#Heavy Rover Improvements/Customization

9 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

wanton rain
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My idea would be to allow for customizing the heavy rover in to something akin to the Frankenstein Rover from the Martian, since the design already seems to be heavily influenced by that movie.
so basically, you would be able to put a container or something like that on to the rover, where now you can put the Tanks, storage bins and dippers at, that is split to three. i would call it, just as an example, "Rover Survival Kit" in short "RSK". obviously you would loose the ability to carry anything else, while having the RSK mounted on your rover.
one part contains basically a "mobile" CO2 scrubber, that you cant use while moving, and you have to manually connect to the battery (or any other powersource) and oxygen tanks of the rover and uses a ton of power. like 20kwh or something like that, maybe even more.
the second part would maybe be an extra battery pack or a tank for water, that you can pull water from just like from the well, but it cant generate water. so when on a longer expedition with the rover, you would have to take a break every so often to refill your oxygen tanks using the CO2 scrubber and the water tank.
the third part would be a storage for items with a size comparable to the storage cabinet you can already build in bases.
the conversion wouldnt be permanent, but in the same modular fashion as the other parts you can put on the trailer of the Rover. so you could also use it as a kind of starter for a new base. basically take the rover, load it up with all you need for nergy production and building the hab itself, then load this part on to the trailer, drive to where you want to build your new base, offload the RSK and then build your base, using the RSK till you get sufficient own life support for the base.

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also, sorry for this absolut monster of a text.

wheat glen
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TL;DR: Suggestion:
a new trailer attachment for the rover, usable only on parking / unloaded on the ground as a bootstrap infrastructure for a new camp/base, with following functional:

  • oxygen generation
  • water and/or power storage
  • cabinet-sized item storage.

also, consumption is measured in kW's, kWh's are for capacity 👅

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technically, I'd say oxygen and power are adressed by Rover Extensions, 25 extra slots may be not worth it, and for water you can load a container with bottles (and building materials).
* my intention here is not to destroy the idea, but to suggest considering whether it can be achieved by already existing stuff, maybe rebalancing it for improved comfort.

wanton rain
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Also, this just came to my mind, add a station, similar to the one for charging the rover, to fill the rover up with oxygen.

wheat glen
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If I may slightly nudge the idea, how about:

  • deployable solar batteries (only when parked, I guess; to recharge the rover and for the following);
  • Well+Sabatier for oxygen (to refill the rover as well), but supplied from this RSK's..
  • built-in water tank (with a tap for our adventurous colonist to have a drink), +you can build a temporary Well nearby to refill the tank;
  • and probably no extra storage.
wanton rain
shell pier
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Tbh I can see this being a good adaptation. Whilst I love driving the rover and the fact there's a bed, I just don't take it out on long treks because why would you if your jetpack can take you everywhere.

If the rover was it's own mini base then I'd be more tempted to do an expedition

wanton rain