Moving an Asteroid... On Minmus

[RocketPilot573]

So for my first asteroid "redirect" mission, I decided to land an E class at my minmus base, but I landed 4.3 Km away...

My question is, HOW do I move a 2000 ton, 50 meter wide boulder? My first idea was to send over a huge rover and lift the asteroid onto it with a few rockets. Unfortunately, the claw is so wobbly that I had no control, and when the asteroid did get on the rover, the poor thing was painfully crushed (even in Minmus's gravity, it still weighs 100 tons).

So do you guys have any other ideas? Maybe I could attach a rocket car to the asteroid with a tow bar and try to pull it?

Edited April 6, 2014 by RocketPilot573

[Technical Ben]

Flight and or rolling seems the only way.

Or can you rocket drag it?

[Tex_NL]

You might be able to shoot some KAS grapplers at it, anchor yourself to the ground and winch it in.

[700NitroXpress]

Plan A: Attach rockets onto all 4 sides the best that you can, you can then attach one command pod on the top and control it from there. Once all this is done, you should be able to pilot the rock just like a ship and you can activate all of the engines at once. If you also attach a bunch of the large SAS modules, the combined SAS strength should be enough to keep it stable during flight. You're only moving it a short distance so you don't need much fuel or much power to the engines.

Plan B: If you don't want to bother with doing it the normal way, you could turn on hack gravity, attach a small ship to it and then push it over to your base.

[Claw]

It might be easier to move your base.

[RocketPilot573]

It might be easier to move your base.

Interestingly, my base is mobile... But I like where it is now, an the asteroid is on a slope.

Anyways, light defiantly isn't an option, an E class is so heavy that it's ridiculously hard to keep straight. If I could fly it, then I wouldn't have landed 4 Km of course in the first place. I still think a rocket car would be the best option, but I'm not sure how I could give it enough fuel...

[Claw]

At 100 tons, you'd need a lot of wheels and a really wide wheel base. Unfortunately I think the structural parts would be too bendy and the center of the rover would take most of the weight. If you manage to design something, I would keep a docking port or something sticking out so you can put more fuel on it if needed.

You could try a sky crane approach too. Although that sounds pretty tricky with a rock that big.

[Random Tank]

I love that the Kerbal is just looking at it and thinking: 'Well..... crap'

Can't you make some super beefy Skycrane? It's quite easy to fly stuff on Minmus so it shouldn't be too hard to land on... If you are/will go modded you can use KAS placeable struts to secure it...

Or make a massive rover on stilts that can drive over it and pick it up....

[cantab]

Can you simply dock a rocket sideways to it and push it along the surface?

[SpenSpaceCorp]

all you need is MOAR BOOSTERS (and some super wheels that are impervious to weight, along with an unbreakable chassis) XD

[RocketPilot573]

Or make a massive rover on stilts that can drive over it and pick it up....

That... Might just work! The easy part is building a rover 50 meters tall that can support 100 tons. However, once I get it clawed to the asteroid, I'll need to raise the claw so that the asteroid doesn't drag on the ground. Maybe some kind of mechanism that can lower and raise the claw (I don't use KAS anymore)? The problem is, lifting a 2000 ton asteroid on Minmus requires over 1000Kn of thrust (basically a Mainsail).

Oh, and here's I picture of my previous attempt:

Edited April 6, 2014 by RocketPilot573

[Claw]

I love that the Kerbal is just looking at it and thinking: 'Well..... crap'

Hahaha, He does look like he's hanging his head...

[Random Tank]

That... Might just work! The easy part is building a rover 50 meters tall that can support 100 tons. However, once I get it clawed to the asteroid, I'll need to raise the claw so that the asteroid doesn't drag on the ground.

It's a problem, granted; but you could use retracting landing gear to lower and raise it... Though that movement may not be enough for the claw to grab...

It's a long shot, but here's my other solution:Have the claw mounted via 2 docking ports on the rover; disconnect the ports when you are over the Roid, so the claw drops and attaches to it; then (here's the dodgy bit) use 4x physics warp to drop the rover to pick it back up (if you didn't know, some not-very-rigid constructions can flex and droop on 4x warp, which could lower the frame enough to pick the klaw+roid up); if this is not enough you could add some upwards pointing engines in combination to force the rover frame downwards to dock with the Klaw.

The only problem with this technique is that if the rover is flexible enough to droop, it may not be strong enough to pick the roid up...

Try it with 3 orange tanks on Kerbin first; they weight about the same as the roid on Minmus; so if it can pick them up on Kerbin it *SHOULD* be able to pick the roid up on Minmus...

