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The Elcano Challenge : Ground-based circumnavigation

Fengist
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Claw

Claw

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Fengist,

And also for everyone else... :D

Munar circumnavigation is now posted here!!

If you don't want to read all of the mission postings, here are the albums.

Long story short: The Mun is a real pain. Funny enough, this was done a while ago. It was interrupted by a short jaunt to Jool for completion of Laythe.

Cheers!

~Claw

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damerell

damerell

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I just read Claw's report, and the timewarp difficulties reminded me of something I've been pondering for a while.

I used timewarp (via Better Timewarp) only to get up to real time when I had too many parts on the rover for it to run in real time at 1x warp. Am I alone in doing real-time circumnavigations?

(I posted this in the wrong thread, but apparently not - KN_Namida only timewarped on the flat bits of Minmus...)

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Claw

Claw

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Am I alone in doing real-time circumnavigations?

I'd say probably not alone. The neat thing about this challenge is that everyone has a slightly different take on it. I like this sort of challenge more than "what's the minimum parts to do X" type challenges. In fact, I like it so much that I'm actually posting about my trip, although I think the Elcano posts pull very little interest to most folks. I think the people who are in this challenge do it for the personal satisfaction.

So, I don't time warp through everything. I do real time through the interesting parts, but really there's only so much to talk about and post for a circumnavigation trip that takes so long to complete. Especially given that I'm up to five bodies now. I think for me part of the interesting piece of this challenge is designing a rover (or boat) that can be so rugged. I'm also fairly certain that had I only stuck with one body to circumnavigate, I would have taken a much longer approach. An example of that fact can be seen with my Polar Challenge (drive from KSC to the North Pole) where I actually created an entire storyline for is and proceeded through most of it in real time, which was still 12 hours of driving even with a relatively fast rover. Ultimately I threw out the story line because I didn't think most people cared. Wilsey and Bartiger were the pioneers who made the rover so stout. I had actually designed it to withstand warp, because I didn't know how punishing the mountains would be.

Cheers,

~Claw

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Hagen von Tronje

Hagen von Tronje

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I just read Claw's report, and the timewarp difficulties reminded me of something I've been pondering for a while.

I used timewarp (via Better Timewarp) only to get up to real time when I had too many parts on the rover for it to run in real time at 1x warp. Am I alone in doing real-time circumnavigations?

(I posted this in the wrong thread, but apparently not - KN_Namida only timewarped on the flat bits of Minmus...)

My current Eve circumnavigation is real-time, because it employs aerodynamic control surfaces and becomes highly unstable at physics warp. Which is why I still have no updates worthy of posting, Eve is a really huge planet. My time elapsed there is going to be my real time investment...which is a little uncomfortable to have staring me in the face! :sticktongue:

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Hagen von Tronje

Hagen von Tronje

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Good luck Hagen. I still haven't committed myself to doing everything. Just playing along while it's still fun. :)

Thanks, I got to tell you I really respect your circumnavigations. You've driven even more than I have and you've done it stock, that's impressive stuff!

Everyone:

Eve circumnavigation has begun, and I've got a surprise this time: all IVA driving! In an amphibious rover that goes 60m/s on Eve and enters and leave the sea at 35m/s! It's a tropical holiday for Hagen as I cruise around the equator of hot and sunny Eve, my favorite planet, so I hope you'll join me as I see the sights on the queen of all planets!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/130281-Elcano-Challenge-As-Long-as-it-Takes

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Claw

Claw

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Update post on my Elcano trip to the Duna system: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/127377-%28Reopened%29-Elcano-Challenge-A-Phoenix-Reborn?p=2201887&viewfull=1#post2201887

There's no Duna completion in there, but it details prep for the trip. I've already completed Ike, and just finished Duna tonight. So hopefully I can get those posted soon. I think the ship has enough left in it for a trip to Dres (enough fuel and a spare rover), so I might push the limit a bit on that one. We'll see. :)

Cheers,

~Claw

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FleshJeb

FleshJeb

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I somewhat accidentally did Minmus. I took my 25-ton armor-plated science rover out for a low-grav shakedown, and realized I was halfway around the planet, so I kept going. I only used one or two quickloads, but I did fix a heck of a lot of tires. Thanks to MJ, it was largely full-throttle and hands-off. I just had to be there to flick on the VTOL Vernors to cushion the landings.

I had enough fuel left for the Vernors that I put it in Minmus orbit, and docked with a recovery/parachute tug. Bob made it back to Kerbin in one piece.

I'm about 1/4 of the way around the Mun in a similar craft. Having a rover that can survive a 1-2km tumble at 20 m/s is a blast.

No proof, No badge needed. I had a REALLY good time. :-D

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Claw

Claw

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Wow! How many bodies have you circumnavigated already XD

I am on Dres right now, but I haven't posted my Duna trip. So on my seventh, six complete, and five posted.

