Elcano Challenge with rocketengineer1982 - Kerbin Circumnavigation ***Image Heavy***

[rocketengineer1982]

Welcome to my Elcano Challenge thread!  Sit back, grab a few snacks, and enjoy.

 

Circumnavigation 1 - Kerbin, equatorial  (50/50 land and water)
Part 0:  Designing a rover that can actually rove
Part 1:  The journey begins
Part 2:  The first land crossing
Part 3:  Spontaneously exploding Kerbals and flags
Part 3.5:  More and bigger spontaneous explosions
Part 4:  No more explosions!
Part 5:  A quick sea crossing
Part 6:  Unimpeded progress
Part 7:  "Anti-lock braking failure" or "How to do cartwheels in a 32 ton vehicle"
Part 8:  Pushing on to Not-So-Unlucky Checkpoint 13
Part 9:  Is this the end for the Centipede Rider?
Part 10:  The recovery team is on their way
Part 11:  Take the long way home
Part 12:  Take the long way home cont. - AKA Random parachute deployment
Part 13:  Jeb takes a drive
Part 14:  Great balls of fire
Part 15:  Tedmore takes a tumble
Part 16:  A full (rich?) day
Part 17:  Race to the sea

 

 

Original introductory post, last edited July 14th, 2016

Hello everyone,

This thread is going to chronicle my hopefully not too hilarious attempt to complete one (or more) circumnavigations of Kerbin.

A little about myself:  I'm still very new to Kerbal Space Program (16 days + about 2 months with the demo) and this will be my first long distance ground journey, so please enjoy the comedy of errors that will surely follow!  I'm in my Junior year (6th semester) earning a Baccalaureate in Aerospace Engineering.  Between that and my passion for aircraft, I've gotten reasonably good at designing aircraft and spacecraft in KSP.  However I find my rover designs to be very... lacking.  Especially my amphibious rovers.

I'm hoping to complete an equatorial circumnavigation with as little deviation as possible, and then complete a polar circumnavigation.  Originally I was just hoping to just complete one circumnavigation, but my 6th rover design was a real winner.

Without further ado, I will get on with the narrative of my journey.

Edited August 21, 2021 by rocketengineer1982

[rocketengineer1982]

Part 0:  Designing a rover that can actually rove

 

While preparing for the journey, I took a look at some previous rover designs before starting my own.  This can't be too hard, right?  Wrong!

 

Design 1:  Great if I was building a racecar, not so great for a long distance rover.  The only fuel carried is RCS, all other power comes from the solar panels, thermoelectric generators, and the battery banks.  On the test drive, I knocked off the rearmost battery (the Hindmost?) at the base of a hill, and the float test did not go well at all.

 

Design 2:  This one floated, but was completely uncontrollable on the water.

 

Design 3:  Again, not controllable on the water.  The engines also had a tendency to break off.

 

Design 4:  Now this was just silliness.  I should have looked at it and seen it was completely unworkable.  The first hill I crested, the pontoons hit the ground and exploded.  Then the whole craft broke apart.

 

Design 5:  This was the first one that actually got through a couple revisions.  It worked pretty well on land but could not be steered on the water.

 

Design 6:  Finally something that can be steered on water!  A pair of inverted fins under the center section work as water rudders.  It as 4 drills, a converter, RCS and reaction wheels, and a huge amount of liquid fuel.  I think it looks a little like a rocket strapped to two centipedes.  Or perhaps a caterpillar standing on the backs of a pair of centipedes.  It looks a little funny, but it works.

 

The final design worked very well and is capable of 25 m/s on land and at least 25m/s on water using 6% throttle.  It uses 16 thermoelectric generators for powering the 20 wheels.  There is a J-33 turbofan mounted at the end of the center fuselage for providing thrust while on the water.  Fully loaded, it weighs almost 32 tons.

Edited January 11, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[SpaceplaneAddict]

Beautiful.

 

About your mining kit, are those all small drills? If so, I recommend using the big drills, as they more reliably produce ore.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Beautiful.

 

About your mining kit, are those all small drills? If so, I recommend using the big drills, as they more reliably produce ore.

Those are small drills.  I also recommend using big ones.  It won't cause any issue with it.

