The Munar Crusade

[Ehco Corrallo]

1 hour ago, Spudrotuskutarsu said:

No worries, this was the first time out of Kerbin orbit for months so i sent something "simple". I'll try to make something bigger over the weekend

I know where you're coming from. After 1.0.5 I spent a bunch of time working on planes, and barely ever flew rockets. It's tricky to get back into the hang of engineering. 

Also: It doesn't have to be big if it's ridiculous enough. There's a number of more recent Crusaders who are sending lots of medium size things (like you). Another thing to remember is that one-way missions are not only allowed, but strongly encouraged. It's always nice to have large amounts of stuff piling up in your tracking station. 

[Jhawk1099]

9 hours ago, Ehco Corrallo said:

I'm really interested to see how you manage to make a mission simultaneously extravagant and efficient...

Well... it's going to be a lot of missions but one of the effiecient parts will be rocket boosted rally cars that will refuel at a gas station the can dock with (ISRU and drills).

[Ehco Corrallo]

39 minutes ago, Jhawk1099 said:

Well... it's going to be a lot of missions but one of the effiecient parts will be rocket boosted rally cars that will refuel at a gas station the can dock with (ISRU and drills).

Nice. I like your style. 

Happy flying!

[superstrijder15]

Here comes the story of how the miner went to the mun(totally without cheating*cough*). The design is mostly a huge scaled up version of my science version with the science parts becoming mining parts. I made to albums: My first tries and the landing and operation starting. I eventually got it up totally by hacking gravity, but as you can se in first tries I could have done it without.

 

Edited February 12, 2016 by superstrijder15

[Jhawk1099]

So an update on my "rovers". They can easily reach the limit of the wheels(60 m/s) on kerbin. It does roll really bad with kerbin gravity so moon gravity will be terrible. Making any strong roll cage makes it rather ugly. Any tips on how to lessen the roll over risk?

[Ehco Corrallo]

5 hours ago, superstrijder15 said:

Here comes the story of how the miner went to the mun(totally without cheating*cough*). The design is mostly a huge scaled up version of my science version with the science parts becoming mining parts. I made to albums: My first tries and the landing and operation starting. I eventually got it up totally by hacking gravity, but as you can see in first tries I could have done it without.

Quite a few solar panels you have there. It's good to see things coming along, especially when it can't entirely be confirmed whether or not cheating actually did take place instead of nothing but legitimate rocketry  Nah, it's all good. Changing your design once something is already in orbit is a huge and wholly understandable pain. 

53 minutes ago, Jhawk1099 said:

So an update on my "rovers". They can easily reach the limit of the wheels(60 m/s) on kerbin. It does roll really bad with kerbin gravity so moon gravity will be terrible. Making any strong roll cage makes it rather ugly. Any tips on how to lessen the roll over risk?

Rover rolling is an issue I've encounter time and time again. It's very hard to counter because if you make the rover wide enough that it doesn't roll sideways, it's liable to tip forwards. If you do the opposite, the reverse is true. Plus you have the lower gravity against you; rover building is the only thing that's adversely affected by lower gravity. If you make the rover too light, it'll flip even easier, but if you make it too heavy, it's much harder to get it where you want. 

Cynical Answer: Wait for 1.1 and better wheel physics. 

My Answer: Mitigate the effect of rolling. 

If you can't stop your rover from rolling, then roll with it (hehe, pun). Installing reaction wheels will allow you to steady your rover if necessary. I recommend mapping them to the SAS control group. If you start to roll, hit SAS, and try to maneuver to a less killy angle. You might have to repair the wheels, in fact, you should expect to; putting the cockpit within reach of the wheels is very helpful and saves a lot of time. You can get around the dangerous bounciness upon wheel repair by installing landing gear to lift your rover off the surface. I'd also recommend installing a decent roll cage. Aesthetics are important, but not as important as survivability. 

Locking the steering on your rear wheels will help somewhat. 

In general, you want a wide wheelbase and low center of gravity. I'd recommend looking around the forums, there's bound to be someone who knows how to get rovers working properly. 

Edited February 12, 2016 by Ehco Corrallo

[Ehco Corrallo]

I did some tests with wheelbase width. 

This layout didn't roll on flat ground, but the Rovemax M1's have trouble lugging its bulk up hills. 

This layout also didn't roll on flat ground, and it can climb hills, but the TR-2L's tend to cause pinwheeling if you even start to roll. 

This needs further consideration. 

