Curiosity Rover, Landing in mountains on KERBIN

[Eagleye243]

Basically copy the curiosity rover landing, however not like the other challenges that land on the moon and minmus, that's boring, try it on kerbin.

How:

You must get into kerbin orbit before trying for the landing, and the landings MUST be in a mountainous area, the bigger the better.

Try to keep it stock to make it interesting, although it's not necessary.

Bonuses:

Completely Stock

Pick up the kerbal with a shuttle and take him back to KSC

After you land the rover, turn around, and get back into kerbin orbit, it'll be practice for 0.17 with planets that have atmosphere

[Joe Pinball]

Yes, I'm up for this!

Lack of bonuses!

I can't do it completely stock as there's no stock MechJeb or wobbly hinge, 'rope' part, Rover or drogue chute.

I don't really make many spaceplanes so I can;t ferry him back to KSC.

I would need a controllable part to re-enter orbit, and for that we need docked multiple craft in .18 (I hope)

I started with a 333km circular orbit, and did a full de-orbit burn, then shedding the last stage, leaving the lander "package" to descend. This then deploys a drogue chute to stabilise & slow down the lander assembly. Then it drops it's "heat-shield" and jettisons the drogue chute to fire up the SkyCrane descent motors to (hopefully) bring it to a near-stop above the surface, with the rover paid-out already on the tether, ready for a clean smooth drop. Well that was the plan anyhow...

I had already made similar SkyCrane combos for a previous challenge (see http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/16399-Make-a-%2Astable%2A-skycrane-challenge-%2Ahinge-rope-in-thread%2A)

However that rocket just made a high ballistic arc to simulate the final part of a re-entry profile, so I had to add some asparagus staging to the first stage, then some SRBS, then a few MORE SRBS, and finally some extra drop-tanks with turbojets for extra cheap lift as well..

Anyway, it grew & grew (as my designs often do!) until this huge rocket was on the pad. Testing quickly revealed the stock 'chute I had used wouldn't even open let alone deploy at the altitudes & speeds I needed it to.

I quickly made a copy of the stock 'chute' and edited it a bit, to reduce the pressure at which it opened and made fully opened drag 50 (instead of the stock 500) so turning it into a more realistic drogue chute.

A few more tests & struts later and I present to you, SkyCrane VI!

http://imgur.com/a/9fJec#0

As you can see from the album I managed to "land" it in a high mountainous area to the west of KSP, although I cocked up the final descent part and ended up with a stuck cart!

I'm sure a repeat mission or 3 will yield a good result though hehe.

Joe

Edited August 12, 2012 by Joe Pinball