Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Neat! Out of curiosity is there any reason for the structural panels at the back of the rover platform?

[purpleivan]

3 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Neat! Out of curiosity is there any reason for the structural panels at the back of the rover platform?

It's just to have a narrower edge to drive the rover up onto than the wing sections they're attached to.

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Just now, purpleivan said:

It's just to have a narrower edge to drive the rover up onto than the wing sections they're attached to.

Fair enough I guess

[purpleivan]

Trip ahoy... or, Bob gets spoilt for choice.

It was time for another fill up for the boat, so Staemy hit the throttles and headed for the sky.

The trip from the last parking point for the Coastal Cruiser wasn't long, so it's positon soon came into sight.

19km out, time to start losing some altitiude and skim those waves.

Landing was pretty straight forward, although a bit down range from where was intended, so a longer roll to the beach than planned.

Val got out on top of the rover to say hi to Staemy and thanks for the fuel.

With the refuel done, Staemy took off and started the short trip back to Woomerang, which is just the other side of those mountains..

Quite a tall peak.

So Staemy aims for the dip in the mountain range next to it, just clearing the snow below.

On the far side of the mountains the green expanse beyond, that Woomerang is located on, comes into view.

First landing at the new base coming up.

Staemy puts the bird down cleanly... it's certainly a lot easier to land than takeoff from here.

Now it's time to get that Goose full of Juice, so Dean and Tanford do the honours in the Moose.

With the morning comes the start of another leg in the boat.

Bob was still at the controls, and within a couple of minutes he sees something that has him drooling.

Yep... those'll do.

It's a little further from the shore than the other mountains that Bob's taken a trip to, but it's not excessvely far.

Ah but... there are more mountains over there. Positively surrounded by them.

Decisions, decisions...

In column A... this mighty beast.

In column B... something that looks at least as tall, plus it looks more accessible too.

So B it is.

It also has a nice inlet that allows to boat to get close to the foothills.

Bob guides the boat into the inlet... he's really looking forward to to having a crack at some snowy peaks.

He gets so excited that he almost wipes the boat out on this nasty rock, jutting out of the water

FInally he brings the boat into shore without a scratch. Still plenty of fuel left too, so a good deal more travelling when this leg continues.

But next step... swap this cockpit for the rover's and get climbing.

Edited April 1, 2019 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Someone call Guiness... or, it's Bob, a rover and a mountain, I think you can guess.

With the boat securely moored, Bob guided the rover up from the shorline, with Val for company again.

It was quite a long, but pleasant trundle up towards the foothills, with the glistening snow capped mountain, beckoning them on.

They hit the foothills and the going got step straight away (this mountain does not mess about).

Fuortunately there is a relatively shallow ascent for part of the route, and Bob headed for it.

Bob's enjoying the mountain scenery again. Looking at it from a distance just isn't the same as driving it.

But the going gets step again, and for long enough that the rover can't make it to the next plateau without stopping for more juice. Unfortuantely the slope is too steep to come to a comlete halt (and save) so juicing up is at physics warp speed, all the while the rover slides downhill.

Finally the pair beak out onto a nice plateau, ending the need for the sliding recharges. They've also broken through the 2km mark.

Ahead the grass is giving way to snow, but the slope is shallow at this point, so progress is good.

That afternoon sun is quite bright, especially reflected off the snow.

2.8km and the going is getting a lot steeper now, requiring very requent recharges.

They break through 3km and again the going is a little easier, at least for a while.

But their target is beyond that wall of rock ahead... there's now way they can climb that, so a change of route is needed.

Bob takes the rover over to the inland side of the mountain range and starts to guide it up along the edge, close to some steep and very tall cliffs.

Bob takes the rover up to the snowy cliff edge, to take a look at the green land beyond.

No pesky undead army around here, so looks like it's safe to move on... actually somewhere down there are the refuelling team at Woomerang Launch Site.

The view of the snow is just blinding. It's impossible to see when a change in slope angle is coming, until you hit it. That caused a few "will they survive this" moments, as the rover flipped around, cresting unexpected ridges in the snow.

