Surveyor of the Land [Hovership]

"Are we in space, or just feeling weightless?"

SR2's first hovership. It's a concept that I made in SP. I learned a lot about the editor through this build, but there is still plenty of learning to do.

Startup Instructions
- Throttle up, then activate stage 1
- Set the nav sphere to 90 degrees to turn on the gyro.
- Open up the activation groups tab. Activate and de-activate groups 1, 2, and 3. This process readies the engines.

Flight Instructions
Gain speed by bouncing across the moon's surface. On rough terrain, keep speed under 50m/s (you can go faster... with risk). 100m/s is a good speed for flat terrain. Do not exceed 200m/s.
- Activator 1 activates forward engines
- Activator 2 activates backward engines
- Activator 3 activates upward engines (useful for softening landings)

Tips to avoid crashing
- minimize bouncing by using activator 3 at the right time, or doing some maneuvers with the other engines (i.e. pointing the nose down when using the forward engines)
- Avoid "lips", or small protrusions that will cause the ship to bounce too high.
Other important information
- This hovership is optimized to operate on the moon.
- Activator 4 opens the internal cargo bays.

Hoverships are large, hovering vehicles that are primarily designed to transport cargo. While each hovership is different, the major theme in hovership design is efficient cargo transport, through high speeds above troublesome terrain.

The Surveyor of the Land exemplifies such principles. Designed by SPEcorp for heavy cargo transport between lunar colonies, the Surveyor is the largest hovership to be designed. Specifically, the hovership measures about 211 meters (692 feet) long. Such size, when combined with multiple internal cargo bays along with exterior cargo space, allows for the efficient transport of goods.

Size and cargo space, however, is only impressive when displayed in tandem with the Surveyor's novel hovering system. The core technology of the hovership, the hoverwheel, was preserved, but it was implemented in a Gyro-Monowheel configuration. This design, hence the name, uses a gyroscope to balance the hovership on one hoverwheel. Such a configuration allows for smoother movement over rough terrain, as opposed to the traditional quad-mounted hoverwheel configuration (in which four hoverwheels balance the hovership without a gyroscope). Additional benefits include the ability to adjust attitude while airborne.

The Surveyor is a fairly common sight on small lunar bodies. However, with such a niche audience, the hovership only experienced a minimal amount of commercial success - revenue only barely covered the costs associated with producing the hovership. It must be noted, though, that SPEcorp did benefit immensely from the technological advancements that resulted from the design. Most importantly, the Gyro-Monowheel configuration is projected to be SPEcorp's primary design for all new hovership models.