Driving around Kerbin [Elcano]

[Flamingo]

Hello guys!

This is the mission report of my trip around Kerbin. I am going to drive as much of the trip as I can, but I will have to cross the sea in a few places, and also some rivers along the way. I am doing it because i haven't really seen anything of this magnificent planet further away from the KSC, than a 100 Km.

 

K.R.A.C.I.I [krey-zee]

K.R.A.C.I.I is the rover I am going to use. It is an acronym for Kerbal Racing-car with Amphibious CapabIlIties. It has a cruise speed of about 40 m/s on land, and a bit below 20 m/s in water. It brings enough solar panels to deliver power all day, but it can not drive in the night. The front spoilers pushes it down so it can drive fast over edges without destroying  its tail.

 

The Map

I have planned a route on a polar path. (The yellow line). It will take me trough mountains, across rivers and by the beaches. If there should come a point i can not cross, I have emergency routes. (The orange lines). So if the mountains are to rough, I will have to drive another way around. The grey line is the route I will take by plane, and the yellow dot represent my desired landing spot.

 

Progress so far

This map will be updated and more flags will be added as Jeb move on. The newest pink flag, represent Jeb's position.

 

Please tell me what you think about it, i would love to hear your opinions!

 

Edited October 11, 2016 by Flamingo

[Flamingo]

Episode 1.

 

Jebediah is the driver of the rover, and Valentina is pilot. She is first of all going to bring him out there, but also deliver new rovers if problems shows up with this one. And bring fuel if Jeb needs it.
They took of early in the morning while it was still dark, so they would arrive in the forenoon.

 

The plane took of from KSC with the Mun in the background, this would be the last time in a while, Jeb got to see his friends.

 

Jeb looked out of the window as he saw the sunrise just next to Val. Then he looked at her and fell a bit in love. He got sad when he thought of the time he was going to spend without her.

 

Jeb once agian looked at his beloved Valentina. But at the same time as he felt sadness, he felt happiness because he could now see land out of his window, he knew he would soon arrive. Then he looked at the speed, and was a bit chocked, Wernher had forgotten to tell him that the plane could reach speeds this high when it had less fuel in it.

 

Val had to climb to 15.000m height to avoid parts overheating from the surprisingly high speed.

 

Val was now bringing the plane in for a slightly difficult landing in a rocky terrain, but it would not be worse than what she has done before.

 

After landing, Jeb got in to drive the rover out of the bay. He discovered that the two front wheels of the had broken, but at home he had been taught how to fix them again. So this would not be a big problem. (I dont why the gif is slowed so much down)

 

He got K.R.A.C.I.I safely out of the cargobay without breaking any more wheels.

 

Jeb and Val said goodbye to each other. They had a moment of silence together, just to feel each other, before Jeb drove away, and Val flew back home. Even though there was a gloomy atmosphere, the two kerbals was excited to do what no one else had done before. Drive all the way around Kerbin.

 

Jeb planted the first flag. He had now officially begun his trip, next time he would see this flag, he would have driven thousands of kilometres.

 

Valentina shed a tear as she saw Jeb drive away waving to her. He hoped he would be safe, but also hoped his car would break down, or he would run out of fuel. This way she would have an excuse to fly to him and see him again.

 

The rover was keeping a good speed as Jeb drove through the highlands.

 

After Val had made it home, she sent up a Z-MAP satellite so she could alway keep an eye on Jeb, no matter where she were.

 

Jeb planted the second flag, and drove on towards the first challenge on his way. Mountains.

 

Jeb got excited when he saw the mountains over the horizon, soon he would be there.

 

It was beginning to get dark as Jeb planted his third flag. He looked over the mountains and saw both the Mun and Minmus. It reminded him of all the nights he had spent on the mun together with Val, just the two of them.

 

Jeb stopped for the night. This would be the end of the first episode of his trip.

Edited October 3, 2016 by Flamingo

[W. Kerman]

Awesome! People doing the Elcano all over the place! Keep it up, because Kerbin is hard!

[Flamingo]

Episode 2.

 

Im writing this episode pretty late (its 00:01 in Denmark right now) because of some homework i had to do. It was really tedious  and since my willpower is weaker than the gravity of Gilly, i had to use SelfControl. I turned everything of (includign the forums for 5 and a half hours, because that was what i thougth it was going to take, but it only took 4 so had a lot of waiting time before getting everything back.

 

Anyway, Jeb slept trhough the night, and then moved on with his journey. While planting the sixth flag, he looked at the mountains by his side. Today was going to be a good day he was sure.

