Rover Challenge

[SupremeDorian]

The challenge is simple: Build the best rover.

Rules:
No cheats

Must be a single launch

Have a way to return it to Earth (Returning to Earth is optional, but you still need to have a way to do so.)


Difficulties:
Easy: Land your rover on Luna (Moon) or Mars.

Medium: Land your rover on Mercury or Venus

Hard: Land your rover in the Jovian System (Preferably either Europa or Io since they're closer to Jupiter thus require much more DeltaV to even go to

Post your attempts here!

 

[GuHP20]

Not so much I think it's minor Delta V,since Europa and Io are the minor moons of Jupiter,they don't have much gravity like Ganymede and Callisto.

 

[SupremeDorian]

Not so much I think it's minor Delta V,since Europa and Io are the minor moons of Jupiter,they don't have much gravity like Ganymede and Callisto.

Their own gravity isn't the main thing making it take so much DeltaV to go to, it's Jupiter's gravity.
Canceling out all of your velocity to land on the inner moons of Jupiter takes a LOT of DeltaV, and if you slow down too much, be it via aerobreaking or otherwise, then it takes even more to accelerate your orbit to go back outward. I'm sure @Altaïr can correct me on this if i'm wrong, though.

 

[GuHP20]

Their own gravity isn't the main thing making it take so much DeltaV to go to, it's Jupiter's gravity.
Canceling out all of your velocity to land on the inner moons of Jupiter takes a LOT of DeltaV, and if you slow down too much, be it via aerobreaking or otherwise, then it takes even more to accelerate your orbit to go back outward. I'm sure @Altaïr can correct me on this if i'm wrong, though.

But they don't have atmosphere to aerobrake...

 

[SupremeDorian]

But they don't have atmosphere to aerobrake...

I meant aerobreaking on Jupiter's atmosphere. My bad, I should have clarified.

 

[GuHP20]

I meant aerobreaking on Jupiter's atmosphere. My bad, I should have clarified.

I meant aerobreaking on Jupiter's atmosphere. My bad, I should have clarified.

Ah ok

 

[Altaïr]

Their own gravity isn't the main thing making it take so much DeltaV to go to, it's Jupiter's gravity.
Canceling out all of your velocity to land on the inner moons of Jupiter takes a LOT of DeltaV, and if you slow down too much, be it via aerobreaking or otherwise, then it takes even more to accelerate your orbit to go back outward. I'm sure @Altaïr can correct me on this if i'm wrong, though.

That's correct to me.
The only problem is that for now you can't use Jupiter to aerobrake because of a bug: when your ship gets too close to Jupiter, its speed is capped at 10 km/s, and this makes the ship fall into Jupiter. Otherwise, in terms of matching the moon's velocity, the inner moons may be more demanding indeed.

Oh, by the way, rovering on Io is MUCH more difficult than on any other moon

That's an interesting challenge otherwise. I'll give it a try, even if being able to return the rover is what really makes it difficult to me. Venus could even be the hardest destination in this case

 

[s.victor.q]

Nice challenge. On the way to go...

 

[SupremeDorian]

That's correct to me.
The only problem is that for now you can't use Jupiter to aerobrake because of a bug: when your ship gets too close to Jupiter, its speed is capped at 10 km/s, and this makes the ship fall into Jupiter. Otherwise, in terms of matching the moon's velocity, the inner moons may be more demanding indeed.

Oh, by the way, rovering on Io is MUCH more difficult than on any other moon

That's an interesting challenge otherwise. I'll give it a try, even if being able to return the rover is what really makes it difficult to me. Venus could even be the hardest destination in this case

I might remove the return thing. I put it there because without it it just seemed too easy.

 

[PhantomGamingYT]

But they don't have atmosphere to aerobrake...

Europa does.

 

[PhantomGamingYT]

I might remove the return thing. I put it there because without it it just seemed too easy.

I'm going to Europa.

 

[SupremeDorian]

Europa does.

Europa has an atmosphere, yes. However, it is only a visual atmosphere and not a physical one. At least in this game anyway.

 

[PhantomGamingYT]

Europa has an atmosphere, yes. However, it is only a visual atmosphere and not a physical one. At least in this game anyway.

We can still deploy Chutes and slow down...
And you didn't say we can't use planet editor I can make Europa's atmosphere thicc and with really high density.

 

[SupremeDorian]

We can still deploy Chutes and slow down...
And you didn't say we can't use planet editor I can make Europa's atmosphere thicc and with really high density.

Planet editor counts as cheating. Sorry to burst your bubble.

 

[PhantomGamingYT]

Planet editor counts as cheating. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Nah it's ok.

 

[Altaïr]

Ok, dit it with Mercury. Not the hardest one, but that's a good start

So, here is my rocket:


The rover is sent to Mercury by using a gravity assit from Venus, and 2 from Mercury. Finally, the ship is inserted in orbit around Mercury. Time to unpack the payload:

All debris and the empty stage are put on a crash trajectory. I want space to be clean

A small satellite is left in orbit, and the rover land on Mercury:


Oh, that's incredible! Mercury is actually a giant snowball! All its surface is perfectly white! What a discocery, that was unexpected... Time for the rover to perform some analysis and measurements.

Actually that would be cool if we could return a few samples of Mercury snow... Let's see what we can do:

I can't return the whole rover (it's very heavy), but returning a probe with samples is a good compromise to me (what do you think @SupremeDorian ?).

