The problem of rovers with Rovmax Model 1 wheels on Minmus' frozen lake

[Cesrate]

When I was accelerating my small rover with two pairs of Model 1 wheels, the motoring-wheel side was just "lifted off". I can only achieve low speed. How to… solve this without using super-heavy design?

[gompasta]

Make all wheels motored?

[Cesrate]

Make all wheels motored?

I was just pressing W.

[Francesco]

ion engines thrusting downward could help. or rcs linear ports, with ASAS activated.

[Cesrate]

Wait… Maybe this is because the WASD also control the reaction wheel in Command Pod? On planets with low gravity like Minmus the torque provided by Command Pod is big enough to "lift" the rover.

[OdinYggd]

Yes. The default WASD keys also control your pod's reaction wheel.

I just recently lost a mun rover to this problem- the 0.7 ton rover was so light that it began to tumble end over end on the slightest application of pod torque, and smashed both RTGs depriving it of power.

[Temstar]

Switch to docking mode and use translation only controls, that way you don't send any pitch/yaw/roll command when you drive.

See picture for example:

[Nao]

Wait… Maybe this is because the WASD also control the reaction wheel in Command Pod? On planets with low gravity like Minmus the torque provided by Command Pod is big enough to "lift" the rover.

That's probably the case, use docking mode while driving to prevent that.

edit: ninjae'd haha

[Mode7]

I had a very similar problem when I put my first rover on minmus. The gravity is very low and momentum can be a huge issue. Heavier rovers seem to be much more difficult to control at speed since gravity is giving you such a small amount of traction on the surface.

From the work I have done I would say lighter is better whenever possible on a low gravity planet.

[NuclearWarfare]

Hm... I haven't put a rover on minmus. I'm going to go see what I can do.

[Deadpangod3]

Try remapping your rover controls to jikl j to turn left, L to turn right, I to go forwards, and k to go backwards, it works for me

[Tanya Sapien]

The solution I've found for low-traction environments is a "Gravity drive" basically several upwards-pointing ion thrusters, one above each wheel on the vehicle. Assuming there's adequate power, the thrust they provide is very useful for extreme low gravity environments like Gilly, Bop and Minimus where a sneeze could put you in orbit. On Gilly it's impossible to drive effectively without one. Interestingly enough, on Minimus, when I turned the rover upside down in a Dukes Of Hazard attempt, it turned it into a VTOL which was very interesting to fly until the solar sails got sheered off and instead of Luke Duke I was doing my best GiR impersonation *insert manic screaming here*

[Hav0c13]

I'm currently trying to re-land a mobile command base on minmus cause I lost the first one due to low grav tumbleweeding. I haven't tried this yet so if anyone what has any idea if this would work, please let me know. Perhaps it would help if you use soft controls. (Caps-lock) It eases into turns in space so maybe it will do the same for rovers? I'm going to try tomorrow once I get back to minmus.

[Geschosskopf]

In general, rovers on Minmus are only really worth the trouble if they're big and heavy, like for lugging Kethane around. Small, light rovers to move just a Kerbal or 2 around are really a waste, both in the dV needed to get them there and the trouble they have getting traction. I mean, you can fly all way from the ground on Minmus to LKO with just your EVA jetpack, so that alone is capable of letting your Kerbals explore pretty much the entire place without need of a rover.

But if you're worried about running out of jetpack fuel, or want to send out a group of Kerbals without having to move them 1 at a time, you can make a "super jetpack". Just tape however many lawn chairs to a small RCS tank/thruster assembly and fly it around as you would Kerbals alone. Either way, this is a great opportunity to learn how to do EVAs in space, learn translation skills later useful in docking, and get the hang of translating hovering landers. Just never get up very high or go very fast unless you really mean it, because of the slightly terrifying ease with which you can accidentally achieve escape velocity.

But OTOH, the "super jetpack" also has other practical advantages. First, it can serve as a lifeboat for the whole crew, like if the main lander tips over (which is rather annoyingly easy to do on Minmus). Second, if you put a small probe core (and power) on it, you get the navball and other instrumentation you don't have on EVA, which makes it easier to get back to the lander (using the target function) and also to get back to Kerbin if need be.

[4nxs]

I remapped the rover controls to the numpad (8 4 5 6). That way I can use RCS translation to basically press the rover to the ground.

[Hav0c13]

I just managed to land my mobile command base on Minmus and can confirm that it doesn't entirely solve the issue but that using soft controls (caps lock) does help with control.

Also two other things worth note (I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this yet) but if you has a rover with a pod or probe module, you can right click it and disable your reaction wheels by "toggling torque." That way, the rover won't try to pitch.

[Rarity]

Uhhh...don't most command pods have a right click option to disable reaction wheel torque? Seems like it'd be much easier than remapping tons of keys.

edit: ninja'd

[Brotoro]

I find the capsule torque (in conjunction with ASAS) to be very useful in keeping a rover from flipping out of control, or keeping it in control if it gets gets airborne, so I wouldn't want to disable the torque. So I remap the four keys for right-left-forward-backward.

[Tiron]

Protip: Even in translation-only docking mode, WASD will still control the pod torque's rotation unless you turn RCS on as well. Even if the rover in question doesn't have RCS.

Edit: Errr, it didn't show up on that last rover I was messing with, by I swear I was using one with a reaction wheel and it'd still go nuts with the torque unless you turned RCS on...

Edited September 1, 2013 by Tiron

[EvilotionCR2]

I remaped the wheels to IJKA,works fine.

[Scarecrow88]

Build a hovercraft and avoid the problem of torque reaction completely.

[Scarecrow88]

Double post

[Motokid600]

Roving on low-g bodies can be sketchy. Simply because its not really roving. It's hovering. Stopping is damn near impossible. Downforce is highly recommended and yes drive in docking mode.

[Tank Buddy]

I just assign the rover control to the arrow keys, this way I can control torque and drive separately.