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The Elcano Challenge : Ground-based circumnavigation

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NoPanShabuShabu

NoPanShabuShabu

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I'm pretty sure I am actually the first to circumnavigate Eve, completed it almost exactly 1 year ago. Started April 24, 2014 and got back to the starting point on May 22, 2014.

Used FAR, DRE, TAC-LS, Custom Biomes, Mission Controller, RemoteTech (no time delay), VOID, and visuals. Only autopilot I used was Alt-W and Alt-S.

Here are the posts in the "What did you do in KSP today?" thread:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1118614#post1118614

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1127879#post1127879

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1129756#post1129756

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1136603#post1136603

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1137351#post1137351

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1142193#post1142193

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1142193#post1142193

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1151759#post1151759

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1154047#post1154047

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1156817#post1156817

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1158512#post1158512

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1165474#post1165474

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1170839#post1170839

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1172158#post1172158

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1174726#post1174726

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1206890#post1206890

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1212594#post1212594

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1215594#post1215594

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1219451#post1219451

An overview album:

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Edited by NoPanShabuShabu
imgur album embedding all a mess
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Overland

Overland

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dropping by to let you know fengist that im still underway - the transition from a system crash where I lost everything.. to the linux installation then the dreaded changes of 1.0 had all proven challenging.. but with inspiration from geschosskoph above and many others.. I never gave up.. the locos been under alot of revisions.. and while shes only around 35km from KSC currently.. its mostly due to finding some bug in earlier builds and having to drive back to the yard.. the "actual" distance ive driven is likely 200.. but as its my 3rd restart with a now complete engine progress has been slow..

all that said.. surrender never I did :) now 4408 IIs underway happily running much like her former sister 4408..

fMHttmN.jpg

Goodluck to everyone on the trail!

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Fengist

Fengist

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I'm pretty sure I am actually the first to circumnavigate Eve, completed it almost exactly 1 year ago.

And here I thot I was the only person around to have completely lost their mind. Just curious, how many flat tires did you endure? Welcome to the 'official' list of circumnavigators. Well done.

- - - Updated - - -

17m/s = 33 knots. That's a world record for a square-rigged ship. Not bad at all :).

Perhaps I should explain. That ship only makes 17m/s for about 15 minutes out of the entire Kerbin day. The sails work much like solar panels, the more sun they absorb, the more thrust they produce (and I use the word thrust lightly) and they only produce thrust in the direction of the sun. So, it would be a very long and very boring voyage.

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Geschosskopf

Geschosskopf

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Perhaps I should explain. That ship only makes 17m/s for about 15 minutes out of the entire Kerbin day. The sails work much like solar panels, the more sun they absorb, the more thrust they produce (and I use the word thrust lightly) and they only produce thrust in the direction of the sun. So, it would be a very long and very boring voyage.

Oh..... I quit playing with the steampunk mod before the sails came out. I was happy to have just gone to Mun in a barrel :).

Anyways, Part 3 of the VACUOUS' attempted circumnavigation is up. I'd say I'm about 3/8 of the way around Kerbin now.

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Squiggsy

Squiggsy

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I will be participating in this I believe (I'm going to need a whole lot of belief to manage this it seems!)

I have started designing my amphibious rover, I am planning to do a polar route of Kerbin starting off heading south, since I realised I have never been to the south pole before or the areas around it.

I will also be doing it stock (which I may regret, KIS and KAS would definitely be helpful, and I may give up on the stock idea and use just them, and ScanSat perhaps for BTDT)

I'll update this post at some point tomorrow and give some further details, and then probably make a forum topic elsewhere in mission logs and link to it :)

thanks for setting up this challenge, I realised I've gone a whole week without banging my head against the wall in frustration and that's just too long ;)

Edit:

hahahaha well here is my refueling plane after it's first "successful landing" .this thing handles like hell after it drops its tank, finally got it back to the runway after a test run for the refueling process and this happened...

tumblr_noweq1zDY71r0o48lo1_1280.png

the idea is that it drops an orange tank with floatation devices and a lot of docking ports at various levels around it (to ensure there is at least one that my rover can dock with) using A LOT of parachutes (seriously I never guessed I'd need 12 parachutes to make it land without falling apart!)

I get the feeling there are going to be multiple days of testing and improving on ideas before I'm even ready to set out

(No kerbals were harmed by the way, I made the plane an unmanned drone after I realised how hard it was to make the thing handle well both before and after dropping the tank)

EDIT (again) : well I've changed the design of the refueler, now it's much more of a kerbal craft, it's a drone and the body of it is the drop tank, just blow the wings/front/tail off mid flight while overhead and reign death and fuel down on my circumnavigator! this is much more entertaining and actually works really well, I'm using KAS and KIS now for refueling because it was just such a headache trying to line up docking ports while at sea

I have decided to just set off and begin my journey, and to hell with the lack of planning! will post a link to the forum post once i get the images up :) I am at sea and travelling at a blistering 10m/s haha

My Elcano Challenge Mission Log

Edited by Squiggsy
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Starwhip

Starwhip

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Testing of the CRN-08 went badly. I found that the Dawn Racer still works, so I gave it some tweaks and some kicks to the shin, and got it running in 1.0.2. Handles the sea without a hitch, but I'll need to slow down a bit in the thicker atmosphere when going over land. 100 meters per second is managable in 1.0.2. (Sort of sad, in 1.0 it did 200 without batting an eye.)

