Ekku Zakku

It's all stock, so yeah, brute force with a lot of wheels and wings, with ASAS to control the wings XD gotta keep it going straight, or else it'll catch and flip out. I can max out around 180 m/s, but then that gets REALLY iffy lol.

it was a pain to fly, I'd be impressed if somebody does better XD it's hard to pass that wall with air breathing engines though, drop some SRB cans on there and you can go 500 m/s+ lmao. It's all about TWR

Yeah I know, I just didn't want to go the VTOL route because it'd be slower XD and they're also so hard to balance, I've always had trouble with them.

I'm having a lot of fun with this challenge lol, unfortunately I keep getting really far and then smashing my rover to bits from going too fast XD it's all stock, averaging between 140 and 150 m/s, and going for all time reductions which should put me in the negatives. Should be less than 30 minutes if I can just manage to make it to the finish line lol

New submission, this time with an unmanned design. I present, the SenbuRobotto: Max Speed: Flight Results:

Yes it is =3 same name and built from the same base plane, just modified a bit.

Yeah, this is ffffffffffing impossible with something that's designed to fly horizontally and can't hover, no thanks =P

The problem with only using air-breathing engines is that there's a TWR wall that gets hit pretty quickly, I calculated it to be about 183 kN per tonne. If somebody does the math and puts that with the drag at 1999 km ASL, we should find the theoretical maximum.

(Old submission, scroll down for my new one) Ok, after some adjustments to make it more stable, I reached 403.8 m/s without going above 2 km! Flight Results: ______________________________________________ New Submission: Added a 4th engine for a bit more umph without sucking the intake completely dry, and managed 114.1 m/s: Flight Results: EDIT: I might or might not have just broken 500 m/s under 2km ASL... Yeah, I'll post that when I have a viable submission XD EDIT 2: ok yeah, it wasn't with an air-breathing engine so it isn't a viable submission, but 563 m/s while staying under 2km was fun lol.

My very minimalist plane, the Senbu (meaning Apex in Japanese): Simple is good: I could probably break 400 m/s if I timed my fuel running out to being as close as possible to the 2 km altitude barrier. Also gonna try a smaller fuel tank; less dead weight and less time to get to almost empty XD Also going to try a version with more engines. I will post my results lol. EDIT: also I know I haven't posted my flight results screen yet, but that's because I'm trying to do it without going above 2 km. With such a minimalist plane, it's very unstable and will dip and dive a lot, and I've been frequently going above 2 km. I'll post my full submission when I'm happy with my result =3 PS: I have passed 400 m/s at under 2 km with a smaller fuel tank, although it's incredibly unsteady and idk if I could reach max speed without going above 2 km during the flight XD

Woah nice! Certainly what I would have done in design, I might have to try this challenge XD What about having some rockets under the rover to slow down descents from jumps? Considering of course that they must have a TWR less than 1 so it is incapable of flight. What I might try is taking some big jumps at speed in order to cut a lot of time lol

Almost done with my trip, come watch if you want to see me complete it! EDIT: I HAVE FINISHED!!! after 11 hours and 38 minutes (surprisingly longer than I had calculated, also about 3 1/2 hours longer than the fuel I had brought... how that works, I have no idea =P) Photos: Bill happy to be home:

Oh goodness, I wish I wasn't going to the bathroom when that happened XD Anywho, news for me, it looks like I'm BARELY going to have enough fuel to get back to KSC, and I still have about 3 hours to go, so catch up with me about two and a half hours from this post and watch until I cross the finish line! Tbh, I've been really scared since about 2 hours into the trip when I started yesterday that I wasn't going to have enough fuel, but there was no way to really tell for sure until I reached a certain point. Fortunately though, doing some math and rough eyeballing of the distance remaining, I'm confident I'll have enough fuel to make it back to KSC =3 Also, only one person is watching my stream right now, so stop on by and talk and ask me questions so I won't be bored! XD www.livestream.com/thealliancegarage

Most certainly! Let me just upload it real quick =3 https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B29zPJqIXumrRzFTeEpoamVtbWs Also, I am just now starting to stream again, come join me if you're not watching Theriss stream XD www.livestream.com/thealliancegarage

The docking messed with the total distance travelled because it resets the counter for it. I'm not docking and refueling though, so I will be able to see exactly how far the circumnavigation is whenever I complete it =3 Also, I'm gonna finish (or hope to) today, starting about 7pm Eastern, 6pm Central. I might start early like I did yesterday, so feel free to join in a bit earlier if you want. www.livestream.com/thealliancegarage

