and the inner module is EPL. The wheels are mounted to IR parts but I haven't had trouble with the wheels being mounted on them until I launched the vessel with module and the Rear cab attached. Any advice would be appreciated. Edit : The instant I docked the cab to the smelters All the tires popped at once. And the two cabs connected by the two running boards could drive just fine but then would suddenly have the tires all take their turn to pop within 2 seconds. I was watching the wheel stress and it showed no sign of high stress though the bounced like they wre running over something despite being stationary. I will note the two smelters are using the same wheels and they haven't popped.

MPSR-v1.05 still in development, need a robotic arm to finished . Featuers 1-science all stock science equipments on board including science storage unit chemcam . 2-Power 2x4k battaries = total charge 8600 aprox 4 thermal generators 5 fuel cells (1 large, 4 small) 5 solar panels (4 small, 1 large) . 3-Fuel builtin mining and refining facility 6 oscar-B fuel tanks = 132 oxidizer , 108 LF 8 small xeon gas tanks = 3200 xeon gas 2 monopopelent tanks = 150 mp 2 small holding tanks for storing ore . 4-Engines 2 ion thrust engines 5 rcs 2.0 thrusters . 5-scanners 1 narrow band scanner 1 surface scanner . 6-communication 1 mid size RA-2 Relay dish . 7-Speed max speed 30m/s avg speed 22m/s . 8-weight 15.5t aprox . 9-parts 125 part count . 10-cams navigation & night vision cams for night operations . 11-operations can be operated remotely and by maned . 12-others connecting port storage container advance reaction wheels 2 winches with hooks, (on front and back each) crew hatch external crew seat . 13-drawback slow acceleration due to heavy weight but it can be overcome by using rcs thrusters . 14-future updates mechjeb (as soon as mod will available for 1.2.1) robotic arm (as soon as mod will available for 1.2.1) docking port grabbing unit advance remote guiding unit

How difficult would it be to add particles to rover wheels that could simulate the dust being kicked up on a sandy/dusty celestial body? Could it be applied by biome like CollisionFX does it?

(I'm using 1.1.3 as I'm finishing off a campaign and I'm waiting for 1.2.1 because my KSP is reasonably stable right now and I don't trust dot releases) I know this topic keeps coming up time and time again, it's even referenced in http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Rover#Navigation but I have yet to find a satisfactory answer. When I build a simple 4 wheel rover with the RoveMate (e.g. just some wheels and a battery), the navball points straight up. In fact it even drives the wrong direction, I'm forced to either invert the steering or the drive direction. This is inconvenient when designing the rover, but it makes data collection missions almost impossible, because you can't see the navigation waypoint. The standard solution is to add another probe, like in the wiki, and this does indeed fix the navball and now I can see the waypoint. However, when I do that (exactly the same as the example in the wiki), the steering no longer does anything (either keyboard or joystick). I can see the joystick/keys moving the yaw to its extreme values, but the wheels don't move (moving forward/back works). Is RoveMate really as good as it gets? Are there any better best practices other than just living with the RoveMate's terrible navigation? I've put an unmodded craft in https://gist.github.com/fommil/012d4476512571314698ac2edae2092b (but a few mods I've installed add in some inactive modules) I'm using the ArchLinux distribution of GNU/Linux.

A while back I made a small 'mars yard' type static for Kerbtown. I never really updated it and to be honest kind of hoped somebody else would just run with the idea, but that didn't ever happen. Several versions later, I've decided to just go and do it myself. I have a few ideas of what to do, but suggestions and requests will help really complete things, I think. @SpannerMonkey(smce) was kind enough to convert the old model to work in 1.1 for me: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21315217/roveryard.zip Now, it doesn't exactly look very good; being a model I threw together as quickly as I could at the time. The new version of Unity was not exactly kind to the normal maps but it's pretty much serviceable if you don't mind looking at it. What I'd like to do is rework the whole thing with actual planning first, I'd like some input from the forums first. I'd like to make the whole thing a hex shape to fit with the rest of the KSC facilities, does anybody know about how big the hexes for the research facility and other things are? Depending on how big it ends up, there could be a whole lot of free space to put stuff in. I've got a very basic idea mapped out here: Does anybody know how to use the existing KSP textures? If those could be used for everything it would decrease the memory footprint by a whole lot.

Skyhooks are fine, but sometime I'd really like to do something more along the lines of a Lunokhod or Pathfinder/Sojourner, with deployable ramp(s)... occasionally I see ramps or ramplike mechanisms in this or that mod, but I'm really not clear on what would be best/most practical for a small rover (i.e., Mk3 cargo ramp is too big). I see people (esp @Majorjim! ) experimenting with hinges, but I'm not clear on how that could be used for a ramp... would some kind soul please give me a pointer in the right direction? Thanks!

The Glorious Astarian United Army Space Administration, is proud to present our first modular rover system. Known only as The Multi Purpose Exploration Manned Science Excursion Vehicle, or MPEMSEV, Mei, or whatever else you'd like to call it. Album: http://imgur.com/gallery/V85fM Finished: Modeling the cockpit Placeholder textures To do: Everything Textures. Theses ones are crap Collision boxes. Cant pick it up in the editor yet. The rest of the rover

Here are some bugs for the Xbox One KSP: -Planes on runway are a few degrees to the left -Flaps on planes are "wonky" -Half the wheels on rovers go the wrong way -Objects in Spaceplane Hangar do not snap onto the middle automaticly Thats it! Don't expect these bugs being fixed, or if they even are bugs, but I hope you do your best. Thanks!