Ok... so Bob and Val are on the top of the cliffs at the center of this picture. All they have to do is drive along the top of them, to the peak of the mountain on the right.

Easy huh.

Well from this angle, not so easy. But hey... at least they've broken through 5km.

Well this is going to be a problem.

The sun has dropped behind a ridge in the local terrain, and the solar panels are now blocked. With the batteries out of juice, nothing to do now except dig in for the night and wait for morning.

With the morning comes precious battery life giving sunlight, and the pair continue on. Bob want's to take a closer look at the cliff edge. Val's not so keen on the idea though, as she doesn't want to try bailing out of a falling rover, to use her parachute.

Bob backs the rover away for the death dealing drop and heads uphill once again.

It doesn't take long to make their way up to just below the summit. The going this morning has been quite easy, with handily placed nooks and cranies, shallow enough to park the rover on, while charging at proper warp speed.

Bob makes a final push for the summit, and he's really wishing that he'd packed some sunglasses, as the snow is completely blinding in the cab.

At last they make it to the top and it's a new record for the trip at 6119m. Travelling up over 6km from sea level has been fun if a bit tricky in places.

So... now they just need to find a good route down.

Fortunately it's a lot quicker to go down than up, so it doesn't take long until they back to around 2km.

With the boat in sight, Bob and Val are looking forward to some proper food (they only packed two kinds of chocolate) and continuing on along the coast.

[purpleivan]

Has it gone yet... or, those mountains are pretty big.

Once the rover was attached to the boat, Jeb took the wheel once more and guided the boat out to sea, saying goodbye to the 6km high mountain.

Heading South now, there were a couple of bays that had to be given a quick look into before heading onward.

Ok... that one's been checked out, time to get back on route.

Almost half tanks, so plenty more boating to be done.

We've been driving for a while now and those stubborn mountains are still hogging the rear view mirror.

Suddenly Jeb has something ahead that grabs his attentions... some very shallow (a handful of metres) water, that sticks out someway from the coastline.

A little further along the coast, a fairly large bay comes into view, which has a tiny opening to the sea.

This opening right here.

Jeb brings the boat into it for a moment, before speeding along the coast once more.

With the fuel down to about 10%, Jeb looks for a good place to stop and waiting for a tanker plane. This looks like it's a nice place to stop, although the Goose might have to land just the other side of those cliffs.

Now to find the deck of cards, dig out the party snacks and wait for a plane load of fuel.

Edited April 3, 2019 by purpleivan

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

I'm curious how you're planning to do the Antarctic coast journey.

[purpleivan]

47 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

I'm curious how you're planning to do the Antarctic coast journey.

That shouldn't be too much of a problem, as the distance is a lot short along it than it looks on the map, due to the projection of the sphere onto the rectangular image. I'd guess about 1/3 - 1/2 the distance that appears at on the map.

As for fuel, I'm planning to launch one of the big fuel stores out to each of the poles, and operate the Juice Goose planes from there for as long as it takes.

One thing though... I'm expecting the antractic coast to be pretty flat and boring.

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

27 minutes ago, purpleivan said:

That shouldn't be too much of a problem, as the distance is a lot short along it than it looks on the map, due to the projection of the sphere onto the rectangular image. I'd guess about 1/3 - 1/2 the distance that appears at on the map.

As for fuel, I'm planning to launch one of the big fuel stores out to each of the poles, and operate the Juice Goose planes from there for as long as it takes.

One thing though... I'm expecting the antractic coast to be pretty flat and boring.

Having done a fair bit of flying down there (KSC -> Antarctic coast -> Golden Chain (those New Zealand lookin islands) -> Desert Airfield is my standard test route) yeah pretty much, but that icy island is one of my fav places in the game for no particular reason.

[TheTripleAce3]

1 hour ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Having done a fair bit of flying down there (KSC -> Antarctic coast -> Golden Chain (those New Zealand lookin islands) -> Desert Airfield is my standard test route) yeah pretty much, but that icy island is one of my fav places in the game for no particular reason.

