The Dessert Derby 2018

[Scarecrow]

Damn. I came here expecting to find a Knickerbocker Glory eating contest and all I found was a race across some desert. 

[Mjp1050]

23 hours ago, Triop said:

23 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

Sorry, I was not clear. What I meant is, if I crash my rover, can I restart at the beginning of the driving part of the course (from the 1st flag) and redo the 22km section or do I need to start the whole thing over by taking off once again from the KSC and redoing the flight as well.

So, I would leave KSC, fly to the flag, create a quicksave, and then start driving. I will very likely crash a lot, so I would restart from the flag and try driving again. 

Ok, I will allow it.

Goodluck.

Thank goodness. I quicksaved very frequently up to the starting line, because as relaxing as my cruise was, I really didn't want to repeat it every time my rover flipped.

 

[Triop]

2 hours ago, Mjp1050 said:

Thank goodness. I quicksaved very frequently up to the starting line, because as relaxing as my cruise was, I really didn't want to repeat it every time my rover flipped.

 

You did ?

I'm kinda disapointed to be honest...

Don't you want to feel the true glory of achievement after finishing a challenge without ignoring your failures ?

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by Triop

[Dark Lion]

23 minutes ago, Triop said:

Don't you want to feel the true glory of achievement after finishing a challenge without ignoring your failures ?

BRUH!

[Triop]

9 minutes ago, Dark Lion said:

BRUH!

Nice fail, I'm very proud.

Dust yourself off and try again DUDE! (and I don't mean quickload)

Edited September 6, 2018 by Triop

[katateochi]

44 minutes ago, Dark Lion said:

BRUH!

BRO!!

 

[mystifeid]

What? No quickloading on the startline? Sheesh, I went and checked out the course a bit more last time but since you're making me have another go so I can "feel some true glory", here it is. As before my best efforts were put into shutting down my engine before leaving the surface. This time though, Jeb was transferred to the command seat before touch down and the pod jettisoned soon after. The rover landed 4.1km from the start line but since the chutes were set to open at 300m/600m for the radials/drogues the flight time was faster. However, I tried to go a bit faster during the race and exploded my left front wheel. Recovering from that incident took a bit of time.

Anyway, the only place quickloading was used today was on the launchpad at KSC but let me be perfectly clear - I have absolutely no problem with anyone quickloading on the race start line.

It would be nice to have a reason to switch the panther from dry mode to wet.

Imgur album - https://imgur.com/a/YN9pavx

Flight time - 13:30
Race time - 6:22
Total time - 19:52

On the launchpad

End of flight time == Start of race time

Finish

[purpleivan]

Have something up my sleeve (only one of 'em... don't have enough for both sleeves) so I'll be taking another crack at this at the weekend.

[Klapaucius]

As Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cites: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

After wrecking 3km from the finish, team K.R.A.S.S.H. set out for a second attempt with a slightly higher suspension.  Our plane and rover combination (named Thesiger after Wilfred Thesiger, the last of the great explorers-which seemed an appropriate name for a desert adventure. ) took off without a hitch from the KSC.  Trying to shave off a few seconds of flight time, we oriented the plane in the other direction on the runway saving us a 180 degree turn.  We landed just by the transport for the previous attempt, and after a wasted minute stuck trying to decouple we were off  We succeeded in finishing, with no quicksaves!

Depending on whether you count from the moment we ran over the flag while taxing or when we came to a complete stop, flight time was either 21:27 or 22:45:

Drive time was 17:14 (subtracting the 1:15 that it took to get the car unstuck from the plane ramp).

 

Alas, tragedy struck later.  After a successful rescue of the stranded first team (using K.R.A.S.S.H. Industries'' brand new Gladys plane, developed for the Kerbal Express Airways challenge), the plan was to celebrate at the Dessert Runway barracks. Sadly, Bob and Valentina were killed when their transport broke apart while landing at the Dessert airfield. Meanwhile, Team 2 decided to drive back from the Temple but totaled the rover.  A second rescue was mounted with our small and versatile Geddy model.  Again, alas, pilot error resulted in an unrecoverable stall. The crew survived, but now there are four stranded in the mountains.  A bitter ending to a great success.

More photos below.

Spoiler

Taking off for attempt 2

The transport kneels to let off the rover:

STEEP CLIMBS

 

STUCK

FLORA

Passing Team Ones disabled rover

ARRIVAL!

 

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by Klapaucius

[Triop]

The scoreboard has been updated

[purpleivan]

Here's my 2nd entry to the challenge. For this I used a new delivery method to slash my time to the start flag, plus I chose a new route the finish to cut my time there too.

To get my rover (unchanged from my first entry) I used the Fuel Assisted BaLstic Entrant Delivery vehicle, to get the rover there in a speedy 9:49 from launch to start flag.

For the race portion I started at mission time of 12:00 and got to the finish at 19:54, so a time of 7:54.

