Pol Craft Industries is proud to present the Scientificator 2000 !!!

[Angvar]

TLDR: Big Rovers, Much Science, Craft files linked at bottom.

*][van Kermanovich glorious leader of The Great Soviet Kerbal Space Program takes the stage*

My friends, are you tired of going to all the work of building rocket with a tiny lander and send it all the way to the Mun only to recover a half dozen pieces of science? Well comrades, I have something to show you!

The Great Soviet Kerbal Space Program's Rover Division, Pol Craft Industries, has answer for you!

Comerades, I give you the Scientificator 2000 ...

This my friends is the solution to your troubles. With the Scientificator 2000 you can freely roam the lunar surface gathering endless amounts of data. Once your need for science is sated, simply rendezvous with a lander and send it back home

Now wait I can tell you are thinking, "That is one ugly rover and it does not look suitable for any prolonged scientific endeavour." That is why we have this ....

The "Hercules" class heavy duty rover ...

The Hercules when coupled with the Scientificator 2000 is capable of covering vast amounts of territory with grace and speed ...

Now I am sure some of you are saying, "Your crazy! That configuration must weigh 20 tons, it will never be able to handle steep terrain and it will break apart into many tiny pieces if it takes a jump."

Well my friend, you are wrong ... Steep terrain? Just like the ancient hero, the Hercules rover laughs in the face of steep terrain...

... break into tiny pieces?

I am thinking not, the Hercules stings like butterfly and floats like bee....

So now that you see the wonder of our glorious development, I bet you are concidering how in the world would you ever get all that equipment to a moon?

The Great Soviet Kerbal Space Program knows how ...

With the Star Lifter class rocket and sky crane system ...

A mighty feat of engineering capable of lifting massive payloads and delivering them incredible distances with plenty of fuel to spare ... and once you get there ...

Our magnificent sky crane will set your payload down easy as cake.

So my comrades, I would encourage you to act now and put in your orders as soon as possible before demand for production is backing up for years to come.

For the very reasonable sum of 975,000,000.99 Krubles you will receive the Scientificator 2000, the Hercules class rover and two complete Star Lifter class rockets with sky crane attachments (Now available in atmospheric models for minimal extra charge). You will shortly be able to advance your scientific programs by decades in a matter of a few days.

But wait! ... there is more!

Place your order within next ten minutes and you will receive extra bonus of free expedited delivery and a set of special edition Scientificator 2000 official fuzzy dice.

I am thanking you for your time.

Update: Now approved for use on Minimus ...

and Duna ...

And now Eve ...

Craft Files:

http://www./download/pq581l56a74rrwl/GSKSP_Scientificator_2000.zip

Be warned these rockets have 970 - 1100 parts. There is a read me included for info I think important for using them.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Angvar
Updates

[128MB]

Do you have paypal?

[Angvar]

Do you have paypal?

Only if they have reasonable exchange rate for gold Krubles.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Angvar

[Angvar]

Apparently I made this system too efficient ... Managed to rack up 5382 science in just 4 missions. Oh well time to prep for flight to Eve.

[horndgmium]

Less than a kerbillion!? That's like 75% off NASA cost.

[Bnethor]

That's cool! What's the max speed you've done (on mün/duna/minmus)? It sure puts my mün bus to shame

It's missing a few parts after some rough times. Fastest that thing can do with some gritted teeth is about 20m/s, but those wheels are a liability and tend to break at anything faster than 16m/s if you hit a bump or so. Still managed to do about a 70km round trip with a visit to canyons etc

I'll definitely try building something like that once I got the parts though!

[Angvar]

It sure puts my mün bus to shame. Still managed to do about a 70km round trip with a visit to canyons etc

Good job, it takes a lot of patience to spend that much time behind the wheel and I like the anti roll precautions. Very kerbalesque. Just like anything it's a learning process. The fact that you got as far as you have only means you will get better with practice. Of the 600 hours I have into this game I'd say at least 250 were put into refining this setup.

The main rover is also a fuel tanker and weighs in at 12.3 tons fully loaded. I can do 23 m/s up steep grades and I've had it up to 39 m/s after a down hill. That is with out the rocket thrusters. With the lab attached the weight goes up to 21 tons and the average top speed still stays 21 m/s (about 19 up hill).

Yes the wheels make a huge difference. Once you get the new rubber tired wheels you will notice a great increase in acceleration/braking and handling. The balloon wheels get very little traction. You inherit another problem though ... inertia tipping your rover forward on braking and popping wheelies on acceleration. Disabling the brakes on the front wheels will take care of much of the problem.

The main problem with going fast with large rovers is the terrain. The kraken has invisible tentacles every where on Mun and they tend to pop out and try and pitch the rear of the rover sideways which usually ends up with it flying over the terrain. I have had to learn to be a good pilot in staging mode to get it leveled out for the landing.

Minimus is much better terrain to drive on for the most part but the lower gravity does make any off camber turns or weird shaped ruts in the ground a bit touchy. So I limited speed to 15 m/s average.

Duna is awesome, good gravity with rolling hills. Almost like Kerbin. I have a feeling that I will be driving at higher speeds there.

Update: Ok had some time for some testing on Minimus, Duna and Eve.

Minimus: Very light gravity with a very high mass rover makes it pretty tricky. 15 m/s seems good for the combined system. Have to be real careful with brakes here. The lab likes to buck around if you put them on full ... a tapping was sufficient to calm this and using reverse worked very well.

Duna: Is like rover was born to run here. 20 m/s plus average speed. Just had to watch making off camber turns at to high a speed and be mellow on the distance I let it fly off hill tops. Over all a total blast.

Eve: I was surprised at how well the system handled getting there landing and driving. The more gravity the more stable it is. Dropping them from sky cranes popped tires from full height. This was cured by simply lowering the gear first. Driving is amazing. Tons of acceleration and plenty of gravity to keep it stable at 30 m/s. High speed turning and not really much worries about catching air off hills. The biggest problem is the frame twisting from stomping on brakes. Using reverse and the gravity to slow down really eliminates this problem. Oh and I popped a strut from hitting terrain on the under carriage of the lab. No big deal since these rovers are over half strut any way.

Think it is time to wrap these up for download.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Angvar
Spelling... further comments

[Angvar]

I uploaded the craft files and placed a link at the bottom of the OP.

Enjoy.

Update: So far this set up worked well for the moons, Duna and Eve. Although the low slung RCS tanks and struts are getting hammered on Eve.

So I modified my versions moving the undercarriage struts up higher and removed RCS tanks from science lab all together. Just use the mono propellant on the rover.

Moho will require a different rocket design as the transfer stage needs a good deal more DV.

I will report back after I finish my Eve missions and send these off to Dres which looks pretty achievable.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Angvar