I've never been to that island, guess I have something to do this weekend now

[purpleivan]

8 hours ago, TheTripleAce3 said:

I've never been to that island, guess I have something to do this weekend now

Before I started this boat trip, with its use of tanker planes, I'd done very little flying in the game. I'd always been much more interested in the rocketry/interplanetary side of things.

I've probably flown 3-4 times as far in the Juice Goose's (can't bring myself to call them Juice Geese) as all my other planes combined. I've also flown over a much greater variety of places.

[TheTripleAce3]

9 hours ago, purpleivan said:

Before I started this boat trip, with its use of tanker planes, I'd done very little flying in the game. I'd always been much more interested in the rocketry/interplanetary side of things.

I've probably flown 3-4 times as far in the Juice Goose's (can't bring myself to call them Juice Geese) as all my other planes combined. I've also flown over a much greater variety of places.

I flew to the Golden Chain isles yesterday and the ice island as well in something I threw together in 5 minutes. Great spot to keep the birds while you're near the southern ice sheet. And the tankers by this point have probably flown 2x equatorial circumference of Kerbin. Keep up the good pace man.

Edited April 4, 2019 by TheTripleAce3

[purpleivan]

What is that smell...or, did something die round here.

Ever onward in the quest to sail around Kerbin's coastline. But that trip's going nowhere without fuel, so Dean took to the air from Woomerang, in his first Juice Goose flight.

Again the flightpath went over the mountains near the base, so he made a flyby of the DSN station on top of them.

It was early evening when he took off, so with the boat being a little to the East of Woomerang, it was dusk by the time he arrived.

In the morning the now fully fueled Coastal Cruiser was ready for another day of life on the ocean waves. Leaving Dean on the shoreline, to meet them later, further along the coast.

This leg had a lot of lakes and... well... almost lakes, the type that are joined to the sea.

Bob thinks there's a proper word for these, but he's not sure and goes back to playing chess against himself (it makes it easier for him to cheat).

They pass through a narrow passage, separating a small island from the coastline. The water here is pretty shallow, so the engines get throttled down.

Good thing too with only 3.4m of water under the cockpit.

I don't know if it's the shallowness of the water or the length of time at sea, but Val looks like she's starting to seriously lose it.

Further along the coast is another one of those pesky deep bays, that can't be seen fully from the main route along the coast, so it's time to divert into it for a quick peak.

Ok... we've looked, now Jeb, if you please, swing the boat around and hit the throttle.

This trip needs to get a move on.

I've gotta say, the terrain in these parts is pretty bland and featureless, maybe that's what's making Val go a little nuts.

A little further along and Jeb spots one important feature ahead. It's the tip of the peninsular they've been heading South along the coast of for the last couple of legs. Soon they'll be round it and heading North again.

So Bob... care to give this geographical feature a name.

"Let's see, let's see... ah... errr".

Come on Bob we don't have all day, just pick something.

"Errrm... ah, got it... Dead Fish Peninsular"

Ok... I have to ask, why Dead Fish.

"Well, it looks like one, you know... after a bit".

I'm just not seeing it Bob.

"If it was lying around for a while and got kinda squishy..."

Ok?

"... then someone stood on it.."

Right, got the picture.

"and the worms and creepy crawlies got at it..."

We got it Bob, no need for more details.

"... and the sun was drying it out.."

Bob... shut it.

With the boat having rounded, er... Dead Fish Peninsular, the crew ventured on North (that's the left side in that last pic).

However they soon noticed that fuel was getting low enough to start looking ahead for a good place to make an acquaintance with a goose.

This possible site looked good from a distance, but up close it's a bit on the bumpy side for a landing, so Jeb pushed onward.

Now that looks like a good spot, a shallow beach to moor up on, and wait for the plane and some nice flat ground to put the plane down on.

Plus plenty of sand for making sand castles.

Time to get the buckets and spades out guys.

