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[dennislp3]

I tend to keep the parachute cut off speed at around 200 km/h...anything higher and I don't deploy

[fourpotatoes]

On entry vehicles that aren't completely insane I tend to fire drogues (if equipped) around 5-6 km above sea level and mains about a kilometer above ground level, a compromise between safety and impatience. I bleed off orbital speed with a shallow entry and I'm well below 200 m/s by the time I deploy mains.

Straight-up suborbital flights can be harder because you don't have as much time to bleed off speed gently in the upper atmosphere. With (for example) my Reusable Tourist Suicide Rocket, there's perhaps a two-second window between "slow enough to not rip the chutes off" and "send in the Kerbals with mops".

[BFEL]

Yeah, the problem is that these are still VERY early stage ships. As in cans o boom early.
No adjusting orbit because there is no orbit, there is just up and back down right now...

[dennislp3]

thats why you have to still do your gravity/any turn at the early stages even if you can't reach true orbit...going straight up and back down is suicide

[forsaken1111]

Yeah, the problem is that these are still VERY early stage ships. As in cans o boom early.
No adjusting orbit because there is no orbit, there is just up and back down right now...

if you cant change your return, change your ascent

[tryrar]

Yeah, the problem is that these are still VERY early stage ships. As in cans o boom early.
No adjusting orbit because there is no orbit, there is just up and back down right now...

if you cant change your return, change your ascent

Huh, I have no problem with straight up and down. It helps I usually use two radials instead of one end parachute, which helps slowing down after decelerating to the proper speed considerably. (It's how I usually do tourist early on, just a few solid fuel boosters strapped to an inline and command pod and parachutes)

[PTTG??]

I wish tourists would occasionally like to just visit orbit even after you leave the Kerbin system, since tourism missions are perfect for SSTO spaceplanes, and you don't actually get to build spaceplanes until later in the game...

[dennislp3]

I honestly think tourism should be late game missions...makes no sense for people to want to hop on your fledgling rocket program without proving yourself

[Akura]

Nobody ever said the Kerbal intelligence was restricted to the astronauts.

[RedKing]

So does anybody have advice on how to build a manned rover? I have all the parts I should need, but there's two areas I have major problems with:

1. Testing the rover -- plugging a seat into the rover doesn't seem to create a crewed space, so I can't do any Kerbin-bound testing.
2. Attaching the rover to the lander -- Seems like the easiest way would be to attach it underneath the lander can with a stack decoupler, with landing legs long enough that the rover doesn't impact on landing but not so high that it breaks when detached. But I can't figure out how to build the rover as a standalone so that I can save it and use it as a subassembly.

I want to avoid using the RoverMate because that eats up battery life just by existing, and I want a manned rover that won't necessarily die in the dark (I realize that the wheels do use up a small amount of charge while in motion).

[LoSboccacc]

to land:

you can attach the lander on top, on small gravity bodies at least - you then get back on land using rcs

or you can land on the lander itself, then detach the top part and land it some meters to the side

to test:

don't bother, low gravity will mess up your lander no matter what if you really want, you attach a grider with a capsule and a separatron to the rover, spawn it on the runway and decouple at launch. bonus point to make the decoupler the root part so you can get all the lander of as a subassembly.

[Generally me]

WHY DOES IT KEEP BLOWING UP ON RE ENTRY... I DONT UNDERSTAND.

[warrob]

WHY DOES IT KEEP BLOWING UP ON RE ENTRY... I DONT UNDERSTAND.

Aerodynamics, you are going so fast on re-entry that the friction with air brings the temperature to exploding levels. use a heat shield at the bottom of your craft to protect it and make sure it moves down in the right direction.

[miauw62]

I generally put the heat shield on top, at least for mk1 capsules. Works pretty well!

[fourpotatoes]

So does anybody have advice on how to build a manned rover?

Testing: If you can roll your vehicle on Kerbin, it'll be even easier to roll it on a low-gravity body. Most of my rovers feature roll cages and self-righting systems. If you use KAS and plan long-duration roving I recommend carrying spare parts.

My standard test regime (for vehicles with KF wheels) involves swerving across the runway trying to amplify oscillations, hard maneuvering while driving cross-grade on slopes, driving into the Administration Building pond, taking jumps off the launchpad and powering over the inevitable results of previous tests obstacles. I've stopped doing much righting-system testing because something that's underpowered on Kerbin can still send the vehicle flying on the Mun.

Source: drove about 200 km on the Mun in a top-heavy giant rover; went up, down and across insane slopes at dangerous speeds, flew two servicing missions so far to replenish spare parts.

(I promise I only drive like a maniac in KSP!)

Delivery: Before I installed mods and started building 40-ton wheeled monstrosities, I was building lightweight stock rovers. After I failed to construct a working Sojourner-style deployment system, I tried the same rover delivery concept you're using, but I had a hard time getting that height compromise right with the fragile stock wheels and I've since switched to using skycranes. LoS boccacc's advice about subassemblies is good and sane, but for an insane rover delivery system I like my Harpy family of launch vehicles, where I drive the payload out to the pad and attach it with a claw.

I briefly flirted with making the rover and the lander be the same vehicle and I'm leaning that way again now that I'm finally planning a crewed interplanetary mission. On a whim I tried putting wheels on my Duna Ascent Vehicle prototype; a few hours later it had turned into something that looks like an IRBM transporter/erector/launcher.