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Hello all you forum users! I am currently planning my first Kerbin Elcano challenge, and I am super excited. Most of the trip will be on water, because the land is too rough, but that doesn't matter. I am in development of a mark2 hull based pontoon boat, with an outer deck, seating for 6 Kerbals, solar arrays on the rear, and ore harvesting equipment. Man, I wish I had photos, but Flickr isn't working yet. MODS I PLAN TO USE: KAS, KIS, Ven's stock revamp, (for textures) KER, MechJeb, and MK2 expansion. Anyway, when I get some shots up I'll showcase my craft. Thanks for visiting my little corner of the forums!

speedboat? hydroplane? ekranoplan? Elcanoplan! Kerbin sea circumnavigation - as much travel over water as possible (but a part of the route will have to cross the land) Start point: Just drove off the runway and into water Engine engaged, raising onto hydrofoils, reaching the cruise speed and let's go! Phase 1: Northeast island Distance: 141 km MET: 0:55-2:11 Land! Looks like a nice bay And crawling out of the water. Not that much fuel spent, but let's fill the tanks And after full refueling Let's swim across the ocean! What? Sunset? Has it really been that long? And we are still halfway to the next destination... Phase 2: Cape of Falling Stars (or were those actually spent stages?) Distance from last point: 244 km (242 km) Total distance traveled: 385 km (383 km) Distance from KSC: 359 km (354 km) (numbers in parenthesis are straight-line measurments before accounting for curvature) MET: 0d 3:39 Land? Not just land - the end of a continent! Crawling ashore right on the cape Between two oceans We have enough fuel - let's no waste the night. And further east! Phase 3: Good morning island! Isn't it a good sign to find an island on sunrise? And right near a cape from a big continent! Distance from last point: 297 km (294 km) Total distance traveled: 682 km (677 km) Distance from KSC: 647 km (616 km) MET: 0d 5:10 - 1d 0:54 Sun! Land! Marching ashore A well deserved shore leave Reached a new continent! Not a continent? Slightly offshore? Still a nice island! OK, now we are refueled And set course northeast! Phase 4: Owl island White Owl once considered building an airbase there to land reusable boosters. He was using modded space center location - on the continent west of this island. Distance from last point: 397 km (390 km) Total distance traveled: 1079 km (1067 km) Distance from KSC: 939 km (846 km) MET: 1d 3:00 And the Sun set halfway there again... Choosing a good beach And we are here! Longest single glide so far! Well, we still have half of total fuel capacity and half the night is still there... Let's move on (and hope we don't run out of fuel) Phase 5: Crack gulf cape Distance from last point: 370 km (364 km) Total distance traveled: 1449 km (1431 km) Distance from KSC: 1225 km (1023 km) MET: 1d 5:07 - 2d 0:51 Looks like we got there! Drop out of glide, switch to swim and get on the beach And into this gulf our path goes next 767 km covered since last refueling! And by the time we got here, morning reach our previous stop. But we saw the sunrise halfway here. Let's just fill... What? Sunset?! Already?! But we mined just half the fuel! Okay, let's move on. At least we aren't crossing an ocean this night. Phase 6: Landcrack gulf This place really looks like if somebody tried to tear the landmass apart. Distance from last point: 100 km Total distance traveled: 1549 km (1531 km) Distance from KSC: 1287 km (1054 km) MET: 2d 1:25 Cruising inland along the shore Is that ..? Yeah, the ocean has ended We have run out of water Kind of... Land is full of lakes