[rocketengineer1982]

I looked at using two big drills, but that shifted the CoM too far aft for good floating characteristics.  The mounting also became problematic when I tried to fit them around the pontoons.  Looking at fuel consumption so far, I could probably do two circumnavigations without having to refuel.  Of course, that might change once I hit the mountain ranges.

Edited January 11, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[rocketengineer1982]

Part 1 (Day 1): The journey begins

Tedmore Kerman looks confident and ready to go.  The journey was supposed to start at midnight KSC time, but that didn't quite work out.  It had something to do with hitting "." one time too many.  I really should have set an alarm.  Ted probably enjoyed the extra hour or so of sleep anyway.  He won't be sleeping for quite a while.

 

Here's Tedmore waiting for the green light to begin his journey.  I built a starting line complete with red, yellow, and green lights that shine on the ground.  I would have preferred a racing type light, but I was having a heck of a time building one.  Something about the color of the light being cast changing while the color of the Illuminator Mk1 model staying the same.

 

Tedmore gets the green light at T+ 00:04:10 MET and begins his epic journey.  The Centipede Rider (working name, I could use some suggestions) has really good off the line acceleration.  Probably something to do with having 20 wheels on a 31 ton vehicle.

Ted officially crosses the circumnavigation start line at 00:04:18 MET or Y1, D01, 01:31:31 UT.  (The Centipede Rider was launched at Y1, D01, 01:27:13 UT.)

 

It tops out at about 25.4 m/s on level ground.  Unfortunately I won't be able to keep that speed up once I leave the area around KSC and the terrain gets rougher.  I'm not sure Ted is happy with the speed he's moving at, but it's best to look good in front of all the Kerbals watching from KSC.

 

Just cruising down the runway.  The start line is 2-3km from the west end of the runway.  I'm hoping to do a nearly or completely equitorial circumnavigation, so the start line is naturally on the equator.

 

t

Unfortunately, Ted took that grade change at the start of the runway a little fast and blew out 3 tires.  There were still 17 more tires, so Tedmore continued to the end of the runway before stopping to repair.  May as well keep up appearances.

 

And away we go!  Just a little more carefully this time.

 

Entering the water went off without a hitch.  It floats with its nose/bow a little higher than I would have preferred, but I certainly didn't want it floating with the nose low.  The Rider is very stable in the water and can get up to a pretty good clip with a very low throttle setting.  I was holding 25+ m/s with about 6% throttle on the turbofan.  This time I didn't want to push it much beyond 25m/s since I didn't do a high speed trial during design testing.  I did try opening it up later, with interesting results...

 

When I got 20km from the starting line I checked how much fuel I had used.  Six units out of 2760.  I think I've got enough.

 

You can't really see it in these screenshots (I apparently took them at the wrong times) but it started porpoising at about 42 m/s.  If you look close in the second screenshot you can see that the wheels are mostly out of the water as the Centipede Rider splashes back down.  This was just after stopping in the water an doing a quicksave, so I felt safe trying a slightly higher throttle setting.  This was at 12% throttle.  I shudder to think what would happen if I really opened up the throttle while on the water.

 

The first dawn of the circumnavigation.  Ted still looks apprehensive.  On the other hand, I'm excited.  Here we go!

 

Full Part 1 album:  http://imgur.com/a/L9YQd

Edited August 20, 2021 by rocketengineer1982

[Chemp]

Great vehicle you have there! Lets hope Ted doesn't fall asleep while driving 

Your rule to stay as close to the equator as possible is certainly an interesting way to complete the challenge.

In that spirit: The best is yet to come

[rocketengineer1982]

Part 2 (Day 1): The first land crossing

This was the first real test of the Centipede Rider over hostile terrain.  Aside from some piloting errors resulting from having never done anything like this before, it went pretty well.  In retrospect, I should have done more comprehensive design testing, but it drove, it floated, and I was anxious to start the challenge.  I hit my furthest deviation from the equator so far - 0 degrees, 1 minute, and 26 seconds north.  It was while I was crossing the ocean at 4x speed, so I'm not going to sweat it too much.  I expect the hard parts of the journey to be the land crossings.

Other than the deviation during the ocean crossing, I stayed very close to the equator (typically +/-20 seconds).

 

Heading into the dawn.  In a couple of minutes (or if the Rider bounces a little more) Tedmore is going to be wishing for either some sunglasses or some window tinting in the cockpit.