The probe with its small engine has no problem to dock with the satellite left in orbit:

Then, I just have to return to Earth. With a few gravity assist to save fuel

Finally, end of mission. Our scientists can now analyse that snow:

 

[SupremeDorian]

Ok, dit it with Mercury. Not the hardest one, but that's a good start

So, here is my rocket:
View attachment 7028 View attachment 7029

The rover is sent to Mercury by using a gravity assit from Venus, and 2 from Mercury. Finally, the ship is inserted in orbit around Mercury. Time to unpack the payload:
View attachment 7030
All debris and the empty stage are put on a crash trajectory. I want space to be clean

A small satellite is left in orbit, and the rover land on Mercury:
View attachment 7031 View attachment 7032

Oh, that's incredible! Mercury is actually a giant snowball! All its surface is perfectly white! What a discocery, that was unexpected... Time for the rover to perform some analysis and measurements.

Actually that would be cool if we could return a few samples of Mercury snow... Let's see what we can do:
View attachment 7033 View attachment 7034
I can't return the whole rover (it's very heavy), but returning a probe with samples is a good compromise to me (what do you think @SupremeDorian ?).

The probe with its small engine has no problem to dock with the satellite left in orbit:
View attachment 7035
Then, I just have to return to Earth. With a few gravity assist to save fuel

Finally, end of mission. Our scientists can now analyse that snow:
View attachment 7036 View attachment 7037

Very nice! I honestly forgot that the update broke Mercury's texture to make it white lol. When I did my most recent manned mission to mercury in 1.35, I had to do tons of gravity assists to lower my velocity, and that was just for the lander. I also had to send a refueling station into orbit before I landed so that I'd have enough fuel to land and take off again.

 

[Altaïr]

Very nice! I honestly forgot that the update broke Mercury's texture to make it white lol. When I did my most recent manned mission to mercury in 1.35, I had to do tons of gravity assists to lower my velocity, and that was just for the lander. I also had to send a refueling station into orbit before I landed so that I'd have enough fuel to land and take off again.

Yes, Mercury is a hard destination indeed. Especially if you don't use any gravitational slingshot. The one from Venus is particularly valuable. Without that I would have needed a much bigger rocket.

 

[TtTOtW]

I'll send my MEB to its old home...

 

[Altaïr]

Ok, I did it with Io. But I had to perform a few gravity assists from Io to slow down:

Wait... Oh crap...


Well, after all you said "no cheats", but you didn't specify that the rover had to land in one piece

 

[Altaïr]

OK, I did it to Io, seriously. And with combustion engines only, because ion engines make it definitely too easy

So here is my launcher for that:

It's huge, it's ugly, but it's performant!

Once in LEO, it's not that huge though, but it's still ugly and performant

I go to Jupiter using some slingshots, and once there, I use some gravity assists from Io to slow down. Otherwise my rocket wouldn't be powerful enough.


I finally insert the rover into Io orbit. I even had some fuel left in my main stage, so technically, I put 167 tons around Io orbit!

Time for the rover to land on Io:

The rover was designed to have a good fuel reserve for the operation, so it was something easy.

Time for some analysis, and... It appears that Io is exactly what it looks like from space: a huge pizza! There are tomatoes:

Mozzarella:

And mushrooms:


Hopefully, my rover has been designed to be able to get over those huge cliffs:

Both engines at part throttle allow the rover to temporarily hover and land very gently at the bottom.

Time to bring back some samples of pizza so that our scientists can tast... erm, study it. I separate the ascent module, and lift off!


Joining the small satellite left in Io orbit is easy. Then, I just have to escape Jupiter, and finally I'm back to Earth with some pizza:

Most expensive pizza in the world

 

[TtTOtW]

@Altaïr... Hahaha, yeah I crashed a few times before landing there! Very well done! Nice rover, by the way. Intricat design, very practical. My destination wasn't as challenging, but you'll see I returned the whole rover to earth. I chose Mercury, and for nostalgic reasons I took my MEB, as this was a 1.31 design specifically for Mercury. Fitted ions instead of fixed RCS and added disposable RCS.
Liftoff!

It's getting hot in here...
Booster separation. Neat:

Orbit:

Nice and low
Burning for Venus Gravity assist, then for Mercury assist. Finally a close shot for orbit... Nice and low :

Next, a terribly risky landing...

 

[TtTOtW]

Continued:
Separating brake/booster module:

Ok this is the scary part: trying to keep a high enough altitudewhile slowing down at ion engine pace while leaving enough fuel to get to orbit again...

That was super scary! And it VERY nearly didn't work...
Found a rare flat spot, for a nice controlled takeoff:

Slowly lifting off with the help of those fuel guzzling RCS bits... And thankfully making orbit again:

Next up: encount with the booster and transfer back home.

 

[TtTOtW]

Continued:
Approaching booster, and dropping one RCS to clear docking port for attachment:

Then discard the other RCS, which assisted minimally but crucially in a quick dock:

Ok! Deactivate ions, and we're off. First, some help from Venus:

Then just some fine tuning to get an encounter:

I decided to go fly by our #Dear Moon for some smiles:

Next up, Moon flyby amd landing.

 

[TtTOtW]

Continued:
The moon neatly assisted me in a slower approach to earth:

Separating from booster... And falling into the atmosphere ata very steep angle. I had 3% fuel of only one 5t tank remaining...

The drag on this thing is just crazy... Look at the landing, parachute free:

Now to try and keep my impact to a minimum with those tiny ions and 3% of one fuel tank...

Made it! Ran out of fuel, but it helped a lot. Landed at 26m/s. A bit fast but the rover handled it.
Setting up Victory Station:

Mission complete!