Putting a rover on a lander.

[painking]

I don't have any pics to show you because I keep scrapping lander design after rover design after lander design, but I have a lot of trouble figuring out how and where my rover will attach to my launcher in a non complicated manner. It sounds just stupid to launch a rover up by itself, and if it's gonna be a manned rover then obviously some kerbals need to come with, so now I gotta get it on the launcher and go down with the LM. Any advice on how to make these things fit in a convenient manner?

Edited July 3, 2013 by painking

[rryy]

Try building a lander with radially attached engines that can have the rover decouple underneath it and use the I-beams to extend the landing legs below it. Then, launch the entire thing upside-down so the lifter doesn't break the rover.

Something like this:

Edited July 3, 2013 by rryy

[maackey]

This is my favorite lander by far:

Unmanned rover with docking port on top (there is also a version of the rover with a skycrane -- top mounted attachment nodes come in really handy)

The rovers are attached sideways on to the (now detached) strut, because they really can only be attached from the bottom. They pop off, and the kerbals then flip them right side up manually. This may be trickier for heavier rovers, but attaching them at a slight angle helps deployment.

I was always curious how the lunar rover was attached to the LEM, and so I looked it up and found this: http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum29/HTML/000731.html

Edit: You don't need to flip the whole thing over when launching if you strut it. I have just 4 quantum struts at the bottom of my MuL which help reinforce the attachment to the lower stages of the lifting rocket, or bigger payloads (eg. hitchiker's pod for rescue missions)

Edited July 3, 2013 by maackey

[Castun]

Here is a couple shots of how I did mine. I also used radial mounted engines, and the rover would just detach by decoupler once landed. Then, the radial tanks & engines would separate on takeoff using a central engine underneath the main lander body.

[Geschosskopf]

There are several ways to attach rovers to landers.

1. The "Coathanger Method", with the rover dangling between the legs (ahem...) of the lander as shown in the pics above, and sandwiched between the lander and lower stages initially.

2. The "Sidemount Method". Here, you have 2 identical rovers hanging off opposite sides of the lander for a balanced load. A really good way of doing this is with the KAS mod.

3. The "Tilt and Eject Method". The rover is on top of the lander, which lands and then tips over however much is necessary to dump the rover off.

4. The "Skycrane Method". Here, the rover has its own lander separate from the crewed lander. The rover can thus be above or below the crewed lander, whatever works best. Anyway, the combined lander-rover-skycrane assembly reaches orbit at the target and then breaks into its 2 components, which land separate. The skycrane takes the rover down, drops it just above the ground, then flies off to the side and crashes. The rover sits there, then the crewed lander comes down after an orbit or 3 aiming for the same place. Once it's down, drive the rover to the lander.

5. The "Roving Lander Method", where the lander has wheels built-in so can roll around by itself without a separate rover. There are a number of ways to do this.

Here's a roving lander I made. It proved to have insufficient dV to get home from Mun. Used Damned Robotics parts to swing the arms with the main wheels to the desired angle.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Geschosskopf

[painking]

Ok, thanks for the advice, I'll see if I can't do it this time around.

[NoMrBond]

If you've got something pretty large you want to ship, then a parallel setup might be needed

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[RedKosmos]

Here's a roving lander I made. It proved to have insufficient dV to get home from Mun. Used Damned Robotics parts to swing the arms with the main wheels to the desired angle.

Oh my, that is sexy. I've been looking for some ideas for Damned Robotics. Thanks!

[Panichio]

And building them small will help you out a lot!

Look at the 'Rover + Skycrane' stock ship and you might be able to learn some useful stuff.

[KerbMav]

Until now I prefered mounting them under the landing module and docking them upsidedown onto the stage below.

But for a planned bigger "bus rover" I will have to think of something else - most likely the skycrane option.