ELCANO CHALLENGE - ACCEPTED Prologue _______________________________________ Many intrepid adventurers have set out to explore the solar system, only a few have attempted to drive or float their way around the entire home planet. Well, perhaps rashly, perhaps ignorantly, I'd like to try. I received much pleasure from reading others' attempts at this, successful and otherwise and hats off to you, I have great admiration for your achievement. I'm not a patient or faithful person. So I'm concerned, but on the other hand, hopefully this is an opportunity for growth, even if in only a small way. If I fail, at least I will have tried. If I succeed, hopefully I will have had a great adventure, gotten to know Kerbin better, be a better engineer, conquered my own laziness and lack of constancy. At this point I'm planning on majority sea travel, with a couple of small trips across the land bridges. We may need to modify our plans as we go. Pre 1.1 sea travel was a much more impressive accomplishment. So I'm taking the easy option in a sense, but hey at least now it's achievable for the likes of me! _______________________________________ CONTENTS 1. Design, Development and Testing Day 1 (below) Day 2 Day 2 - Part 2 Days 3 & 4 Route planning Preparation checklist Final Planning 2. The Expedition Day 1 - Birth and Death Day 1 - Part II - Berthy and Depth Days 2 & 3 - Kraken Attacks! Days 4, 5 & 6 - Plain Sailing & Kraken Bites Day 6 - Vehicle Replacement Days 7 & 8 - Progress...? Days 9 & 10 - Help Sails on its Way Days 11 & 12 - Reunion Day 13 - Unflipping Day Day 14 - Sullen, Sadness; Glade and Gladness Days 15 & 16 - Secret Seas, Kraken, Claws and Sounds Days 17 & 18 - Gulf Crossing & Black Rock 3. Vessel Overviews The Waarn _______________________________________ DAY 1 Prototypes and Explosions _______________________________________ Design Thoughts: Two different schools of thought on Elcano. A car that can swim or a boat that can walk. The great blue yonder beckons... Several different experiments in the SPH resulted in a catamaran type hull. With more parts touching the water there is more drag I think, however I found with longer outriggers/pontoons the craft is more stable. The goal here for me was being able to run this craft stably at 4x speed with physics. So to that end I set off on a sea-worthiness trial and managed to cross the Eastern Sea by water, for the first time! Amphibious! Land! Check it out Jeb! _____ Bill: " Hey, Jeb, can I come out too?" Jeb: "Ummm. No. Maybe you can get out next time." Bill: "Flip." Jeb: "You're just the engineer after all. You were drinking cokes in the back seat the whole way here, while I was doing all the hard work!" Bill: "..." _____ Name: Always important. Embody the ethos of the mission; inspire the adventurers. Being stumped, I asked my wife, who took one look and said: "it looks like one of those spiders that walk on water" 1 minute of googling later,,, Behold!: The Dolomedes Triton! The namesake is an spider which is known to run on water - hence the reference to Poisidon's son - and even 'fish'. How apt - a sort of amphibious arachnid. Additionally it's coloring's are similar. Drag: So, this craft is efficient enough. Having experimented with different nose cones I found the NCS + small nose cone is pretty efficient. -Further, interestingly the 'straighter' or more level the craft moves through the water, the less drag. Having long pontoons seems to level out the craft and enable higher speeds. Additionally the vertical stabiliser helps with a little snaking in the water which knocks off speed too. -Fully loaded this craft can cruise at around 25 m/s. I realise this is no speed boat. But I think this speed is acceptable, and more realistic this way. -Having small wheels housing clipped into the pontoons seems to make no difference to drag. Funny, I thought it would. This is good news, as it means more ground clearance underneath for those nasty hill crossings. Engines: Also the Juno engines, whilst not as efficient as the Wheesley are better suited to this craft. When trying the Wheesley, the higher thrust meant the craft tipped more with the center of thrust higher than the center of mass. With the smaller engines this is not a problem. The center of mass needs to be low down so it doesn't tip, so the pontoons are the primary fuel tanks. On returning from the sea trials... Next thoughts: Wheels: Overland small landing gear + the Junos should get me there for the land bridges. But I'm not so sure about this. This is probably what I'm most worried about. Before I set off, I definitely need to test thrust going uphill. Might need the Wheesley after all...or moar Junos (*lol*). Surveying: To that end, aerial survey will be in order. I'll fly to the two proposed land sections which need to be crossed and check their inclines and plan out the ingress and egress points. Fuel: The on-board fuel load gets the craft pretty far. In one test I went 335km and used 1,079 LF, which was only a small fraction of the tanks capacity. Even so, as with most Elcano attempts, a refuel will be necessary. I'm thinking a cargo-plane drop of a refueling rover (read orange tank with wheels!). Or possible a VTOL plane could be fun. I've recently discovered these and they can be quite fun. Regarding the actual refuel connection...To Klaw or not to Klaw that is the question. (Last time I seriously used the Klaw 'round Minmus to recover a lost capsule the Kraken was awoken and ate my game. Ships in orbit started accelerating. Nasty. Nearly lost my whole carerr save game. Fortunately I'm a little OCD with backing up.) Logging: Don't really want to have to manually log lat./long. The old Persistent Trails mod is not up to date, so that's out. Up Next: ...Land Trials & Refueling tests!

