Rover Test Track And More

[Calvindog717]

Hello, I came up with this idea fairly recently and posted it to the KSP Subreddit. It got a good bit of attention, and quite a few people liked the idea. I'm curious to see what you guys think.Here is the original post on reddit, and I'll copy what was said below:

So, I was testing a rover for use on the mun recently, and I was thinking to myself why isn't there an area of KSC dedicated to testing rover designs? I thought about it some more, and the idea grew. Here are the main concepts.

Basically, when you want to test out a craft in the current game, you can just launch the craft and try it out around the KSC. this feature would add the option to run a trial of the craft in different environments. So, say you had a low-gravity lander or rover, and you wanted to see how it would perform on another body before launching it. This would let you try out the craft beforehand, and make sure everything works as planned. I think the best way to access the trial areas would be from the space center view, by clicking on part of the R&D facility. However, it could also be done through the main R&D ui or through the editors.Here are the three trial areas I thought would be the most useful:

1.Rover Testing track: you would spawn on a track nearby the KSC, it would look something like this or this .Primary use would be for testing the maneuverability, traction, stability etc. of your wheeled vehicles (may also be used by Jeb and his dirtbike, after hours). some of the obstacles could have displays next to them that show, for example, the max incline your rover was able to drive up, or speed over obstacles.

2.Low Gravity Simulation Room:This area would allow you to test your vehicle in a low-gravity environment. I'm imagining a room that has a floor which is capable of rotating, with a cable suspending the craft, similar to how NASA tested different spacesuit designs for the lunar gravity . Changing how far the floor rotated would change the simulated gravity, something you would set before the trial began.

3.Wind Tunnel: this one may not be as useful as the first two, but stil a cool idea. this would really only be useful for atmospheric flight craft, but you could theoretically test the aerodynamics of any craft you put in it. basically, a large wind tunnel that allows you to test the drag, maneuverability, lift etc. of atmospheric craft. There could also be an option to set the approximate altitude and makeup of the air in the tunnel so that you could, for example, accurately test a glider or descent craft for use on Eve/Duna/Jool/Laythe. Here a few pictures of NASA wind tunnnels to get a sense of what I'm picturing: 1 2 .

After ending the trials, You would be shown information about how your craft performs. this info would vary for each of the trials (max slope/ max speed/ cornering G-s/ etc for rover trial, simulated TWR/simualted weight in kerbin units for the low-gravity trial, total lift/drag/etc for wind tunnel trial). Optionally, you could also be awarded some science points for a trial of a certain craft, as these tests theoretically help the Kerbal engineers design better parts.

So, that's my idea, any questions/comments? Would anybody else want something like this in the game?

TL;DR Adding Rover Testing track, Low-gravity simulator, and Wind tunnel to R&D facility, where you could try out rovers/landers/aircraft before actually launching them!

[Cypherwraith]

This isn't a bad idea. I'm tired of testing my rovers on the perfectly flat surface of the runway.

[Dartonal]

Yea I want this a lot!

[vexx32]

Good ideas, but a wind tunnel would be of very limited use until they get around to overhauling the aerodynamics simulations, in my opinion.

[Calvindog717]

I agree about the wind tunnel bit, this was brought up by somebody on the Reddit post as well.

[LethalDose]

HarvestR has already stated a wind tunnel building is a possibility he's interested in.

[blueshark15]

I think it would be a bit more kerbal to simulate different gravities with a giant electromagnet.

Edited December 16, 2013 by blueshark15

[vexx32]

Magnetism is a potential way to do it, but getting the simulation gradient of the "gravity" right with magnets would be hell. You'd have super strong "gravity" at the bottom of the room, and practically none if you jumped a little bit too high.