Evel Kerbievel's Minmus Rover Jump-Off Challenge--NOW WITH "UNLIMITED" CLASS!

[Mister Dilsby]

Inspired by @Wanderfound's excellent speed skating challenge, here's another abuse of the laws of physics to delight and amuse. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it: jump a rover as far as you can in Minmus's low low gravity.

"OPEN" CATEGORY:

1. Starwhip 2.1 km, max height 562m

2. Ghostbuzzer7 1.3km, max height 301m

3. noorm 1068.5m

4. Foxster 1003.0m

5. Kuzzter 638.6m

6. Tarantulae 589.8m

"UNLIMITED" CATEGORY:

1. Juzeris ESCAPE 507 m/s

2. Petronator ESCAPE, 306 m/s

3. Kuzzter 18.4 km

4. Starwhip 6.1km

5. Tarantulae 1.9km

OTHER RUNS DISQUALIFIED DUE TO SHENANIGANS:

1. Foxster 557,260m -- illegal propulsion source

THE RULES--"OPEN" CATEGORY:

1. The Rover

• Stock parts only.
  
• Vehicle must be crewed. No capsules or cockpits: all Kerbals must ride in EAS Command Seats.
  
• No sources of propulsion other than electrically driven rover wheels.
  

2. Ramps

• Ramps are inert. No engines, RCS motors, rover wheels or any other part may be used to impart kinetic energy to the rover. (But you may use any of the above to position the ramp(s))
  
• All of the ramps you use must fit together in the VAB or SPH in one go. You may reconfigure at will once you get to site.
  
• You may not use Minmus terrain as part of your ramp system; any contact with the surface prior to apogee will result in a disqualification.
  

3. The Run

• The jump site shall be any convenient ice lake on Minmus. All ramps must be landed completely on the ice (altitude zero).
  
• You may hyperedit the rover and all ramps to the site.
  
• The rover must begin the run with its brakes set, in contact with either a ramp or the ice.
  
• Crew must stay in their seats for the entire jump. No ladder exploits, no pushing with EVA packs, etc.
  

4. Judging

• This is a distance competition, measured linearly from the launching point of the rover to its first impact with the surface of Minmus.
  
• Post pictures (or video) showing your ramp setup and the rover at start. If your ramps are ridiculous, prove they all fit in the VAB together as well.
  
• For leaderboard consideration, post a picture or video that shows the distance traveled from the ramp and/or your max altitude/velocity. Only the first impact counts: no bouncing!
  
• The vehicle may lose parts on landing, however all crew and passengers must finish the jump still in their seats, with full EVA tanks. Post a picture of the rover when it comes to rest.
  
• Do your best to land on the ice, but if you go out of bounds it's OK. (actually it hurts you)
  
• I know what you're thinking. Is it possible for the rover to NEVER land? Well, orbital speed is 247.1 m/s according to the wiki... good luck, cowboy.
  

THE RULES--"UNLIMITED" CATEGORY:

• The goal is to launch a crewed vehicle as far as possible from the Minmus ice sheet using only renewable resouces.
  
• Stock parts (and stock physics) only. No clipping or glitching.
  
• Crew must remain in their seats (or capsule(s)) for the entire run.
  
• You may use any combination of stationary or mobile "crafts" to propel the vehicle
  
• No craft may use any of the folowing:
  
  • Rocket or jet engine, including vernors
    
  • Monopropellant engine or thruster
    
  • Decouplers or separators
    

  [*]The vehicle and other craft(s) may start anywhere on Minmus, but the vehicle must touch the ice or a craft on the ice at the "launch point"

  [*]Distance will be measured from the launch point to point of first impact with Minmus terrain

  [*]If anyone reaches orbit (stable or otherwise), orbital runs will be ranked by periapsis.

  [*]If anyone reaches escape velocity, escape runs will be ranked by maximum velocity while still in Minmus SOI.

I hope I've thought of everything, and that my fellow Kerbonauts enjoy the challenge!