About the Mission: Primary Objective: Complete the Elcano Challenge circumnavigate Kerbin without leaving the planet's land surface or oceans - SUCCESS Secondary/Operational Objectives: complete the circumnavigation in as little time as possible (this means ISRU stops are out of the question) - PARTIAL SUCCESS (24 hours 44 minutes) based on craft performance, this conditionally means one fuel stop only - FAILURE keep land-based transportation to a minimum - SUCCESS The Craft (CRAFT FILE HERE) The Soviet 3b "Elcano" is a tri-hull catamaran-hydrofoil capable of speeds up to 100m/s, with a maximum fuel capacity 40440 LF and a maximum crew capacity of 10 (or 4 in comfort). It is powered by two J-90 "Goliath" turbofan main engines, and 3 auxiliary J-33 "Wheesley" turbofan engines, providing a variety of thrust patterns for optimal speed and/or efficiency. Directional control is achieved by paired aero- and hydro-rudder surfaces (AV-R8 Winglets) mounted aft on the outer pontoon-hulls. The 4 hydrofoils themselves are 2 pairs of FAT-455 control surfaces mounted anhedrally to the 4 wheel-pod hardpoints. At a maximum of 50% fuel capacity and speeds exceeding 50m/s, they provide adequate planing lift to hold the whole vessel clear of the water, and must be dynamically trimmed by the helm to maintain direction stability and prevent porpoising. The parent design process was originally intended to result in a non-stop circumnavigation, but due to operational constraints and time pressures the mission was forced to launch before such a design had been achieved - under near-optimal circumstances, the Soviet 3b can only be expected to cover half the planetary ocean surface without refuelling. The Crew Commander/Helmsman: Corly Kerman Chief Engineer: Aselle Kerman Relief Helmsman: Theonard Kerman Assistant Engineer: Karelyn Kerman Science Personel: None FULL MISSION REPORT:

So I've been thinking of doing the Elcano for a long time. I planned to do it when I was playing career mode with a Duna rover. I also wanted to do it on Dres which is one of my favourite planets in the game. So here is my Dres Elcano. Drelcano? Nope. The Rover Meet DEV or Dres Exploration Vehicle. It has room for two kerbals on top. Very durable. (Unless you crash into a building hence the broken rover wheel) The Mission Now let me explain how I intend to do the challenge. First I get it to Dres and land it. Then I drive to a lander that I landed a few months back for the Dres Awareness Challenge. This is where I pick up my crew. I was thinking of doing an equatorial circumnavigation so I could pass through the Dres Canyon however that is for another mission as I will most likely re-use the DEV for future missions. Therefore I'll then do a Polar circumnavigation and then come back to the lander again. If any un-fixable accidents happen, I'll have to send another rover. (Obviously ) Part One Getting the Rover to Dres. So I built a big launch vehicle instead of going for a small nuke powered one. I love it when you use flea boosters as seperatrons. From here, I had to first go around the Sun once more to get the Dres encounter, got a crazy high capture burn and had to do a scary suicide burn and ended up using the transfer stage as a shock absorber. Ok lets go pick up Billy-Bobsen and Linke Kerman. They're quite far away... I wish this counted as part of the circumnavigation. :/ And that's what became of the first flag on Dres... Anyway that's it for now. Next we'll reach them and start the circumnavigation!