 

Draw a straight line between the two capsules marked on the globe.  That's where I've been.  Pretty boring so far.

 

Land ho!  In this screenshot I'm still moving along at 30+ m/s.  I used reverse thrust on the J-33 turbofan to slow down to a reasonable speed for exiting the water.

 

Here Tedmore smiles for the camera at Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 1 (0^o 0' 22" S, 318^o 47' 11" E).  He probably enjoyed stretching his legs after being cooped up in the cockpit for three and a half hours.  The first portion of the overland journey was uneventful.  I was able to maintain about 17m/s safely over gently sloping terrain while slowing to about 5m/s for the joints.  The first real challenge came right at the ridge where I placed Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 2.

 

Here is Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 2 (0^o 0' 15" N, 39^o 37' 47" W).  That ridge gave me so much grief.  The first time I crossed it, the ridge literally ripped the poor Centipede Rider apart.  Luckily, I made a practice of setting a save point at every checkpoint so there were no major issues in getting to the ridge to attempt it again.  I finally got over it by creeping at 3m/s, and Ted still got bounced around a lot.  I blew one of the front tires and Ted had to get out to fix it.

 

Here's a screenshot of my path so far.  I had a little bit of trouble when heading East from Checkpoint 2, but nothing really difficult.

 

This is Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 3 (0^o 0' 0" N, 37^o 26' 19" S).  I think here Ted is mugging for the camera, but with him it's really hard to tell.  He seems to be pretty calm for a Kerbal.  In the lower left corner of the picture you can see the beginning of a major issue.  It's a 15 degree grade and the Rider is a roughly 32 ton vehicle.  My first attempt resulted in the Rider running out of control and self-destructing at about 50m/s - while applying full brakes.  I decided to try a different tactic.

 

I used reverse thrust on the turbofan to keep my speed in check while rolling down the hill.  Unfortunately, the controls don't make it easy to use the wheel motors as brakes while adjusting the engine's throttle, so I was limited to using the regular brakes.

A quick note on the Centipede Rider's brakes.  I never got around to balancing them, so they are a little bit too powerful, particularly in the front.  The initial design tests were interesting to say the least.  If I'm moving at 5m/s and I lock the brakes, the rear wheels lift about 1/2 meter off the ground as it stops.  Really, really bad things happen if I lock the brakes while moving faster than 8m/s.  I've learned to have a very light touch on the "b" key.

 

After using the turbofan as an additional brake, descending the hill went off without a hitch.  Here Ted begins his second ocean crossing.  Finally, he is not grimacing while driving.  Maybe he is excited to be able to move faster now that he will be crossing water again...

 

Full Part 2 album: http://imgur.com/a/Tt1xR/

Edited January 11, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[rocketengineer1982]

Part 3 (Days 1-2): Spontaneously exploding Kerbals and flags

I have discovered the major challenge in circumnavigating Kerbin: keeping your Kerbal and your flags from exploding.  This portion of the journey was certainly a learning experience as I made my second land crossing (2nd of 8 when following an equatorial path).  There were a few very scary moments and one glitch that resulted in the destruction of the vehicle (thank God for F5/F9!).

And this leg of the journey started off so nicely too...

 

This was the first sunset of the trip.  At this point I've pushed my speed to 33 m/s at 8% throttle.  For a while it was uneventful, but my speed slowly crept upwards as I drove (boated?) on into the night.

 

When my speed hit 37.7m/s the Rider started porpoising again.  I nearly had a panic attack when I saw the Centipede Rider coming completely out of the water before completely submerging.  Once I realized that there was no imminent danger of it tearing itself apart, I took a couple screenshots.  I'm pretty surprised that Tedmore is smiling in the second of the three screenshots.  He didn't strike me as the type to have a "badS" tag.  Again, I used reverse thrust to slow down and the Rider settled down.

 

Here's Ted at Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 4 (0^o 0' 8" S, 12^o 27' 42" W).  This is where I first encountered exploding flags.  It took me 2 tries in different spots to get the flag to stay up and not explode when I loaded from the Checkpoint.

 

I found an equatorial ridge.  The terrain joints here were very rough and this screenshot was taken when I stopped for a quicksave.

 

A lake!  Do we go around?  Heck no that would take us off the equator.  Tedmore says we go through!

