[Showcase] What is the largest Rovemax XL3 rover you've ever sent to another planet?

[Landge]

That is any planet or moon outside of Kerbin, Mun, or Minmus? Without using HyperEdit or Infinite Fuel cheats.

Here's my Mobile Science Base on it's maiden voyage to Duna. I decided not to add parachutes because I figured it would just take too many to do any good and I would have to use powered assist anyway. I used KAS radial struts to stabilize the transfer stage as it was launched separately from Kerbin after launching the Rover into LKO.

I did use part clipping due to stubbornness of parts that would attach by themselves but refused in 2 or more part symmetry. Here are a few picks of the mission...

Separating from the transfer stage over Duna.

Firing the Aerospikes to slowdown my orbital velocity. I swapped out the LV-909's for Aerospikes.

Entering Duna's atmosphere. The LV-909's work great on Mun but I didn't want to chance not having enough thrust to slowdown descent to Duna's surface.

Touchdown eminent!

Time to stretch our legs. The crew exits the rover.

After the planting of the flag ceremony the crew poses for the customary photo op.

Next stop... the Face of Duna! You guys did remember to bring a map didn't you?

Post your monster rovers here!

Edited March 9, 2014 by Landge

[turkwinif]

Oh god. Immediately after reading the title of this thread, I could only imagine what Whackjob would post...

On the other hand, I've made monsterously-large rovers for Eve exploration and Eve rocket ascents in previous versions. Sadly, the Kraken doesn't take too kindly to my space program for some reason (don't have any fancy pics like you, sorry)

Edited March 5, 2014 by turkwinif
Grammar

[ZeeWulf]

My Mun rover.

[Landge]

@ZeeWulf: Please read the qualifications. Your rover is rejected! Any planet OTHER than Kerbin, Mun, or Minmus. Must show pics on how you got there. No hyperedit or other cheats that places you in orbit or landing without having to travel there by good old fashion propulsion. No infinite fuel cheats either.

[Boris_T_Roach]

Piffle too small, thats only a medium sized rover to the finely crafted WhackJob beater recently landed on the Mun (and Duna)

Welcome to the land of the mun giants

And the same design landed close to the face on Duna

Both flown to their landing sites without hyper edit, part clipping, or other such cheats.

The mun lander went in with a suicide burn that just made it, and the Duna one had more parachutes than anything and still broke 5 wheels on landing

Boris

Lucky the quick fix crew landed near by in another ship

[stevism]

@ZeeWulf: Please read the qualifications. Your rover is rejected! Any planet OTHER than Kerbin, Mun, or Minmus. Must show pics on how you got there. No hyperedit or other cheats that places you in orbit or landing without having to travel there by good old fashion propulsion. No infinite fuel cheats either.

funny, don't seem to see pics of your takeoff / burn leaving kerbin. how can we be so sure you didn't use hyperedits / other cheats?

also, one could have infinite fuel or hack gravity for any portion of their flight...and then cover it back up for pics.

the best way for this is to post uninterrupted video and so i think your original submission (if you follow your own rules) must be rejected as well

[Merinsan]

@ZeeWulf: Please read the qualifications. Your rover is rejected! Any planet OTHER than Kerbin, Mun, or Minmus. Must show pics on how you got there. No hyperedit or other cheats that places you in orbit or landing without having to travel there by good old fashion propulsion. No infinite fuel cheats either.

If this is a Challenge, it should be in the Challenge forum and not General.

I have launched a rover about the same size as yours to other planets a few times. I'm not a screen shot nut so I generally don't capture screenshots. Getting to other planets is easy. Landing them is hard, especially since I don't like to keep the engines attached after landing - I always separate them to fly away and crash.

[sal_vager]

This is not a Challenge, it looks like a good thread for the Spacecraft Exchange though, moving!

[Landge]

funny, don't seem to see pics of your takeoff / burn leaving kerbin. how can we be so sure you didn't use hyperedits / other cheats?

also, one could have infinite fuel or hack gravity for any portion of their flight...and then cover it back up for pics.

the best way for this is to post uninterrupted video and so i think your original submission (if you follow your own rules) must be rejected as well

That's true. I was a bit rushed this morning and didn't have a proper mission album created yet. I don't have video capabilities so this is the best I can do. So these will have to be on one's word and the mandatory pics of course! Must have pics of your rover on other planets or moons. Not Kerbin, Mun or Minmus (May your conscience trouble you in your sleep if you are not honest at least )

Per your request here's the complete mission album from VAB to orbit and beyond.