Edited April 24, 2015 by Kuzzter
Now with UNLIMITED!

[HoloYolo]

It's not crewed if not in a capsule.

[Mister Dilsby]

It's not crewed if not in a capsule.

You can use a capsule to spawn the crew for the rover. I generally start out with the capsule docked, EVA the crew to the seats, then drop it:

...there are a dozen ways do do it, just make sure the capsule does't end up as part of the rover that jumps.

[HoloYolo]

You can use a capsule to spawn the crew for the rover. I generally start out with the capsule docked, EVA the crew to the seats, then drop it:

http://i.imgur.com/z2gmngX.png

...there are a dozen ways do do it, just make sure the capsule does't end up as part of the rover that jumps.

I see.

[FleshJeb]

Does the rover have to start on the ice? Or, can it be at the top of a big hill, with the ramp on the ice.

[Mister Dilsby]

Does the rover have to start on the ice? Or, can it be at the top of a big hill, with the ramp on the ice.

You can start at the top of a big ramp you build, but that ramp has to be on the ice.

[Mister Dilsby]

This (pathetic) attempt is to give a better idea of what I'm thinking here, and to inaugurate the leaderboard:

MAX ALTITUDE: 6m

MAX SPEED: 4.9 m/s *

CALCULATED DISTANCE: = (4.9 m/s) * SQRT [ 8*(6m)/(.491m/s2)] = 48.4m

*

Astute readers will note that a more accurate calculation could be made using the information from Kerbal Engineer displayed on my screen; however let's keep it simple since not everyone will have that installed.

[Foxster]

I didn't really understand how you were judging this so I just made a video and recorded the distance from my ramp to my first touchdown. That was about 770m or so.

(See update below).

Update

Made a tweak to the rover by removing a wheel. This kept all the wheels on the ground whilst accelerating, seemed to help slightly with traction and steering...

Here's a shot with the distance achieved from the ramp to the first touchdown , 774m...

Edited March 9, 2015 by Foxster

[frizzank]

Anyone know how mass plays a part in traction on low grav planets? If I have a massive vehicle will I get better traction?

[Mister Dilsby]

I didn't really understand how you were judging this so I just made a video and recorded the distance from my ramp to my first touchdown.

Awesome! And sorry about the complicated judging. I think it'll be better all around if I go on everyones' recorded distance, and use my physics calc only when the video/pictures are unclear.

Thanks for participating, looks like you've made a tough jump to beat!

- - - Updated - - -

Anyone know how mass plays a part in traction on low grav planets? If I have a massive vehicle will I get better traction?

In real life friction force = weight times a coefficient, so it should: not sure how it models in-game, though.

[Foxster]

Anyone know how mass plays a part in traction on low grav planets? If I have a massive vehicle will I get better traction?

I just tried this...

Seems to be lots of traction but couldn't get it over about 3m/s due to trying to haul the mass.

AFAIK the max speed on level ground that you can get out of the electric wheels is about 20-22m/s. Depends a bit on the gravity; you can get to 22 on Kerbin as the traction is better. If you can hit that then you are doing well and stand a good chance of a longish jump.

Of course, you can make a really stable rover even in light gravity capable of 100m/s if you use landing gear for wheels and power it with an ion engine angled steeply towards the ground like this:

Edited March 9, 2015 by Foxster

[noorm]

I hope I'm not too late for my first challenge! I've been playing with rovers for the last few days so here it is... between 845.7m and 846.3m!!!

I failed 2 times before beating the current world champion! First time 350ish meters, second time 730ish... and I was still accelerating before hitting the ramp so I could get a few more meters by starting further!

P.S.: I did speed up the acceleration x5 in the video... but it's still a bit long! I also didn't match the sound of the various segments! First time I use avidemux!

[Mister Dilsby]

I hope I'm not too late for my first challenge! I've been playing with rovers for the last few days so here it is... between 845.7m and 846.3m!!!