[purpleivan]

I just noticed Norcalplanner's "Herkules" from the Mun Rocked challenge, so thought I'd add my entry for that here, in the entirely fictional category of "largest orange lump landed on Mun".

 

[scullyl]

I'm making some progress on my mun base, not much... but some. 
Now there's a rover, a hab module, two landers, a science module, and some structural fuselages for linking modules together.  

 

[superstrijder15]

Wow, you're really good at on point landing. I landed one probe for my perimeter, but it's beyond physics range from my lander. Also I now have MechJeb, so maybe I can use that for on point landing?

[scullyl]

1 hour ago, superstrijder15 said:

Wow, you're really good at on point landing. I landed one probe for my perimeter, but it's beyond physics range from my lander. Also I now have MechJeb, so maybe I can use that for on point landing?

If this was directed at me, thanks! I don't use MechJeb, but I'd recommend downloading trajectories as body fixed mode helps account for the mun's rotation.  

At the end of the day though.... it's mostly just luck, quicksaves, and lots of practice.  

Good luck on your probes! 

[superstrijder15]

The question was for ehco, the report for everyone and the you did well was for you scullyl.

[Jhawk1099]

So here is the first video. number 2 on its way if I can fix the save

 

[Ehco Corrallo]

On 2/13/2016 at 6:39 AM, purpleivan said:

I just noticed Norcalplanner's "Herkules" from the Mun Rocked challenge, so thought I'd add my entry for that here, in the entirely fictional category of "largest orange lump landed on Mun".

And I'm reasonably sure you succeed with your goal. On another note: I find it hilarious that the giant rover wheels are, without doubt, the best landing gear in the game. If you repaired them, would you be able to rotate your giant payload? Anyway, you're going straight to the board of Crusaders.

purpleivan's Score: The Largest Orange Lump.

On 2/13/2016 at 1:28 PM, scullyl said:

I'm making some progress on my mun base, not much... but some. 
Now there's a rover, a hab module, two landers, a science module, and some structural fuselages for linking modules together.  

The varied designs are awesome, I'm glad things are working out well. Have you had any trouble so far?

On 2/13/2016 at 1:46 PM, superstrijder15 said:

Wow, you're really good at on point landing. I landed one probe for my perimeter, but it's beyond physics range from my lander. Also I now have MechJeb, so maybe I can use that for on point landing?

As I really ought to have mentioned in the OP but didn't, MechJeb kind of defeats the feeling of accomplishment. This isn't a hard challenge, but it's still supposed to be a little bit difficult. Trajectories (the mod that scullyl mentioned) would be perfectly acceptable. 

14 hours ago, Jhawk1099 said:

So here is the first video. number 2 on its way if I can fix the save

Looks great! The rover design is awesome, and running the challenge in career further increases the legitimacy of your entry. What happened with the save? 

 

It looks like all of your projects are coming along nicely. 

[scullyl]

2 hours ago, Ehco Corrallo said:

Have you had any trouble so far?

At one point I was trying out a different lander design, completely rcs powered... i got pretty close to landing until i realized RCS does not kill velocity... 4 kerbals died. 

Also the one kerbal near the flag, she's suffering through paralysis. 

Probably a few more that I'm not remembering.

[Ehco Corrallo]

49 minutes ago, scullyl said:

At one point I was trying out a different lander design, completely rcs powered... i got pretty close to landing until i realized RCS does not kill velocity... 4 kerbals died. 

Also the one kerbal near the flag, she's suffering through paralysis. 

Probably a few more that I'm not remembering.

Business as usual then. 

 

[Jhawk1099]

11 hours ago, Ehco Corrallo said:

Looks great! The rover design is awesome, and running the challenge in career further increases the legitimacy of your entry. What happened with the save?

Why thank you. also it was a simple bug that I fixed. But here is the second video!

 

[SuicidalInsanity]

Now, a Crusade has religious connotations; a campaign of conquest given divine sanction to bring the crusaders' faith to faraway lands. For a Munar Crusade, then, how better to show the glory of success than by building and landing on the Mun a ziggurat dedicated to the Kraken?

 

Edited February 17, 2016 by SuicidalInsanity

[Ehco Corrallo]

There's a badge now!

If you're on the Board of Crusaders, you are officially entitled to slap this badge on your signature. 

Speaking of which @SuicidalInsanity, your entry is fantastic, magnificently styled, too, and fully entitles you to be thrown straight to the Board of Crusaders, with the following score: 

SuicidalInsanity's Score: One Four Step Step Pyramid (I know it's a ziggurat...)

