einzelgaenger

Good advice to know, then! So far I haven't run into any issues and I'm very liberal with the quicksaves, but I'll try this again as a last resort now that you mention that. I'm trying to ensure that I stay as close to the equator as possible to minimize total distance traveled, considering I already have to correct for landing 5 degrees north and following the canyon rather than heading due south.

DAY 8: Short leg of the trip on Duna before I headed out of state for vacation, though I haven't had an internet connection to post until just now. Discovered that it's easier to go downhill when each side of the truck is on either side of a "terrain line" (whatever they're called), such as on the exact equator. Made about 20-30km progress before leaving home.

DAY 7: A fair bit of progress was made in terms of distance due to the Kratos crew being determined to arrive at the Areas probe as fast as they could. Along the way, the truck reentered the Dunar Highlands; however, there were less problems traversing this terrain than previous encounters with the Highlands. Jeb was able to keep the vehicle at speed over most of the terrain, only slowing down whenever Kratos had to navigate steep slopes downwards. One of the slopes was especially challenging, starting off at 19o then turning into 22o; trying to drive down the latter slope resulted in a reload, so Jeb ended up driving around this "bowl" instead. Up ahead was a rather large cliff face next to one of the taller mountains encountered on the trip thus far. Eribella suggested that the crew use some of the marker flags to mark their peaks and to assign (legit) names to these mountains for future reference. The rest of the crew agreed to the idea and the first peak they discovered was christened "Mount Nye". Soon after, a taller peak was discovered and ended up with the name "Sagan's Peak". While there, the crew decided it would be a good time to transmit the science they've accumulated over the past two to three weeks (KSC told the crew to take five while a Minmus mining operation sent supplies to a LKO fuel depot), though really it was just an excuse to soak in the views from atop this mountain. Some time later, the descended from the peak to continue on with the journey. Not long after reaching a local valley, the crew decided to set up camp and take stock of their supplies. The LFO tank was about to reach the half-way point and Bill wanted to test just how good the 1.25m ISRU unit was; KSC had just introduced the unit before Kratos was sent to Duna and the refinery was equipped to the vehicle as an experimental test bed. Turns out that the efficiency is pretty terrible and the result was that 600 units of ore only made a small contribution towards LFO replenishing. Thankfully, this campsite had an ore concentration of just over 4%, allowing Bill to deploy the miniature drills and completely fill the LFO tank after two more refills of the ore tanks and a few Dunar days. On the plus side, KSC gave the crew another Duna mining contract a few days earlier and refueling Kratos netted the administration a fair bit of cash as a result.

DAY 6: Kratos has reached another Lowlands area on Duna's equator during this leg of the trip. Funny enough, when near the eastern edge of this crater, the transitions in the terrain are from Midlands to Highlands to Lowlands. The geologists back at the KSC might want to double-check their maps and make sure they're correct on this. Otherwise, this day turns out to not be so productive in terms of kilometers traveled. The hopes from Day 5 where Day 6 would make up for lost time have been dashed, but then again there's always the next day. Kratos sets up camp near 112oE after reaching the far edge of the Lowlands in the crater.

I haven't experienced any of that since I've started my Duna journey. I'll post if I do, however.

Going from Eve to Kerbin will be hard to beat, for sure.

Well, Manley was able to go interplanetary distances using just the jetpack a few years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDLBTvpzf_s (start around the 9:30 mark)