We have a new champion! Well done! I'll put you on at 845.7 as that's the clearest distance displayed from to ramp. We can review the tapes and split hairs further if any two entrants' runs are close enough to merit it.

I think there is room to go even farther! So far both long jumps have left the ramp at less than the maximum rated wheel speed of 20 m/s. If anyone could design a ramp system long enough to let the rover accelerate, they might get closer to that mark.

These two great entries make me think I should do a more serious one now

[Starwhip]

This looks like a really fun challenge. I assume no power on the rover besides the electric wheels? (I.E. no Ion or RCS or LFO engines)

EDIT:

Re-read the rules, can we carry some form of fuel as ballast? Or is that not allowed either?

(There are other forms of ballast. I'm not worried.)

[Mister Dilsby]

Re-read the rules, can we carry some form of fuel as ballast? Or is that not allowed either?

(There are other forms of ballast. I'm not worried.)

I suppose there's no reason not to allow fuel or oxidant as ballast. I think I was too much of a stickler first time around Will edit the rules.

[noorm]

Do you think it's possible to reach 1km? Using faster wheels, a different ramp with smoother takeoff for less speed drop, optimized launch angle, etc...?

But I allready got diminishing returns between each improvments for my 3 tries.

[Mister Dilsby]

I think so based on your run @noorm, you left the ramp at 'only' about 15m/s and a perfect design should be able to get 20. It might be really hard to make a 'perfect' design but it's possible.

[Foxster]

Might be able to.

But there's a limit unless someone can come with a drastically different wrinkle to exploit. All the four sets of wheels have a maximum speed they will spin up to and there is only so much optimisation you can do to the ramp.

I've been looking at making an engine driven by multiple wheels but the wheels have no traction against other parts other than the ground and so I'm not making any progress at the moment.

[Tarantulae]

I was experimenting with a few things for this challenge, it seems that turning back and forth can get you some extra acceleration. With the TR-2L wheels I was able to get to 25m/s on the KSC runway, even though their part speed is 23. Should be a method to get faster speeds on minmus too.

[Foxster]

918.7, so nearly at the 1K...

946.5...

Edited March 11, 2015 by Foxster

[Mister Dilsby]

946.5...

WHOA! What do you think the difference was/what did you change?

[Foxster]

And there we have it (give or take a meter)...

- - - Updated - - -

WHOA! What do you think the difference was/what did you change?

Getting the angle and shape of the ramp optimised and a much, much longer run up. To get 1km I started 4.1km out. Hit the ramp at 22.6m/s and was still accelerating very slowly. I really couldn't be bothered with a much longer run but might if someone beats 1003m

Unless I can think of some drastic way of doing this differently then we are getting close to the barrier and its becoming a matter of who can hit their ramp from the longest run-up. I want to see if I can get into orbit now with an otherwise-powered vehicle.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Foxster

[Starwhip]

This is harder than I thought. Going with the high-traction one next time.

Got to about 540 meters.

Love that rover, though, I'll keep it.

EDIT:

Also, this.

EDIT2:

The new rover is competent... I figured out a GENIUS way to go faster much faster... It involves "hopping" with the rover. Hit the ramp at around 18.5 m/s.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Starwhip

[Mister Dilsby]

I want to see if I can get into orbit now with an otherwise-powered vehicle.

This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to find out by sponsoring this challenge, though I don't think it's possible to get to orbital velocity from level ground--you have an impressive record and it's still over 200 m/s short.

But if we allow the rover to start at the top of a hill, you would be able to hit the ramp faster... when I started the challenge I thought folks might drop rovers from towers or start at the top of a big ramp to gain speed, but I see now this may be impractical.

Should I open up a separate "All Terrain" event and leaderboard? Start anywhere you like as long as you launch from the ramp and the ramp is on the ice, distance calculated from ramp to first impact.

[Starwhip]

Example of the hopping method:

Here the rover is under it's own power: it hasn't even touched the ramp yet.

I've just gotta time it right... If I hop over the ramp, it will suck.