The KLAW mk2

[W. Kerman]

Problem.                                                  ------------------------------------------------------I have ran into a very frustrating problem. In Kerbal Space Program, there is no way to attach ships to planet/moons. This means my ships never really land on Gilly, also, some amazing ( or insane ) person who wanted to build a Dres space elevator, found that the claws wouldn't attach.

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A possible solution 

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A new part, called the mk2 claw.

Able to grab all things in the game, beside water and Jool, and the sun, etc. And no resource transfer through planets or moons because that would be really cheaty.

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-W. Kerman

 

[Gaarst]

MLG KLAW V4.2.0!!! Out now, summons the Kraken so fast it violates locality! Summoning another Kraken in the process!!!!!1!! 99.9% chance of breaking your KSP saves but also other saves from other games from any computer in a 2km radius!!! Seen on TV!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, no.

Edited September 22, 2016 by Gaarst

[solarbearman]

Don't blame your engineering skills on the game. It's not hard to land on gilly. We have landing legs too. 

Use them instead :

You're welcome

[magnemoe]

Yes, KAS has winches, an hook and ground plates and modules you mount to the ground. 

Landing on Gilly works, the problem is the legs in 1.13 with its low friction and the rugged surface. Having RCS or the vernier engines to press you down help. 
 

[Wjolcz]

KIS and KAS have anchors you can place on the surface which would be great to have in stock.

[pandaman]

Maybe not a 'Klaw' variant,  but some sort of Philae style landing leg with built in ground anchors may be worthwhile.  Would be useful for attaching lightweight probes to asteroids in particular. 

[Stoney3K]

KIS does have ground anchors and harpoons (like Philae) which you can connect to a winch to tether yourself to the ground.

I'm not sure if the KIS ground pylons or ground bases actually attach to the ground, or that they're just really heavy blocks of concrete which are held down by gravity. In the latter case they're less useful on low gravity bodies like Minmus or Gilly.

[The_Rocketeer]

We have the Launch Stability Enhancer which connects the ship to the ground on Kerbin. Why shouldn't it be possible to do the same thing in reverse?

[tater]

Make it like the Philae harpoons---only they should actually work.

[Jonfliesgoats]

This suggestion would actually be pretty relevant to the proposal for comets.

[problemecium]

I concur. I was just thinking earlier that Philae-style landing harpoons would be a good idea for places like Bop or Gilly. Yes, landing on them isn't hard, and bouncing IS fun, but sometimes we have better things to do than wait 15 minutes for the ship to settle down xD
I dunno if this would be a Klaw sort of thing though, i.e. "Klaw Mk2" doesn't exactly seem like an appropriate name - particularly because the existing nomenclature strongly suggests it would simply be a Size 2 Klaw (not that that would be unwelcome for Class E asteroids, but that's another thing).

[Sharpy]

On 22.09.2016 at 4:24 PM, Stoney3K said:

KIS does have ground anchors and harpoons (like Philae) which you can connect to a winch to tether yourself to the ground.

I'm not sure if the KIS ground pylons or ground bases actually attach to the ground, or that they're just really heavy blocks of concrete which are held down by gravity. In the latter case they're less useful on low gravity bodies like Minmus or Gilly.

On 23.09.2016 at 2:10 AM, Jonfliesgoats said:

This suggestion would actually be pretty relevant to the proposal for comets.

KIS Ground Bases.

KAS Pylons.

Both attach to the ground. breakingForce = 200 (same as Kerbodyne tanks)

But only KAS Pylons attach to asteroids (with use of a tool).

 

 

On 22.09.2016 at 4:32 PM, The_Rocketeer said:

We have the Launch Stability Enhancer which connects the ship to the ground on Kerbin. Why shouldn't it be possible to do the same thing in reverse?

It is possible to store the Launch Stability Enhancer in a KIS container, and then attach it to the base at the destination.

Freshly after attachment, it's just another loose part attached to the surface of the base, and subject to normal physics - moving with the craft, weighing it down, bumping against the ground etc. Then it "stabilizes". I'm not entirely sure under which conditions it 'stabilizes' (I believe switching vessels, maybe moving out of the physics bubble) but once it does, it becomes immovable. In particular - once you attached it, DO NOT move it to a different location on the base. The Pylon will remain in place. The base will move accordingly, to accomodate for the new attachment point. Very rapidly. Very explosively.

Also, you might consider it an advantage or not. It's 25% more efficient than RTG, at about 1% the price (but significantly more volume; the largest KIS container can fit only one.) It also weighs 20% more than RTG

Edited September 27, 2016 by Sharpy

[Magzimum]

Easiest way to land on Gilly is to use a small lander with only RCS and no landing legs at all. There is no need for any engines, since you just need about 100 dV to get down and back up. The reaction wheels in a lander can are sufficient to keep the lander upright even on a slope. A small solar panel is sufficient to keep those reaction wheels powered. I don't see the need for any new part, because landing on Gilly is a joke.

My Gilly lander can be seen on this picture at the top. It is the tiny module containing a Jr. docking port, monopropellant and RCS, lander can, a science Jr and finally another Jr. docking port. A bunch more science instruments, a solar panel and possibly some small batteries are mounted on the outside. This could easily make it from the mothership to Gilly surface and back twice. I had plenty monopropellant to hop to some biomes (I think there's only 3 biomes in 1.1).

[Edit] Note, in order to not sound too smug, I would like to mention that my first attempt to land on Gilly ended in a lot of frustration too. The engines were far too powerful, the landing legs made the lander bounce up again and finally the hatch was blocked due to some stupidity on my side. But I did have some "Place-Anywhere 7 Linear RCS Port" to push the lander it back to the surface quickly after it bounced, and I was lucky enough to find a horizontal patch to land on.

Edited September 28, 2016 by Magzimum

[Rath]

The best lander is a kerbal on EVA.

[Magzimum]

2 hours ago, Rath said:

The best lander is a kerbal on EVA.

Depends how many science experiments you want to bring along! A single Kerbal on EVA from a mothership surely gets the most science per fund, and may be the easiest to fly as well! But doing a seismic experiment may prove more difficult.

[Stoney3K]

Well, if you want an elegant solution, you can carry a KAS ground pylon and a Jr. docking port down to the ground and secure it to Gilly. If there is any ship that wants to land and stay on the ground, it can just dock with the docking port which keeps it attached to the ground.

[Sharpy]

*shrug* I had a "600 units of ore from Gilly to Eve orbit" contract. The "lander" had zero problem just standing on its single, off-center drill, maintaining the position using the reaction wheels, for the couple days it took to fill the ore tanks. It actually had two Spider engines on the nose to keep it pushed to the surface, but they appeared unnecessary - Gilly's gravity was enough.