What is wrong with my lander?

[CaptainApollo]

Hello everyone! I sent a rather big and heavy lander to Minmus with three Kerbals, and on the bottom it has a Service Bay (2.5m) with a small rover in it. However, whenever I open the bay to get the rover out, the whole ship breaks apart. This is because the Service Bay doors lightly touch some fuel tanks on the side, but this is still a bit strange, as it should not be this breakable! How can I fix this, I really need to get my lander out! Thanks!

[guitarxe]

If you post pictures of your ship, it would be easier to help you. I've done this before myself, the doors would swing open and clip through the fuel tanks, thus pushing them aside and breaking up the ship. Even though you say they clip only a little bit, why are you surprised that it causes the ship to break up?

After I did that mistake with the doors myself, I now always test all moving parts of my ship during pre-launch and fix any problems I find. Heck, I've even done a dry staging test on some very complicated designs. It pays off in the long term to test your designs before sending them out on a real mission and realizing you've got something off in your design.

[Mic_n]

You answered your own question - the service bay is clipping other parts on the ship. You really need to avoid clipping service bays and the parts inside and around them.. for some reason the game freaks right out when it happens and you can very easily get the result you describe.

[CaptainApollo]

I don't want to have to return to Kerbin though, oh well.. Here is my ship; you can see the Service Bay at the bottom.

[Arkalius]

Service bay doors are notorious for their ability to screw up ships. You need to give them lots of room to move.

[Lelitu]

I don't want to have to return to Kerbin though, oh well.. Here is my ship; you can see the Service Bay at the bottom.

http://s17.postimg.org/5vz0kiwfj/screenshot254.png

Yeah... that rover is not going to the Mun today.

Fortunately, the crew probably don't need rescuing, unless you open the service bay.

short of editing save files to place it on the surface directly, there is no way you're getting that out without breaking up the rocket.

in future designs, you need to put the tanks a bit higher, or the bay lower, so that it doesn't clip. then the rover can leave.

[CaptainApollo]

Yeah, I figured as much. Oh well, I got the Kerbals home, and I have a new design! It was flawless and I am now roving around on Minmus; thanks everyone!

[Kryxal]

For that first design, it's too bad you didn't have a Dave Kerman: "Open the bay doors."

[mrklaw]

Yeah, I figured as much. Oh well, I got the Kerbals home, and I have a new design! It was flawless and I am now roving around on Minmus; thanks everyone!

Pics? I'm often curious how to get a nice wide base for my landing legs (your original pic using radial tanks+engines is my usual approach) but then have a service bay low down. Service bays should have sliding doors..

also I never thought you could squeeze a rover into a 2.5m service bay. Got pics of that?

[tutike2000]

I don't want to have to return to Kerbin though, oh well.. Here is my ship; you can see the Service Bay at the bottom.

http://s17.postimg.org/5vz0kiwfj/screenshot254.png

Try editing your save to have the service bay open already. perhaps it only freaks out while moving.

[CaptainApollo]

It does only freak out while moving, and I already got it out.

And Mrklaw, pics? Sure, I got like 200. Seriously, I take too many pics while off Kerbin. Anyways, here are a few, a two-Kerbal rover on Minmus:

Here is the lander and three proud Kerbals, with the Rover still inside the second Service Bay!

Not very visible, but here is the Service Bay with the rover inside.

A better shot, I'm using the automated function to drive it out.

Falling to the surface now, the impact is soft because of the low gravity.

This is the rover, without Kerbals.

And with Kerbals crewing it!

Hope you liked!

[Nich]

How do you put things inside decouplers? mine always try to put stuff on the Top floating in mid air or if I put a decoupler on an docking port junior it doesn't connect to the next tank even though there is more then enough room

[CaptainApollo]

You mean the rover inside the decoupler? Hm, strange that it does not work for you. I just place the decoupler on the top of the Service bay, and the rover I attach to the decoupler.

[mrklaw]

Nice. Have to experiment with that. Does the decoupler not knock things over with the ejection force?

[CaptainApollo]

Thanks! No, nothing got knocked over. I'm not sure if I was lucky, or it was just a good design.