[PLUGIN, PART, 0.17] Bigtrak KSP Edition v.30 Liltrak

[madmat]

I use this method to put ALL my trucks/buggies etc on the Mun. I found the design on the forum somewhere (thanks to whoever it was). Attach your fist stage rockets to the underside of the buggy and jettison before Munar insertion. Be sure to have a mechjeb on the BUGGY so you can control it AFTER you drop it onto the Mun.Then simply fly away with your ship. Too easy.

[SmiteZero]

I used 'The Node' with some tricky parts.

[chickenplucker]

I like the overhead crane delivery method you guys are using, thats pretty cool. I just slap mine ontop of a 1m tank and then roll the whole mess over after its landed

I\'ve been testing some really rough experimental giant nose cones/fairings. They are freaking ridiculous but its all for science!

Pile O\' Ship, some assembly required.

And the main thing I have been working on tonight...

Corrected normals! Now the Bigtrak and its parts don\'t look so funky when the shadows are being drawn on them. Also corrected some texture issues that you prolly won\'t notice. The downloads not updated yet, but soon

[cteam]

are you gona make tat flower petal pod that we all liked

[madmat]

I like that dirty/greasy texture on the Bigtrak,,It seems more realistic. The pile\'o\'ship looks pretty familiar,Ahh good times eh.

[SmiteZero]

I like the overhead crane delivery method you guys are using, thats pretty cool. I just slap mine ontop of a 1m tank and then roll the whole mess over after its landed

It\'s the only way I could think to reliably put all wheels on the surface. It lands, detaches the BigTrak and lands off away again a short distance before the command module returns home. I\'m using the flat MechJeb radial module attached to the rear of the BigTrak for control. No Kerbals will be harmed in the event of a boredom-inspired airborne maneuver while traversing that perfect desert. It also keeps the CG lower than putting a pod on top. I\'ve had zero high-speed rollovers since I started doing that.

Boy, she\'s a wobbly ship, though. Note all the high-strength struts to stop the banana.

Corrected normals! Yay! Looks much better.

You\'ve helped me to explore the Mun. Thank-you!

https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/19231999/2/KSP/Munar%20Xplorer?h=6b8e08

[Volt]

All these careful-landing craft with rockets offset around the Bigtrak are cool, but I\'ve realised that one way to land this thing is to cancel most of the vertical velocity with an engine below the vehicle, thrust to the side slightly, angle your wheels prograde, and land kind of like a spaceplane without wings. As long as you keep your speed at least below ~50m/s, the Bigtrak will be fine. This eliminates the need for complex landers, since not even the descent stage needs to survive.

[maltesh]

And the main thing I have been working on tonight...

Corrected normals! Now the Bigtrak and its parts don\'t look so funky when the shadows are being drawn on them. Also corrected some texture issues that you prolly won\'t notice. The downloads not updated yet, but soon

Can you include a .craft file with a concealed Mk1 pod placed high in the VAB? I\'m afraid I haven\'t been able to successfully put a Mk1 inside the BigTrak since the internal node update.

[Volt]

Same, it seems impossible to place the pod inside.

[zYnthethicz]

I use this method to put ALL my trucks/buggies etc on the Mun. I found the design on the forum somewhere (thanks to whoever it was). Attach your fist stage rockets to the underside of the buggy and jettison before Munar insertion. Be sure to have a mechjeb on the BUGGY so you can control it AFTER you drop it onto the Mun.Then simply fly away with your ship. Too easy.

Give me your .craft file!

And also a list of what packs are required for it.

I probably have all the packs but hey, who knows?

[Anariaq]

Finally final design that work.

Apparently if the engines are put to high over the pod. It will reverse the controls. So this is my new design that work.

¨

Though that engines that is so close, dos not have any effect on the bigtrak at all.

EDIT:

Btw I usually at 1 meter from ground. I decouple the air crane, so it fly away. And is no problem for the bigtrak. Though could return and hit bigtrak. But so far they have always ended up long away from the bigtrak.

[madmat]

zYnthethicz,,I don\'t know how to post .craft files, But the design is pretty easy to copy.That\'s how i did it. I used C7,Nova punch and SE2 packs(oh yeah plus Gaby\'s *2 lander legs and Mechjeb), I think that just about covers it.