This all adds up to a flight and race time of 17:43

To get my rover to the start in a little under 10 minutes required the following.

1. Getting it up to orbital velocity (a little over 70km up)
2. When over the target doing a rapid retrograde burn to get the vehicle into a vertical freefall over it
3. Light the rocket motor again to burn straight down towards the flag.
4. After detaching the rockets, starting up the jets on the rover to do some "falling with style" for a reasonably accurate landing
5. Deplying the parachute at about 300m to minimise the time floating on it.
6. Driving about 130m to the flag.

The delivery vehicle and my use of it could be much improved on. I put an inflatable heat shield on it, but it wasn't really necessary. Additionally I only used about 55% of the fuel in the final rocket stage, as I was getting pretty close to the ground by that point.

I think with a better designed vehicle and some better flying; getting to the start flag in under 9 minutes should be possible.

As for the race portion, I took a new route, as the one I had laid out for my 1st entry was based on a start point of the runway and not the start flag. I never thought about the route being much different between those two and the finish, but my  new route and fewer mistakes knocked 39 seconds off my previous race time.

 

Here's the video showing both the flight and race.

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by purpleivan

[Klapaucius]

11 minutes ago, purpleivan said:

This all adds up to a flight and race time of 17:43

 

Wow.  I did not have the guts to drive that fast, and I got more conservative as I got closer to the  end. And just some pretty amazing planning, building and flying all around.  What a killer cool rover landing.  Well done!

By the way, around 6:50 on your video I noticed you have a vertical line descending from your flight trajectory. What is that?  I don't recall seeing that before.

Edited September 8, 2018 by Klapaucius

[purpleivan]

10 minutes ago, Klapaucius said:

Wow.  I did not have the guts to drive that fast, and I got more conservative as I got closer to the  end. And just some pretty amazing planning, building and flying all around.  Well done!

By the way, around 6:50 on your video I noticed you have a vertical line descending from your flight trajectory. What is that?  I don't recall seeing that before.

The vertical line is the predicted trajectory from the maneuver node of my "hit the brakes" burn, to put it into freefall.

I got tantalisingly close on an earlier run of the race section... Tibald must have done something to earn the wrath of the Kraken.

 

Edited September 8, 2018 by purpleivan

[Klapaucius]

3 minutes ago, purpleivan said:

I got tantalisingly close on an earlier run of the race section... Tibald must have done something to earn the wrath of the Kraken.

 

What's up with the quicksand???? Today must be weird bug day.  I managed earlier to drop through the bottom of a lake and journey to the centre of Kerbin.

[mystifeid]

1 hour ago, purpleivan said:

To get my rover (unchanged from my first entry) I used the Fuel Assisted BaLstic Entrant Delivery vehicle, to get the rover there in a speedy 9:49 from launch to start flag.

Well done! That's fast! I might have to try using a faster booster sometime.

[katateochi]

nice run @purpleivan and v impressive flight time! I like the way you just punted the flag at the start. 

[Guest]

 

ART-1

FLIGHT TIME: 23:16

DRIVING TIME: 14:54

TOTAL TIME: 38:10

VIDEO UPON ARRIVAL

 

Picture Timeline:

On takeoff...                                                                                                                            Just landed......

Rover departs...                                                                                                                                            Rover finishing...

 

Edited September 12, 2018 by Guest

[Triop]

44 minutes ago, dundun93 said:

TOTAL TIME: 37:70

I think you mean 38:10 . . .

UPDATED THE SCOREBOARD, NICE WORK GUYS !

12 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

What's up with the quicksand????

I know right ?

[mystifeid]

39 minutes ago, Triop said:

UPDATED THE SCOREBOARD, NICE WORK GUYS !

Shouldn't @purpleivan be in first place for flight + race now?

[Triop]

8 minutes ago, mystifeid said:

Shouldn't @purpleivan be in first place for flight + race now?

Yep, fixed.

Thanks.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Triop

[katateochi]

On 9/5/2018 at 11:39 PM, Triop said:

Stop asking questions, just go do it !

Ok! I'm entering two rovers;
ExplorerX-S (left)- 100% stock, wheel and jet powered
ExplorerX (right) - 100% stock, wheel powered with an RCS booster
More details on them if you're interested:

Spoiler

ExplorerX (right) is the two seater commercial model built for long distance travel. It's 100% stock, 4.7 tons with a top speed of 45m/s with it's rollcage down but can boost up to 50m/s with an RCS booster.  With the rollcage up it's top speed is reduced by a few m/s, but it becomes virtually indestructible (it can take being punted off the top of a high mountain, left to tumble all the way down and can still be driven afterwards).  It wasn't built for this challenge (so it's got basic science gear, a science container and capacity for life support (if TAC-LS and configurable containers are installed) ), I've been tinkering with this rover for ages, this is the tenth major revision (hence the X) and it is a joy to drive. 

