Anyone tried vertical rover thrusters?

[Talonsin]

I had placed several rovers on the moon but sadly, driving them there is terribad. If I turn to sharp or hit a bump it ends badly. I was thinking about adding one or two of the very small thrusters, the 1.5 thrust ones and using them to force the rover down into the surface. Has anyone tried this, does it work? Got any pics?

Thanks

Edited August 17, 2013 by Talonsin

[esinohio]

Oh for sure. I'd peek at the "Post Your Rover" mega thread floating here on the forums and you will come across loads of rovers that used some sort of small rocket motor or rcs thrusters. The combinations are just endless.

On a side note, remember just how fast you are actually going on those rovers that your having issues with! Going say 10 m/s doesn't sound fast until you remember you are on a small rickety rover on a surface with a fraction of Kerbin gravity. Then going that paltry 10 m/s ( ~22 mph ) suddenly becomes a tad more... tense.

Rover MegaThread here!

Edited August 16, 2013 by esinohio
Added a link to the Rover Megathread

[Skorpychan]

Needs moar rover. I've currently got something that'll do 23 m/s over kerbin, bouncing over the KSC runway without any issue. Carries two kerbals in a lander-can, has landing gear, lights, redundant scientific instruments, nuclear power AND solar panels AND batteries, and has very little in the center to stop it fitting in a rocket.

I built it to do a polar expedition on Kerbin. It's essentially a mk2 lander-can with girders and ruggedised wheels.

[Brevillance]

Heres a picture of my own rover

It may be a fair bit larger then your looking for, but its able to fit 4 kerbals comfortably too, and has a lot of extra stuff, mostly for looks, some for function. No vertical thrusters but it doesn't suffer to badly as its relatively heavy and pretty wide.

[capi3101]

Yeah, people have done this; it's even one of those situations where folks have found ion engines useful.

Me, I just build my rover heavier...

[Talonsin]

That ion engine idea might do the trick! Thanks mate.

[capi3101]

No problem. Keep in mind that ions take a great deal of power to function constantly.

[nhnifong]

After first switching my rover controls to IJKL so they don't interfere with attitude control, I just drive with my right hand on the IJKL , and my left hand on the WASD so I can quickly correct any problems when my rover pops into the air.

[esinohio]

That is one nice rover! Getting all those plate aligned must have taken you a long time. I love the detail.

[Tripzter]

No vertical thrusters but it doesn't suffer to badly as its relatively heavy and pretty wide.

Weight doesnt matter, only center of gravity relative to the height of the vehicle and the track width.

[Amoun]

What about traction? I noticed I was having problems with rovers and traction (or maybe power of the wheels?). Was thinking about adding ion engines for extra push maybe when climbing something

[Brevillance]

i used RCS for that, as you notice, or may have trouble noticing, the only RCS i have on it are on the bottom. Pressing H gives it a boost for those large hill, or N to slow it down if it gets a bit to wobbly. Adding ion engines would certainly be useful, but very slow given their almost insubstantial thrust output, i think it would be better to just use RCS ports. (note, my Rover has Xenon cans on it, but they are for looks because the RCS ones look strange on the rover)

If anyone wants to i can post a DL link for my rover, the final version of it anyway (the pic i posted is out of date) for testing or actual use.

[Redshift OTF]

I definitely use RCS on rovers. 1 on each corner forcing the rover on the deck when things get hairy really does the trick and returns traction to the vehicle.