Top speed has been reduced slightly. Unofficial half-hour sea trek placed the Racer nearly 20 degrees South. Official journey begins tomorrow.

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Astrofox

Astrofox

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This challenge is looks awesome, I give wish good luck upon the ones who wants to drive a "rover" on Gilly...

It ain't easy ya know, but I would like to give it a try - however, It really won't count because I won't do it manned - but instead by probe, since I like using probes for my work.

Anyway, I will try my hardest to "defeat" Gilly with a small "rover."

Wish me a bit of luck, because I really need it for said mission...

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Squiggsy

Squiggsy

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This challenge is looks awesome, I give wish good luck upon the ones who wants to drive a "rover" on Gilly...

It ain't easy ya know, but I would like to give it a try - however, It really won't count because I won't do it manned - but instead by probe, since I like using probes for my work.

Anyway, I will try my hardest to "defeat" Gilly with a small "rover."

Wish me a bit of luck, because I really need it for said mission...

Ion engine or two on the top to keep you stuck to the ground maybe? sounds like an interesting challenge right there :P I wish you luck!

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Fengist

Fengist

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I've changed the OP a tad. I added 2 videos of known circumnavigations, Wooks and mine. If any of you guys who have completed this challenge also have videos, point me to the address and I'll put them in the OP. Thanks and glad everyone is enjoying this.

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Fengist

Fengist

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A test run ended approximately 60 km northwest of KSC when Jeb exploded on the top of a mountain in frustration of missing the sunset view. :P

(Stupid buggy peaks and flags)

It wouldn't be a challenge without the bugs, eh?

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Squiggsy

Squiggsy

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I'd just like to say that I'm withdrawing my Polar Explorer from the challenge, it's just too slow and uses too much fuel, refueling on water is proving to be incredibly glitchy, I will still complete its journey to the south pole however, where it will complete its mission of dropping off kerbals for a polar base, however now it will drop all of them off, and be deconstructed and used to create the first habitat for the base.

This does not mean I am not doing the challenge however, I have created a Hydrofoil design that I am calling the "Banzai!" which works a lot better, moves way faster and uses less fuel, (I really should have done some more research into designs before setting out, I got impatient, silly me) and will be doing a Polar circumnavigation going the other way (starting Northwards).

Hopefully the two can cross paths at the south pole and my base can be used to refuel or something, that would be cool.

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Fengist

Fengist

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(I really should have done some more research into designs before setting out, I got impatient, silly me)

I won't even begin to tell you how much design testing I went through just to have my main rover ultimately fail. On long trips, it's a hit or miss kinda thing.

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Squiggsy

Squiggsy

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I won't even begin to tell you how much design testing I went through just to have my main rover ultimately fail. On long trips, it's a hit or miss kinda thing.

yeah I do wish I had tested the Banzai under physical time warp on land, it goes seriously fast outside of it (it can happily reach 75m/s on mildly uneven terrain without trouble!) but the moment I got into time warp the thing will just randomly explode and... well it's probably easier to show you the results of that...:

tumblr_noydn2Wa3x1r0o48lo1_1280.png

I got blasted off at 250m/s initially, thankfully I saved, tried time warp again and the same thing happened, decided it wasn't a fault of the craft so much as a fault of time warp so I'm carrying on just no timewarp over land!)

and the craft itself:

tumblr_noydv3keni1r0o48lo1_1280.png

tumblr_noydv3keni1r0o48lo2_1280.png

Edited by Squiggsy
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Geschosskopf

Geschosskopf

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Good luck, Squiggsy! I like the looks of your new ship.

On the issue of catching big air when warping, I've had that happen before and ultimately decided it was caused by having too many wheels. Each time you hit a bump, the suspensions flex, and if you've got a lot of wheels, under warp conditions the flexing can make a self-reinforcing pogostick-type oscillation, ultimately launching your vehicle.

So there are 3 basic options.

#1 is eliminate all but the wheels on the corners. Your ride isn't so big that it really needs any more than 4 wheels on the ground to hold its weight.

#2 is to lock the suspensions of some or all of the wheels. Maybe just lock the corners so the middle wheels can flex when going over ridges.

#3 is to retract all wheels except those on the corners.

Anyway, give these a try and see if any of them help.

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Starwhip

Starwhip

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I get big air, but not because I warp. I don't even use rover wheels!

But when you hit a bump at 100 m/s and your ship is made of lifting bodies... well.

Progress report in progress!

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