Need Mun Truck rocket design ideas

[SpaceSniper]

UPDATE

Just finished my Mun truck rocket + skycrane. I have managed to successfully create and land my Mun truck on the Mun, thanks all for the inspiration. On my first test run I got into orbit with no issues, so I started recording and it turned out better than expected, no crashes, no reloads, and a nice 360 skycrane dismount after touch down lol. Enjoy the video.

I need to get this Mun truck I designed to the Mun. Anyone have any suggestions, I'm doing it mostly with stock parts, apart from KIS, UKS,MKS and KW rocketry.

It's weight is 18 tonnes, and I want to be able to deploy it onto it's wheels without thrusters on the vehicle, is it possible? I need some ideas.

Edited June 17, 2015 by SpaceSniper
Completed, video added, enjoy! and thanks all.

[Rfmeijboom]

You can build a sky crane to land it.

Or if you can fit it in a MK3 cargo bay you could land a ship with the cargo bay pointing down and drop from there.

[Randazzo]

I only see one evident attachment point, that being the nose of the pod. You could try something like this:

It's supposed to tip over when you raise that leg, this one required some encouragement. You should probably bring an engineer along since I don't see anywhere to mount legs on the other end to absorb the shock of falling over, but if it's the Mun it probably won't be too bad anyway.

[G'th]

Skycrane and big rocket. OR, Skycrane and several launches.

In order to deploy that to the Mun without giving it thrusters of its own (and without relying on having it tip over from vertical or a very complicated lander) you'll need to rig it to a detachable skycrane. For something that size it'll likely have to be very very large and powerful. The crane will need to be able to support the weight of the rover and have the dV to land it onto the surface.

To make it simpler, I would redesign it slightly so you can get an attachment point over the rover's center of mass without disrupting the vehicles use. That way, building the crane for the rover becomes less complicated.

There are other options, but they're either absurdly complicated or involve the use of F9 many, many times.

[One-Way Films]

you could land it the scary but fast way. Attach a booster onto the back of the rover for the final decent (make sure it intersects the COM). Put plane landing gear on the bottom of the Chassis and.... well.... land on the Mun. Put on the brakes and hope for the best. I've done this numerous times. Some of them cost funds and lives though.

[SpaceSniper]

Ok cool, some interesting ideas all. I did a few adjustments and removed the kerbal command pod and just have the remote guidance command with a dock on the front, and I placed a girder coming out the back so if it lands on the rear it falls forward onto the wheels.

You can build a sky crane to land it.

Or if you can fit it in a MK3 cargo bay you could land a ship with the cargo bay pointing down and drop from there.

Yeah I tried the MK3 cargo bay but the wheels are sticking out and it wont attach. I'm thinking I may build this rover as a rocket, with side thrusters to push over onto the wheels like the picture above. Another option is to do a really big rocket around it and having it suspended in the middle to drop down once landed.

Will post pics once I get something built. Will try the rover as a rocket option first.

[rofltehcat]

Attach the capsule's nose with a decoupler to a rocket, add some struts. Then land the rocket and tip it over in the right direction, decouple, done. The navigation indicators will probably be the wrong way around if you don't add a probe facing in the rocket's direction.

[SpaceSniper]

Thanks again all, just updated, check out my video, link at start of thread, and here, saving you having to go back up. https://youtu.be/SXTWEl5U47M

Just finished my Mun truck rocket + skycrane. I have managed to successfully create and land my Mun truck on the Mun, thanks all for the inspiration. On my first test run I got into orbit with no issues, so I started recording and it turned out better than expected, no crashes, no reloads, and a nice 360 skycrane dismount after touch down lol. Enjoy the video.

[Sharpy]

I don't know what solutions you use to get into LKO, but for landing:

Would a disposable engine (say, a Poodle) be bad? Attach it by a decoupler to the truck's tank. Burn retrograde (a "suicide burn" with some safety margin). Land on the engine. Use the reaction wheel to tip the right way. (if you don't have a reaction wheel on your truck, get one. Seriously, a world of difference driving vehicles in low gravity).

Although I may be a bit biased/demoralized, haven't been to Mun in ages, OTOH Minmus is my oyster, riding speeders across the flats, trucking fuel around, sciencin' with a jumping laboratory.

Edit: Don't attach it by a decoupler. Leave it there permanently. You won't regret it. A bit of uphill terrain and you can change the truck into orbiter.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Sharpy

[SpaceSniper]

I don't know what solutions you use to get into LKO, but for landing:

Would a disposable engine (say, a Poodle) be bad? Attach it by a decoupler to the truck's tank. Burn retrograde (a "suicide burn" with some safety margin). Land on the engine. Use the reaction wheel to tip the right way. (if you don't have a reaction wheel on your truck, get one. Seriously, a world of difference driving vehicles in low gravity).

Although I may be a bit biased/demoralized, haven't been to Mun in ages, OTOH Minmus is my oyster, riding speeders across the flats, trucking fuel around, sciencin' with a jumping laboratory.

Edit: Don't attach it by a decoupler. Leave it there permanently. You won't regret it. A bit of uphill terrain and you can change the truck into orbiter.

Actually I might give that a try as well. I will do a re-design and test it out. Ill experiment, thanks for the ideas.