How to get a lander/rover to the Mun

[ChrisJM1974]

Hello all. Apologies if this has already been discussed elsewhere but I am having a design nightmare. I haven't been playing this game long; I need to find a way to get a returnable lander and rover to the Mun. My first problem is how to attach a rover to the lander, so I can 'deploy' the lander on the Mun?... or make a combined rover/lander?... I really don't know which way to go with this? How do others achieve this? Any pointers would be very much appreciated. Thanks all.

Edited May 27, 2013 by ChrisJM1974

[playec1992]

i used the sup assembly loader to build a rover in the SPH and then attach a Lifter i did in the Rocket assembly building, i don't know how i would do that today, maybe someone knows a trick.

Building a Rover in the Rocket assembly building is a nightmare.

To land the rover i used a normal lander and docked the rover underneath it.

Drop the rover, lift of again and land besides it.

I managed do land 80 Ton rovers like this.

[PringleMan]

i used the sup assembly loader to build a rover in the SPH and then attach a Lifter i did in the Rocket assembly building, i don't know how i would do that today, maybe someone knows a trick.

Building a Rover in the Rocket assembly building is a nightmare.

To land the rover i used a normal lander and docked the rover underneath it.

Drop the rover, lift of again and land besides it.

I managed do land 80 Ton rovers like this.

This is the standard approach right now. If you really wanted you could make them as two separate spacecraft and land them separately, as in undock them from each other in munar orbit and land them one at a time. A simple sky-crane should suffice for the rover.

Beyond that your options are limited. I suppose you could try to mount one to the side somehow, but that would make it impossible to recover to return. I think your best bet will be way playec mentioned. If you are desperate to have the rover return too, make it super super low profile so that you can drive it under the lander.

As for engines, pack a bunch of radial engines one there, or even better download Bobcat's HOME pack or the Lack Luster Labs pack and use the radial engines from there. The stock ones are too small and underpowered for what you need.

[ChrisJM1974]

Thank you very much for this... how do you do the landing tho? How do you arrange the engine(s)?? I would imagine it would be some kind of 'dropship'?

[Blipser]

Do the landing like a normal Mun landing, don't drop the rover until your stable on the ground. This means you may need to bring larger landing gear but it makes up for it in simplicity. For the engines use maybes 4 of the orange radial ones, mounted towards the bottom, they should be enough to get you of the moon with 1 tank and all Your gear. If your using a larger lander go for a pair of the large white radial engines and mount them in the same way. You may want to angle the engines (shift+w,a,s,d,q,e) to be sure they won't burn directly onto the rover.

[T3E]

Maybe this thread can give you a basic idea how to build a rover + a capsule

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/31390-How-are-you-landing-your-rovers/

Here are my own creations, not manned with kerbals but maybe you can get the Idea how to land.Also keep in mind that wheels have quite some impact tolerance, so it isnt that bad if they also hit the ground while landing. (EVA allows even to repair the wheels, if they break down)

Good luck

Edit: if you want to take your rover back home or anything like that, use instead of decouplers Docking Nodes.

Also keep in mind that if the gap is large between the stage before and after the rover , use plenty of struts to keep it stable.

[ChrisJM1974]

Thank you very much for all the excellent ideas; I'll see what I can engineer. Hopefully I'll try and post some images from the Mun.

[zanzibar196]

Here is a very good, non-apollo rocket/lander combo:

Flying the combo:

Demo how to get into lander and switch control:

[Stealth2668]

You can build the rover in the sph then copy the craft file into the vab to add the rocket part

[Rage097]

You can build the rover in the sph then copy the craft file into the vab to add the rocket part

But that would be cheating, now would it?

[MR4Y]

But that would be cheating, now would it?

Not really. The VAB and SPH are pretty much the exact same thing with a few differences.

[Stealth2668]

But that would be cheating, now would it?

If sub assembly loader isn't cheating, this isn't either. Pretty much the same thing except you're doing it "manually"

[Rage097]

I was making an apparently poor attempt a humor, hence the.

And I never said subassembly wasn't cheating. Don't put words in my mouth.