Rough Terrain Exploration Drone

[Zephram Kerman]

So here\'s the idea: Tosh\'s cart + R4m0n\'s MechJeb = a nice way to cover lots of area without exploding quite as often = cool.

Want to explore the whole crater? The whole sea? The hemisphere? (Ok, I exaggerate a bit.) What you need is a flying car! Using MechJeb surface mode, you can bump along at 50-100 m/s or more, depending on the terrain. A good bump puts you in the sky, but that\'s ok because you\'ll stay level and land safely-ish! Just put the back wheels down first. Coming down too fast? A burst of RCS fixes that. Rough terrain or impatience ahead? Get a running start, jump off a bump, and fly over it! (Banjo music and the General Lee sold separately.)

RTED also has my favorite design features:

� lateral staging and fuel piping; all engines run at launch for efficiency,

� stages are set up for debris mitigation; the launcher and TMI stages are timed to crash land,

� there\'s a blank spot on the dorsal side for R4mon\'s Muon detector or some other payload,

� asymmetric; I do asymmetry now, asymmetry is cool.

The cart being on one side makes it ever-so-slightly unbalanced, which is the real reason for the asymmetric launcher stage. The unbalance is minor enough that McJeb doesn\'t seem to mind. It just stares at you and periodically explodes.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Zephram Kerman