king of nowhere

Part 11: Memory lane is not over yet WORK IN PROGRESS Leaping Mantis ends the circumnavigation of Vall, passing - sometimes by design, sometimes by chance - more landmarks encountered in previous Vall missions. 11.1) Return to the Great Wall range 11.2) The name of a mountain 11.3) Return to Rover Crasher peak Science recap

I finished my current run. I set to improve my previous record, I ended up pulverizing it. I had no idea there was so much science I missed before. Now I really think I got all of it. There may be a few dozen science points left from the multiple grabbing of the same experiment; I got 4 copies for each, which is enough for over 99.5% recovery, but grabbing a fifth copy should still earn a few fractions of point. But no more than that. I still have to update the report thread, I plan on doing it tomorrow, the day after at the latest. But @JacobJHC generally takes some time to review, I may as well post now.

I completed the new Jool 5 science record. I got all experiments from all biomes, in quadruple copy because some experiments will give extra science if collected more than once. quintuple copy for infrared spectroscopy, because it's the one where multiple copies are worth more. And because I had a convenient place to store them, while only carrying 4 containers in all my landers. For Laythe, I took both landed and splashed down science (it's 2 different sets of science reports) for 8 biomes. I landed the exploration plane on an aircraft carrier to trick the game into giving the landed condition for all water biomes. Only now I think a submarine could have achieved the same, and it would have been a lot easier to fly than an aircraft carrier. that thing was a huge aerodinamic problem to launch and a huge center of mass problem from the moment I docked it to the mothership to the moment I dropped it on Laythe. I circumnavigated all moons. I visited all anomalies. I forgot a reentry vehicle. Fortunately, the only lander I did not discard, the plane I used for Laythe, is capable of ssto on kerbin; so I can land it, drop the pilot, send the plane back to orbit, dock with the mothership, refuel, get another crewmember, carry it to the ground, go orbit again... repeat for 9 crewmembers. so, technically it's not finished. I could also just launch a capsule, the rules allow it, but it's less nice. I also have to finish writing the report. A few more days. However, this is a momentous moment for me. After four years and many thousands of hours, I find myself without any ongoing project for this game. I've done everything. At least, everything I was interested in doing. 3 grand tours of the stock system with kerbalism; once including the outer planets mod. A grand tour of the real solar system, one of the whirligig world mod. More jool 5 than I can recall, always with some additional condition. A nanodiamond caveman. at least 18 planets circumnavigated with a rover, many of those planets from mods. I visited all anomalies (ok, i didn't bother with all of them on the mun and kerbin). found 21 green monoliths. Now, whenever I think of something about this game, I've either done it already, or i'm not interested. I'll probably stop playing ksp, after all this time. Maybe i'll get ksp2 eventually. As a science nerd, this game struck me in all the right places. Only the civilization saga has left a similar mark on me. Likely, even 10 years from now, even if I never pick it up again, I will still name ksp as one of my favourite games. Or maybe I will I find some other long term challenge to waste my time tackle after all.

I have seen a fully reusable grand tour that managed a purely rocket ascent from eve. it did so by landing on a 6.5 km tall mountain on the equator. from there, it was possible to orbit. so, 12 km will also give some payload capacity.

circumnavigation of Bop in the same thread i also circumnavigated laythe, but I already had a previous elcano there, it's redundant to post another one

why not? i ran a full grand tour of it, radiations were no more of a problem than in previous runs. less of a problem, actually, because i had more experience dealing with them. the only real bother way, i could not land a crew in the inner moons of saturn because of too many radiations. but few people use kerbalism to send a crew on saturn anyway. you may refer to the fact that travel times are longer while radiation exposure is the same, but if properly handled, radiation can be virtually nullified for most situation. so if the mission is longer it doesn't really matter

i played with rss and kerbalism without changing anything. of course, going to orbit is going to be exceedingly difficult with stock parts, but that's not a kerbalism problem

first of all, the thread title does not match the question. orbits refers to moving in space, ascent would be more appropriate for atmosphere. it seems your rocket has stability problems. unfortunately, you do not give us enough information. pictures would be good. maybe your rocket isn't as aerodinamically stable as you think. or maybe you are turning it too hard. why would it be a problem especially for going to mun? how is that rocket different from others? this may shed light on the problem

Oh, right. I forgot to mention in the Elcano thread I did Bop, in chapter 9. I also did Laythe, but I already had a circumnavigation there, I don't see the point of making another claim. I'll be busy at work for the next couple of weeks, so i expect Vall to take more. Shall I post the Bop notification in the Elcano thread for the sake of linking?