[FleshJeb]

IIRC, that mountain range to your north has some really fun canyons to go stunting in.

[TheTripleAce3]

What is the draft (depth) of your hydrofoil at low speeds?

And also, any tips for making them?

[Fraston]

Things are gonna start getting real chilly in another 20 legs or so... 

Edited April 6, 2019 by Fraston

[purpleivan]

6 hours ago, TheTripleAce3 said:

What is the draft (depth) of your hydrofoil at low speeds?

And also, any tips for making them?

Well... start with zero boat making experience, then put together an entry for a challenge to return to kerbin a 20 ton vehicle with 3 kerbals in it, that's floating 10km offshore on Eve.

That's where I came up with this thing.

It worked pretty well, but the entry was doomed by Eve being a wheel destroying demon. That was an issue with my plan to use a transporter to drive the rescued vehicle to a launch vehicle. Shame to as all the parts worked except the wheels broke constantly.

The wheeled stuff worked like this.

So this whole driving around Kerbin's coatline is due to a failed challenge attempt on Eve.

As for the draft of the Coastal Cruiser, it's just over 1 kerbal. It doesn't change much with seed, as the large wing area keeps the whole thing floating at the main fuselage center line all the time.

I just wish I'd not bothered equiping the thing with the ISRU gear. It's so slow that it's useless (don't want to warp by weeks every time I refuel) and it added a lot of weight and size to the boat. I half thought about flying out and air dropping a new design to the crew, without ISRU, but it felt a bit of a shame not to bring the same boat all the way home.

 

9 hours ago, FleshJeb said:

IIRC, that mountain range to your north has some really fun canyons to go stunting in.

I'm about to post Leg 28 and a trip by Bob into those mountains. It is quite lumpy up there, so could be fun to fly through.

Edited April 6, 2019 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Keeping it brief... or, a location of convenience.

The boat cried out for help and Dean was happy to oblige them.

"More fuel coming your way guys... real soon".

Dean's first beach takeoff went without a hitch and he was quickly in the air, heading South towards the waiting Coastal Cruiser.

Well that'll be it 8.9km away... time to bank for the approach.

Once connected up Dean sat in the cockpit, thumbing through a copy of Spaceflight for Dummies (he's hoping to get called up for a Duna trip sometime soon).

With full tanks again, the boat's crew said so long to Dean and headed out to sea.

As the they zipped along the coast, the mun rose above it.

This bay needed a quick peek into to check it off the list as part of the coastline they'd seen.

Popping  in... hellow bay.

Then popping out again.

About halfway into the leg a they passed through a large area of shallows. A lot of this stretch of the coast is lined with gently sloping beaches, so shallow like this are to be expected I guess.

As the boat moved North, the shoreline became more fugged, noticeably more than the coast on the eastern side of the peninsula.

Certainly the coast is more varied than it was on the last leg. So I guess Val's not going to be hanging from the ceiling, sharpened pencil between her teeth, giving everyone "you better lock your cabin at night" looks.

The Coastal Cruiser comes up to a small headland... so you got a name for this one Bob?

"Weeellll... how about Sleeping Dragon Point".

Way better than your last one Bob.

As dusk approached, the mountains to the South of Woomerang came into view. Bob will be taking a crack at these in the morning, with Jeb in the passenger seat.

It's a bit early to call this the end of the leg, while still about 1/4 full. However with Bob heading off in the rover tomorrow and Woomerang less than 70km away, it seemed like a good place to call in for a top up.

Edited April 6, 2019 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Back on the piste... or, more blinding white stuff.

Bob and Jeb made an early start in the rover, as it was going to be quite a long drive, just to get to the foothills of the mountains in the distance.

Foothills dead ahead. They've been heading inland and uphill for quite a while, but they're stil only abut 250m ASL.

Ok, now things are moving... upward that is. 1628m and we're into the foothills now. The cloud is making things look a bit grim, hopefully there won't be any rain to spoil the trip.

The way ahead isn't super steep, but the slopes are long without much a break in them, requiring a lot a recharge stops.