DAY 5: Kratos is back in the Highlands. Yay! (Not really...) Typical progress for the past few days has been around 15o W per day, though today's progress was closer to 10o due to a variety of factors. A major part of this was having to deal with steep slopes once again; Jeb and Zeldine need to be careful when the downwards slope exceeds 13o, as the Kratos truck has a hard time slowing down either by brakes or reverse power in such an environment. Combined with any sharp changed in slope (such as 14o to <8o) and the vehicle has a tendency of breaking the front-most pair of wheels and sending the truck in a cartwheel as a result. Average speeds today once again when back down to 15m/s. However, on a shallow downwards slope Kratos was able to reach a maximum speed of nearly 30m/s, though this resulted in a reload once an even slighter change in slope upwards caused a major cartwheel and several explosions. The maximum safe speed achieved was closer to 25m/s, though Jeb had to brake far before that hill was encountered again. While there were no terrain title mismatches found today, I ran into an interesting bug that the Squad developers might wan tto check up on (if they don't know about it already). I noticed that one of the flags I planted disappeared once I was a couple of kilometers away and ended up having to plant a new one to replace it (the first flag after the end of Day 4). This happened once again when I was quicksaving near the edge of a mountain and when Jeb was driving away from it, the flag temporarily jumped in front of my part, then disappeared. Stopped the truck and turned the camera around to see that the flag was *sinking* through the surface of Duna(!). I have no idea what that is all about, though I took a few screencaps as the flag fell through the ground. Then I just shrugged it off, planted another flag, and moved on. Cresting over the edge of another mountain across the valley from the mountain with the sinking flag, Jeb jumped over the edge too fast and ended up breaking one of the rear wheels after a hard landing on the peak. Bill had to step out and repair the tire, planting a marker flag before going back in the truck to mark Jeb's failure at reaching this peak intact. Only a hundred or two meters away, however, he does it again, this time with the rear-right wheel was busted. Annoyed, Bill once again steps out of the front cab and repairs the damage. "There's no way he'll do it again", Bill thought. Surprise! Very shortly afterwards, Jeb does it *again*! This time with one of the front tires. Jeb and Bill look at the warning light on the control panel and neither of them even bother speaking; Jeb bangs his head on the dash while Bill doesn't even speak a word as he gets out for a third time to save Kratos from being stuck on top of the mountain. The rest of the crew were inclined to dub the peak "Mount Stupid" in honor of Jeb's terrible driving for today's leg of the trip. The rest of the day's journey went without incident, though involved one or two more reloads. Kratos sets up camp relatively closer to previous camps than the last four days of travel thanks to the shenanigans previously mentioned. Hopefully Day 6 can make up for the lost distance.

Well, if you think it's trivial, nothing's stopping you from creating a mod with the parts you suggest as a proof-of-concept to show off to the Squad folks. Easy, right?

DAY 4: Had a few errands to run yesterday, so I wasn't able to post anything for yesterday. Made another two hour trek through the Dunar Midlands, though it was mostly uneventful, which doesn't make for much of a good story. I've noticed that the science lab's chairs are oriented upside-down relative to the ground, so I'm surprised Bill and Eribella haven't suffered from redout yet. Most of the terrain consisted of smooth, rolling dunes, so driving at speed wasn't too difficult and as a result quicksave reloads were not needed much at all. However, one artifact seemingly common on KSP surfaces showed up when one of the "terrain tiles" (or whatever they're called) didn't line up exactly with the rest of the ground. Marked it with a flag and moved on. Later on the dust because thicker and lower to the ground, though this had no effect on Jeb's ability to drive this beast.

This, a million times. Funny how people who don't do software development think it must be a trivial job to design and make something in code.

DAY 3: After a well-deserved rest, the crew of Kratos witness the thin, wispy dust clouds of the Duna atmosphere. Even during the daylight hours, the sky is still pitch black but lacks stars due to the contrast between the Dunar surface and the sky. They discover that the slope ahead of them is not as steep as previously thought, so Jeb decides to speed down the slope at nearly 20m/s to make up for the lost distance caused by the hazardous terrain encountered on day 2 of the mission. Of course, when cresting the edges of mountains, this caused Kratos to leap through the air for several dozen meters at a time, however Jeb is able to maintain control of the truck (most of the time). Zeldine, for a few brief moments, manages to break a smile despite still being nervous of Jeb's driving. At one point, the crew found themselves driving on the edge of yet another steep slope. However, the scenery encountered during this leg of the trip was nothing short of breathtaking. While most of the crew decided to take a break within the truck, Eribella got out to get a better view of the rolling hills below. And, of course, to plant a marker flag for the Elcano Challenge. Several kilometers later, Jeb's efforts for making up for lost time caused wheel damage for the second time in this journey (the first being near the end of day 2). Bill stepped out of the capsule to inspect the damage, repair it, and then yell at Jeb for causing it. However, to be fair, despite the average cruising speeds of 20-25m/s for this leg of the journey, there were few reloads from quicksaves, especially after hitting the Midlands. Jeb, exhausted from driving, decided that he'll plant a marker flag a few kilometers away from the repair site. However, while trying to return to the inside of Kratos, he tripped and discovered how soft and (relatively) comfortable the Midlands ground was due to its thick coating of dust. He took a short nap before Bill drags him inside. Accordingly, Zeldine took over driving for the rest of today's trip. Day 3 ends around 135oE, better progress than days 1 or 2 individually. Things are looking good for the early part of the challenge.