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Craft File: Mobile Base

Mods Required: Kerbal Attachment System

Total Ship Stats:

Parts: 871

Mass: 1390.5 Tonnes

Electrical Capacity: 7,177

Liquid Fuel (Total): 95,400

Oxidizer (Total): 116,600

Monopropellant: 800

Rover Stats:

Parts: 418

Mass: 129 Tonnes

Electrical Capacity: 7,060

Liquid Fuel: 5,400

Oxidizer: 6,600

Monopropellant: 800

Optimal Crew Capacity: 3 (1 Pilot, 2 Lab Techs)

If you want I can post craft files of the Transfer stage/Fuel Tanker ship used to send it to Duna.

@Boris: All I can say is... How did you get that into orbit? What does it look like in the VAB or Launch Pad with boosters attached? What function or role does it play? For instance mine is a mobile science lab/habitat that has all the science and sensor stuff and provides long term living quarters for offworld missions.

Edited March 6, 2014 by Landge

[Voculus]

I hope this link works, but I sent this beast to Duna some time ago. I don't have an album of launch pics for proof, but since I have not a single thing to gain by lying, I hope you'll take my word for it. The thing was covered in chutes, which I removed after landing. (KAS)

[Razorcane]

These are some interesting rovers. I've personally never launched or landed a rover on another planet, because there is no logical way to do so.

[Exothermos]

What do you mean? NASA did it, Just copy that. If you mean "no logical way' regarding the Monstrous Rovers being posted here, I can at least see where you are coming from. These are HUGE!

[LordFjord]

(I know I've posted it a few times, but it fits here )

Besides, I haven't seen many (mostly stock) rovers of its size and mass (~200t). I recall someone sending a lot bigger one to Duna, but that had a lot lot more modded parts (still an impressive rover - eh - mobile base). Just cant find the link to it now.

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[Boris_T_Roach]

What do you mean? NASA did it, Just copy that. If you mean "no logical way' regarding the Monstrous Rovers being posted here, I can at least see where you are coming from. These are HUGE!

Mine is'nt.... it was supposed to be a mobile launching platform for my mun missions.

Then the thought occured..... lets strap that to the top of a rocket and see what happens when I launch it.........

Hint: Dont ever drink and play KSP.

The way they were launched is with my standard 7 mainsail cluster booster, the mun mission had a 2nd stage under the capsule that was refuelled in orbit, before going for a mun landing, it also had 3 retro packs fitted to the top for final descent,

the duna rover had a large docking plate under the capsule for a standard interplanetary drive unit to be docked and the afore mentioned parachutes for final landing.

Boris

And yes, I am working on a bigger rover......

[Landge]

@LordFjord: Excellent! And Eve to boot! My attempts were not successful, power assist landings on Eve without chutes didn't work out as well as I would have hoped for me. It was one of those "What did I forget?" moments that finally occurred to me as I prepared to descend to Eve's surface. lol

After a few failed attempts I decided to return home. It's still on mt todo list

[ndiver]

@LordFjord: how did you fixed the wheels ?

[Blue]

TILLE is my biggest rover mission. The MILLE family (Mobile Integrated Labratory and Living Environment) of rovers each weigh 28 tons and all have a crew capacity of 5. Their top speed is 13m/s (50km/h) on level ground at 1g, and are built to be extremely durable and capable of mounting slopes as high as 30°.

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They were first tested on the Mun. They have never been sent to Minmus because the gravity and surface friction there would be too low for them to be useful.

TILLE is the Tylo variant of the MILLE3.

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The crew were landed separately. If I ever were to redesign the TILLE-RELA, I would have had two more engines and 20% more fuel.

Edited March 6, 2014 by Blue

[Landge]

@Blue: TYLO! Now that's incredible! I've made it to Tylo with smaller rovers one-way. It seems no mater how much fuel I allow for landing, when I do land safely, I'm left with fumes. The experience of driving around on Tylo has been the best for me so far. (Goes to start figuring out how to redesign my monster rover for Tylo)

[LordFjord]

@LordFjord: how did you fixed the wheels ?

Get close to it with a Kerbal, rightclick the wheel -> repair.

Works as well on all other "broken" parts, for example broken landing legs. And you can also repack parachutes.

[kola2DONO]

Got this one...

[Landge]

@kolaDONA: lol! That's definitely not a monster rover but I guess I didn't make the title very clear. I'll fix that. However you didn't read the qualifications either. You didn't say where you landed (Kerbin, Mun and Minmus doesn't count). You didn't show how you got there (complete rocket with booster in the VAB or launch pad). Though this isn't a challenge, this thread is to showoff rovers that were built using the largest Rovemax Model XL3 wheels. Successfully build and land a rover with those wheels and qualifications then post your build here.

Edited March 11, 2014 by Landge

[allmhuran]

The problem I have with the XL3's is that large, heavy vehicles always sag in the middle. I don't even remember how I got this to stay rigid.