This portion was also very tricky.  The terrain ridge here liked to rip the Rider apart and the ground on the other side of the ridge kept trying to bounce the Rider into the air.  The vibration must have given Ted double vision because he blew a tire going over a terrain joint.  Which lead to another problem...

Exploding Kerbals!

 

Note the "autosaving" text in the screenshot.  This was my second attempt to get out and fix the tire after Ted glitched through the terrain and exploded.  This was to become a recurring problem on this leg of the journey.

At this point I had not noticed that two of the rear tires had blown out as well.  Before repairing them, I created another Checkpoint and attempted the descent, but I'll get to that in a second.

 

Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 5 (0^o 0' 1" N, 11^o 28' 55" W).  I had a hard time keeping both that flag and Tedmore from exploding - the flag fell down twice, and one time Ted apparently figured that it would be more fun to spontaneously explode than walk 20 meters and plant a flag.

 

This was my first attempt descending the hill East of Checkpoint 5.  There was a very bad terrain joint partway down the hill that caused the destruction you see above.

 

After loading from my save point, I was able to get Ted to repair the rear wheels before attempting the tricky descent.

Crossing that little bay ahead presented no problems, but I hit another terrain joint climbing the hill after the bay and blew out 3 front tires.  Which in turn resulted in Ted exploding 3 times before I moved the Rider far enough (almost a kilometer) that he would no longer glitch through the terrain.

 

Here's Ted and the Centipede Rider ready to begin the descent to the beach.  This part should have been easy.  Go down the hill at 5m/s, follow the equator until it reaches the water, plant a flag, and begin the next ocean leg.  Was it actually easy?

 

Planting the flag at Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 6 (0^o 0' 59" N, 10^o 22' 35" W) was nowhere near easy.  This was my 6th attempt at planting the flag after the first 5 exploded.  Those things should come with warning labels!  I ended up following the water's edge almost a full minute north before I found a spot where the flag would stay.  The weirdest one was my 3rd attempt where the flag glitched itself 2.1km East into the ocean.  I guess those things come with rockets in addition to their self-destruct devices.  I'm sure Ted is very happy having to sit in the same vehicle with 100 or so exploding, teleporting flags.

After finally getting the flag to stay, I was able to begin a much more sedate ocean leg.  Tedmore breathed a huge sigh of relief when he realized that he wouldn't be exploding again for a while.

 

Full Part 3 album: http://imgur.com/a/NkWzO

Edited January 12, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[Chemp]

Spontaneously exploding flags and kerbals on Kerbin? I've heard of that kind of funky behaviour on other bodies though. Maybe it's associated with terrain joints on the equator, but that definitly shouldn't be happening. Thank Kod I made a naval cirumnavigation.

What version are you playing? 1.0.4 or .5?

 

[rocketengineer1982]

I'm using 1.0.5 with Docking Port Alignment Indicator, FAR, KAS, KIS, Kerbal Alarm Clock, RemoteTech, Interstellar, and TweakScale.  None of those should mess with the terrain, but you never know.  I've seen seemingly unrelated mods in Minecraft do some really funky things when installed together.

So far I haven't used any of the mods in this journey.  If my rover gets really messed up I might end up using KAS and KIS.  FAR might come into play if I have to fly out another rover.

Edited January 11, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[rocketengineer1982]

Part 3.5 (Day 2):  More and bigger spontaneous explosions

Tedmore was not as safe inside the vehicle as he thought.  It turns out that when driving at 3.2m/s over "bumpy" terrain sections, the Centipede Rider has the miraculous ability to spontaneously explode!  Up until then the overland journey was going pretty well.  I had completed about 1/3 of the land crossing and was getting ready to set another checkpoint when the sudden dissociation happened.

 

This is Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 7 (0^o 0' 9" N, 0^o 59' 42" E).  Because of a key pressing accident, I reset my quicksave to after the Rider was destroyed instead of loading the last quicksave.  So I'll have to continue from my Checkpoint 7 save instead of a much closer, more convenient save that no longer exists.

 

Full Part 3.5 album: http://imgur.com/a/EBc6f

Edited January 11, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[rocketengineer1982]

Part 4 (Days 2-3): No more explosions!

