New(?) Way to Solve Vertical-to-Horizontal Problem, Kerbal Style

[Geschosskopf]

Imagine this is one of those pistachio commercials, for the day with KSP is mainstream enough that many in the TV audience will get it So also imagine the rover is green when it comes out .

"Jeb cracks it Kerbal-style"

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With thanks to KW Rocketry, KAS, and RollKage for the vehicle and FAR for making the fairing necessary and thus the need to solve the V-to-H problem in a new way. The whole purpose of the rocket is to deliver the rover; it's not going home again so why not tip it over? Ejecting the fairings gives gratifying explosions . It IS rather cooler if you don't use the upper leg to catch the rocket, so some of it explodes, too, but this has about a 1/3 chance of slamming the rover down so hard 1 or more tires go flat. Flight testing revealed the need for some struts between the rover and the inside of the fairing, not shown in these early pics, but the struts go away when you unplug the winch, so no problem.

Sometimes the rover even survives catastrophic staging errors on launch .

[jordanjay29]

Sometimes the rover even survives catastrophic staging errors on launch .

I hate those. It helps to know where to tweak my rocket and add more struts, but there are those failures even when the rocket is strutted all to hell. Bleh.

Anyway, great job on this mechanism. I'm curious what would happen if you had two legs pointed the same way and simply retracted one. Would it fall more gently and have a greater chance of preserving the cargo?

[Varyon]

Zomigawd that's brilliant. I'd stick Sepratrons on the rover and maybe honk the horn General-Lee-style as the lift vehicle crashes and explodes around it.