Mimus Moneymaker: Ion Rover and Service Module

[Mister Dilsby]

I've been having a lot of success with this concept, farming Minmus for millions and millions of funds with each mission. I accept all the surface and low-orbit science contracts I can (gravity and temperature scans, surface sampling, etc) and then do them all in one go with this very simple rover. It has enough deltaV on board to make several suborbital hops on its ion engine, can drive a good distance on the surface, and when it's low on xenon it returns to orbit to replenish from the service module.

Here's the rover separating from the service module. There are four xenon tanks attached radially, but one could certainly bring lots more.

Minmus gravity is low enough that a small inline reaction wheel is enough to save the vehicle from almost any flip, or cause one if you're not careful. I disable the reaction wheel when in 'rover' mode to avoid SAS interfering with the driving controls. In flight mode, I control from the small probe core under the seats which is in line with the engine.

The craft is completely stock, and includes a full non-atmospheric science suite. Thanks for looking!

Edited February 22, 2015 by Kuzzter

[TimePeriod]

I made some rockets specific for Minmus, like outposts and satellites.

[Mister Dilsby]

One of the things I love best about this game is that ships have to be optimized for the mission and environment. In this case, I developed the flying rover after wasting too much fuel trying to hit EXACTLY the right spot on the surface to fulfill a contract. Now I just have to land within a few hundred meters, and go for a drive. This does NOT work in Mun gravity, so I have a different rover concept entirely for farming the larger moon...

[spaceman1999]

Is it TWO Ion engines for the mun?

[Mister Dilsby]

Hm, I suppose some extra engines could have worked, but this is what I ended up doing:

...the Mun rover is light enough that the magnetic docking clamp pulls it right off the ground as soon as you drive under the port.

And away we go!

Without ions it can only manage two landings before needing to get back in orbit and refuel. I use this one mainly to deliver and retrieve crews from various Munbases.