Solar panels as landing gear!

[chd]

Turns out, Gilly's gravity is so weak that as long as you don't fall over too fast, even the entry-level 1x6 solar panels will hold up your ship... :-)

[Xyphos]

Gilly is actually a class F (maybe G?) asteroid.
Orbital velocity is ~33 m/s which means, if you run fast enough and jump to sub-orbit and fart your way to full orbit, you're stuck until your next burrito.

Edited October 23, 2020 by Xyphos

[Mikenike]

@chd, whats with the massive relay section??

[chd]

3 hours ago, Mikenike said:

@chd, whats with the massive relay section??

Probably just a little overbuilt... :-) This was originally an orbital comm relay, temporarily repurposed to deliver some parts down to Gilly.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Xyphos said:

Gilly is actually a class F (maybe G?) asteroid.

I would doubt, as the Comet sizes would then be bigger. The largest comet is like 8 kilometers (I.) I would say that Gilly is an P or T sized asteroid based on the asteroid scale at hand.

14 hours ago, chd said:

Turns out, Gilly's gravity is so weak that as long as you don't fall over too fast, even the entry-level 1x6 solar panels will hold up your ship... :-)

snip

Well that's awesome. Especially since landing gear usually bounces you off Gill. Maybe will use in future  

[Mikenike]

35 minutes ago, chd said:

Probably just a little overbuilt... :-) This was originally an orbital comm relay, temporarily repurposed to deliver some parts down to Gilly.

With command sections??? Never heard of a relat with one, but ok, I guess.

33 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

I would doubt, as the Comet sizes would then be bigger. The largest comet is like 8 kilometers (I.) I would say that Gilly is an P or T sized asteroid based on the asteroid scale at hand.

Well that's awesome. Especially since landing gear usually bounces you off Gill. Maybe will use in future  

Be careful, solar panels have one of the lowers impact tolerences in the game. One of my Kerbals ran into one, at full speed, so 2m/s and it evaporated in thin air, with a small explosive puff.

[DarkBrave_]

I wonder how stable they are, and if they actually work in most situations.

[Snark]

In the same vein, Communotron-16 antennas actually make pretty good landing gear for teeny-tiny probes.  Just go add their "toggle antenna" action to the "Gear" action group and they work great

They're a bit fragile, so only use them on small ships; and they have less friction that a landing-gear leg, so you're more likely to slide downhill if you land on a slope.  But they're extremely lightweight, they extend to a nice long length, and you can stick 'em pretty much anywhere.