The Shuttlecock- Skycrane inspired Eve rover and lander for early in career mode

[Rufledt]

I'll admit it, i've never done a career mode mission to Eve. Ever. For the first go, i wanted to send a rover, because i had just unlocked wheels. also because rovers are awesome First the rover:

It's pretty simple as a rover, you can see all the details from this shot (also a battery under and a surface scanning module i think). i don't have a lot unlocked but this carries all of my science except for Science Jr.'s which i decided were too heavy. It has 8 wheels arranged symmetrically, angled forward and backward. I did a lot of drop testing (i.e. jumping off of stuff for fun) to get a good wheel arrangement.

I even made a drop test rig:

I apologize i just realized the sun is behind in every shot here lol Because of the wheel set up and the fact that the rover is light, i could drop off the rig above (usually doesn't break a wheel, but it does sometimes) then jump off the launch pad, then drive back and jump off backwards, and keep driving. here's the aftermath:

In the end, it can keep driving with only 1 wheel on each corner, or even one corner gone if the opposite corner has both wheels remaining (though it makes things a 'bit' trickier)

The lander itself is more what i'm proud of:

Plenty of you guys have more awesome contraptions, but this one is a first for me. During initial atmospheric entry, the air brakes deploy and keep the lander stable with the heat shield pointed into the fire. Once the heat shield is no longer needed, it decouples from the bottom of the rover and falls. then the air brakes keep the lander slowed (slower once the heavy heat shield falls) until i pop the 4 chutes at the top. then, the landing gear deploys and the whole thing touches town very slowly while still holding the rover below. At any time during this descent, one science junior can be used, and the other after landing so I don't lose the valuable science from the heavy materials bays. the lander (right under the airbrakes) also has deployable solar panels to assist in transmitting after landing.

Then, the rover drops out from under, and drives off to do it's rover-y stuff

If you guys want more detail of the construction (and action shots of me jumping off of stuff) I used this to make a rover/eve lander tutorial video (these are screen caps):

I also have a video of the rover mission in my career mode from launch from kerbin, entry, (redoing that because the first one exploded), landing, and science here:

i'm not posting it as an embedded video, one is enough, but you could see my launcher there if you want.

I can also get some more pictures let me know, there should be enough detail for you guys to figure out how to recreate this (or improve it, since my engineering is that of a drunken, concussed idiot) but i could provide more if you want.

Also PLEASE i could use some pointers, i'm always looking for help. This mission was about 190k funds, but i didn't really pinch pennies with the launcher. i bet i could've made the lander with 4 airbrakes instead of 6, and i probably didnt' need 4 chutes (it slowed to near nothing).

Edit: Here's the updated craft file with the improvements discussed below: http://kerbalx.com/wecangameifwewantto/everoverlauncher-v2

Edited August 20, 2015 by Rufledt

[Foxster]

Nice looking craft.

Just one thought - you can adjust the amount of ablative on the heat shield in the VAB, you rarely need it all, and this changes the weight a lot.

[Rufledt]

i totally forgot about that! i bet it would've saved a whole bunch of weight. i don't remember how much was ablated, but it was definitely less than half. i'm going to see how much cutting down the ablator saves of weight and deltaV and get back to you.

[wgering]

I would cut the legs and chutes off the lander and put a chute or two on the rover. Decouple the rover and deploy chutes about 1km above the surface. It would save a bit of weight and I think it's easier on the rover.

[Rufledt]

that's what i had originally planned, but i wanted to figure out some way to get some materials bays along with, but not on the rover.

as usual i ended up going a little more complicated than necessary, but i have since revised my lander with suggestions. Here's my original launcher:

It's big, way more than needed to go eve, especially with such a light payload.

Rover- 800kg(ish)

Lander- 6436kg

entire mission mass- 471,287kg

DeltaV at takeoff: 8,186

Cost- 190k funds

I took your suggestions and removed half of the ablator from the head shield, and removed 2 of the air brakes which dropped the mass by almost exactly 1 ton. from 6436 to 5434, quite a drop! i could've gotten lighter by a lot i'm sure by eliminating some of the lander but this is still a ton lighter for essentially the exact same mission.

I messed with the launcher as well. i removed one of the small tanks from the upper stage, and removed half of the RCS fuel (which i barely used):

New stats:

Rover is unchanged

Lander mass- 5,434kg (1 ton less)

Total mass- 376,619kg (near 100 tons less!)

deltav at launch- 8072 (nearly the same)

cost- 160k funds (30k less)

I wasted far more than 100 delta v in my first mission, and probably more than that in the tanks when i decoupled them into the atmosphere. In my career mode video series i got another contract to splashdown an eve (plus i need to get science from space around eve, because, like an idiot, i forgot to do that part) so i'm glad i could trim some of the fat from this launcher and reuse it.

=========

new update- replacing the 'twin boar' engine/tank at the bottom with another orange tank and a mainsail bumps deltaV up to 8,204, better than the original. the TWR drops a little from 1.76 to 1.63, still more than enough to get me into orbit. However the cost remains the same.

[DMSP]

Wow, awesome!

Where is the download?

I Need this!

[Rufledt]

I don't have one available at the moment, but i will by tonight i'll post here when i do!

[Rufledt]

Ok, here you go! (also added to the original post) http://kerbalx.com/wecangameifwewantto/everoverlauncher-v2

[DMSP]

Ok, here you go! (also added to the original post) http://kerbalx.com/wecangameifwewantto/everoverlauncher-v2

Thank you!