Turns out the Mun is quite large, or getting around on the Mun, how?

[Oddible]

So I finally got a rover to the Mun thinking I'd be a boss and scan every biome... turns out the Mun is actually quite a big thing and even getting out of the tiniest of craters which I landed in took forever. Jeb gave up and headed back to the lander for a disappointed trip home. I spotted the arc just outside the big crater in which my landing little crater was located and REALLY wanted to go there but as it took like a half hour of driving time just to get half way out of the little crater, alas it was not to be. Turns out the rover tested excellently and was quite stable on Mun, exceeding speeds of 6m/s with no roll-overs! See pics below.

My question is, how do you get around on the Mun? Do you fly to the different biomes? Make a grasshopper ship and just flick around to them? Is there some sort of faster more reasonable rover if I get something a bit bigger? Were my land speeds about normal (6m/s for fear of flipping if things got much faster)? I slowed to about 1.6m/s while trying to accelerate out of the crater rim. Looking for some guidance as this was my first attempt at extra-Kerbin land navigation.

[blizzy78]

Make a grasshopper ship and just flick around to them?

Pretty much this, and perhaps leave enough fuel to get home.

[Superfluous J]

I don't, really. I've found a rover is too hard to control, and a grasshopper is too much work.

I haven't done it in .22 yet (don't have all the parts yet ) but here's how I explored Mun back in ... I don't know the version. .20 maybe. It's rovers but when I do it again it'll be landers. This was the mission I decided to not bother with rovers any more. When I get to it, I plan to drop 5 landers, one in each crater and one on a hill somewhere, and transmit back a bit of science from each one.

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[Oddible]

I don't, really. I've found a rover is too hard to control, and a grasshopper is too much work.

I haven't done it in .22 yet (don't have all the parts yet ) but here's how I explored Mun back in ... I don't know the version. .20 maybe. It's rovers but when I do it again it'll be landers. This was the mission I decided to not bother with rovers any more. When I get to it, I plan to drop 5 landers, one in each crater and one on a hill somewhere, and transmit back a bit of science from each one.

Did you just throw these rovers on the ground? And they didn't break up into pieces?

Part of what I was trying to do was get a Kerbal to each biome, EVA and surface samples.

[kiwi1960]

FYI, the first guys on the moon didn't have a rover, that came later.

so how far did they walk from the lander on that first flight?

well..... walk? Hop or skip more like...

They never went further than 100 feet from the lander.

And you are upset why? Did you think you could walk around the mun from east to west and arrive back at the lander in an afternoon?

This is why I don't call it a game.... its a freaking adventure... now you will want to go back and explore every inch of it.....

Just don't give the keys for the rover to Jeb, he keeps losing them and last time, Bob found them near a rock a few hours later....

[Oddible]

FYI, the first guys on the moon didn't have a rover, that came later.

so how far did they walk from the lander on that first flight?

well..... walk? Hop or skip more like...

They never went further than 100 feet from the lander.

And you are upset why? Did you think you could walk around the mun from east to west and arrive back at the lander in an afternoon?

This is why I don't call it a game.... its a freaking adventure... now you will want to go back and explore every inch of it.....

Just don't give the keys for the rover to Jeb, he keeps losing them and last time, Bob found them near a rock a few hours later....

Uhm... perhaps you missed the mirth in the title and much of my post... why is everyone so angry on the forums today... Jeb don't like Mondays!

My post was focused on the actual game... particularly the addition in .22 of several biomes on the Mun, and asking people for the ways they've explored them. Land navigation is sub optimal. It's big, the Mun.

[Sirrobert]

Mun is pritty big yea, and trying to get around with a rover would take forever.

What I'd do is hop with the lander, using sub orbital 'flights'. Just make sure you have enough deltaV left to get home.

Or sent multiple rockets, and land each in a different spot

[Specialist290]

I put this little thing together in 0.21, back before it was actually useful for something other than showing off:

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The rover has ~500 m/s delta-v when fully fueled, which is enough to cover quite a bit of ground with good piloting. It has a couple of mod parts (KAS Connector destination point for easy refueling, plus a Kerbal Flight Engineer chip to give me in-flight data), but the basic rover design itself is all-stock. That said, some of the parts appear to be fairly high up the tech tree in Career Mode, so you might have to do a little creative jury-rigging of replacement parts if you want something like this earlier...

Edited October 21, 2013 by Specialist290

[sharpspoonful]

Use the DEMV rovers. problem solved.

[boomerdog2000]

Not really, the Mun is still large and roving is still slow.

[Xiphos]

Here's a rover I built in .19, which was the final result of many many revisions for balance, speed, and range. It is capable of speeds well over 50m/s, but I usually keep it around 40m/s depending on terrain. The rocket engines will boost you up over any hill. It is built pretty well and can withstand some good sized jumps but not too big on the mun. What I've noticed is if you're going downhill and you hit a few jumps you'll start going faster and faster so watch your speed doesn't get too high. Also, you can 'hop' with this vehicle as well since the engines are powerful enough for a sub orbital trajectory.

This rover is still my Go-to when I need to cover ground fast. Especially since the rover wheels are just too slow. I have tried many rover designs that include the new rover wheels but they just aren't the same. There is even a docking port on the end for refueling ops. You could easily adopt the science parts on there and have yourself a nice little buggy. PM me for the craft file.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Xiphos