ExplorerX-S (left), the single seater sports model, built on the same chassis but stripped down and equipped with jet boosters.  Also 100% stock, 4.8 tons with a top speed of 100m/s (with rollcage down).  With the rollcage up top speed is reduced by ~10m/s. It's not quite as indestructible as ExplorerX, but can still take a tumble without sustaining damage. It uses @Azimech's boost flap technology in conjunction with @DoctorDavinci's boost flap controller mod (which sadly seems to have been discontinued) to ensure there is no jet thrust when the rover is airborne. 
This was built for this challenge and it's a close relative to the rover I ran the 2017 Dakar rally in (which was based on the 7th revision of Explorer).

As both rovers are built on the same chassis, they both can be transported in the same cargo plane, the rather strange looking, but insanely fast 'ExplorerX HST'
(cruise speed at 20-21km is a bit over 1700m/s)

I will post both rovers (and the range of attachments that go with ExplorerX) on KerbalX soon, but I've still got some tweaking to do.

ExplorerX-S 

Flight Start: 00:00:00	Full stop by flag: 00:09:18
Race Start: 00:02:00	Full stop by flag: 08:15 (race time -> 06:15)

This uses boost flaps and the (now discontinued) boost flap controller mod, so the rover never gains speed while airborne.  I added a boost flap indicator light which you can only see when the flaps are shut to make it easy to see. I will post a vid of flight+race but I have the worst internet ever, so it will literally take me several days to upload it!
The judges may want to add 12 seconds to the flight time. I landed and came to a complete stop near the flag at 09:18 (top right pic), but then felt I needed to move forward a bit onto the level ground and closer to the flag to unload.  I came to a second complete stop at 09:30 (see this pic) 

Flight time: 09:18 | Race Time: 06:15 | Total: 15:33
(damage sustained by rover: none)

ExplorerX 

Flight Start: 00:00:00	Full stop by flag: 00:09:29
Race Start: 00:02:00	Full stop by flag: 12:39 (race time -> 10:39)

This landing was a little too close to the flag! So after coming to a complete stop at 09:29 I rolled back a little and stopped at the unloading position at 09:39 - see this pic

Flight time: 09:29 | Race Time: 10:39 | Total: 20:08
(damage sustained by rover: none)

 

Extra stuff that has nothing to do with the challenge, but was fun to do anyway:

Spoiler

Before the race I had positioned two "WingKits" at the finish line. The WingKit is one of ExplorerX's attachments; a set of wings the rover can drive into and dock with for short range transport.
After each rover had completed it's run it docked with one of the WingKits

Then the fun bit: flying both at the same time back to the desert runway:

Landing two things is tricky; one craft has to slow down while the other goes in for a fast landing, the trick being to not the let the airborne one get out of physics range before you can switch back to it.

After each race I'd also flown the transport planes over to the airfield, where I had two fuel tankers waiting to refuel them.

So now of course I had to pose the whole race team for a photo:

 

The rovers re-docked with the transports and took off together for the flight back to KSC. (I really love seeing two craft flying side by side, it takes a lot of switching back and forth and little tweaks to each one, but it looks so awesome).,

Unfortunately, by the time we got back to KSC it was dark, making it harder to keep track of both craft, and while landing one the other strayed out of the physics range and vanished. I'm too tired to try again now, but I'll do a reload and attempt that again tomorrow (this time aiming to arrive while it's still light).
 

Post processed pic, just because:

Spoiler

 

[mystifeid]

39 minutes ago, katateochi said:

Flight time: 09:18 | Race Time: 06:15 | Total: 15:33

Awesome time!

I got all inspired to try the boost flap controller but the add-on releases thread has been closed (says that BFC is discontinued) and all the links are dead. No more BFC?

So is it still a requirement for engines to be shut down while airborne?

Edited September 9, 2018 by mystifeid

[GDJ]

2 hours ago, mystifeid said:

I got all inspired to try the boost flap controller but the add-on releases thread has been closed (says that BFC is discontinued) and all the links are dead. No more BFC?

Looks like it. I PM'd @DoctorDavinci to see how he's doing but no response as of now.

[purpleivan]

24 minutes ago, GDJ said:

Looks like it. I PM'd @DoctorDavinci to see how he's doing but no response as of now.

The link put up a few days ago seems to be dead, but based on the BFC thread @katateochi has the latest version.

I meant to download it when @DoctorDavinci first posted it, but was distracted by something and forgot.

[purpleivan]

4 hours ago, katateochi said:

Flight time: 09:18 | Race Time: 06:15 | Total: 15:33

Think I'm going to find that time hard to beat.

I should be able to get a shorter flight time... confident of under 9 minutes, maybe 8:30 with some luck/better aim of the descent from orbit, but I don't think I'll get close to the race time.

Nicely done!