What is a sky-crane

[BobsUranus]

I've been trying to find it in the parts list, but there are so many. I cannot find a mod with a sky crane, and even if I could get it, how does it work? So basically, what is sky-crane, where can I get it from and how does it work? Thanks!

[BobsUranus]

And btw, can anyone tell me what the rope is that drops down the rovers from that hovering thing? Thanks

[Spooky Lemon]

1. its a construct that helps you land (small) payloads like rovers and landers
2. you have to build yourself one from the given parts

basic crane is a decoupler, fueltank & engines. the heavier the payload is the more fuel & engine power you need.

after deorbiting the payload you use the sky crane to kill your velocity & land safe on the ground.

edit:
what rope thing do you mean ?

[Un]

A crane in the sky.

[Jaśko]

A skycrane is a small ship, which is meant to slowly descent to the surface of a planet/moon and place something there, for example a rover.

The rope you are talking about is perhaps a part of "Kerbal Attachment System" mod. It allows you to use ropes to connect things together with ropes. One of the uses is a skycrane, but a scycrane is perfectly fine without a rope.

[bpivk]

Take a look at this: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/PIA14839-br2.jpg

A crane is the part at the top. You don't need any mods to build one. You need a fuel tank, some engines and a decoupler.

For in-game version of a sky crane look here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169005355

If you ignore the final delivery rocket you can see the crane and a rover attached underneath it.
This is a bigger crane. You can also load the stock rover and crane that come with Kerbal to see how it all works.

[Krow]

Originally posted by Xtreme:

A crane in the sky.

Truth

[Langkard]

If you search Youtube using the words KSP and skycrane you'll find pages of videos. Scott Manley uses a reverse skycrane with the Kerbal Attachment Mod to rescue a kethane rover from the Mun in a video from last February. There are even a couple of videos uploaded just in the last month, using version 0.21 of KSP and many with stock or close to stock parts.

I like skycranes because they cut down on debris all over the place in orbit. Drop the payload, go up higher, reverse and then accelerate into the ground at high speed. Boom. No more debris.

[Matrix]

NASA provides an excellent explaination: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_Af_o9Q9s

[BobsUranus]

Thank you all for the comments. Very helpful! I just managed to build my first rover and drop it with a skycrane on the Mun plus a cable using the KAS mod as mentiond by Siek and Langkard. Thank you all!