How to land rover on another planet?

[ARS]

So, I'm planning on sending a rover to mun, but I'm having a difficulty about  how to land my rover there. I know that mun lacks atmosphere, so my parachute won't work, so I'm using thrusters to slow my descent, but it seems that every time I'm trying to land, it's either the whole thing goes kaboom or my rover just crashed into the surface (usually with broken wheels), even after I'm slowing my descent on full thrust (My rover is placed in a fairing with landing thrusters on stage below). Any idea how to land a rover easily on the mun? (And generally on airless celestial body?)

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

[DD_bwest]

one thing i have done in my early days to help protect those wheels on landing,  is to use landing struts and land it like any lander,   then either retract them, or have them put on decouplers.

you can also build a large lander, and have the rover attached to the underbelly.

with mods you can build a landing box complete with ramp lol

 

it is possible to land them directly on the surface,  but you need to get some practice landing softly.

[W. Kerman]

Strap on radial rockets 

(One good use of O-10 puff)

[mhoram]

Every part in KSP has an impact tolerance, which is mentioned in the VAB if you look at the details of that part.

If you land your craft while your speed is above that tolerance, then the part will break. Wheels are a bit special, since they have an additional mechanic that causes them to break, but I have not learned yet, how this mechanic works.

It does not matter, if you are "slowing my descent on full thrust", the important aspect is the velocity at the time of touchdown.

Usually I try to land with a velocity of at most 5m/s during touchdown. What is your touchdown-velocity? If you touchdown at a much higher velocity, then it can be expected that some parts break. If so, then you should try to adjust your Mun-descent in a way that allows you to slow down more before touchdown.

 

Here are a few links explaining different landing methods:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/94318-reverse-gravity-turn-landing-technique-for-airless-bodies/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/36648-landing-and-takeoff-delta-v-vs-twr-and-specific-impulse/

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/134273-suicide-burns-on-the-fly/

 

Another consideration is the placement of the engines. Here is a thread with inspirations on building skycranes:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/55180-bsc-challenge-rover-skycrane-yet-another-winner/

Edited August 26, 2016 by mhoram

[ARS]

Thanks for the info for the sycrane! It really helps!

[Signo]

4 hours ago, W. Kerman said:

Strap on radial rockets 

I support the "radial rockets" school. They allow you to even recover the rover, if you wish so, while a skycrane recovery might be a tall order.

[ForScience6686]

Sky cranes are my go to just because they're fun.  I love watching them zip off, after dropping the load, and have them self destruct into the surface.

[Sublight]

Imagine a upside-down E.  The middle prong of the (upsidedown) E is your command pod.  The other parts of this E are a Modular Girder Segment XL's.  Attach that to a decoupler, and attach the decoupler to the middle of the rovers.  You will need 2 rovers to balance this rig.  When you touch down,  engage your couplers, and your rovers fall nice and even to the ground.

Another way to imagine it is to point 3 fingers towards the ground.  Ring, middle, and index fingers.  Your index finger is your command module, the other 2 fingers attach to the rover.  Land it all and drop the rovers.  I even have the structures attached to a rocket, and I send it off after it drops the rovers.

[Plusck]

As with the above suggestions - but I'd say to use a docking port (at least one, on the rover).

Place a docking port on the top of the rover, right over its centre of mass. Then attach a flattish fuel tank directly onto docking port, then girders off the side of the tank, then fuel tanks and engines (probably Terriers, though Sparks or Twitches might be enough) to them. Strut the engine/tank assembly to the rover for solidity.

As long as you have RCS or decent reaction wheels (the latter are always a good idea for a rover, anyway), any minor imbalance will be corrected just fine. When you disengage the docking port, the struts will release.

And finally, you can also include a downward-facing docking port, solar power, probe core, and landing legs to the "rocket" part of the set-up. Then you can land on legs, drop the rover underneath it, drive around, then come back, park underneath and re-connect by raising the landing legs, using whatever fuel is left to hop to another area or back to orbit. You'll have lost the struts so flying has to be very smooth, but that's not a problem - just a challenge