How can i send a small refuel rover to duna

[oehxfudmf]

EDIT: just use klaw

Edited April 21, 2023 by oehxfudmf

[king of nowhere]

slow down the flow of consciousness, your post would be much more readable with a few dots and commas.

so, if i get it right, you have a ship stuck to the surface of duna without enough fuel to come back, and you want to send a rover to refuel it. i assume you have docking ports on your ship, by the way, as those are needed for refueling.

in fact, the first, most difficult part about doing a refuleling by rover is that you must be able to match the docking ports. in space that's no problem because the ships can turn around, but on the ground, if you put the ports at different elevations, or different inclinations, there's no way you can dock. for this reason, if you have the breaking ground expansion, i suggest putting the docking port on top of some robotic parts that can move it up and down. you can skip the problem using the claw, but it does not allow refueling normally.

that said, making a rover is not difficult, as you can do what you do for rockets. what i suggest for a simple mining rover is the following

- go in the spaceplane hangar

- put a fuel tank, a convert-o-tron, and another fuel tank behind it, so the convert-o-tron is between the two tanks

- place a pair of ruggedized wheels on each fuel tank, using mirror simmetry

- place a command module on one end of the thing you built, some batteries, an antenna. sprinkle some solar panels on top, and a couple radiators. reaction wheels if they aren't already included in the command module.

- put a drill on the same end

- put a rocket on the other end of the rocket. it must be powerful enough to lift it in duna's atmosphere.

- put a parachute on top of the rover, on the opposite side of the rocket.

- put your docking port somewhere that will allow you to resupply your craft.

now you just need to launch it into orbit. since it already needs a fuel tank to act as refueler, and it needs rockets to land on duna, you may as well use those rockets also for interplanetary travel. you don't need anything else. when landing on duna, your parachute will deploy and slow you down, and if you placed it correctly, it will also point your rocket backwards at an angle. fire it to slow down your descent, then you should land with the rear wheels first, and fall down upright. try to land not too far from your other ship, driving a few km on th surface is no problem but crossing the whole planet is another endeavor entirely.

of ncourse you can do a much better rover than this. i just suggested the simplest thing that could work

[Entropian]

6 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

i assume you have docking ports on your ship, by the way, as those are needed for refueling.

No.  Klaws can be used as well.

[king of nowhere]

18 hours ago, Entropian said:

No.  Klaws can be used as well.

yes and no. by default they cannot be used to refuel, but they can be enabled. if i got it correctly, you are not supposed to use claws for refueling and it is considered a mild cheat by most.

[Hotel26]

On 9/5/2020 at 6:08 PM, king of nowhere said:

by default they cannot be used to refuel, but they can be enabled. if i got it correctly, you are not supposed to use claws for refueling and it is considered a mild cheat by most.

"Objection, Your Honor!!"

Claws can be used to refuel and also to pass crew members.  Inasmuch as KSP allows this to happen (outside the Cheat menu), it is permissible.

A claw, like a dock, is used to join two vessels together as one.  At that point, transfer of crew and fuel is subject to KSP laws applying to a single vessel.

KSP is a game.  The game defines the rules of the game.  In reality, that's how games work.  They are fun.  Not real.  KSP is just a game, cleverly-tuned to be fun.

On 9/4/2020 at 5:28 AM, oehxfudmf said:

im new to the game

Welcome to the Wonderful Wide World of KSP, oehxfudmf!  (king of nowhere is correct about those dots and commas!  Think of dots as Liquid Fuel and commas as Oxidizer: together they will launch your posts to record altitudes!)

Edited September 9, 2020 by Hotel26

[Spricigo]

On 9/5/2020 at 8:57 AM, Hotel26 said:

"Objection, Your Honor!!"

Claws can be used to refuel and also to pass crew members.  Inasmuch as KSP allows this to happen (outside the Cheat menu), it is permissible.

A claw, like a dock, is used to join two vessels together as one.  At that point, transfer of crew and fuel is subject to KSP laws applying to a single vessel.

KSP is a game.  The game defines the rules of the game.  In reality, that's how games work.  They are fun.  Not real.  KSP is just a game, cleverly-tuned to be fun.

 

Fully agreed.

Some don't even consider the cheat menu itself  as cheating in cases of glitch, minor mistake like forgetting to deploy antenne/solar panels or testing purposes. Let alone what mods (which are also allowed by KSP) bring to the game.