So, basically, I'm considering a Mun Buggy (pun attempted); and I'm thinking what the better choice of power source is. RTGs are excluded at the start, and I have great doubts about solar; if I can have enough gas to outlast my own patience, then why bother with infinite power?

Alright, I want to do that one challenge going round Kerbin, call me a lazy bum but I don't want to spend 30 hours, (Kerbin's C/speed) So I was wondering what your personal top speed (while not crashing) using rover wheels Epic Bonus Super Q: What is the top speed underwater. Please answer, I would REALLY like to make a Hypersonic Submerged Rover H.S.R.

I am trying to migrate my saved game from 1.0.4 to 1.1.2, I skipped 1.0.5 due to computer speed problems. 1.1.2 seemed to solve that so I was ready to migrate. But, some of my rovers are motionless. at least one, a mobile mining base I sent to Eve, just slides along the ground slope, slowly, wheels do not react to user input, but rocket engines do, still, they have no effect, engine motors do not work. It is like it is stuck. Even going to the VAB and creating a new one, doesn't works, just gets stuck on the launch pad, the same way. wheels seem to be a bit stuck into the ground. other rovers (other models) do not suffer from this (so far, as I checked 2 or 3 more, any clues?

Here's one of mine from WAAAAAAY back. Before .22 for sure, but my current design is not much different. Uses i-beams instead of the cubic octagonal struts, and those lander legs don't exist anymore, but you get the idea. A four legged spider with the rover suspended from the hub. This one delivered solely by chutes. For no atmosphere landings, I'm using 4x twitch engines. One at the end of each beam. I can post a pic later of the current one. I'm at work and dredged up my old imgur account to find these. Let's see how you guys put a rover on the surface. Here's what it looked like in the VAB less the two Mk 16's I added later after the first attempt slammed into the surface of Duna. This was before heat shields but I'd do the same thing now just replace the flat adapter with a shield.

Hello Everyone! First time poster, long time lurker! Did something change recently with the newer releases of KSP? For some reason my rover wheels and their steering is totally borked right now. My wheels only ever point inwards or outwards now when they were working perfectly fine before. If I invert the steering on the front axle, It just swaps the direction the wheels point on both sides. They used to both point the same direction prior to one of the updates. In both of these screenshots below, I'm trying to steer to the right hand side of the screen. Sorry for them being super wide, I play on a 21:9 monitor . Inward: Outward: I'm only holding right but the wheels point in opposite directions when they used to point the same before. Is there anything I can do to salvage this rover? I have a really nice mining / fuel outpost setup on the surface of Minmus and since I'm playing career, I'd rather not spend the resources sending another one. Please forgive me if this has been addressed before. But my search results on the forum wasn't returning any useful results. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. LeChuck

Hi all I decided to start a master thread for my rovers instead of making a new post for all of them. In KSP I love to build rovers but I dont know what else to do with them :/ so I am releasing them. The Weasel(small pressurized rover) The weasel is my first refined design of a small pressurized rover. I tried to cut down on part count so I used the mk1 structural fuselage for the hull. A great rover for any mission seats 6 kerbals plus science experiments. Download: https://kerbalx.com/Duk/weasel The Mouse The Mouse is my attempt to make is smaller but also make it functional it seats 3 Kerbals and has a side docking port to dock with other rovers like the NASA spr. I recommend bringing two of these because of their size. DISCLAIMER: it is prone to flipping so be careful! Download: https://kerbalx.com/Duk/Mouse-rover The Aquarius refinery rover The Aquarius fills a missing gap in my rovers for a mobile ISRU to move between base or just a handy rover this was my first small rover and I think it is very neat.the ISRU is a trailer that can be separated and re-attached. It is a 4-seat rover that is bigger than my others so It might take a bigger Launcher. Download: https://kerbalx.com/Duk/Aquarius-isru-rover The Little Buffalo Since my other 3 rovers look the same I decided to make the seats of the rover visible I think it looks quite nice. It is a 1 seat science rover. It has a rollcage on the back to protect the science equipment. Warning do not time warp with it, it is a bug with the game not with my design. Download: https://kerbalx.com/Duk/little-buffalo The Bobcat The bobcat is my continuation of using antennas as cockpits I think it turned out quite nicely it can hold 5 kerbals and is supposed to be a larger exploration rover than my others following my same style from the buffalo. Enjoy Download= https://kerbalx.com/Duk/bobcat NASA Small Pressurized Rover I tried to make the NASA small pressurized rover as small as possible without losing the basic shape of the SPR. I think it turned out alright. It seats 2-4 Kerbals and science experiments in the middle compartment Download:https://kerbalx.com/Duk/Nasa-SPR The Gopher The gopher is the smallest cutest rover I have ever made. Only 25 parts. I recommend this for those with the tiniest budget or lander ever. And it makes for a great disposable rover. It seats 1 kerbal Download:https://kerbalx.com/Duk/The-Gopher Also feel free to leave some requests or ideas!

I tried to build a little rover to drive around,but I could not even make it budge an inch. I tried pressing the 'S' and 'W' keys but only the wheels rotated and the craft did not move. In the settings the key to make the rover move was 'W' and 'S'. Is it a bug in KSP or what? I was on the runway. I used those fast car-like wheels. How do you make and drive a working rover?