I've started a journey log here (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/128240-big-rig-elcano/#comment-2329762). Since I started at around 5 degrees north of the equator, do I need to make up for it by driving to the first flag I plant on the equator and then making my way back to the original flag?

Greetings! The good folks at the KSC decided that the program needed to complete several contracts on the surface of Duna, including a base, a mining operation, and collecting scientific data. So, to make it more interesting, it will be a mobile base (dubbed "Kratos"), and a fairly large one at that. And, since I find the Elanco challenge to not only be an interesting but even fun challenge, we might as well travel the entire equator while we're at it! Considering that my first interplanetary base has yet to see a return of its crew (five years and counting on Eve!), the number of volunteers for this mission were slim. However, five kerbals stepped up for the challenge: Jeb, Bill, Bob, Zeldine (pilot), and Eribella (scientist). I will be committing around an hour or two each day towards this circumnavigation, and will make a post in this thread for each day as a journey log. Since I've already completed two days of travel before making this, the next post will start on day three. The truck is equipped with a large fuel cell and four RTGs, so I don't need to worry about my energy situation while driving, allowing me to drive day and night. ------------------------------------ DAY 1: Of course, the first day starts by landing the Kratos truck on the surface of Duna. I wasn't confident in my parachute arrangement being able to land the crew safely in the Midlands nor the Highlands, so I aim for one of the canyons near to the equator. The exact landing site, and the eventual end to the circumnavigation, is located at 4o14'31"N 200o55'15"E and marked with the first of many flags. Bob and Eribella get to work collecting science from the Lowlands, and later on Jeb drives the Kratos up to the edge of the canyon in order for the crew to gather scientific data of the Dunar Highlands. Turns out that this detour wasn't needed since the end of the canyon in the west marks the beginning of a large area of Highlands, but this information was unknown at the time. ------------- DAY 2: Day 2 of the journey starts at dusk and continues until nighttime finally falls on Duna. Before leaving the canyon, I found an ore concentration of ~6%, so Bill decides to fill the ore tanks not only to complete a KSC contract but also to ensure that Kratos will have plenty of fuel between now and the next time the crew run across ore-rich grounds. Finally, Kratos leaves the canyon and properly starts following the equator within a degree north or south of it. It is decided that the crew want to visit the Ares probe, a lander which was the very first interplanetary mission carried out by the KSC in this career save. This is located at 0o37'0"S 41o49'56"E. One thing learned so far is that this beast doesn't like sudden changes of slope. Best case scenario is that Kratos flies through the air like some sort of monster truck, and worse case is death and destruction. The terrain in the Highlands forces Jeb to an average velocity of 10m/s instead of the 20m/s on the first day, and sometimes 15m/s on flat pieces of land. Later in day 2's journey, the crew run into what appear to be mountain ranges, forcing the Kratos to traverse the terrain even slower and forcing me to liberally use the quicksave (and reload) feature. The first problem area was the peak where the whole crew get out to stretch their legs; Zeldine isn't confident in Jeb's piloting ability, though she also hasn't been on a mission with him before and thus doesn't know how much of a BadS he is. So far it seems that only Jeb and Bill have an unfailing sense of joy and happiness, whereas the rest of the crew are uneasy during the rougher parts of the day's journey. The second difficult spot was right after Zeldine decided to catch a glimpse of the Duna sunset. The Kratos truck doesn't have enough SAS to correct its angle while in the air, I learn. The day ends at the edge of yet another steep slope. However, the crew get a chance to gaze at the stars above the Duna mountains while they set up camp for the night and catch some sleep. Given the number of times I've had to reload from quicksaves, driving in the Highlands at night might not be such a smart idea, as I feel I could have made more progress if I was better able to see upcoming slope changes. Alas, the mission started at ~200oE and so far ended at ~143oE, so progress is being made!

Ah, that was a stupid typo on my part! Meant to say 26,000kg, not 26kg! And it goes up to ~31,000kg when the ore tanks are full.