How to design a Skycrane?

[Commissioner Tadpole]

I'm trying to launch a rover into the Mun, following a "Space Race tech advancement" storyline, but... well, I don't know how to design a Skycrane. Can someone give me some examples, or at least instruct me how to?

It follows a similar chassis model as this ancestor of said rover, used to go to Eve in another save file:

Sorry if it's a stupid question, but I want it to be easily disposable without posing a threat for the rover. The skycrane from Rover + Skycrane seems to be too dangerous to eject for my taste.

[Taki117]

A sucessful skycrane has 3 things. A fuel source, a set of engines, and a decoupler. thats it. the radial mount engines are great for this. dont like the stock skycrane, make it wider. start with the 4x4 structual panel and build from there.

[Vanamonde]

Here are some examples you can download. I haven't updated the designs for a while, but they should still be good to go.

[RSF77]

I built one out of structural girders using 4 LVNs to drop a EPL smelter onto various places without atmospheres. Looked like a huge spider, it worked but it was very unwieldy and required a bit of reaction wheel and RCS spam. It was also difficult to get into orbit, but was reusable so I only had to do it once or twice. I wish I still had screenshots of this but unfortunately they were lost.

The easiest way to do it though I think is just use a pair of radial decouplers of some kind to attach two vertical engines, fuel and some landing gear to the side of your rover. Make sure they are close to the center of mass and maybe throw some reaction wheels on them just in case it gets funky coming down. Add some small separators with low thrust to the engines to fire them away from your rover after landing, or just let them fall on it and drive out, on minmus all you need for this is RCS but anything bigger and youll need small engines.

As sort of a hybrid of the two above you can make a small "platform" of some kind to secure your rover to, then attach your engines to that. You can make the rover detach from below and fall a few feet to the surface but it makes rocket, transfer stage construction and flying a bit more difficult, or you can drop the platform to the ground by detaching the engines away and driving the rover off of it.

It seems most people tend to favor just slapping one or two of them on the side of their lander somewhere and decoupling/undocking it in a way that rights it when it hits the ground though. If you put some kind of system on your rover that gives it self-righting capability then you can pretty much drop it any which way as long as stuff doesn't get damaged by that. On minmus all you need to right a lander is RCS, but on the Mun or bigger youll need small engines or clever placement of landing gear... or magic ind robotics parts.

Edited May 5, 2014 by RSF77

[Lohan2008]

Definitely make rover wider ( I make mine longer) ^ what Taki 117 said

Edited May 5, 2014 by Lohan2008

[sgt_flyer]

Also, be sure to disable engine gimballing on a skycrane's engines. ( most of the time, the engines would end up above the center of mass, inverting the needed gimbal motion - which the game doesn't work with) rely on torque / rcs control instead.

[Kasuha]

There was a rover + skycrane design challenge some time ago, maybe you could get inspired there.

[FREEFALL1984]

I like to build land and return skycranes, instead of using a decoupler to drop your rover onto the surface, just use a docking port and position it so that there is a small drop when you have the cranes landing legs suspension locked up the rover is lifted a little off the ground, you then decouple with the suspension locked, drive the rover away, then for return you simply park the rover under it then unlock the suspension, the two will redock ready for liftoff. Remember if you're building it for the mun you're going to need less legs so the craft can still drop enough in the low gravity. Also it might be worth adding a second command pod to the skycrane itself so you can use it as an emergency return vehicle in case your manned rover flips and burns.

[RW-1]

For a basic small rover:

1 remote probe

Inline Advanced Stabilizer

FL-T400 Fuel Tank

Attach 4 Modular Girder Segment XL or use 8 shorter ones, then attach three LV-1R Liquid Fuel Engine or one Rockomax 24-77 to the ends.

Bottom of the fuel tank use a decoupler to suit, but face it down so it lets go of your rover. I sometimes make it pretty with a reversed FL-A10 Adapter.

This works for mun and minimus, assuming you get to orbit and perform the deorbit with the stage immediately below your rover. eslewhere you may have to ensure you have enough thrust to control / stop your descent.

Just used this to deliver a rover to the mun last night.

Edited May 5, 2014 by RW-1

[RW-1]

Here are some examples you can download. I haven't updated the designs for a while, but they should still be good to go.

http://i.imgur.com/AZoZigY.png

All to Jeb: Turn off the interior light mon! It's blinding in here!

Jeb: I knew I shoulda made it a dome .... sigh ...

[Skorpychan]

I'm trying to launch a rover into the Mun, following a "Space Race tech advancement" storyline, but... well, I don't know how to design a Skycrane. Can someone give me some examples, or at least instruct me how to?

It follows a similar chassis model as this ancestor of said rover, used to go to Eve in another save file:

Sorry if it's a stupid question, but I want it to be easily disposable without posing a threat for the rover. The skycrane from Rover + Skycrane seems to be too dangerous to eject for my taste.

That rover looks so excited to be there.

[ArmchairGravy]

I like to build land and return skycranes, instead of using a decoupler to drop your rover onto the surface, just use a docking port and position it so that there is a small drop when you have the cranes landing legs suspension locked up the rover is lifted a little off the ground, you then decouple with the suspension locked, drive the rover away, then for return you simply park the rover under it then unlock the suspension, the two will redock ready for liftoff. Remember if you're building it for the mun you're going to need less legs so the craft can still drop enough in the low gravity. Also it might be worth adding a second command pod to the skycrane itself so you can use it as an emergency return vehicle in case your manned rover flips and burns.

This is the approach I've been going with lately and it works great. Really useful for anomaly hunting.

[HafCoJoe]

I generally don't use sky-cranes as I find their landings too difficult. I generally land a stage and then decouple the rover and drive it off between landing gear.

[DomDiaemus]

Few examples:

Edited May 7, 2014 by DomDiaemus

[Heagar]

If you need an example:

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It's an old build, but: This rover is capable to land on moons and athmospehric planets (tested on kerbin): You have to have an descend stage on planets without an athmosphere. Twohunderd meters before you hit the ground stage the descend stage. Than engage the "crane". You will have up to 96 seconds to kill every movement until you land at full throttle. Shortly before the touchdown you release the "crane". If with an slightly different attitude you have it done. If not, you have to drive away from your landing spot to avoid being hit by the "crane".

[Duke23]

This or a variation of it is what I use 90% of the time I need a skycrane... This one was designed to be towed behind a larger ship and work in low grav non-atmospheric conditions but I added chutes so it could be used on Duna as well. It's a little much just to drop a small rover, but it also serves as a way to get back into orbit to rendezvous with another ship or transfer stage, and it's completely reusable. It won't work in higher gravity or thicker atmospheres (unless it's a one-way trip down) but it's a good reliable platform with power to spare.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Duke23