How do you take your rovers along?

[panzerknoef]

Some recent designs of my rockets made me wonder. How do you take your rovers along with a manned mission? Usually i put them on the underside of my craft and use radially mounted engines to get to the surface. But i would really like to see your more inovative designs on rover attachments and deployements!

I'll start with my recent EVE-recon mission who had a rover attached to the side of it's capsule:

( here's a link to the post of my eve mission just in case you wan't to know something more about it: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/59381-A-one-way-mission) Now lets get this thread started, show off you awesome designs!

Edited November 26, 2013 by panzerknoef

[GROOV3ST3R]

I take mine with a garage of their own:

I find this approach works pretty good. It accommodates it's own lander and leaves me with 2 rovers and a place to store them (though I have yet to make a dockable design). Once you get past the fact it looks a little odd and not very aerodynamic, it actually flies pretty well.

[xoknight]

Launch: 700 ton rocket

Cruise Module: 6 nukes

Landing/Cargo Module: Duna Capable

Cargo/rover/fuel...: 8+ ton cargo

[xoknight]

Got thing to Eeloo by just mounting it to the side of a Mark 2 Capsule.

[Eric S]

Rather than take my rover with me, I combine my lander with a rover. It actually works out fairly well. It's not perfectly balanced, but it's close enough that SAS barely has to try to keep it on target.

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[panzerknoef]

Oh my, these designs look pretty awesome! I really like the idea of taking a complete garage though. Seriously people, keep up the good work!

[deadelitezealot]

whats wrong with underside

Edited November 26, 2013 by deadelitezealot

[Assault Bunny]

I'm in the process of making a SSTO spaceplane that IS a rover too:

Getting close to finished, I hope! Full thread: HERE

[Cupcake...]

I usually stick them underneath but putting one on top didn't seem to go too badly.

Cupcake...

Edited November 26, 2013 by Cupcake...

[celem]

Mine lately have been independant. Just stuck to a rocket and then ditched in orbit around their destination to deorbit and land themselves. Bodywork is generally pancake tanks and they land on poodles. Sent off a phone, but i'll edit in some pics when I get home

[leafty]

I used something similar to a skycrane to land mine on the Mun.

The bottom part is not that useful but you can used it to deorbit and slow down and feel comfortable with lots of fuel left in the crane for landing. Landing gear is here to avoid damaging the rover while landing (as it will fall a little when you detach the crane).

[GROOV3ST3R]

Advantage of the garage is, you have a cool place to store (and possibly refuel) your rovers as well as it's a sturdy box that can take some hits if you botch a landing - hopefully leaving the rover inside intact. If you mess up in a rover, it will likely get sent into a wild spin and break apart - though that's only really a risk when there is no atmosphere.

Downside is you will need to get more things into space with you and strut it up properly.

I'll leave you with this LINK. It's a showcase of my current Mun Base modules and how everything works together. You can download all files. ^^ Or use them as inspiration for making your own - eitherway, good luck, it's easier than it looks

[panzerknoef]

yeah skycranes are prettymuch THE best way to land rovers on some place!

(btw i added the picture now in the starting post, no more link)

[lunait]

I like small rovers. As long as I don't use any bulky equipment on my rovers, I can usually make them small enough to fit on the underside of the lander within a standard 2.5m fairing. With the new 0.22 landing legs that don't flip around when extending, you can build some very streamlined rockets! The lifting and transfer stage can then be built downwards from the underside of the rover (using lots of struts!).

(click on images to enlarge)

Edited November 26, 2013 by lunait

[BigD145]

I've put rovers on top of landing craft and then popped them off with detachable small engines. Just hover and places like the Mun will slide out from underneath you and you can just gently lower yourself without ever tilting over.

[Panzerbeard]

I usually just attach them underneath the lander like so:

That being said, I've only ever put rovers on the Mun (except for one attempt at Minmus.. never again...) and used fairly small, low-profile designs, so I'll need to rethink my method for larger stuff.

[The Destroyer]

If it's small, it goes underneath. If it's big, I do this

[fireflybuzzbuzz]

I almost always skycrane mine, with exeption of these two:

Appologies for the nightime landing :/

[panzerknoef]

That looks fancy! Well practically everybody came up with things more awesome than mine. But that's exactly the point of this thread! Mine wasn't designed to look cool in anyway though, it was just ment to be light and practical. I do think i'm gonna copy some of these awesome looking designs!

[shael6636]

Ive been fine tuning my unmanned science rover / probe and the associates skycrane for the past few days.

Currently its still in final testing (off Kerbin) 3 of these are on their way to Moho, Eve and Duna.

The Skycrane is designed for Both atmospheric and Vaccum landings as you can see with the chute positions in the pics below and with the 4 x Rockomax 48-7S for powered descent when required

Inital testing (last night) i was able to land both the skycrane and rover in Kerbols ocean (not intended) without any damage or loss of parts to either the skycrane or the rover.

Its also designed to be able to redock with the Skycrane by lowering the landing legs, pushes it straight back up to the docking port.

I'm hoping on airless bodies like Moho, Gilly etc the rover and skycrane can be retrieved and reused but we wll have to see.

The only Mods as such on this design are MechJeb, Kerbal Engineneer, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Aviation Lights (i like pretty blinking lights), the KDEX (Kerbal Dust Expriment) Mod (for the extra science) and ISA MapSat.

I like the enhancements the mods provide

So while its not "stock" there are no structual mods on either the lander or rover.

[Darnok]

Clunky design, but it works

[Exothermos]

wait... can you then reattach those rovers to the downward facing docking ports and then drive your whole lander around? Because that is ridiculous and I love it.

[Darnok]

Yes, this lander is designed for that

There are two docking ports for each rover, one standard (small) size and one junior (tiny), making this connection stronger and you don't have worry about docking angle, because if both ports are connected you docked in right angle

More screens

[Sickle]

All my rovers, except the Mun rovers use Skycranes. Mostly with the 45 unit Fuel tank and a Chute' using the Small orange Radial rockets. If I'm landing on a body without an atmosphere EG: Tylo, I use a 3 Stage skycrane, one to decelerate, another to maneuver to a suitable landing zone and then the landing rockets which is a slightly bigger stock skycrane.

[cfds]

Skycranes? Pfff, you keep the landing stage below the rover, land upright:

And then tip over: