How do you mount your rovers on landers?

[Columbia]

Hello, forums!

We all know about one of the most crucial forms of interplanetary travel - Rovers!

It's not much of a problem to construct, but one of it's biggest problems - other than not getting it to float and tumble on places like Minmus - is getting it on the lander without it bending itself apart on launch.

People have come up with creative ways to mount them on those rocket machines, so what's your method?

Being the person who is ultimately obsessed with keeping structures firm, I often place them on top of the lander, and when it's time to get it running, I get kerbals to board it from there, then I decouple it from there, sliding down onto the surface.

What about you guys?

[Xavven]

I haven't tried attaching it to a lander yet. I usually have the rover land on its own using a couple of side engines that decouple. A separate ascent vehicle lands on its own close by.

[Epthelyn]

Depends on the rover.

With smaller vehicles I tend to just ignore the asymmetry and compensate with extra reaction wheels if necessary; it usually isn't because by "smaller" I might "tiny, and light".

I usually send larger rovers in sets of 2+ to maintain some symmetry; that is, radially attaching them to the side of a larger lander, landing that craft and then detaching the rovers and letting them slide off somehow. That often involves a curved ramp leading from the position the rover will drop onto down the the ground to ensure that it remains the right way up instead of landing on its back end and falling over the wrong way.

Adds a bit of weight, but means I'll always have a spare rover*

*provided I don't need 2+ rovers to begin with

[MasterSounis]

I haven't really done rovers, but I had an Ike probe hitching a ride on my Duna lander on the side, and so I used I-beams as counterweight. Lower delta V, but effective.

[cicatrix]

Skycranes from non-atmospheric planets (usually in this case the rover is mounted upside-down on the launch pad) / symmetric rovers (2-3) if they are small or I just drop them with parachutes from the orbit on Laythe/Eve/Duna and occasionally Kerbin.

When I switched to FAR I found out that using Procedural fairings is more or less obligatory if you want to launch a rover, and once you have them - it doesn't really matter how exactly you attach them to the lifter.

[Random Tank]

If it's a small(ish) rover, I mount it underneath with enough clearance on the landing gear so it can land, they decouple/undock it. Larger Rovers I'll just use EPL to build on other planets, as using Egg fairings to get wise stuff into orbit (FAR) isn't my thing.

If it's just a probe rover, a Skycrane will do

[Zephram Kerman]

I tend to make most of my landers double as rovers. They simply land on wheels instead of legs. That means I can keep a moderate amount of lateral velocity at touchdown. Also, it helps immensely with precision maneuvering for base construction. Whatever engine it used for orbital maneuvering is usually plenty to assist with touchdown.

[Mr. Scruffy]

Hmm... if my landers serve as rovers, they still land on legs (that then get retracted so that the things gets on its wheels). Yesterday, i broke a wheel during landing despite this.

[anarkhon]

[Mister Kerman]

Radial engines with the bottom attach node free for a docked lander is the most elegant solution, unless you can balance an effective rack-style side-deployment.

Last night I sent an outpost to the Mun with a fairly unbalanced rover. I aligned the rover's CoM with the middle of a basket and hung the basket from the bottom of my outpost to be dropped off gently before touching down.

Here's the outpost getting ready to drop off the lander.

Here's Jeb about to retrieve it.

Then I just drove it out.

To be honest I think this is a silly way to do it, but I don't get a lot of time to play and was at my wits end trying to think of more elegant design solutions.

[Randazzo]

For smaller stuff I usually just stick it on the bottom as some of the other posters.

One of my favorite methods is a self-delivering rover. Give it a ride to the destination on a stack, then let it land itself.

Doing this requires a reaction wheel and a probe core facing upright to facilitate the landing (unless you're good at translating the necessary motion on the navball from an 'incorrect' heading). The fuel is hidden in two small clipped fuel tanks, but it's entirely possible to have it attached to the topside.

[Majorjim!]

I feel you have a design in mind that you are struggling with. Care to share?

[delder92663]

I'm a bit of a minimalist.

Large rover goes up side down with a super small stage at the top of my rocket (under my rover) with the engine pointed up.

When I get to Mun I decouple and basically have a rover with the smallest possible stageunder it to make it to the ground.

Since the stage is short I just undock the rover as the stage falls over.

Cheaper than sky cranes. Manned rovers will have a separate RTV.

[Alshain]

Self delivering rovers are nice because they can drive around and if you get into trouble, just fire the engines. They can rove around on electricity or go slightly longer distances on fuel, which can be refilled later. I prefer to design mine with monoprop engines for the mun, but either way works.

[Gerandar]

put them on the bottom of the lander or you can put 2 on either side of the lander or just one on one side and an offset weight on the other.

[Alshain]

One thing I've done is put them on top of the lander and then inverted them in orbit. It's not all that practical but it's fun and it lets you see out of the pod from IVA even with a fairing on top of the rover. It's kind of an inverse Apollo/LM maneuver. You just have to be careful of your rover size and engine placement.

[CG_Kerbin]

Well I strap my kerbals in as tight as possible and hope they don't die/fall out the usual

[Xaver]

Most of the time i have it on the top of a lander and hover it to the surface with rcs because most of my Rovers have rcs propulsion.

[Stubby]

I usually deploy rovers like this:

The drop ship sits on the rocket sideways. The small fuel tanks are there to balance out the weight of the small engines. After the main stages are jettisoned, I roll the whole thing over, and proceed to land it. It's very slow to turn, but it rolls really quickly. This picture is an early design that was a test flight. Now, I have these on Eve, Duna, and Dres. I'm also planning to design an MK3 version.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Stubby
Added some more info.

[Roskerbos]

For crew rovers, I use angled girder sections with stack decouplers on them. In this video I use a pair of TR-2Vs on a pair of utility rover/mobile-toolbox vehicles for use in assembling a pipeline of KAS parts at a Mun mining station (I imagine this will be "ore" in 1.0, but for now, its a polar Karbonite mine):

(Note, how I am careful to apply the handbrake before staging the deployment of the rovers! Always an important point on inclined surfaces like this landing site!)

Edited March 30, 2015 by Roskerbos

[AbacusWizard]

These days, my rover usually IS a lander.

[Vashts]

in the cargo bay

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[Aragosnat]

Well. I'll be trying something like this:

I have a much easier time doing tail landings that what another has done. But, used to deploy them in pairs/quads on sides of landers. But, with the above pic of mine. I'll be try and use it to return the rovers. Maybe. Just this one is a test to see if it can land safely first.

[Sidereus]

Perhaps a little inefficient, but I usually go with mounting inside cargo bays.

[Alshain]

I usually deploy rovers like this:

http://i.imgur.com/TUQmz1J.png

The drop ship sits on the rocket sideways. The small fuel tanks are there to balance out the weight of the small engines. After the main stages are jettisoned, I roll the whole thing over, and proceed to land it. It's very slow to turn, but it rolls really quickly. This picture is an early design that was a test flight. Now, I have these on Eve, Duna, and Dres. I'm also planning to design an MK3 version.

Ooh, I like that idea. Add some RCS jets and a mini docking port and you could even pick the rover back up.