Well, after losing all my progress I got a little frustrated.  I drove at 6 m/s for a long while and then thought to myself, "heck with this, I'm going to try using time acceleration while going over the ground, even though I know it is a bad idea."  Tedmore was suspicious and fully expected to be near the focal point of an explosion yet again.

What's the line?  "If it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid".  It turns out that the Centipede Rider is stable even over iffy terrain when you drive at 8 m/s and use 3x time acceleration.  I passed the point of the 3.2 m/s spontaneous explosion while doing 8.8 m/s and using 3x time acceleration.  Go figure.

For some reason it actually seems to smooth out the crossing of the terrain joints.  Even the ones that are really, really bumpy at 1x speed.

 

Here is Tedmore passing by a mountain.  He's trying not to think about the possibility that the equatorial path will cross one of these monsters.  If it comes to that, I'll probably make a few attempts that will make Tedmore scream, and then detour (with a trail of flags to mark the course change) which will make Ted at least a little happier.  Maybe.

 

Kol has disappeared from the sky, so it is time to turn on the headlights.  No rest for the circumnavigator!

 

This is Elcano Challenge Checkpoint 8 (0^o 0' 13" S, 2^o 38' 4" E).  The drive was actually pretty uneventful.  Flags stayed where I put him, and Ted didn't sink into the ground up to his chest too many times.

 

Here's the Rider crossing a beach as Tedmore gets closer to the beginning of the next sea leg.  If you look close you can see a line in the screenshot just below and to the right of the Rider.  That's the equator.

 

After cresting a final hill, it was a straight shot to the sea.  Here's Ted beside the Elcano Checkpoint 9 flag (0^o 0' 3 N", 5^o 35' 35" E) after taking a short swim.

This was the most uneventful of the legs so far after I figured out how to avoid sudden unexpected explosions.  No blown tires, Ted didn't explode, and I only lost one flag.  Overall, it was quite relaxing.

 

Full Part 4 album: http://imgur.com/a/e53Hx

Edited January 26, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[Chemp]

I was afraid you got too frustrated after the last setbacks. Glad you're still on it. Let's hope things stay uneventful, in a good way.

[rocketengineer1982]

Part 5 (Day 3): A quick sea crossing

During this leg of the journey I finally reached 1/4 of the way around Kerbin!  It was a water leg, so it was pretty smooth sailing.

 

Here's Ted continuing through the night.

 

Dawn on the ocean is very pretty.  Of course, Ted can't enjoy it because he is currently being blinded by Kol.  He doesn't look too happy.

 

Tedmore Kerman spies land on the horizon!  Mission Control awards him extra snacks for managing to avoid getting lost during the 80+ kilometer water crossing.  Ted snickers because he has been using the very helpful NavBall instead of the chunks of cordierite and lodestone that Mission Control gave him for navigating.  Easily getting snacks always gives Kerbals a warm fuzzy feeling.  That's why all Kerbal bedtime stories end with "and they all ate free snacks happily ever after."

 

Yup, that's definitely land.  Secretly, Mission Control isn't convinced by Ted's reports and suspects that he is really approaching somewhere near the northern polar regions after making a left instead of going straight when leaving KSC.  But, Tedmore actually read Koogle's directions and is going in the correct direction.  Won't Mission Control be surprised when he actually makes it back!

 

Tedmore makes landfall in the Centipede Rider.  This is going to be the start of a very, very, very long trip overland.

 

Full Part 5 album: http://imgur.com/a/ypT3o

Edited January 26, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[rocketengineer1982]

It's been a while.  I've been busy with classes and haven't really had the time for a driving marathon.  But, I have made some progress!

 

Part 6 (Day 3): Unimpeded progress

Ted got a nice break on this part of the journey.  No exploding flags, Kerbals, tires, or other unexpected events!

 

Tedmore and the Centipede Rider at Elcano Checkpoint 10 (0^o 0' 18" S, 17^o 53' 22" E).  Ted is very, very excited to beginning the first long land leg of the trip.  You can tell by how he grins for the camera.  However, there was some slight difficulty in getting back into the Rider...

