what is the point of rovers on moons/planet with low gravity?

[lammatt]

i aint talking about the unmanned ones for scientific exploration, but for crew transportation within the planetary base

when your kerbals can travel super fast with jetpack anyways.

and worse yet,

the rover wheels virtually have no traction on Minmus'es lakes

(edit: for people who is going to brainlessly reply: it must be the torque produced , try to switch to docking mode, blahblahblah.... there is NO pod/capsule on my rover, just the seat. plus, i think they fixed the flipping/toppling issue with rovers in staging mode in 0.22.)

Edited January 14, 2014 by lammatt

[Epthelyn]

Considering how close Minmus (and Mun) are to Kerbin I've used them several times as testing grounds for larger rovers. If what you're driving around is heavy enough, it can drive on Minmus

I'd never build a dedicated Minmus rover though; as you said, Kerbal jetpacks are far more efficient.

[Kasuha]

Jetpack fuel reserve is limited, while rover's fuel source is unlimited if you do it right.

I don't know about lakes but I had no problems at all travelling on Minmus' hills with a rover. All I had to do was to decouple rover controls from torque controls and to switch SAS on/off as needed to keep ground contact.

I think my total distance travelled on Minmus is about 100 km.

A funny detail is that I managed to knock one wheel off the rover at one point and I was still able to travel about 20 km to the destination on three wheels thanks to SAS being able to keep the rover level even without one wheel.

[Arsonik]

I've had some very good success with rovers on the Mun. I've visited Minmus with small-medium rovers and never enjoyed it. You can get away with rocket powered rovers on Minmus but it usually ends catastrophically if you actually want to have any fun. I've had small sized rovers on the Mun that can do insane speeds and float over long distances, the medium rover wheels absorb shock really well. At least the modded ones with TV Aerospace (I think that is the mod). Stock rover wheels work on the Mun as well... but... Doing 20m/s just isn't fun, is it?

[Loerelau]

On Minmus I had a heavy crane to transport the different parts of my base (am not too good in precision landings). It worked quite well, but I did add around 10 tons of extra weight so it would not fly into space!

[FITorion]

I just make flying RCS powered "rovers"

Landing the rover and RCS fuel tank base for it to refuel at.

"roving" around

Edited January 14, 2014 by FITorion

[Monger]

A jetpack only works for quite small distances. With a rover you can explore the whole moon within relative safety. Also, you can take other things with you, like science equipment.

Then again, Minmus is more like a big asteroid. It is easier for your designs to ignore gravity there rather than rely on it.

[lammatt]

On Minmus I had a heavy crane to transport the different parts of my base (am not too good in precision landings). It worked quite well, but I did add around 10 tons of extra weight so it would not fly into space!

A jetpack only works for quite small distances. With a rover you can explore the whole moon within relative safety. Also, you can take other things with you, like science equipment.

Then again, Minmus is more like a big asteroid. It is easier for your designs to ignore gravity there rather than rely on it.

this is the thing i was doubting.

if i have to make the rovers heavy enough to give a reasonable grip to the ground, why would i want one; you dont really want an needlessly heavy payload, do you?

i can just jetpack all the way anyways...(while as you can see in my pic, i land my things within 50m next to each other)

the rover in the pic cant even gain speed as if the wheels cant have any grip on the ground... =_="

if i want to explore (aka land at the easter eggs), i can just land exactly there to begin with anyways....

Edited January 14, 2014 by lammatt

[Arsonik]

this is the thing i was doubting.

if i have to make the rovers heavy enough to give a reasonable grip to the ground, why would i want one; you dont really want an needlessly heavy payload, do you?

i can just jetpack all the way anyways...(while as you can see in my pic, i land my things within 50m next to each other)

the rover in the pic cant even gain speed as if the wheels cant have any grip on the ground... =_="

Drive in docking mode. Your probably torquing your front wheels to much to gain any acceleration. Report back with effects.

[lammatt]

Drive in docking mode. Your probably torquing your front wheels to much to gain any acceleration. Report back with effects.