 

After some pretty close-to-crashing experiences, Jeb decided to lower the front-spoilers deployment to -48º, from the -35º they were before. This lowered his cruise speed a tiny bit, but would hopefully keep him safer.

 

Jeb took a picture from inside his litlle cockpit  while driving by the the first lakes on his journey. He did not expect to see any lakes here, because they were not anywhere to find on the map. So in the beginning he was nervous that he were on the wrong course, but he soon find out he were still driving the right direction.

 

Meanwhile back at KSC Wernher was working on a new projekt to support Jeb on his trip. He would not yet tell him what it was, just that it was autonomous, and it could help to guide him, and find good and safe routes to drive.

 

Even though the spoilers had been lowered creating more drag, K.R.A.C.I.I could still keep up good speeds while driving over flat lands, and downhill.

 

Even though the rover had been tested very good back home, no one had prepared it to break three of its six solarpanels. When Jeb got in the rover after planeting flags, he had a hard time not hitting the panels, and in that way ruining them. He called Val back at KSC, and told her his problems.

 

So Val informed Wernher and told him he had to leave his other project for a bit, since this was more important. The two of them made a brainstorm, and got up with a few ideas to improve the design of the rover. After building a prototype, Val drove the rover around KSC to test it, and it could handle much, much bigger pressure and stress tha the old rover could. Now she just could not wait to fly back out to Jeb with his new and improved rover. Hopefully with Wernher's new craft on the back.

 

The new features on the rover are:

- That one of the panels have been removed. Now the center of mass is further forward, its lighter,and Jeb wont hit his head all the time.

- The ladder have been moved about 30cm to the front of the rover, to give more clearance when entering it.

- A wheel have been added in the front and in the back to help save the rover in the worst case scenario, of it going on its tail.

 

The pink flag on this map is where Jeb is right now. 

Edited October 3, 2016 by Flamingo

[Flamingo]

Episode 3. (1/2)

 

This episode got very long, and im trying to keep each episode the same size (except from the first), so i divided it into two parts.

 

This is the D.R.O.N.E, a new kind of help with navigation. It can fly fast and slow, high and low, and land in most places. Jeb is primarily going to be using it to see if the mountains he meet are possible to climb, and the rivers possible to cross. The Dropship for RecONnaissance on an Exoplanet is going to be with Jeb all the way. Sometimes he will be in front, and sometimes the D.R.O.N.E will be in front. But it will always be within 350 Km.

 

While the D.R.O.N.E was safely stored on top of the plane, and Val was sitting inside waiting for takeoff. Bill drove the rover inside.

 

Bill looked as the plane took of in a big cloud of smoke and dust. He always wanted to be a pilot, but after crashing two spaceplanes, and seven rockets, the director of KSC thought it would be better if he became an engineer.

 

Vall once again took of in the night while Jeb was still sleeping. This time she would arrive even earlier in the morning.

 

Val smiles as always as she flies along. She had no problem with the extra load, even though it was only tied to the roof with duct tape, and a little docking port.

 

From the back of the cockpit, it was to clearly see the payload.

 

The first land was reached while it was still dark. Now Val knew that she was almost half the way.

 

Once again the plane lost so much fuel that it had to go to higher altitudes to avoid overheating.

 

As Val flew and the sun was about to rise, she saw some small dots on the ground. She realized that it were Jeb's flags, and she looked down at the mountains were he had driven through.

 

As the sun rose Val's speed reached its top in an altitude of 20.000m. A bit off course as you can see on the navball, but nothing to worry about.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Flamingo

[Flamingo]

Epsiode 3. (2/2)

 

Val came in for a steep landing, in this way she would not land too far away from Jeb.

 

After a safe landing about 2.2 Km away from Jeb, she unloaded the D.R.O.N.E.

 

Then she drove the rover safely out of the cargobay.

 

Afterwards she went on and drove the 2.2 Km to finally see Jeb again, and give him his new rover.

 

Jeb told Val everything about his journey so far. The mountains, the highlands and all the other beautiful nature he had seen on the way. Then he asked Val what was going to happen with the old rover? She told him that her plane did not have enough fuel to bring extra weight all the way back to KSC, but she would pick it up later. It should for sure stand at the KSC as a memory of this trip.

 

Now she showed him the D.R.O.N.E and told him everything about all its features. Jeb was stunned. Kerbals are not known for predicting things before they happened. But now Jeb could actually see how rough the terrain would be before he drove through it. At the same time he decided that this would be a good time to plant another flag.