Turns out that Duna Mothership I built has enough dV plus an extra rover (two actually, but one is parachute only) to go do Dres. So that's where I am at the moment. The mission reports are lagging behind, but are slowly catching up. :)

Rather than posting progress along the way (as I did with Kerbin), I've been waiting till I'm done and posting a condensed version. I'm not sure which people prefer, but that's what I've been doing and why the reports lag a little.

Cheers,

~Claw

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TheCardinal

TheCardinal

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....

~Claw

Wauw!

I humbly submit my intended double circomnavigation of Minmus with a tracked vehicle. All participants have circomnavigated a body over the poles or along the equator. I intend to do both in one go. I will be starting at position 0,0 and plant a flag, return there the long way, turn 90 degrees and do it all over again. I will be making screenprints every 10 degrees (or as close as i can get it) and place a science package at every 30 degrees. I considered doing that every 10 degrees but i'm afraid 72 craft in one game might break it. So i'll attempt it at 30 degrees.

I had intended to do the circomnavigation of Minmus with a tractor and two trailers however testdriving the combination showed that it was inherently unstable. It usually ended in a pileup. So it will be attempted with the tractor and one trailer instead (the trailer had to be modified after the screenprint was made due to this). Both combinations can be seen in the screenprint below.

I am using a lot of mods mostly for esthetic reasons. Some for other reasons. MechJeb will only be used to get the tractor and the trailer to Minmus. Absolutely not during the drive on Minmus. That will be hands on only, navigation will be performed with Historian. Trickery like Hyperedit and KerbalJointReinforcement will not be used.I will add the link to the thread about the journey later to his post.

screenshot98.png

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Claw

Claw

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I humbly submit my intended double circomnavigation of Minmus with a tracked vehicle. All participants have circomnavigated a body over the poles or along the equator.

...

I had intended to do the circomnavigation of Minmus with a tractor and two trailers however testdriving the combination showed that it was inherently unstable. It usually ended in a pileup.

Nice. :) But please don't give Fengist any "double circumnavigation" ideas. I think that would be the death of me. :P

I'm not sure how the tracked vehicles work, but I do know from experience that sometimes wheels pushing from the rear cause too much "push" and lead to fishtailing and other bad behavior. That's one of the reasons my StockPlus addon adds "wheel grip." So you can give some differential grip to the rover wheels and let some of them slip first.

Is there a way to disable the treads on the rear most vehicle and just pull it along? Idk if that's even possible with that add-on.

Next bit of my Minmus journey has been uploaded, check it out in the Mission Reports sub-forum :)

I think I'll try roving during night time in my next trip, just to change things up a little. And maybe make the ride more interesting.

Nice job, keep it up! :)

I do a bit of driving at night. Minmus is probably fine, but it gave me a headache on the Mun, haha.

Cheers,

~Claw

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TheCardinal

TheCardinal

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...

Is there a way to disable the treads on the rear most vehicle and just pull it along? Idk if that's even possible with that add-on.

Cheers,

~Claw

Yes there is, you can set the drive torque to zero rendering the tracks unpowered. But it doesn't prevent fishtailing unfortunately. I'm forced to return to the drawingboard. I've started two times and in both cases the combination jackknived within the first kilometer. The tractor-trailer combination was a nice idea but it's not working on Minmus ;.;;.;;.;

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nigelvn

nigelvn

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nah, Minmus is not the nicest place for trailers: first you are ejected bij a small bump, then you come down full force... The wheels may survive (maybe popped), but the links are likely to break

at least that's my experience, and it is not one of my recent experiences.

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Claw

Claw

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Where do you find those maps of celestial bodies that you use in your albums?

I started off pulling from the wiki, but it turns out the wiki doesn't have all the maps loaded and it's a pain to find some of the less popular places via google images. So now I go to www.kerbalmaps.com and zoom the map to a comfortable level. Then screenshot via CTRL+Print Screen, paste into Paint, then crop to size (paint is really easy for this). Turns out to be much easier than digging through the internet to find a descent map of some of the bodies.

I should mention that if you Right-Click->Save on kerbal maps, it only pulls tiles. That's why I do the print screen option.

Cheers,

~Claw

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KN_Namida

KN_Namida

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Thanks Claw, I think I'll head over to kerbalmaps too when the time comes.

Anyway, planted two more flags on Minmus today, and we've travelled half the way around the satellite already :D just updated my thread in the Mission Reports section.

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Van Disaster

Van Disaster

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Glad this is still going. My trip round Kerbin got 3/4 of the way & then the save file refused to load, and I haven't been able to fix it :S in the mean time I started meandering around Mun in a self-propelled factory, but I drove about 1/4 round the equator & I'm attempting to get to the south pole & I've already produced the 4th evolution of the vehicle - I guess leaving previous vehicles behind is a journey marker all by itself, rather like shedding a shell. Not in the spirit of this that's for sure.

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