If I ever do this whole thing again (yeah right...) I'm going to give the rover bigger batteries.

Up over 2600m and there's white stuff under the wheels again. Fortunately on Kerbin, snow seems to have exactly the same traction as grass... rock, sand, asphalt... you name it.

Most of the route to the top seems to be not too challenging, if a little slow, but the next step is a little tricky.

Bob's got to do one of those death defying traverses of a 45 degreee plus slope, to get to their next stopping point for a recharge.

Go on wheels... grip that rock. The rover keep trying to turn up into the slope, but Bob wrestles with the controls, keeping it moving horizontally across it.

Finally they make it across and arrive on more friendly terrain, albeit terrain that's impossible to see changes in angle of.

"But snow's soft right... shouldn't matter if we crash on it".

Sorry to burst ya bubble Bob, but round these parts crashing into snow has the exact same explosive consequences as hitting granite, so best drive careful.

What did I say about careful driving Bob.

To keep the altitude gained in climbing up the mountain, Bob heads across some rock, instead of following the gentler snowy path down below.

No use draining the batteries to go up, only to head down and then back up again.

By this stage they've made it up above 3km. It doesn't look like this peak is going to be a record breaker, but it should be a respectable height.

Up over 4km and the peak is just a few hndred metres above the pair and their trusty (although power capacity challenged) rover. Bob heads straight for it, but less than halfway he realises that the batteries just won't make it, so he swings right to head almost horizontally towards a a lower part of the ridge to the top.

A quick charge of the batteries and a charge to the top is made. It's 4.5km on the peak, with some challenging looking terrain further inland.

Bob would like to go sliding down the slope on the other side and have a crack at one of those peaks, but Jeb reminds him that it's already into the afternoon and they need to get back to the boat.

The move a couple hundred metres down from the top of the mountain, then stop to take in the view towards the sea.

"I hope you checked the brakes before we headed up here Bob".

"Why'd you ask Jeb".

"Cos' it's a long way down if you didn't"

Bob thinks that might be an invitation to go careening down the near vertical slope, but Jeb puts him straight on that. Still, he did let him take a speedy (60m/s at one point) trip down a rather shorter drop.

With the snow about to run out, to be replaced by something greener under the wheels, they stop for break, before heading on to rejoin the boat on the shoreline.

[purpleivan]

Just the facts Ma'am, just the facts... or, a tale in numbers.

It was Tanford's turn to take fuel out to the Coastal Cruiser, so a fairly early morning start for this bird.

After climbing over the top of the mountain wall around Woomerang, it was time to descend again for a landing at the coast, some 20km on the other side of it.

With full tanks, plus a top up to emergency snack supplies (40 packs of chilli nuts and a dozen bags of cocktail sausages) it was time to head out to sea once more.

Bill hasn't been much of a feature of this trip so far and that's because he's been busy dealing with the social media side of things. In particular he's been answering letters to the "Dear Bill" section of the Kerbin Gazette.

Here's one example.

"Dear Bill,

My little kerbling Trostron would like to know how far can the Coastal Cruiser travel before it runs out of fuel?

He would also like to know what your favourite colour is.

Fildred Kerman."

------------------------------------------

"Dear Fildred,

Here are some pictures to show you how far the Coastal Cruiser can travel on a full tank of jet fuel. For this we will be using a handy tool called Persistent Trails.

This picture was taken just a few seconds after starting up the jet engines and the boat has already travelled half a kilometre.

We headed away from those mountains that Bob went climbing yesterday at about 50m/s for this leg of our journey.

By the time we had used up half the fuel onboard, we had travelled 125km.

Finally those mountains dropped below the horizon behind us. We must have travelled pretty far, because that's a big mountain range.

With 3/4 of the fuel used up we had made it a distance of 199km, so the range going will be a larger number (if I got my maths right).

Bob wanted to call this place Hedgehog Island, but I told him that it's part of the mainland so it can't be an island. He said "do I get to name things or not" and went off in a sulk.