(yawn... i like people's first impression on this kind of threads on rovers... there must be someone saying "it must be the pod's torque")

nah,

i have no torque producing part in my rover as you can see in my pic.

just the seat, no probe head nor a capsule there.

and, i dont think that kind of issue still even exists now, my understanding is they actually fixed that ALREADY in 0.22

I just make flying RCS powered "rovers"

Landing the rover and RCS fuel tank base for it to refuel at.

ya, a hovering saucer using RCS would be a good alternative to a car on Minmus i guess.... will try next time. thx for your idea.

Edited January 14, 2014 by lammatt

[Loerelau]

I did find a picture of my rovers. Both were actually working fine, just be gentle with the controls and don't take corners :

http://i.imgur.com/ic16ptT.jpg

[Arsonik]

(yawn... i like people's first impression on this kind of threads on rovers... there must be someone saying "it must be the pod's torque")

Sorry, should have assumed this was a troll post when you asked the point of rovers, only for bases, and posted a picture of your base that fits in a 50m radius..... Try walking?

[lammatt]

Sorry, should have assumed this was a troll post when you asked the point of rovers, only for bases, and posted a picture of your base that fits in a 50m radius..... Try walking?

if the car works, why would i walk.

but the problem is, the car doesnt work as well as i wished

(and i was surprised it doesnt...because as i recall, my rovers worked fairly well on Minmus last time i tried; tho i was using the bigger wheels and the cars are much heavier in previous installs; this is the first minmus base i set up in 0.23 because had to wait for various mods to update and work stably)

and i am asking about that...which i think it's a relevant question so to speak

this was not meant to be a troll post, but if it ends up it is....o well... ok... i can jetpack all the way any day, screw the cars.

[Lazro]

The reason that people use rovers is to move extremely long distances, but with Minmus only having one biome that is easily reached by rover they're a bit pointless unless you have two bases that you need to go back and forth quickly from.

[Sof]

You're trying to drive over ice on a moon with very little gravity. What exactly is supposed to provide the friction needed? (Not sure if KSP models different ground frictions)

Build a heavier rover to go on smaller moons and planets.

[Major "zubb" Tom]

Slap a seat on this and there you go.

Theres a decent chance you won't be able to rip the wheels off this one.

[Superfluous J]

IMO it's either close enough for jetpacks, or far enough for a suborbital hop in a rocket or a flight in a plane.

The only thing I use rovers for at all is cranes and such in a base.

[arcanise]

the nice thing about rovers and having solar panels/RTG's is infinite "fuel"

[Kasuha]

I tried my rover on Minmus "lakes" and had no problems at all with it. It was fun.

[Skorpychan]

Why would you use RCS, though? Surely, liquid-fuel engines are more controllable?

I'm seeing a design with a single orange stack engine on a minimal body, traveling in suborbital hops.

[tntristan12]

Why would you use RCS, though? Surely, liquid-fuel engines are more controllable?

I'm seeing a design with a single orange stack engine on a minimal body, traveling in suborbital hops.

In most circles that's called a lander.

[Tank Buddy]

That's exactly the point. On some bodies, rovers are impractical or flat out useless, but these are limited to Pol, Bop, Gilly, and Minmus. In most cases, rover wheel powered rovers are not effective enough to travel around. You just simply can't get enough traction with that little gravity.

[CalculusWarrior]

The reason that people use rovers is to move extremely long distances, but with Minmus only having one biome that is easily reached by rover they're a bit pointless unless you have two bases that you need to go back and forth quickly from.

With 0.23 Minmus now has multiple biomes.

[Specialist290]

One thing I've noticed that helps with light rovers in general is keeping them strictly front-wheel drive by turning off the motors on the rear set. With or without torque, having the motors active on the rear wheels has a tendency to push the opposite end of the rover right off the ground. Making sure only one set of wheels is actively steering might help as well.

[Padishar]

With 0.23 Minmus now has multiple biomes.

Yes. This is the development of my 20+ ton, 4 biome landerover that finished off my tech tree with 2 trips to Mun and 4 to Minmus...

<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/KEuFg/embed"></iframe>

If you try driving at high speed without decoupling the driving controls from attitude controls and then try to stop by braking and going backwards at the same time, it will sometimes do a forward roll and end up back on its wheels, usually without any serious damage (and usually with a very big grin on Jeb's face). I've not yet got around to updating it with the rugged wheels but I probably will sometime soon.

Mk 6 craft file

Pad.