kilobug: I did burn a probe by taking it too close to the sun, yeah.
Since we are in the general discussion thread, how do you ship your rovers ? Would I would like is to store my rovers in a container, so their aerodynamics don't matter, and open the container once my rocket arrives to destination (and use parachutes or small retrorocket to land the rover). But I never managed it... and the whole editor seems to handle poorly having a rocket and a rover at once :s So if anyone has tips on that, I would be glad to hear them.
I've used two methods to lift (heavy) rovers. The first one was resigning myself to deal with strong asymetry. It took some careful piloting but I managed to simply take-off with a big rover at the rear of my rover. Landing on the target required to tilt my lander at the last moment so that it would fall on itse side, wheels down. This was the insanity model (see pic).
The second method was a symetrical build. The rocket was plugged under the rover, instead of behind it. With a symetrical enough rover, this made for a stable (though drag-unfriendly) rocket. It also allowed for a regular landing (wheels down, instead of "sideways"), and the ability to get back up. That's the madness model (see pic).
With smaller, lighter rovers, it matters less. Cw8 (another kerbal player on this forum)
simply attached a tiny rover to one of the three symetrical fuel canisters that were around his thruster. No problem with that apparently.