[FREEFALL1984]

I'm assuming the journey between roid and base is mostly flat, if so you could make a rollers. This would consist of about a dozen MK1-2 command modules (for their high torque weight and impact resistance) connected together with ASAS units in between each one to form a long roller. Then at each end several dozen solar panels are attached to XL girders to provide power. You could also create a secondary slave roller from fuselage parts and sit it under the other side of the roid. now the powered roller simply slides under the far side of the roid and using its huge mass 54 tonnes + power supplies and its 364kn of torque it simply rolls the roid to wherever you want it.

[Endersmens]

Maybe you should get KAS everything and put landing gear on the asteroid it self and then claw it from behind horzontally and drive it over.

or if not that make a lot of small probes with landing gear and a claw and dock them all over.

[Technical Ben]

I'm assuming the journey between roid and base is mostly flat, if so you could make a rollers. This would consist of about a dozen MK1-2 command modules (for their high torque weight and impact resistance) connected together with ASAS units in between each one to form a long roller. Then at each end several dozen solar panels are attached to XL girders to provide power. You could also create a secondary slave roller from fuselage parts and sit it under the other side of the roid. now the powered roller simply slides under the far side of the roid and using its huge mass 54 tonnes + power supplies and its 364kn of torque it simply rolls the roid to wherever you want it.

Best idea ever. Make them RCS if torque is not enough. Make them mainsails if RCS is too weak (you only need to get it rolling + stop. So a little fuel tank for each might do. This is mainly because the game physics make a lot of things slide like on ice).

[FREEFALL1984]

Best idea ever. Make them RCS if torque is not enough. Make them mainsails if RCS is too weak (you only need to get it rolling + stop. So a little fuel tank for each might do. This is mainly because the game physics make a lot of things slide like on ice).

I often make rovers from rolling command pods, since they tend to have far better power and traction than rover wheels although a little care is needed to not break the joints between components, the only minor issue with this idea is getting adequate power to the thing, especially since it'll be operating in the shadow of the asteroid. Also I'm not sure what you mean by "make it mainsail" since having any engines on it at all would prevent it from turning.

Alternatively, if you have the inclination, attach two MK1-2 pods together with an FL-T800 tank between them and then attach lots of radially mounted liquid fueled engines in such a way that when throttled up, spin is generated forcing the "roller" under the roid. Although I feel that using a fuel tank with engines attached as a roller to lift and move a none uniform 100t roid is a little, risky and will likely result in a fiery death.

Another out of the box suggestion would be to make an unmanned hydraulic lifter comprised of a small tank with about 12 heavy duty lander legs attached to both the top and bottom and some micro rover wheels attached to the bottom. the lifter then rolls underneath the lowest point of the roid and the gear deploys, this should give you about 4m of lift with enough power to start the ball rolling so to speak. if the roid is too heavy, simply lock up the suspension and it should either move, or destroy the lifter.

Finally you could try creating a long bar of girders with a vast number of legs attached to the top along the front edge, then several dozen standard wheels on the bottom. the idea being that the suspension in the legs would prevent the weight of the whole roid being applied to a single component and would instead spread it across the weight of the pusher, which will prevent structural failure, then the large number of wheels would simply force the roid along the ground without even rolling it.

[blizzy78]

Build a giant crane, and rover it over to your base.

[Kasuha]

I'd definitely use a skycrane. You just need to make sure the asteroid is not blocking thrust from your engines, so you either need to have it wide enough, use inclined engines (for some penalty in thrust) or put big enough space between the skycrane and its payload so engines don't "see" the asteroid blocking it. I'd go for the distance, so I'd put engines on the top of a long "stick" (can be made of fuel tanks) with claw at the bottom. Lock engine gimbal and use enough torque instead.

[Technical Ben]

Sorry, I meant put a mainsail and a little (or lot) of fuel on one edge of the rock, point it the right way, and fire it up like a "catherine wheel".

Oh, and possibly a fulcrum and an immovable place to set it can work...

[Starwhip]

This:

\/....

[][][]

...../\

where the /\ is a (big) engine nozzle. Now make 2 of them. Stick 1 on either side of the asteroid. Throttle up. The thrust should act as a gigantic SAS wheel.

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

This would make a pretty good save to share in the challenge section.

[Random Tank]

I'd love to see of this actually got solved, and how!

If not, a catapult is definitely the way forward. Use a Klaw based flexible joint arm and some mainsails to move the arm, and just fling the thing in the right direction. May not be safe, but it'd be fun!

[Alpheratz]

How about this? Maybe it's hard to get there, but it could definitely pull an asteroid! It's got the main puller + a refueler that can easily dock on a flat surface. And it's got some vertical thrusters that should be enough to land on Minmus.

[Alpheratz]

I just tested, it can be delivered to Minmus without too much trouble.

Edit: There's a major flaw in my car, you would need to add some retro thrusters to back up on the asteroid.

Edit2: I hyperedited an E class asteroid and I found that friction on the ground is too great I once got a speed of 5 m/s, but I didn't control the direction at all.

Edited April 15, 2014 by Alpheratz