Rover + Lander Construction Tutorial Request

[Titus Jeb Worshipper]

I am having a real mental block when it comes to building a workable rover (preferably manned with the new seat part we now have) and a way of landing it on moons/planets. I have browsed through these forums looking for tips and inspiration but nothing is really clicking in my head, its very frustrating and a little odd, surely its not that hard! Anyway, screenshots and descriptions aren't helping much so could I request a video tutorial, using small words to make a basic functional rover and lander and then get it to a body. If this exists already simply point the way and receive my most profuse of thanks, I will make my savior a Kup of Koffee in a special mug

Many thanks you beautiful people you

[Panichio]

Hopefully this thread will have something interesting for you. You can always check the Spacecraft Exchange for inspiration as well. My biggest tip is to always try and keep it symmetrical, or at least have a way of balancing the center of mass so that when you put it on a lander, it won't make the lander unbalanced.

[Titus Jeb Worshipper]

yeah I had a look through that one earlier, I read pretty much all rover threads as I see them pop up, I have no idea why all this won't click in my head, I feel if I could watch it happening in front of me it would go some way to sorting this out for me. I thanks you for your response though, much appreciated

I have no problem building weird and wonderful rockets and landers to go places and see things, just rovers have me stumped, its bizzarre

[falofonos]

was the first skycrane vid I found on youtube.

That's pretty much how I would land a rover.
In terms of building the rover I'd recommend a wide axle length and low center of gravity with some landing legs mounted on the top surface to right it if you turn too sharply and flip it.
Test driving with high speed turns around the VAB before you take it into space is worthwhile just to make sure it won't explode or decapitate your kerbanauts when it rolls.

[Panichio]

yeah I had a look through that one earlier, I read pretty much all rover threads as I see them pop up, I have no idea why all this won't click in my head, I feel if I could watch it happening in front of me it would go some way to sorting this out for me. I thanks you for your response though, much appreciated

I have no problem building weird and wonderful rockets and landers to go places and see things, just rovers have me stumped, its bizzarre

The one thing I can't do is SSTOs. We all have one thing that just beats us.

Keep playing around with designs and testing and improving. Eventually something will click, and it will be very satisfying!

[Uberick]

I don't know how to make videos, but it seems there's two big ways to land a rover. . . the first is to come up with a clever skycrane(like the above), or make a rover that's capable of landing. . .

This is an example of the latter. I put this on duna with a combination of chutes and a powered landing, and it has enough delta v to reattain orbit(it has to ramp off a hill to get airborne though)

In regards to actually designing a rover, I highly recommend a wide wheelbase, nuclear generators for power(so you can drive on the night side, don't forget to put on lights!), and either a manned command pod or RCS so you can use the torque to right yourself if you get air and start to flip over.

If you really want to be fancy, designing a rover that can take off and land on its own is pretty fun. . . the small radial engines usually give enough thrust to lift a rover, but the 909 is the best choice if you can find a place to fit it, since it has much better ISP than the radial engines. Being able to fly(or better yet, attain orbit) is good for exploring faster(planets are huge).

[tempes156]

I would recommend checking out Scott Manley: http://www.youtube.com/user/szyzyg

[Caelib]

My best advice is to keep it simple. Building a sky crane is very challenging and difficult to operate correctly with a quicksave festival. Duna is a good first target for a rover because it has an atmosphere (albeit very thin) so you can use parachutes.

I just did one today, here is the design I use that does not require a sky crane .. instead, I used a Jr. docking port (with struts) below the lander module:

Next all you need to do is board the seat, then decouple the docking node!

[Titus Jeb Worshipper]

Thanks for the help folks, I do love this community, I'll take your advice on board and just keep playing around, it'll click at some point hopefully biscuits for everyone!

[Death Engineering]

Is this a one-way mission lander?

[Caelib]

Is this a one-way mission lander?

Yeah. There's an entirely different set of problems to overcome with trying to create a landing module, rover and a return vehicle.

[Boffinbox]

Yeah. There's an entirely different set of problems to overcome with trying to create a landing module, rover and a return vehicle.

It is possible however.

http://i.imgur.com/AAxUGfz.jpg

The trick is to turn your lander INTO the skycrane, and land with the rover.

http://i.imgur.com/55Zc7ec.jpg

then once the rover is deployed, you just fly to the side a bit.

[magnemoe]

My best advice is to keep it simple. Building a sky crane is very challenging and difficult to operate correctly with a quicksave festival. Duna is a good first target for a rover because it has an atmosphere (albeit very thin) so you can use parachutes.

I just did one today, here is the design I use that does not require a sky crane .. instead, I used a Jr. docking port (with struts) below the lander module:

Next all you need to do is board the seat, then decouple the docking node!

As you use an docking port you can drive under the lander, retract the legs and dock to the rover again.

Yes its dangerous as the lander can tip if it don't dock. I tend to use two sets of landing legs here, the upper set is to hold the lander if docking fails.