 

 

After saying a sad goodbye to Val, and then watching her fly away once again, Jeb drove on. Soon he reached the first water that he had to cross on his journey. He made his rover ready by retracting the gear on the front and the back, and switching to "boat mode" to give him more control in water. Even though the rover should be able to handle collision speeds with water as high as 30 m/s Jeb took it slow, so he wouldn't damage his new rover.

 

The crossed the approximate 3 Km wide river in a good and safe way and soon he was ready to roll back on to the shore, and continue his trip.

 

He planted his next flag and looked back at the mountains and the river.

 

But soon he was on the road again...

 

The new pink flag is Jeb's position. And the new grey line is the route the plane took, it got a bit off course because Val fell asleep. Well you can not blame her, it was after all in the very early morning.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Flamingo

[Jeb Jawkins]

Nice idea!

can't wait for the next episode!

[Flamingo]

12 hours ago, Jeb Jawkins said:

Nice idea!

can't wait for the next episode!

Haha, Thank you!

[Flamingo]

Episode 4.

 

While Jeb was driving the D.R.O.N.E flew up ahead to see how steep the mountains were. It found out that they were not too steep for the rover to climb, so it quickly sent the info back to Jeb.

 

Climbing the hills would save Jeb a couple of kilometres, so he would be inside the crater quicker.

 

After driving to the top Jeb were at the highest point of his trip yet, he felt like he could see everything here.

 

Driving down again on some not as steep hills, Jeb reached very high speeds.

 

When he reached the D.R.O.N.E once again he planted a little flag, and then he raced forward leaving the D.R.O.N.E behind.

 

Using the Z-MAP satellite Val sent up, Jeb got the coordinates for the next point he were to reach. Val also realized that she would soon have to launch another satellite, because Jeb were getting too high up north.

 

After getting the new coordinates Jeb drove towards them and soon he planted a new flag.

 

But then after driving 40 Km, i wanted to slow down so i could planet a flag. So i wanted to press "," to slow down the timewarp, but my big fingers pressed ".". So instead of going slower, the rover jumped around and this was the the result:
(*facepalm*)

 

While standing with his back to the mountains in the middle of the crater, Jeb planted yet another flag.

 

From inside his cockpit Jeb could see the sun was about to down. He knew that his batteries now could not keep up with the demand for power, and that he eventually would have to rest for the night.

 

Jeb planted the last flag of his day next to the first rock on his journey. Then he fell asleep in the back of cis rover.

 

[DONUTS]

This is awesome!!!! Keep it up!!!  

[Flamingo]

Episode 5.

 

Im going to post all the pictures, except from the map, in spoiler boxes from now on for the sake of loading times.

Spoiler

While Jeb was still sleeping at the other side of Kerbin, Val launched another satellite. Jeb would soon be so far north that  the Z-MAP did not provide enough coverage anymore  The new satellite was a KerbNet 2 satellite, and she had fitted it on top a the Munsplorer rocket to get it up on its polar orbit.

 

When the KerbNet 2 is using its widest field of view, it can see the whole planet, but when it zooms in, it can still be used to give very accurate coordinates.

 

Morning again, and Jeb drew on. He soon reached a little hill with some trees on the top, he did not think that it would be any special, but on the other side, he saw some forests, he had never seen before. He had seen a single tree stand in the grasslands a lot of times, but never seen so many threes in one place.

 

He planted yet another flag after getting  the forest.

 

The D.R.O.N.E had been hibernating, for all the time Jeb had not been near it, but know its computer told it that he was getting too far away, and that it had to fly back to him, so it would always be there in time in case he needed help.

 

On its way there it flew over the mountains in the middle of the crater, it took some pictures, so it could show Jeb what he had missed by driving around the mountains, by his route.

 

Just before landing and going back into hibernation, it sent Jeb some coordinates, so he would be able to find it again.

 

Meanwhile Jeb had planted one more flag inside a new forest.

 

He planted his last flag close by the D.R.O.N.E.

 

Then he was on the road again, ready for some more adventure...

Edited October 11, 2016 by Flamingo

[DunaManiac]

Amazing! Have you seen that smile face near the center?

[Flamingo]

18 hours ago, KerbalXcer said:

Amazing! Have you seen that smile face near the center?

Yeah I have seen it in the map, but i have never been there. It should be the deepest point on Kerbin though.

[DunaManiac]

I like your Idea so much that I have decided to drive to the 2nd space center!!!! Following in your foot prints

[Flamingo]

16 hours ago, KerbalXcer said:

I like your Idea so much that I have decided to drive to the 2nd space center!!!! Following in your foot prints

Thank you once again, but the idea was not mine. I am just doing the Elcano challenge originally created by Fengist, but right now managed by Claw. I can see that you have made a mission report, I am looking forward to read it.