Elcano is the hip thing to do nowdays, it seems. Here's mine. 11 July 2016 : Initial Design Before the original Elcano challenge was posted in 2015, there was the no-rules circumnavigation challenge. Unlike Elcano, where the spirit is the most important part, the no-rules circumnavigation challenge was all about results. I decided that instead of circumnavigation using depressed trajectories and rockets, I decided I was going to do a water circumnavigation. I got about halfway around Kerbin before deciding to do other things, then KSP changed parts and all hope of completing that circumnavigation was lost. This circumnavigation attempt can be read about at its original post. Even though I stopped, and I can no longer complete the original circumnavigation that I set out to do, I still want to complete a water circumnavigation. Through last night and this morning, I worked hard on designing a ship that could work as well as my original ship even with the new water physics. Here are snapshots of that journey: 12 July 2016: The first leg What a wild first leg I had! The journey can be divided into three parts: High-Speed Watercraft long pontoon, Inasta and Inasta II, and Inasta III. The first leg was High-Speed watercraft long pontoon, the test boat. High-Speed Watercraft long pontoon made a good first leg but was not fit for a full circumnavigation because kerbals cannot re-enter the craft if they leave, which makes flag-planting impossible. Also, the proper opening ceremony had not been made. I officially start the circumnavigation with Inasta. Alright, so, actually Inasta II was the real start of the journey because it's the only one I haven't lost progress on, but I already need to send a recovery craft. Finally made it to the end of leg one. 13 July 2016: Refueling before the second leg I present to you General Refueling Aircraft, purpose-built to refuel Inasta III (yes, I know). Stage separates the klaw, 1 toggles klaw arming, and RCS toggles reverse thrust (R for Reverse Thrust of course). The design shown is actually the second iteration, as I have no pictures of its first iteration. The only difference is the addition of struts on the wings. Lets refuel Inasta III: Hopefully I complete this voyage before I die.

So about a year ago, maybe a bit less, I circumnavigated Gilly. Back then I was a relative amateur at KSP, and the entire thing was shoddy, but nevertheless successful. However, looking back, the reason I chose Gilly was because I was worried about doing damage to the wheels. Once I got there, I was more worried about making orbit by accident. While I don't trust myself to create a ship capable of reaching Pol, the 2nd smallest body in the game, I do feel confident to go to Minmus. I'll submit several 'Chapters' in the form of IMGUR albums to showcase this. So, without further ado, I present Chapter 1! Apologies for no info on the album, I'm not sure how to add captions to each bit, any advice is kindly appreciated.

Ahh, yes. The classic drive around somewhere challenge. I have decided on Eeloo as my target. I have landed close to its Apoapsis, which means the sun is small and output is small. But, I brought 2 RTGs to generate power! This should be easy, and fast. A snowball sized like the Mun is an easy drive. Or is it really? DAY 1: Rough Driving We have landed on Eeloo. We have already driven 27km from the landing site. The rover is not it tiptop shape, but it still works. We are going to push on. Valentina will ace this drive! Day 2 is obviously tomorrow! Day 2: Not so small steps We have driven so far today! Both the landing site flag and the flag in the dirt are both gone. We have entered and driven out of an abyss. The rover has ended up on the dark side. Nothing has been lost. We will keep going. I might add another one today. MIGHT ;] I felt lazy so no titles or descriptions. You decide what happened today. Day 3 or 4 Part 1: Halfway Halfway! We have made the mark. Only another half and it's all over. It's not boring, it's just taking a while. Also, no titles or descriptions for these 45 pictures. Why part 1? Because there will probably be another part tonight. I have become obsessed with finishing this challenge. I can do this. Day 3 or 4 part 2: Game Over I did it. 210km driven. The snowball has been conquered. All I need to do is rescue her. I probably won't, to honor here. It's finally over. Here it is. 66 pictures with no titles or descriptions again.

MUN ELCANO RUN This is an attempt of mine to go around the Mun by ground. Summary of past events (bolded numeral indicated which chapter is summarized): CHAPTER I: TO DRIVE AROUND THE MUN, ONE NEEDS TO BRING A CAR TO THE MUN The rover was designed to be simple, durable, reliable, and stable. It was tested around KSC and works pretty well, at least in Kerbin's high gravity. I expect it to be able to keep going day and night, and it has proven itself able to go up some pretty steep hills (namely, the side edge of the end of the runway). The only drawback to it is that it's simply awful to transport. I had to build a really awkward rocket to get it to the Mun, and it took a really long time to get it just right. It didn't quite have enough delta-V, it always decided to RUD when separated from the rover, and the rover's engines were pointed towards the crew module, which cancelled out the thrust because PHYSICS. Here is the rocket as I first designed it: And here is the rocket which actually made it: Landing: In the process of getting a rover to the Mun in working order, Jeb was stranded. This is not a problem, as I'll just drive the functional rover to his location and pick him up. The rover is currently landed on the Mun, I will post pics of it later when I start the driving.