Finally after 265km the fuel tanks were almost empty, so we had to come in to shore. There was still 57 units of fuel left, so probably we would have gone about 270km if we used it all up.

Oh, I almost forgot your second question... tell little Troston that my favourite colour is steak.

Bill Kerman."

[KerballingSmasher]

On 4/7/2019 at 12:14 AM, purpleivan said:

Oh, I almost forgot your second question... tell little Troston that my favourite colour is steak.

OML... I am laughing so hard rn!

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Nice going! Only 270KM seems a little short, haven't you gone further than that in previous legs? The one where you went around the peninsula to the north of the KSContinent?

[purpleivan]

4 hours ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Nice going! Only 270KM seems a little short, haven't you gone further than that in previous legs? The one where you went around the peninsula to the north of the KSContinent?

Not sure if it's a bit short or not, I've reduced the speed I'm travelling at from time to time, to 30-40m/s in an effort to improve fuel efficiency. But recently I've backed off on that and drive at a constant 50m/s. Perhaps that's reduced the length of recent legs.

Some legs are going to look longer than others due to the shape of the coastline (less bumpy) and how well I've stuck to the shape of the coast. I'd assumed that the boat was doing about 300km on a tankful of fuel, so I was expecting a little more out of it than I got.

Can you point out which leg number seemed longer... curious to take a look at it.

Edited April 9, 2019 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Bleary eyed... or, yellow does not equal cheese.

With an empty boat and a nearly full tanker, Tanford leapt into action and sped along the coast, towards the Coastal Cruiser.

It was getting late in the day, so she made a quick landing close to the beach.

Lots of little boxes means one thing...  the boats taking a satisfying gulp of fuel.

Once filled to the brim the crew headed out to sea, this time not follow by some flourescent green lines in the water (Jeb thought they looked untidy, if informative).

With the sun heading towards the western horizon, the boat ploughed on through the water, leaving behind it, the usual mystifying double trail.

That sun seems to be in a special hurry to set today. Bill got this shot while he hung on for dear life, crouched between the two jet engines, as the boat sped across the sea.

In the comfort of the cockpit Jeb also got snap happy with this shot of the setting sun. best not waste time taking pictures though if we're going to make the most of the daylight.

Well... the sun has officially set, so time to find a good refuge for the night. The tanks are still over half full, so plenty more boating to do tomorrow.

Once moored, the tanks are close to half empty and the crew setting down for dinner. It's Bill's turn to cook this evening, so it's cheese, followed but something else that may or not be cheese. In truth it's something he found stuck to the back of the refrigerator and looks kind of yellowish, so he's betting it's cheese.

After Bill's "cheese surprise" meal the previous evening, no-one got any sleep, so to make use of the time, they headed off at dawn.

Of they went, this time being chased by the sun, instead of running towards it.

Bill again risked life an limb, clambering out onto the deck to get a shot of Bob's favourite things. Something tells me a rover trip is on the cards.

The further they travel, the closer those mountain become (strange how that works) and Bob's already sitting in the rover cab, making sure it's fully previsioned with all the snack groups.

Bob's getting worried now, as Jeb seems to be driving by these mountains rather than stopping at the first opportunity to offload the road.

Bob starts yelling of the intercome something unrepeatable... no expletives, it's just that his panic at the thought of a missed mountain trip, caused him to replacing vowels with farm animal noises.

Jeb approached the tip of a headland, near the far end of the mountain range. He's been checking the map and thinks he's found a good spot to park the boat and wait for for the Goose, while Bob heads for higher ground.

Yep... that looks like a good place to drop anchor. Jeb lines up for a shallow angled part of the beach and guides the boat in.

Before heading off in the rover, Jeb asks Bob to get a nice photo of him on the boat. He sucks his stomach in and gives the camera (the one perched on a long stick that Bob's waded out into the water with) a cheeky little grin, then sits down with Val for some tasty mid morning pizza.

[KerballingSmasher]

So... have you updated to 1.7 yet?