Well, perhaps you might be the third XD perhaps second if you're lucky lol. I was hoping the be first too, but oh well, I will be the first to do the whole trip without refueling though! EDIT: I started my journey! www.livestream.com/thealliancegarage come and watch if you feel like it =3

I will start my first leg of my trip just under two hours from now. 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, 6pm Pacific Time. www.livestream.com/thealliancegarage in the meantime I will be streaming some small preparation for the journey, as well as a quick game of Killing Floor before I start. My friends will be on a skype call with me =3 I wasn't able to start earlier, because I had to completely redesign my boat. It's faster and can go much further now. I present, the Sendousha 7:

Yeah you're right about the mass ratio for those, I noticed that too when I looked on the wiki. Also I just did the calculations for travel time vs average speed, calculated ~7.9 hours, and the fuel consumption rate of my engines at full throttle meant my former design was short about .4 hours. So, I added some tanks, and I should be able to make it all the way! I have 48 tanks, and I believe somebody in the old thread calculated something like 45 tanks @ something like ~115 m/s average (with only one engine) would make the complete circumnavigation. I'm using two engines, plus 2 more until I drop the first 20 tanks. I added a bit of leeway in case of a slightly lower average speed at full throttle (I might throttle down at higher speeds if I deem that my average speed will be too low to make the trip half way through) Now all I have to hope for is that my boat with a full load will actually float and handle high speeds like the slimmed down version XD just to note, the fuel tanks are all separated by small decouplers and the fuel is pumped from the outside in, to keep the weight distributed properly. Here's the beast itself, named the Sendousha, or Instigator in Japanese:

I'm sure you will beat me to it, since I'm fairly certain I won't be starting such a terribly long journey tomorrow when I'm already losing sleep to get up for work, going out to look at cars, and talking to my girlfriend on Skype XD I'm quite booked tomorrow lol. Exactly why I'm aiming for Tuesday instead. I'm confident that I'll be able to go the distance, but I'll have to run the math and make sure. I'm probably going to be averaging about 135-140 m/s, and that's with quite a lot of fuel, enough to go the whole distance. I'd be hitting close to 160 m/s when certain "stages" run low on fuel as well. Not sure what my starting speed will be though, I haven't put the whole boat in the water yet. I've mainly been putting buoys/miniature lighthouses at the major points of land I need to turn at to keep the straightest path. I figured I might as well do the closer-to-equatorial route since I know I'd only do a circumnavigation once, and I might as well do the whole shebang. What happened on your first attempt? XD Also, I just realized a flaw in my design... I should have used Mk3 Fuselage fuel tanks, they weigh less empty than the Mk1 tanks, AND carry more fuel =P herpaderp... I thought you would have had these things balanced, Squad! *rages slightly on the inside*

I've been working on this challenge as well, probably won't start until maybe Tuesday though. I'll update you all when I do it, and I'll also probably make a time lapse from the stream =3 I'm gonna aim for a no-refueling run, but I think I should probably have a docking port just in case I need to refuel lol. My last "stage" can get me more than 1/4 (maybe even close to 1/3) of the way around the world XD

On Phobos, "I can't see out of this huge freaking crater..."

Sharp eye XD you get an e-cookie. Also, more screens of my slow, boring, yet eerie and creepy orbit in EVA: (Gilly's got a nice chest... wait what? >w>) This is my favorite moon in the game by far, it's so much fun >w< EDIT: Also, I forgot to mention, has anybody ever Left-clicked their mouse and moved it around while in EVA? I surprised myself when I figured that out lol

Need a hint?

Usually uncontrollable turns are when objects are colliding somehow, and it's likely your upper stage, being quite complex. It's definitely going to be that colliding problem/bug if it happens with the engines completely cut (idk if you've mentioned this at all). Usually the only way to fix it is to remake the whole thing, but it's often the only way to fix persistent problems like these =/

Thanks! XD I tried my best lmao. Currently stationed in the med bay are the crew from the lander accident (now the permanent med bay crew), Bill, Jeb, and Bob after spending a good 3 days in zero-g, longer than any other Kerbals in my space program so far, and a few other no-name Kerbonauts who just got back from a mission. Turns out they're all ok, although longer stays in zero-g will have to happen before more data about its effects will be available. Also, this is a great method for cycling crew members rather than just sending up the same crew a million times haha. I quite like how I'm roleplaying my space program XD