Part 10: A trip through memory lane Leaping Mantis goes to Vall. This first part covers from the equator to the south pole to Vallhenge. Some of that road I already covered four years ago in one of my first challenges. I got a bit nostalgic about it, hence the chapter title. Standing above the southern pole terrain glitch 10.1) Need for Speed: Vall 10.2) Return to Kraken Maw Peak 10.3) Return to Shadar Logoth Trail and Vallhenge

i never had any problem tranfering oxygen, or any other resource, between parts. i never worried about consumption priority, so i can't say about that. you really should be able to transfer it between tanks like fuel or any other resource. if you can't, it could be a bug

kerbalism does not change the rocket mechanics nor the planetary mechanics. your ships are going to be heavier due to life support necessities - a lot heavier if you plan longer missions - but the deltaV required is always the same, roughly 3400 m7s for LKO. the image you posted clearly refers to some planetary pack, which has absolutely nothing to do with kerbalism. i do believe you may have the wrong mod here.

Part 9: Rough yet smooth Leaping Mantis circumnavigates Bop, taking care to check both the kraken and the monolith. Because of the position of the monolith, my circumnavigation was a bit lopsides, crossing the north pole but only making it to 60° south. The path is still two semicircumferences, though 9.1) Pre-Bop 9.2) Proper Bop

A good point. However, having a different number of experiments in different cores would be confusing. By taking 4 copies of unnecessary experiments, I ensure that each core has the same number of experiments. So if I accidentally only took 3 experiments in a biome, I would notice immediately. I am also keeping strict track of which experiments I run in a datasheet, but I was doing that the previous time too, and I still missed one. Having four copies is a further guarantee of thoroughness. They also include the Jool atmosphere reports, taken from Phoenix. The science recap at the end of every chapter has the complete count. Well, once things start exploding, I reload. It doesn't really matter how much is salvageable afterwards. EDIT: moving the answers to @damerell here I was just going faster. I could have limited speed to 40 m/s, and it would have been very safe (except hitting the occasional surface feature) but it would also have been boring. It is a slight modification of the suicide burn. The very efficient landing, used by those that go for low mass records, is to lower orbit to the level of the highest mountain on the equator, then brake while pointing upwards so that the vertical speed is always 0, and time it all so that when they stop they are right on top of the highest mountain. this way minimizes gravity drag. However, timing it all so perfectly is impossible for a human. my variation is a human-friendly compromise that's only slightly less efficient. Misfortune? It was nice, I regret not going more straight north after Gagarin crater and skipping the main patch of mountains. Difficult terrain keeps things interesting, so long as the rover is capable to handle it.

Part 8: Garibarge against mountains, 2-2 draw Flying Christmas Tree finishes taking space science (almost) and brings Not Albatross to explore Laythe. The route taken around Laythe; the image is centered on Crescent bay 8.1) For ease of mind 8.2) Meeting Garibarge 8.3) We will not cease from Laythe exploration. How many times did I use that quote into a chapter title anyway? 8.5) Not Albatross moves on 8.5) We're flying high into the sky 8.6) Northward! 8.7) Treasure Crater Island 8.8) Back to orbit Science recap

geysers erupting on the sea floor on laythe though i suppose being on the seafloor would make them not geysers, but hydrothermal vents

I checked your circumnavigation; I see you generally kept a speed between 30 and 40 m/s; you took a couple days longer while having less detours. I could have kept the same speed and be perfectly safe, except it would have been more boring. as i stated, tylo tricks you with some very flat terrain, only to put up some obstacles once your guard is down. it wouldn't be dangerous by itself, it's the reckless driving it encourages. there was also the occasional hitting of a surface feature; they did mix up with the regular boulders, as such i sometimes missed them. i didn't see them in your run, maybe you lack breaking ground? i have no idea of kerbal foundries wheels have different behavior, that may have contributed. if they had some kind of authomatic speed limit, that would have helped immensely.