On 2/16/2016 at 8:49 PM, Jhawk1099 said:

Why thank you. also it was a simple bug that I fixed. But here is the second video!

Lookin' good. Just let me know when the entry is officially 'completed.' 

Edited February 19, 2016 by Ehco Corrallo
Fixed badge to be correct size.

[Hexlord]

On 2/15/2016 at 4:06 AM, Ehco Corrallo said:

As I really ought to have mentioned in the OP but didn't, MechJeb kind of defeats the feeling of accomplishment.

Totally disagree here, sorry. The game should be about having fun and building crazy stuff, not creating/completing a challenge designed to be annoyingly meticulous. Every single person here has landed on the mun in all sorts of rockets, I'm sure most of us are over it. We know how to do it, it's just not fun doing it. MechJeb gives us the opportunity to enjoy the game still.

I'll attempt to land mine without it, but as soon as I start getting frustrated my entry will have mechjab.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Hexlord

[Dafni]

The badge looks nice @Ehco Corrallo

But how to use it? Do we really have to go through IMGUR like I just tried?

 

And could you please provide a properly scaled one? It gives me all kinds of troubles here.

Thanks in advance

Edited February 19, 2016 by Dafni

[superstrijder15]

Allright, I landed the last probes as close as I can, trajectories helped a little but the crosses tend to dissappear under the mun. I only have a few fotos, which should appear under this text. All but one of the probes are within physics distance from the main lander. I now consider my entry complete.

 

 

[SnoopSLR]

Well this sounds like it's going to be a challenge, I was going to build something on Minimus and probably will but my head exploded with ideas and now want to build it on the Mun!

Im still annoyed that I crashed once there and never went back (it was a dark day) but I just designed a stupid big mining outpost and think it will be best suited to this crusade. I shall return with my developments in a few days i must get back to the drawing board and the bank! this is going to get expensive

Edited February 19, 2016 by SnoopSLR

[Ehco Corrallo]

10 hours ago, Hexlord said:

Totally disagree here, sorry. The game should be about having fun and building crazy stuff, not creating/completing a challenge designed to be annoyingly meticulous. Every single person here has landed on the mun in all sorts of rockets, I'm sure most of us are over it. We know how to do it, it's just not fun doing it. MechJeb gives us the opportunity to enjoy the game still.

I'll attempt to land mine without it, but as soon as I start getting frustrated my entry will have mechjab.

You can use MechJeb if you want. I'm not so meticulous that I'll ignore a good argument. (Definition of good argument: Uses the phrase: "annoyingly meticulous.") Besides, you're right, this challenge isn't so much about piloting and engineering skill as it is about having a creative and extravagant entry. 

MechJeb is now officially acceptable and I appologize if it wasn't before. I'll edit the OP. 

6 hours ago, superstrijder15 said:

Allright, I landed the last probes as close as I can, trajectories helped a little but the crosses tend to dissappear under the mun. I only have a few fotos, which should appear under this text. All but one of the probes are within physics distance from the main lander. I now consider my entry complete.

Great! Looks nice and symmetrical  

superstrijder15's Score: One photo finish. 

9 hours ago, Dafni said:

The badge looks nice @Ehco Corrallo

But how to use it? Do we really have to go through IMGUR like I just tried?

 

And could you please provide a properly scaled one? It gives me all kinds of troubles here.

Thanks in advance

I'll get on it. The text is bothering me as well, it should say "Munar Crusader" instead of just "Munar Crusade." 

I'm not exactly sure how to embed the badge, so I don't know how much I can streamline things. 

4 hours ago, SnoopSLR said:

Well this sounds like it's going to be a challenge, I was going to build something on Minimus and probably will but my head exploded with ideas and now want to build it on the Mun!

Im still annoyed that I crashed once there and never went back (it was a dark day) but I just designed a stupid big mining outpost and think it will be best suited to this crusade. I shall return with my developments in a few days i must get back to the drawing board and the bank! this is going to get expensive

Another career entry, huh? Best of luck. 

[Ehco Corrallo]

Yep. Badge is done. 

It's smaller and says the right thing now. I updated the OP, also. And here's the link if you want to embed it:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/548681523271941364/AC5C94E1DDCBA7904C8A9B5995E1BB38130BC8C2/

Edited February 19, 2016 by Ehco Corrallo
Fixed badge.