Jeb's Bill-Powered Rover

[Geschosskopf]

Inspired by Tw1's attempts have a Kerbal climb the "Stairway to Heaven", Jeb turned his mind to making a Kerbal-powered rover. So he scrounged some parts and created what he called the Belly Flopper Mk I.

'

The core of the machine was the ladders on the deck in the middle with posts at the ends to push against. Thus, both acceleration and braking. Sadly, no steering control unless he quit pushing to tell the probe to do it. And because the probe was facing up, it didn't do a very good job of this. Also, because Jeb had no idea how much thrust he could make, he built it as light as possible.

This worked surprisingly well. So well that it led to the discovery that Jeb could easily push the vehicle faster than the little wheels could stand. So Jeb walked back to the shop and created the Belly Flopper Mk II by the simple expedient of putting on sturdier wheels.

But this way of mounting the lander can caused Jeb to experience a Hell Kraken attack when he tried to jump down onto the Belly Flopper. This problem, however, was easily solved once Jeb got back from Hell, and the Mk II took off like a bolt of lightning.

Unfortunately, Jeb was easily able to tear the wheels of this version, too. What he needed was wheels that could stand high speeds. Besides, others around KSC were claiming he wasn't really pushing the vehicle, the powered rover wheels were doing it. So when Jeb finished the long walk back to KSC again, this time he used aircraft wheels for the Belly Flopper Mk III.

This was the most successful version yet. It was still quite fast, although not as fast as the Mk II, but the wheels held up. Jeb easily reached the ridge at the edge of the plateau west of KSC and then climbed it with ease. Then he went tearing off across the high plain. Eventually, however, he got tired, so was able to test the braking mechanism for the 1st time. And it worked great, although he then had to quickly get the probe core to set the parking brake.

Jeb then wanted to get off and plant a flag to mark this success. There was the question of how to get back aboard, however, because the Mk III lacked a boarding ladder. So Jeb simply retracted the landing gear. This led to the discovery of a new problem.

Kerbals on ladders don't go well with retracting the landing gear. Jeb decided he needed a chair for this. But then he couldn't pedal the thing. But if he was in a chair, he could steer. All he needed was to con somebody else into pushing. And then he could enjoy the ride a lot more. And then he wouldn't have to walk home wearing his Belly Flopper like a hat

anymore......

Later that day:

Jeb: "Hey Bill, wanna see my cool new rover? I call it the Belly Flopper Mk IV."

Bill: "OK."

Bill: "Jeb, this thing's got no wheel motors. It can't move."

Jeb: "It's got a new type of motor. To see it, you have to get on this ladder between our seats and look through that tiny hole in the center of the deck."

Bill: "OK."

As soon as Bill got on the ladder, Jeb snapped the shackles around his wrists and ankles, trapping him there facing backwards. Then Jeb pulled the cattle prod out of his pocket...

Jeb: "Hyah, mule! Giddiup!"

Bill: "OUCH!"

And away they went, Bill sweating and straining and Jeb steering with 1 hand and wielding the cattle prod with the other.

Soon they reached the slope up to the plateau. But for all Jeb's strenuous efforts with the cattle prod, Bill just couldn't get the Mk IV up the hill. But fortunately, the Mk IV allowed Jeb to steer better. As the Mk IV petered out and started rolling back down, Jeb turned and then applied the brakes, stopping to take the slope at a shallower angle. And this time, Bill managed to get to the top.

Jeb was perplexed. He'd gotten the Mk III up this same hill no problem. It must be that Bill was just weak. It couldn't be that the Mk IV was too heavy. But just to make sure, Jeb decided to test it out on the highest hill atop the plateau.

Again, Bill proved unable to take the slopes head-on, confirming Jeb's suspicions that Bill was just out of shape from eating too many snacks. It required a long, spiraling route but eventually the Belly Flopper Mk IV reached the summit. Good thing, too, because the batteries in the cattle prod were nearly exhausted. Jeb put it aside, set the parking brake, and enjoyed the view. Simply amazing! He had a rover that had gotten all this distance without a motor or using any fuel or electricity (other than the cattle prod).

Jeb decided to plant a flag so he retracted the landing gear and jumped down. And while this didn't create any noticeable glitch at the time despite Bill still being chained to the ladder, a glitch had apparently happened. That's because when Jeb planted a flag on the very apex of the hilltop, the flag teleported out of his hands and ended up half a mile away, floating about 15 feet above the ground.

Which is rather a shame because Jeb had attached a lovely message. Now nobody will ever be able to read it because the flag's up out of reach, besides not being in the right place. But Jeb had memorized the message and kept telling everybody about it when they got back to KSC that night. It read:

KPV Mountain

The Divine Jebediah chose this spot to demonstrate the awesome power of his Kerbal-Powered Vehicle, which will usher in a new Golden Age for all Kerbalkind. He graciously allowed his base and unworthy slave Bill to accompany him on this epoch-making journey.

THE END

[Tw1]

That's pretty cool, it's useful that landing gear now is capable of steering. How fast did you manage to get it?

I like the MK III best, that looks like it could have some practical exploration use with a few modifications.

[Geschosskopf]

That's pretty cool, it's useful that landing gear now is capable of steering. How fast did you manage to get it?

I like the MK III best, that looks like it could have some practical exploration use with a few modifications.

You don't get a speedometer reading when controlling an EVA Kerbal so a lot of this is guesstimated.

In the VAB, the right-click info says the little wheels fail at 20m/s. They failed so I'm assuming that's how fast it got. It just skidded to a halt.

The wheels on the Mk II say they fail at 60m/s so I'm assuming that's how fast it got. It was at least going fast enough to bounce, flip, and partially explode over a long distance when failure occurred. This bouncing was due to not all wheels failing quite simultaneously as they had on the Mk I.

The airplane wheels on the Mk III and IV never failed so when they got going fast, I switched to the probe core to check the speed. The fastest I observed for the Mk III was 35m/s. The fastest I saw for the Mk IV was 29m/s but that was going downhill. I have no real idea what their max speeds are on level ground, although they can't exceed 120m/s or whatever it is that airplane wheels fail.

I'm wondering if having multiple pushing Kerbals would increase speed. Next chance I get, I'm going to get the EVA Followers mod and see . And if that does indeed work, I've got several plans for grandiose projects to exploit that