Mun Mission, Getting All The Science? (Rovers, Mining)

[wisnoskij]

Hello Fellow Kerbalnauts!

I just returned from my first successful Minmus landing Mission. My first lander, while it did encounter a few hickups, but far surpassed my expectations. I visited every single biome with suborbital hops. And just managed to get back in orbit with the excess use of monopropellant.

I now have rover parts, as well and mining.

And The Mun, based on some testing, seems like it will be far far more fuel intensive to land on. I was wondering how usable are rovers? I cannot imagine getting a decent land speed, is it unpractical to imagine driving around to all the biomes?

Alternatively, what about setting up a small ore mining facility, to fuel exportation of The Mun?

Edited June 7, 2015 by wisnoskij

[Captain Sierra]

I'll just leave this here.

Still here?

There's nothing else coming.

Okay fine there's a bunch more coming. The Mun is in a odd but convenient butter zone where its low gravity enough to support semi-efficient mining operations, while high gravity enough to support rovers with reasonable effectiveness. The heavy tanker above can get going well over 20m/s if I let it. The thing does 80kph on kerbin. The problem with that rover is a narrow wheel base. I'm evaluating different solutions to the problem, however simply widening the wheel base is NOT a fix-all because I have to launch it as a vertical stack.

My advice to you for rovers is to make sure its stable. Including RCS systems for emergency braking is also not a bad idea. If you find yourself on a slight downgrade, your brakes will probably not bite at all and slowing down becomes an issue. You'll need to make sure it can turn without rolling over in the low grav as well as make sure you can stop (that latter one can become difficult) but ultimately KSP is pretty doable with rovers because a) you can go WAY faster than IRL and planets are much smaller.

Also, quicksave early, quicksave often. You will blow your rover up at the most random times so make sure to do that.

[Snark]

Visiting all the biomes on the Mun with a rover = doable but very tedious.

Mun does take a lot more dV than Minmus. One strategy is to have a big orbiting fuel tank with a little lander. Another is to have a mining base on a good ore spot, to serve as a refueling depot for a suborbital hopper.

[wisnoskij]

And idea for which is optimal Snark? Would a small mining operation be harder to get into orbit than enough fuel to fuel 15 landings and taking-offs?

[Zephram Kerman]

IMO, pick a spot within easy reach of some biomes. Drive a rover to three, four, five of them. By the time you do that many, you'll have a lot more tech and need to repeat the process someplace farther from home.

By the way, Mun is the ideal gas station site. Minmus may be higher and easier to land/launch, but the very slow orbital period means it rarely coincides with interplanetary launch windows. Mun, on the other hand, orbits much more quickly, so you can more easily launch from there into a transfer window.

[wisnoskij]

But then, I think it actually takes less fuel to go from the surface of Minus to Mun orbit than from the surface of the Mun to a Mun orbit?

[Snark]

But then, I think it actually takes less fuel to go from the surface of Minus to Mun orbit than from the surface of the Mun to a Mun orbit?

Yes, but the real issue is, which scarce resource are you trying to conserve? There are a lot of candidates:

1. Fuel / dV / funds

2. Calendar time

3. Your time

Minmus wins over the Mun, hands down, on #1. If you want to conserve fuel and get the most bang for your buck, base your mining operation on Minmus.

However, the Mun wins on #2 and #3. So if you want to spend less of your time fiddling around, and/or have easier opportunities for interplanetary launch windows, the Mun may be a better choice.

- - - Updated - - -

And idea for which is optimal Snark? Would a small mining operation be harder to get into orbit than enough fuel to fuel 15 landings and taking-offs?

A mining operation might be cheaper in funds, but would be more labor-intensive on your part. For example, if you just want to squeeze the Mun dry in as little play time as possible, just put an orbiting base with 32 tons of fuel in orbit around it, along with a small/light lander that just carries around 2 tons of fuel. Quick to design, can send them together from Kerbin in a single launch. Then the lander just hops down to each biome. Can sometimes even get two biomes in one sortie, if you're careful to choose landing sites near biome boundaries. Descend, science; short hop to adjacent biome, science; ascend, dock, refuel, repeat.

[Laie]

IMO, pick a spot within easy reach of some biomes. Drive a rover to three, four, five of them.

^THIS^

Exploring all of the Mun on wheels takes hours. It is only advisable if you really (really!) enjoy driving. However, wheels can compensate for a less-than-pinpoint landing (Duna's Craters are notoriously hard to hit, for example), and there's a few places on the Mun where a five-minute drive will cover three or more biomes. Bringing wheels along is definitely worthwhile, using them exclusively is not.

Yes, but the real issue is, which scarce resource are you trying to conserve? There are a lot of candidates:

1. Fuel / dV / funds

2. Calendar time

3. Your time

Well put, and quoted for truth.