 

"The ground here is strangely marshy."  - Tedmore Kerman

 

As he drove west, Tedmore spied a wonder that surpassed all of the marvelous sights he had seen so far - a BOULDER!  And exactly on the equator, too.  Sadly, the expedition will wait for no Kerbal, so Ted had to be content with taking a few selfies instead of stopping and investigating this marvel.  Unfortunately, this resulted in some swerving back and forth across the equator, and a subsequent reprimand from Mission Control to stop doing burnouts in a very expensive vehicle and get back to heading east.  They promised extra snacks on Ted's return, so he gave up on trying to get a good selfie with the boulder, did one more doughnut for good measure, and then turned the Centipede Rider back towards the east and destiny!

 

Here Ted is standing beside Elcano Checkpoint 11 (0^o 0' 1" S, 20^o 16' 53" E).  The first real obstacle to the journey makes a dramatic backdrop for this photo.  Ted is very thankful for his 10 meter clear plastic selfie stick, although stowing it inside the Rider is always a trick.  Even though Mission Control really, really frowns on it and has threatened reducing his snack privileges, Tedmore is seriously considering using some duct tape to simply attach the selfie stick to the outside of the Rider instead of properly stowing it.

 

Full Part 6 album: http://imgur.com/a/slvlS

Edited March 17, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[max_creative]

Cool circumnavigation! I really like the rider. (And the big explosions)

[rocketengineer1982]

Thanks!  I just wish the Equator Kraken would attack a little less often...

I drifted over the equator terrain seam while doing 12 m/s.  Then I got to watch a wheel stretch away, just before the aft section of the starboard pontoon broke.  This was not even 300 meters after leaving Checkpoint 11.  Time to Quickload!

Edited March 18, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[max_creative]

Maybe don't stay right on the equator then... The poles of all the planets and moons are A. Really likely to kill you kerbals and explode you craft B. Really awesome! (usually) Eve, Moho, Vall, Mun, and Minmus have fun poles. Bop also has a dead deep space kraken abnormally near the North Pole. If any noobs see this I am not telling its location.

[rocketengineer1982]

Yeah, I've been trying to stay about 20 seconds south of the equator to avoid that joint.

In the upcoming section, I had a slight runaway vehicle accident.  You'll like the explosion.  I've noticed that for whatever reason the aft portion of the starboard pontoon is giving me a lot of problems.  It always seems to be the part that explodes.

Now I'm going to have to get a replacement vehicle into position because I'm down to 16 wheels.  That's going to be a real joy.  How do you transport a 32 ton vehicle a quarter of the way around Kerbin?

Edited March 18, 2016 by rocketengineer1982

[max_creative]

2 hours ago, rocketengineer1982 said:

Now I'm going to have to get a replacement vehicle into position because I'm down to 16 wheels.  That's going to be a real joy.  How do you transport a 32 ton vehicle a quarter of the way around Kerbin?

Air drop it from space? I accidentally did this with a 500 ton station so it should work. Should. Well, once it got to sea level it was a cupola and a hitchhiker but it wasn't designed for reentry anyway.

[rocketengineer1982]

I've kept going on 16 wheels.  I've made more than 60km since the accident, and the Grasslands and Highlands terrain is pretty easy.  Looking at www.kerbalmaps.com I can go to about 37 degrees, 30 minutes east before I hit bad terrain again.

Being this close to the space center, I'm thinking of airlifting the replacement vehicle into position.  If I were closer to halfway around Kerbin, I would probably drop it from orbit or do a sub-orbital lob shot.  That's assuming I could find a way to safely reenter the vehicle.  Those RCS blocks burn off at 1500 K, and the wheels would be gone at 1200 K.

The airlift aircraft is probably going to look like a Fairchild XC-120 Packplane with the replacement Rider slung underneath an elevated fuselage.

[max_creative]

I dropped a 14 ton outpost to the big river thingy today. It worked great and almost exploded.

[Chemp]

16 hours ago, rocketengineer1982 said:

Those RCS blocks burn off at 1500 K, and the wheels would be gone at 1200 K.

If you end up going suborbital, you can always smack some radiator panels on. Either on the reentry vehicle, or directly on the rover. If you use KAS, you can unmount them easily after the landing. I have made SSTOs with FAT-455 wings that also burn off at 1200K and 2 small panels were more than enough to keep the heat at bay.
On the other hand, I agree with you that shipping the rover with a plane is probably easier, especially since 1/4 around is not too far. Not to mention that building cargo planes is a lot more fun.

 

[max_creative]

No reentry is more fun! Pretty lights show!

Edited March 20, 2016 by max_creative
300th post!