I moved a boat on top of a mountain. which is odd enough that it may be a world first no, many people who went for fast kerbin circumnavigation made boats with wheels. however, my boat is carrying a plane on top of it. so, building a boat, sending it to laythe, dragging a plane over it, and pulling the whole contraption over a mountain... that, I bet nobody ever did before. this is Garibarge. it would like to be an aircraft carrier, but I am a lousy pilot, I can't land a plane with any precision. hence I made a barge with a ramp that a plane can climb. i made it because the plane on top of the boat counts as landed instead of splashed down, and that allows collecting more science in the same biome. Here's Garibarge's retractable underwater observation post, which I'm using to showcase that Garibarge has retractable wheels. Just in case I'd have to cross some land, which is happening right now. Garibarge's propellers are also powerful enough to go straight uphill on Laythe. They can tackle 20° slopes easily On top, I planted a flag stating "Garibarge was here" No, it could not actually exhist. Degenerate matter exhists at such density because it's subject to enormous pressure inside neutron stars. remove that pressure - by separating it from the rest of the star - and it will revert back to normal matter. just like a compressed gas will expand as soon as freed from whatever was keeping it compressed. besides, it's not a diamond. a diamond is carbon with a specific crystal structure, giving it a density of 3.5 g/cm3. Widor has a density around 108 g/cm3, so it's not diamond. I doubt it qualifies as "carbon" in the first place.

i've been using kerbalism + near future electrics without issues, the reactor work as they should. other mods may cause the problems

tylo circumnavigation took longer than expected, but I finally did it. pure stock.

Part 7: Climbing and spelunking After taking a detour to visit Tylo's cave, Tamarromobile finishes the circumnavigation of Tylo in 33 hours - an average of 35 m/s. Two pictures to get a clear view of the eastern emisphere of Tylo. Flags are 90 km apart I slightly improved the speed record with 27 minutes between flags 31 and 32. I ended the circumnavigation not on flag 1, but on flag 2, because I wanted to exclude the waiting time I had just after flag 1. 7.1) Crater to crater 7.2) What are 400 km in front of eternity? 7.3) Things to do with a cave complex 7.4) End of the road for Tamarromobile 7.5) Return Science recap

I got 140 m/s with a half-assed design i scrambled together in a short time as part of a larger mission. Very basic plane, but it flew thousands of kilometers. Can't post links from mobile, but it's linked in my signature, the Bolt/Nail mission, Eve chapter. That kind of performance is easy to get if one does not overengineer the plane - you appear to have a small rotor on a relatively big plane, which limits performance. Getting faster is harder. I know @Lt_Duckweed as a great expert of planes, if 229 is his best attemp, it's probably close enough to the upper theoretical limit

I'm asking about unique personal achievements: things that you have done and that probably nobody else has done. i'm not talking of things to boast. great achievements, low mass, low parts, most landings. there are other places for those. i'm talking of doing something so bizarre that after doing it, you muse "you know, I must be the very first person to do this exact thing" let's try a couple examples. here i was driving a rover on Tal. plenty of people have the outer planets mod. thousands will have landed on tal, and many of them will have used a rover for the task. nothing worth noting here. i did bring a rover to tal to circumnavigate it. nobody else circumnavigated tal with a rover - at least, nobody else wrote in the challenge subforum about it - but that's the kind of big achievements and this thread is not for those kind of things. i was planting a flag, and since tal has low gravity stopping a rover is annoying, so i sent a kerbal out while the rover was still moving, to plant the flag and rejoin the rover by jetpack. but I mishandled the maneuver and ended up with the rover running over bill. and i wondered, hey, what are the odds that someone else went all the way to this remote moon to have one of his own astronauts run down by a car? it must be a world first! I sent a rover to circumnavigate tylo. many other people have done it. i made a detour to reach the cave complex, and while there I climbed it, pushed the rover to the top. not very original. a lot of people must have landed near the cave complex, and surely somebody else already tested their rover mountaineering capacity by climbing to the top. but it just turns out that my rover has a cupola installed on a rotating servo on top - because i figured activating it and looking all around could help break the monotony of the long trip. well, what are the chances that someone did this already? surely others brought a rover on top of the cave complex. most likely someone else thought of putting a rotating cupola on top of a rover, though that's a weird enough idea. but using a rover with a rotating cupola on top to get a panoramic view from the top of tylo's cave is probably something unique. i'm curious to see other bizzarre dealings

it's not screen brightness, it's game brightness turning it up is useful for seeing by night. and for taking screenshots by night that can be seen

i suggest you increase background light in the options, most of those screenshots are just a black screen