[WIP] Phoenix Industries Manned Rover Cockpit

[-ctn-]

Hey everyone! With the success (and great feedback) of my Phoenix Industries CRS mod, I've been brainstorming on what to do next.

Last night, I watched a low-budget(ish) thriller flick called "The Last Days on Mars" and thought the rover designs were really cool. So I'm going to try to make a 2-person manned rover cockpit with KIS storage space.

The design I like most is in this picture (I think someone painted it based on Andy Weir's "The Martian.")

Anyway, this is what I have so far. I'm not much of an experienced modeler, but I think it's a fair start. I also have no idea how to do the IVA for it, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

[CobaltWolf]

Based on your image, the side windows should be bigger I think. Also, the 'frame' around the windows looks a bit thick, both in width and in how deep in the windows are. Are you going to include the greebles on top of the cab, or let those be off the shelf stock lights?

[-ctn-]

I may make the frame a bit thinner. I thought about incorporating the lights but haven't decided yet...

[Daveroski]

Frame thickness is fine. Pressurised right? Looked out of a plane window?

Keep it simple. Don't make lights. Some people will be unhappy about where you put them. Want lights? make 'em individual and placeable. Then people can use them for other stuff too.

Concentrate on the cockpit. Making the texture for windows look good is harder than the rest of the cockpit. If they look naff your cockpit looks naff.

Bigger front window, smaller side/rear windows. No one really looks at the front of the rover while driving.

my two penn'orth.

[-ctn-]

Yes, pressurized. I was planning on keeping it "kerbalized" and not an exact replica. The window textures, I was planning on doing them like the rest of the windows in the game - that sort of blue tint. Good point about the lights

[hieywiey]

Could you add an integrated power source (RTG or fuel cell)? As adding the power source to my rovers always makes them less pretty. And, could this be stored inside the Phoenix for landing on Duna? If so, it would be really cool. Like the silly idea of Elon Musk shoving a Tesla into a Dragon and landing it on Mars, yelling, "Suck this Curiosity!"

[Daveroski]

Yes, pressurized. I was planning on keeping it "kerbalized" and not an exact replica. The window textures, I was planning on doing them like the rest of the windows in the game - that sort of blue tint. Good point about the lights

Aww shucks now I feel all warm and fuzzy.

Many modders start with a simple but really useful mod but make too many small changes to it and it becomes a monster.

Some really good mods have extra functionallity added to them, that they really don't need and often this requires installing another mod to access that functionality.

Why hasn't anyone made a simple interstage cage for the parachute that goes on top of a capsule? It wouldn't look flashy. people wouldn't be saying Ooooh! that cage looks aaaawsome!

But they would download it and use it and people would be asking, why isn't this in vanilla?

Oh my.. listen to me ramble..

[-ctn-]

Haha, I don't know about it fitting inside the Phoenix CRS system but I do plan to make the KIS storage space big enough to hold the wheels... So you can convert it from a lander to a rover on site.

- - - Updated - - -

Aww shucks now I feel all warm and fuzzy.

Why hasn't anyone made a simple interstage cage for the parachute that goes on top of a capsule?

The Tantares mod (I think... The stock alike soyuz) has a stack parachute module that decouples above it and deploys a parachute. Really useful part.

[Daveroski]

[

The Tantares mod (I think... The stock alike soyuz) has a stack parachute module that decouples above it and deploys a parachute. Really useful part.

Yeah.. I've seen it and played with it. It looks great on the capsule it was intended for.

It doesn't look like it quite belongs on stock stuff though.

We have parachutes in vanilla. A cage that lets you attach anything the same diameter as the parachute above the parachute would be good.

It wouldn't need a decoupler it would just have to not look poo when the parachute deployed through it after you have detached whatever you had above it.

[-ctn-]

So, I decided I didn't like the start I did. So I re-started from scratch!

I like this version much better. I think it will be two pieces, the cockpit and then the rest of the body. The body will have a bunch of battery and KIS storage inside it. I don't think I'm going to include a generator inside, though.

Some resizing work to make sure everything is to scale, also simplified the rover body model.

I'm having a bit of trouble trying to figure out where to put the hatch, though. If I make them all one part, then the hatch can be at the rear like in "The Last Days on Mars." But I wanted to keep it in two pieces, which means I don't know where to put the hatch on the cockpit part...

Edited June 3, 2015 by -ctn-

[Vahal]

Why not make a main hull and create a cockpit part and a hatch part. That would solve your hatch headache and make a quite modular rover with possibility to extend the body parts like a processing lab with many bays to place science instruments inside, an integrated mining system, a cargo container, an ISRU, some ressource container (LFO, ore or whatever ).

The hull just need to have both ends similar so we'll be able to place cokpit or hatch or another trunk section.