Proposed route of HEER rover (subject to change)

Recently, I mentioned a few times that I was going to do the Elcano Challenge on Earth, in RSS. Some of you might know this from the numerous questions I asked, regarding electric propellers. I created two routes, each made to go through several interesting locations. Please read through the descriptions in THIS MY-MAPS DOCUMENT, and vote for which route I should choose. My ego trip will most likely start next month, if all goes well. *EDIT*: I have added a third route, going through the North and South poles. The route will have numerous trek areas (so will the others), where the crew will disembark and explore the surroundings.

I did a Mun Elcano challenge, my first one. I used a derivative of my rover science probe. I removed all science equipment and add 2 seats. I set the reaction wheel at the back, that wasn’t a good idea, braking was much less efficient. I also add 2 RTG to set the vehicle 4WD instead of 2WD for the science probe. As for the trip, I landed ate a nearly random equatorial location and went westward. I stopped twice to let the sun follow, thus having a nicer scenery sight. I stopped at the 3 arches, at the Armstrong memorial and at one of the monolith (which wasn’t there…). I also meet with one of my rover probe near a crater assembly I was playing around. I used MJ auto pilot, only stopping to quick save. I reloaded few times because of misplaced waypoints. The rover has difficulties crossing crater border at 22m/s in x4 physical time warp. Rocket design, take-off and mun orbiting Undock and Mun landing (the skycrane is overfueled by design) and starting point To the first Crater The the first Arch Meeting with science rover probe The long road to the second Arch The last arch The Armstrong memorial (in harsh terrain...) The Big crater monolith (where it is ?) End of the road Well, that was fun! BTW, here is the doggy science rover probe from which the rover I used is derived.

Long have I pondered whether to do an Elcano challenge. the other week, when I was thoroughly hacked off at being able to make a very good shuttle but being useless at making an SSTO I had a little play around with rovers and went a little overboard. The Landcano was born: Let's have a look at some specifics: 1 panoramic cupola pilot center, and 4 berth driver cabin pod. Room for 32 passengers. 2 Juno engines for enhanced breaking, and 2 Wheesley Engines for straight line speed. Many, many wheels. While stylish and clearly very capable at mountain climbing, it was largely useless in the turns....and at lasting 5 seconds without blowing up the runway apparently: So now I'd caught the bug. I'd designed a capable (if explosive) rover, and just needed a little adjustment to get it over the line as something that I'd be happy to spend hours in front of my computer holding W with. It gives me great pleasure to present the smaller (but no less awesome) Landcano Wayfarer: Well technically that's the launch vehicle, but let's cover that off first anyway as it's a bit of a beast and rather nicely made. The mighty S3 KS-25x4 Mammoth provides thrust for the main stack, and 4 LFB KR-1x2 Twin-Boar liquid boosters are strapped to the main stack to get the thing off the ground, and perform a beautiful Korolev's cross separation when spent. 412 parts and 785.9t on the launch pad mean this is no small part count, but the whole vehicle is very detail orientated, and the rover particularly so. I'm not going to pretend that I got to this design with out some trial and a lot of error. For example the launch vehicle started out with only 2 strap-ons, and no struts holding the rover in place. Let's take a look at some of those glorious moments where everything went, well, not to plan: Has the suspense got the best of you yet? Are you now dying to see what the rover in final form and fine fettle looks like? Let's finally get around to a review of the rover itself: Let's talk stats again: 290 parts and 65.2t including the landing module. The Landcano Wayfarer is powered by 20 ruggedized rover wheels, and has 8 wheel steering (front and back). In addition the jet engines have been replaced by liquid duel engines. The Wayfarer features the same front end as the original Landcano, with the addition of some quality of life parts (ladders etc) but also a fully functional IRSU system. The middle module (only contained fuel) has been entirely removed, and the passenger section and living quarters have shrunk from 32 capacity down to 16. You've probably guessed by now that this vehicle is not made for a Kerbin Elcano. A decision was made not to tackle Kerbin (yet!) and instead go for an airless body. The Mun was mooted, but in the end Minmus won out due in part to it's being much smaller, but also slightly less challenging from a terrain point of view. With crew selected: Aldin - Pilot Melfal - Co-Pilot Gerfrod - Scientist Dildred - Engineer Largerlotte - Scientist Mirilian - Engineer Thompoly - Engineer The only thing to do was strap in, turn on and boost up. Queue stage 1 of the mission - Getting to Minmus: What a vehicle! The crew drives a very short distance to a photogenic and convenient starting point and the starting flag is placed: In the coming posts as I upload the mission report segments we can follow the journey of the legendary 7 and the Landcano Wayfarer. Will it make it? Do the crew survive? Does anything function as intended? Let's take a deep breath and find out whether a successful Elcano Challenge entry can be seen out! SM