[zYnthethicz]

zYnthethicz,,I don\'t know how to post .craft files, But the design is pretty easy to copy.That\'s how i did it. I used C7,Nova punch and SE2 packs(oh yeah plus Gaby\'s *2 lander legs and Mechjeb), I think that just about covers it.

Just add it as a attachment?

[madmat]

To be Honest zYntheticz, It\'s probably better if you just copy the design with your own 'flavor', as the more i look at it, the more i can see 'bits' from other packs which i\'m not sure where they\'re from and this will negate the craft file working. I\'m not keen on this blowing out of proportion and hijacking the Bigtrak thread.

[chickenplucker]

I like that dirty/greasy texture on the Bigtrak,It seems more realistic

Its actually the same as the one thats currently on it madmat, only the color layer changed to grey

maltesh, I\'ll make sure to throw a craft file with the Mk1 pod stuck in it for you in the next update.

Well after more playing around with the giant pancake landers/pods on a stick I think its time to re-think this. I was trying to make something universal so you could load up all the Cart\'s or Bigtrak, but it just seems way to large and cumbersome. Maybe it just needs to be reworked more.

Right now the setup is: top layer/fueltank, bottom layer/lander engine. The pancake lander motor likes to explode when it touches ground for some reason. I have another idea that I\'m thinking about after watching a Nova episode on the Mars landers which would use the nose cone fairings as landing legs/ramps.

I like this idea better then the pancake lander but it will have to fight the same problems of not being large/tall. The landers can\'t be tall because then the ramps to get off wind up really steep which will break off the Bigtraks front attachments if it strikes the ground coming down the ramp. The other issue is because the fork attachments hang off the front making everything longer, the landing craft needs to be wide enough to allow the forks to fit which makes everything really big. I\'ll keep messing around with diffrent configurations but at the moment it looks like the crane lander may be the winner for now.

[SmiteZero]

The problem is that carts themselves are just so BIG. That landing platform does look cool, though. Perhaps we just need a smaller, more Mun-like rover model?

I really dig the idea of a fold-out capsule like Spirit/Opportunity has and you were thinking.

[chickenplucker]

Not a bad idea, back in the wip thread I remember Tiberion asking for a small version that fit on a 2m tank. It ended up getting larger just because the majority of parts are 1m so it seemed like the size to scale too. I\'ll finish some type of lander for the Bigtrak yet, but a Minitrak may be coming sooner then later

[Blinkin]

I actually like the pancake lander, it looks cool!

You might want to try something like the Advanced Decoupler on a very large scale.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=537.0

Using that technique to \'blast\' the doors away could be neat.

Then the whole lander could be integrated into the middle of a (large) rocket that\'s capable of returning to the KSC while leaving the vehicles at the mün.

[chickenplucker]

Putting the pancake lander on hold for a bit since its just to clunky and big in its current form, the aerodynamics of shoving a dinner plate through the atmosphere really bugs me. Heres the new smaller version that will fit a 2m tank. You can see how the forks are fighting me on this. This design is based around that sketch above where the nose cone will actually fold out and become landing gear and the ramps. Which I could make a special extended fairing/gear set that would just create some room for the forks if you had them attached.

[Phoxtane]

Could we get some sort of scoop that can pick up a CM securely? I plan on driving out to the Original Three once I get my Mun bace established.

[chickenplucker]

I could definitely make a part that captured and held a command pod, but without a way to lock it down firmly the physics engine would not enjoy it. I see it causing random explosions and other general weirdness. When .15 comes out with docking then hopefully there will be an actual secure way to attach and lift a command pod without it flailing all around.

[mincespy]

Could you make this for the bigtrak?

That would be so awesome.

[zYnthethicz]

Could you make this for the bigtrak?

That would be so awesome.

Omg yes!

That would be awesome.

[chickenplucker]

It is on the list, but I haven\'t touched it yet because if I do make one I want it to be able to actually shoot and not just be a big chunky decoration. I was thinking about making the darts just stage decouplers but with that equal force thing now I\'m not sure how it would work out. It would be hilarious to fire that off and have your rover flung backwards doing somersaults off across the moon. Let me finish the lander first and get that out of the way and then we can get back to fun stuff.

[Blinkin]

Could you make this for the bigtrak?

That would be so awesome.

*Imagines that it can launch small satellites into the Mün\'s orbit. ;D*