Has anyone figured out an elegant way to carry a rover to the surface of another planet?

[Kerbital]

1 minute ago, nascarlaser1 said:

If your willing to use mods, you can use the Hanger or KAS/KIS mods.

KAS/KIS lets you build and then disassemble your rover onsite, allowing to just have to carry the individual parts inside a container (which can fit onto a regular lander).

Hanger gives you different sized hangers that let you pack your rover inside of them, then spawn them where ever you are, and then pack them back up again. This also saves on part numbers because the rover inside the hanger isn't actually loaded into the game until you tell it to.

I used a lot of mods but I found KAS/KIS overwhelming, just didn't have the mind to dig into these two mods. I did try a mod that allowed you to pack stuff into crates, don't recall the name, but it was somewhat convoluted as well.

[nascarlaser1]

Just now, Kerbital said:

I used a lot of mods but I found KAS/KIS overwhelming, just didn't have the mind to dig into these two mods. I did try a mod that allowed you to pack stuff into crates, don't recall the name, but it was somewhat convoluted as well.

yup srry just edited my above response. I didn't bother reading before I typed lol.

[Kerbital]

3 minutes ago, nascarlaser1 said:

yup srry just edited my above response. I didn't bother reading before I typed lol.

No worries

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

I sent one to Eeloo attached with a small decoupler on the bottom of a small lander which had radial engines.

[LopoMetello]

Using Feline Rover mods and a lot of others (near the future, heat control,  rover science, blue tie space science, magic orbital science,...). Just retract a little the wheels of the rover to match the bay and to assure best stability some RCS on the side.

Pictures here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1ecpww6tngacsiy/AAA-dUxP-ONypt6kYp8t9bqqa?dl=0

[Gargamel]

1 hour ago, LopoMetello said:

Pictures here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1ecpww6tngacsiy/AAA-dUxP-ONypt6kYp8t9bqqa?dl=0

Instead of linking to a download, which a lot of people are wary of going to blindly from a newer member, could you upload it to something like imgur?  I'd love to see the design. 

[LopoMetello]

Oops, sorry

!

 

Edited May 13, 2018 by LopoMetello

[LopoMetello]

This is a prototype which did its first trial to Mune.... some modifications to the next rover will be useful otherwise the concept works, land, open the bay, undock the rover, explore and do science while the main vessel transform the ore from mining in fuel, dock the rover, ... Next mission, explore a canyon with a mini-probe and go to Minmus.

[klesh]

You have the classic "slap it on the side and counterweight it" method, but I wouldn't exactly call that "elegant".

 

 

There is also the "inside a storage container at the bottom of a lander" approach.  Fairly elegant.

 

 

There is the skycrane approach.  Here we see an overfueled transfer stage able to make the actual landing, and the skycrane used for a simple hop off the already landed transfer stage.  Somewhat elegant.

 

 

Lastly, and perhaps least elegant we have the "Oodles of Parachutes" technique after deploying from an entry aeroshell.  Very Kerbal, not very elegant.

 

 

[CrashyMcCrashFace]

As a noob I've been struggling with this too. I finally came up with something simple I'm happy with. The asymmetrical landing gear pitches it forward on touchdown and then the stack decoupler to get rid of it. The little tank wasn't enough to land on Minmus so I had to xfer mid-landing. I'll could leave it off completely but then need another solution if the station part is not a fuel tank.

Side note: Driving on Minmus kind of sucks. Can't stop or turn without weird stuff happening, but then you can right a vehicle with just the reaction wheel.

Edited May 13, 2018 by CrashyMcCrashFace

[cyberKerb]

For my rovers, I've always like the idea of having to put it together on-route. The packrat from USI was always fun and it inspired me to design my own.

Here is my compact method of carrying my rover.

 

Here is the constructed rover during field testing. The docking ports acted as awesome suspension with the flex they have.

 

[Corona688]

I carry small landers in cans.  https://kerbalx.com/Corona688/0LM-Canned-Lander

[edit] I see someone else already duplicated my canned lander.  yay!

Edited May 14, 2018 by Corona688

[ARS]

Make the lander itself as a rover

It works nicely

23 hours ago, klesh said:

 

Did I see a tree on that? What mod is that?

 

 

[klesh]

32 minutes ago, ARS said:

Did I see a tree on that? What mod is that?

 

 

Haha, yes you did.  If I recall there are a few sizes; the radial attachable one that you saw above, also seen here with a 2nd on the science lab.

 

And a larger, 2.5m variant that obviously supplies more, seen here in an orbital farming environment:

 

If I remember correctly, it is from the USI Life Support mod.

 

Edit:  and to make this post appropriate to the thread's general topic, I landed that fuel truck you see in the background of the 1st pic above with a skycrane.  It is used to ferry ISRU fuel from the nearby mining and conversion ships to any vessels that have landed at the base and need to refuel to get back to orbit.

 

Edited May 14, 2018 by klesh

[Xd the great]

Well i am trying to attach radial engines on a rover. It is designed to mine stuff anyway. 

[Boersgard]

I've found this mod to be the most helpful:

Make rover

Put rover in box

Jettison rover from box at destination

Webm in action: https://s1.webmshare.com/6j7oB.webm

[TheFlyingKerman]

Lazy man's method again. Very un-Kerbal. The COM of the rover is aligned with the engine so the thing lands like a normal lander. Then I just turned it horizontal with reaction wheels.

This the the laziest part. The rover is connected to the rocket through the cubic strut and then de-coupler (the red part), which aligns with the COM of the rover. I only need to do this once and for all. Then I save the whole thing as sub-assembly and I just need to plug into the central node of whatever transfer stage I need.

[ArmoredLipid]

Stick it on a cargo fairing. Turn said fairing upside down and use structural bits to attach it to some 2x2 structural panels, which are attached to the rest of your rocket. Add an upside-down landing mechanism on the top of the fairing, sort of like a skycrane minus the "crane" bit. Touch the ground, deploy the fairing and the decoupler attaching the rover to it. Profit.

[putnamto]

Everything  to  the  right  of  the  SRB  went  up  in  one  launch, docked  with  the  station, jettisoned  the  orange  tank, then  the  skycrane(the  part  with  the  four  engines) decoupler, brought  the  rovers  to  the  construction  site  and  dropped  em  off, then  flew  back  to  the  station  to  grab  the  science  bay.

 

I  love  my  skycrane.