Elcano challenge, Kerbin, Land, stock craft (2482 kg empty, 6081 kg fueled) Day 0 - Preparations: http://imgur.com/a/oEjI3 Day 1 - Smooth start: http://imgur.com/a/VfiFI Day 2 - Solar eclipse: http://imgur.com/a/s1YF7 Day 3 - First problems: http://imgur.com/a/WM0fG I will update this post with imgur links to the expedition days and embed the albums in seperate posts. The current plan is to only drive at daytime and stop at sundown.

I have decide to do a eve circumnavigation . Hopefully all goes well for me! So for I have done minus and kerbin challnges and now im going for eve. I will be doing a polar Circumnavigation. I have made a rover that can go at about 20m/s and can go at 4x warp. It is going to be a challenge to get jeb home though. Once I complete this I would the first person to do both Eve and kerbin and that's cool. I would a map like my kerbin challenge but I cant find a eve map. LEG ONE Today I just launched the rover to Eve. The reentry at eve was bit hairy. I lost about half of my ablator but I landed ok. After a little testing on the surface everything deemed to work good. I plan to put flags every 50KM. Have some pics! LEG TWO Today I have started to real progress. Right now im beside a mountain range. I tried to drive form the IVA view but its really hard to drive. The rover starts to bug out at 4x warp but 3x works fine. According to my research it will take me 88 flags to plant, so about 4400km. Most of these shots are beauty shots but there still good. LEG THREE It seems like I get 4 flags each day and I have to plant 88 flags. If I do 4 flags everyday it will take me 22 days to complete. But ill more time on the weekend. I've been looking at the other side of the planet and found.... a ocean! I didn't see that and now ill have to navigate a bunch little islands but I will be fine. At one point today I was at 35m/s! But besides that once again everything pretty much normal. I heard the sunets on Eve are green so that will look pretty. LEG FOUR I made some real progress this leg. The one bad thing about doing a polar circumnavigation is when you drive around the poles it gets dark. I'm a little surprised I have broke any wheels yet. I found this map I can use for eve so you guys can see my progress. The land on Eve is pretty tame, I thought it would be bumpier but its not. LEG FIVE This was a nightmare. This is why it took so dang long to do. Have you every been to poles? They are absolutely horrible. There are lines of mountains and valleys with like 90 degree angles. My wheels wanted to go backwards without me touching the keyboard.!! Sometimes the rover just fell apart for no reason. NEVER GO TO THE NORTHPOLE, YOU WILL DIE HORRIBLY. I had to reload so many times. I really hope the south pole is better. Now some of you might wonder where the map is. I removed because I cant figure out where I am on the map. Now you guys can get some pictures of my nightmare. Hope you like them. hahahaha LEG SIX I/m still getting those mountains and valleys. Looks likes its about to end now, thank god. But I didn't get much driving done this leg . Im now driving along the ocean coast. LEG SEVEN I'm now in these chain of islands that I have to navigate now. I have left all of those valleys and mountains and that's great. LEG EIGHT I have planted 34 flags now so I am about halfway. I almost went down the wrong path that lead to a dead-end. There are some big mountains up ahead and that cant be good. I have a question for you guys, Do you like lots of pictures or fewer pictures. Please tell me down below! LEG NINE Turns out that climbing mountains is fun! Turns out those mountains where fun. At the tops of the mountains I planted a flag. I even got to 50 M/s going downhill! LEG TEN I am now sadly leavening the mountain range. Remember at poles I had the phantom force? It was back for couple minutes but after that it was fine. I planted a couple new Flags on tops of mountains. I got up to 60 M/S going downhill. I was really surprised it didn't go out of control.

