Rovers are [bleep] on Minmus.

[TimePeriod]

I've come to the conclusion that rovers are friggen useless on Minmus. They tumble over constantly, they have parts ripped off everywhere and I cannot phantom how I would need a rover on such an annoying planet(YES I KNOW ITS A MOON).

Its truly frustrating to plant a long term developed rover flown from kerbin only to realize its friggen useless! (Venting complete)

Who in their honest mind would waste time on building rovers to Mimus?

Q & A

Q - Well I've got this handy-dandy ultra light rover which can survive just about everything including an asteroid impact, I'll just give the craf-

A - I KEEEL YOOOUUU!!!

Edited February 14, 2014 by Vanamonde
Language.

[SkyHook]

Minmus is not very fun because of the extremely low gravity, really. I don't visit very often. If you are going to get around on minmus, however, suborbital hoppers are very effective. Design one with about 1500 delta-v and it will last you a very long time.

[LordFjord]

I agree, rovers aint fun on Minmus.

Landed SSTOs however ... ARE a lot of fun to "drive" around there, as the surface is usually very flat.

You can easy get around several biomes with ~30-40 m/s at x4 warp without breaking stuff.

[Kasuha]

I don't have a picture handy but I had lots of fun riding a rover on Minmus. Of course the matter is having a good rover and decoupling rover steering from torque control. On Minmus and other low gravity bodies you need both to keep good contact with ground, but you need to control them separately.

Suborbital hoppers are probably more useful - you can go faster with them. Rover's 50 m/s is not good to get anywhere far away. But they need fuel.

[allmappedout]

I love building a rover that tumbles horribly out of control! Usually i build my rovers with the most impact tolerant parts (usually the cubic struts, etc), so you can have some hilarious loss of control moments, and, like all good crashes, still walk away from them. Plus minmus is so easy to get to, that even if you do happen to crash, you can always send another!

[Dirty Bob]

I drove my rover/hopper down from elevated biomes to the flats a couple times while gathering science to save some fuel. I learned quickly that you ride the brakes all the way down.

[Wjolcz]

If only rover wheels had tweakables for suspension, I would use rovers a lot more.

[Moar Boosters]

For minmus it's probably easier to make a flying rover than one that drives across the ground.

Obviously it'd be fuel limited unlike a rover, but because of the low gravity it doesn't take much DV to fly to another location, so you'd get quite a bit of exploration out of even a small vehicle. There's lots of options for propulsion as well. It could use nukes, RCS or maybe even Ion engines.

[LordFjord]

Hmmm, an ion "rover" with plane wheels. This forum is like an endless pit full of inspiration

Btw, another cool thing with my plane I posted before:

The reaction wheel was enough to lift its nose up for "launch". Alternatively, just speed up driving uphill -> easy "jump" to orbit.

Landing was also easy, just hoover a few meters above ground, point the nose towards the horizon and sink gracefully with the help of RCS.

I like Minmus.

[Deadpangod3]

I've tried making a ramp for rovers on Minmus, but the rover always flipped over XD

I WILL GET TO ORBIT MINMUS!!!

[WafflesToo]

I've heard some people have had luck mounting upward facing thrusters to help keep the wheels stuck to the ground. Maybe something really mass efficient like an ion thruster? .

Myself, I mostly use the Kerman's jetpack and a KAS container full of science gear for my Minmus excursions.

[Brofessional]

This is how you're supposed to get around on Minmus.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Brofessional

[MajorThomas]

I've tried making a ramp for rovers on Minmus, but the rover always flipped over XD

I WILL GET TO ORBIT MINMUS!!!

Finally a job for Bo & Luke Kerman.

[Spartwo]

Hmmm, an ion "rover" with plane wheels. This forum is like an endless pit full of inspiration

That used to be commonplace, some refused to let go..

[Dispatcher]

I've come to the conclusion that rovers are friggen useless on Minmus. They tumble over constantly, they have parts ripped off everywhere and I cannot phantom how I would need a rover on such an annoying planet(YES I KNOW ITS A MOON).

Its truly frustrating to plant a long term developed rover flown from kerbin only to realize its friggen useless! (Venting complete)

Who in their honest mind would waste time on building rovers to Mimus?

I did, just last evening. And I feel your pain. My combination lander/ rover/ return vehicle does a fine job of rolling down hill. But even with the torque disabled and SAS off (redundant?), in rover mode going up hill (i.e. powered drive) the thing loved to flip and spew parts. I see an opportunity to improve the design by simply placing some of the fuel tanks more laterally and lower, thus lowering the CoM. I'll let you know how it turns out, and when I get time maybe put up some images.

[WafflesToo]

This is how you're supposed to get around on Minmus.

http://i.imgur.com/aoKCg6Vl.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/SNa7g7Ul.jpg

I love it!

[Deadpangod3]

Finally a job for Bo & Luke Kerman.

Congratulations, you won the game, excuse me while I try to replace my laugh box.

[Jank]

Been thinking of making a rover with a few ion engines pointing skyward to keep traction... but I suppose the electrical cost would be prohibitive.

[The Jedi Master]

-snip-

.Craft, please?

On Topic: Try the buggy wheels, they work a lot better than the other wheels.