whyterabbit1987 Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Inspired by Nova's images of the new Mars like plannet and some posts refering to the August 9th Mars Curiosity landing I decided to branch from the KSP fantasy world and check out some NASA videos on the subject. Now for all of your viewing pleasure I present the most Kerbal thing NASA has ever attempted. The Mars Curiosity Rover: - $2.5 billion US dollars - 8 month transit time - Powered by plutonium - The size of a mini cooper - 4 Stage untested powered descent with a "Sky Crane" to lower the rover the last 21 feet. (I repeat "Untested") - Oh and one more thing.... The landing is done completely in the dark under computer control.In short one of the coolest things NASA has created since Tang. I hope this inspires some new part designs from the community.http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=146903741 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AncientAstronaut Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Now we just have to hope it actually lands... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trekkie_ Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 I think its doable. a cool maneuver I can think of is a close flyby in an elliptical orbit of mun, with a rover-ish design that uses airplane wheels rather than rockets and is released by a decoupler. I'm sure it's possible to fly close enough to drop one of those off and have it roll off the inertia, but since mun isn't flat, the rover would probably flip over from the speed bumps or turn a crater into a ramp that launches it, or just crash and burn on impact due to the speed (maybe small rockets attached to the front and facing the opposite direction it will be moving might slow it down). I guess you could also just land on mun with rover-ish shaped parts attached to a decoupler directly below the cockpit and an engine, then take off. but the biggest issue with that would be fuel and descent speed due to the extra weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whyterabbit1987 Posted August 4, 2012 Author Share Posted August 4, 2012 Or an interplannetary space plane design capable of taking off from Kerbin traversing space and re-entering a second planets atmosphere to glide down. I do think that the incredible speeds developed would cause the ship to explode from heat long before the atmosphere became thick enough to support any reasonable amount fo lift. But cool either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flaillomanz Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 This NEEDS a mod dedicated to it.Modders! Start your brains! Get set! GO![EDIT] Wow, the change to VB screwed me over in terms of avatar AND signature :3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopardenthusiast Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Wow. That is so ridiculously kerbal that I don't have words for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramses Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Just show's there's a little bit of Jeb in all of us:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomAzaris1996 Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 I am already in the stage of designing new ways of landing crafts, and then taking off again to go back to kerbin... It pretty hard to do (for me), and here are my steps:1-Small lander craft that has enough fuel/thrust to return to Kerbin. (ie/ enough to get me on an escape trajectory, with fuel to spare for orbital maneuvers.2-A landing system involving both chutes, and rockets, that will fly off once the lander is down (I am hoping for this stage to be above the capsule3-An orbital maneuvering system for going towards the new planet(s)4-A launch vehicle for the whole thing, that will be efficient enough to get me into an escape trajectory of Kerbin...For now, I am still stuck on stage one of this plan.. hopefully some new parts in the update will help me a lot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antoine_Le_Grand Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Do you guys even knows where the mods section is XD because there's a mod with a skycrane And it's really amazing it's called lionhead ... The creator did the skycrane but he is in vacation so he as stopped working on it for the moment.. But you can still land spirit with the skycrane on Mun and Minmus and I'm working on a Curiosity rover for him still really early In the built of the rover because I'm working on an other project but still...THIS MOD IS AMAZING YOU SHOULD ALL PLAY IT XD and the modder is a really nice guy and have other project in mind as you can see on the mod threat.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yogui87 Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Thank you Antoine_Le_Grand. If you want to try to land the Prometheus Solar Rover (Spirit-like rover) with its skycrane, go check my mod at : http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/12106-0-16-Lionhead-Aerospace-Inc-Solar-Rover-v3-6-New-update-01-08Here a video of my mod: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nibula Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 So when they know its about to enter athmosphere it has already landed? crazy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziff Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 So when they know its about to enter athmosphere it has already landed? crazy!You mean crashed. Did you see their insane landing method? Ain't no way that crane thing will work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nibula Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 We will see Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whyterabbit1987 Posted August 4, 2012 Author Share Posted August 4, 2012 Oh man! Ive been in and out of the mods and projects forums for 3 or 4 months but have never seen that. Im going to break in the Lionhead mod first thing today. Thanks Antoine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whyterabbit1987 Posted August 4, 2012 Author Share Posted August 4, 2012 Thank you Antoine_Le_Grand. If you want to try to land the Prometheus Solar Rover (Spirit-like rover) with its skycrane, go check my mod at : http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/12106-0-16-Lionhead-Aerospace-Inc-Solar-Rover-v3-6-New-update-01-08Here a video of my mod: Holy balls! Its been done NASA cant fail! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flaillomanz Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 (edited) Where the blooming heck did my other reply go? Is it being held back by the mods or something?-snipped edit, thanks- Edited August 4, 2012 by flaillomanz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softweir Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 I moved it to Off-Topic. I was trying to PM you, but PM appears to be disabled at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flaillomanz Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 Ah. So... it IS off-topic? I'll let my confusion rest a while. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson_Pride14 Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Just one more day till we see if it works!Honestly I think it stands a good chance of working. It's basically just like the Viking lander landings (uses the same engine even), except it stops itself above the ground and just lowers the rover down. Don't see any reason why it should fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Festivefire Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 - Oh and one more thing.... The landing is done completely in the dark under computer control.How is it a bad thing its computer controlled? People just screw things up. How many people here can fly their rocket more efficiently than a mechjeb module can? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson_Pride14 Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Every single lander mission in history, with the exception of the Apollo missions, has been computer controlled. There is no way a human can control it with the delay, not even to the moon. Radar doesn't need light to work either. Kinda kills my hopes of a live video stream though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whyterabbit1987 Posted August 5, 2012 Author Share Posted August 5, 2012 How is it a bad thing its computer controlled? People just screw things up. How many people here can fly their rocket more efficiently than a mechjeb module can?Computer controlled is not a bad thing especially in a relatively predictable environment like KSP. My point is contextual computer controlled decision making be it pressure engineering, drone (car or plane) automation or deploying one of the coolest things I have ever heard of on Mars all are hindered by environmental variables. The point is these variables are unpredictable and to design computer based negative feedback loops which are not to slow and not too fast to cause pipes to fail planes to crash or rovers to fall uncontrolled KSP style into the side of a mountain on Mars is very difficult. There is a reason that people oversea automated processes even if they do not directly control them. So for the 7 minute descent where there is no opportunity to influence whats going on its pretty fricken cool, not bad just awesome that it might work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whyterabbit1987 Posted August 5, 2012 Author Share Posted August 5, 2012 Every single lander mission in history, with the exception of the Apollo missions, has been computer controlled. There is no way a human can control it with the delay, not even to the moon. Radar doesn't need light to work either. Kinda kills my hopes of a live video stream though.If it makes you feel better the descent imagery is being recorded far from live but it will show a hell of a ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endeavour Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Is this the first nuclear powered vehicle from NASA in quite a while? I remember there being some issues with them making nuclear powered stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Festivefire Posted August 5, 2012 Share Posted August 5, 2012 Computer controlled is not a bad thing especially in a relatively predictable environment like KSP. My point is contextual computer controlled decision making be it pressure engineering, drone (car or plane) automation or deploying one of the coolest things I have ever heard of on Mars all are hindered by environmental variables. The point is these variables are unpredictable and to design computer based negative feedback loops which are not to slow and not too fast to cause pipes to fail planes to crash or rovers to fall uncontrolled KSP style into the side of a mountain on Mars is very difficult. There is a reason that people oversea automated processes even if they do not directly control them. So for the 7 minute descent where there is no opportunity to influence whats going on its pretty fricken cool, not bad just awesome that it might work.Still, its not like a human would be able to correct the errors made by the computer when something it wasn't prepared for happens with a 14 minute delay (i think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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