Since I have already done a Minmus circumnavigation (shameless plug http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/123486-minmus-circumnavigation/ ) and I was bored after I finished my space station I decided to do a Kerbin Water circumnavigation. The boat is 321 parts and has drills for refueling. The boat has a top speed of 34 M/s and can go at 4x speed warp without slowing down or breaking. The boat basically drives itself! The boat is called the Edmund Fitzgerald, I anticipate something horrible hence the name. A map will be at the bottom of the post. Craft File! craft file here TESTING AND PROTOTYPES The boat had three prototypes. The first prototype had a mining rover. It worked well getting out but while getting in the solar panels broke. second prototype had mining stuff inside farings and big engines. When it got in water it tipped over. Last prototype put the engines lower and added pontoons. After that I did a complete redesign of the boat using 7! wheelsy engines. Added 4 sets of pontoons for extra stability. I also added this really cool "flag" on the back. Now for pics! LEG ONE Well since this boat basically drives itself and I mostly had nothing to do except move fuel.. You see when the Edmund Fitzgerald is fully loaded with fuel the engines are halfway in the water. That landing engine effect thing happens and the lags me a lot so I move fuel to the front. I will partially refuel tomorrow. Pics as usual.. LEG TWO I made land today. I tested the land driving and mining and it worked. Its kind of hard to turn on land but its ok. I didn't have that much time today but ill do more soon. Pics now.! LEG THREE Kept on moving Northeast and cam to a little island to mine. The island had like 3 little lakes and drove though those. After that I left and kept on moving. LEG FOUR This leg was a long one. I also crossed the only land part Its kind of hard to drive on land. If I stopped on a hill and tried to go forward I wet backwards. Top speed is about 50 M/S on land and on hills about 30 M/s. I kept the fuel low because I thought it would help. But besides that the land bridge was pretty uneventful. When I left the land bridge I refueled. After that I move down towards the equator. Turns out the Edmund Fitzgerald does bad on low fuel. If I time ward on low fuel it bob up in down in the water and turns plus it sows down to like 2 M/s. I had to fiddle with the fuel to get it to work. So when that started to happen I made a beeline towards the nearest land. So I made it to a island and refueled. When I passed by a island I refueled again. Than I saw another island and refueled again. I kept on going down past the equator and then stopped. I'm also more that halfway done!!!. I also have tons of pics LEG FIVE Getting close now. This leg was pretty normal. I ran over a flag but I reloaded and fixed it. I refueled twice because the boat handles bad when I get low. I probably have two more stops before im done. I also probably be done by leg six or seven. So that's good LEG SIX I'm done with this challenge now! Once again this leg was pretty normal. After Jeb left Bill planted a flag at KSC and left a plaque. Jeb then posed with it and read plaque. Then I did a plane fly-by and a fireworks launch! pics! MAP OF ROUTE Red is stopping points and purple is mining spots.

I've been wanting to do the Elcano challenge for a while, but I've never had enough free time to dedicate to developing a rover which won't flip in low gravity. But recently, I realised that Gilly was probably small enough that an enterprising kerbal could circumnavigate it on foot. The only question is, who would be insane enough to go along with this plan? Sorry Jeb, but I want to do this stock, and since not having access to VOID means I can't guarantee I'll build something capable of making a two-way trip, I don't want to risk an orange suit. Maybe one of the new recruits will be similarly insane? Perfect. I've already come up with a rocket capable of getting to Gilly, all you have to do is get in and fly it there: The actual circumnavigation will start later this week.