How Do I Put A Rover On The Mun?

[The Jedi Master]

My skycranes wobble around. My vertical landing transporters are too heavy to slow down in time. Some rovers don't even get off Kerbin. So please: help me put a rover on the Mun. It does not any specific rover, just something manned. Seats vs. Command Capsule is a matter of your choice. If I could have a .craft download, that would be great. Thanks!

Edited May 24, 2013 by The Jedi Master

[Reavermyst]

The best way is to make sure your launch stage is not to lengthy. The whole idea of the launch stage is to give enough thrust to push out of the atmosphere, so building out instead of up will help you out a bit. This ensures your center of gravity isn't too high from your center of thrust and decreases wobbling.

Thought I'd drop a quick tip for you. hopefully this helps!

[Galacticruler]

Also, try to use as few struts as possible and still keep rigidity.

[Read have Read]

4500 Delta-v to orbit Kerbin, 1000 delta V to get to and orbit the Mun. 600 delta V to land and take off from the Mun. Make sure your skycrane and rover is balanced, check the CoM and test it on Kerbin.

[georgTF]

There's better skycranes than these two... but they did the job for me.

Alternatively, esp. for heavier rovers, consider launching them separately then have the skycrane pick the rover up in orbit aroun the Mun or wherever you're landing. Be a good idea to have a fuel depot there to have someplave to refuel and dock the crane. Also a good excuse to build and launch stuff.

Note the long structural piece leading up from the heavy rover. Some skycranes have a habit of blowing stuff up if the engine exhaust hits your cargo... sigh. Of course i learned that by having wheels blown off.

[Shrike42]

You can also make your rover from a lander can, and get rid of the skycrane all together.

Or, use an oscar tank and some rockomax radials on a small rover to take it off the top of another craft...

Or, mount the rover (or two, for symmetry) on the side of your lander craft and drop them off.

The skycrane is just one option. It's certainly awesome looking, but if you just want a rover on the moon, there's a number of ways to do it.

If you're having troubles getting things to the mun, that's a different issue all together. Rovers don't have to be very heavy, so if you can't get the payload to the mun to start with, you might want to look at your launcher and transfer stage.

I'll give you my simple manned landercan rover design, just need to upload it to spaceport.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Shrike42
Didn't read well enough to get the point.

[The Jedi Master]

You can also make your rover from a lander can, and get rid of the skycrane all together.

That's a good idea, I'll try it. I'll report back tomorrow. Thanks!

[georgTF]

You can also make your rover from a lander can, and get rid of the skycrane all together.

Not to nitpick, but the rover would then have to be perfectly symmetrical or else the craft will veer off in strange directions during a burn. It's not a bad idea for a rover that's something like a rocket with wheels, but a more blocky, truck-type rover would not be easily controllable with a central engine. Using several radial engines is a good idea though, but i find them to be very thirsty.

If you add a docking port to make it possible to refuel the rover, the radial engines can be a real joy. You can fly the rover almost like a helicopter and certainly have more impressive crashes than with a purely ground based design. And you can really cover distances on low gravity moons like Minmus.

[Shrike42]

Not to nitpick, but the rover would then have to be perfectly symmetrical or else the craft will veer off in strange directions during a burn. It's not a bad idea for a rover that's something like a rocket with wheels, but a more blocky, truck-type rover would not be easily controllable with a central engine. Using several radial engines is a good idea though, but i find them to be very thirsty.

If you add a docking port to make it possible to refuel the rover, the radial engines can be a real joy. You can fly the rover almost like a helicopter and certainly have more impressive crashes than with a purely ground based design. And you can really cover distances on low gravity moons like Minmus.

Yep. That's what I did. I use the small rockomax tank and four rockomax radial engines, and that allows for mun lift off. The major downside to the design I'll be posting is that getting it off the transfer/landing/refuelling stage is that you need to hover the rover off the top, but I've compensated for that by doing a lot of work on the system's durability. It's still possible to blow it up by going too fast, but it's also got a lot of survivability so long as it remains upright... and it can self-right, as well.

I compensated for this by adding armor and a some lander legs to the top, so it can cartwheel instead of crash if it starts to roll.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Shrike42

[Commander Zoom]

A small light rover (like some posted in the Rover Megathread, including my own) can be stuck on the side of a lander, with a decoupler to eject it when necessary, without greatly changing the CG. It's asymmetrical (unless you bring two), but it works.

[kahlzun]

i have a rover system that can land you safely ANYWHERE you choose: tylo, eve, duna, anywhere. (tylo may require a 100x100 km orbit)

the fuel tanks are mounted to sepratrons which launch them safely away, and on low-gravity moons, you can probably land-and-get into orbit again (~3500dV)

Mechjeb is recommended for Tylo landing, the tolerances are a little tight...

.craft here

Edited May 24, 2013 by kahlzun

[The Jedi Master]

It doesn't turn very well, but it's landed! Thanks!

[Shrike42]

Great!

In terms of design, what you need to keep in mind is that the higher the rover's center of mass, the more easily it will roll from side to side. A narrow wheelbase will also make it easy to tilt over.

In your future designs, you can try using the pylons and I-beams to make a wider platform for the rover, which will let you drive more safely.

Also, you can use the structural panels to 'armor plate' the rover against impacts (don't block the hatch or the windows), and add lander legs to the TOP of the rover to flip it back upright or prevent the command module from hitting the ground headfirst.