They See Me Rolling: A Rover Discussion

[Wanderfound]

*drools* .craaaaaaaaft

Seconded.

I think a Mun bike is going to be tomorrow's design project.

[Wanderfound]

I struggle to find a way to bring a rover along with my lander. I'm not good enough to land a rover separately. Any tips on how to land a combo rover/lander (or how to build it)?

There are a few ways to get landers down. The simplest is probably to attach the rover vertically to the top of the lander (be careful to balance the mass) then lower the landing struts on one side and decouple to drop the rover onto its wheels. You'll probably blow some tyres, but they're easy to fix. Or you can make the rover into its own lander. A rover with detachable thrusters along its sides (a few of the mini radials or some of the new monoprop engines should be enough) shouldn't be any more difficult to set down than a conventional lander; just make sure that the thrust is balanced around CoM and that you've got an upwards-facing probe core or docking port on board so your navball is aligned right for landing.

Alternately, skycrane. Build a lander with a rover slung underneath it (arranging the lander jets so they don't fry the rover). Land, decouple, take off again.