Banzai! A Circumnavigation of Kerbin (Elcano Challenge)

[Squiggsy]

Too bad about Banzai #1, just glad nobody was hurt.

I have installed but not really messed with KAS/KIS so was fascinated by your ability to replace a lost engine. Were you able to snap it on the nodes or did you have to eyeball it?

Anyway, your solution to delivering the replacement is the same as my own contingency plan should I need another VACUOUS. Bolt on some wings and stuff until it flies .

So am I, it seems so long as it lands onto the pontoons they break its fall a bit, so even if everything else is distroyed, the main body remains in tact.

and yes you can now snap to nodes with KIS, you can pretty much do all the things you could do in the VAB, so long as you have enough kerbals around to hold the weight (well unfortunately currently mass, gravity doesnt come in to it, so they can carry the same amount on kerbin as they can on gilly, something that needs addressing eventually methinks)

and the solution for delivering the replacement was not a pretty one, the drag on the Banzai! was so high that it didn't want to fly, it took me an 1 hour 45 minutes to get it out there, and I couldn't use physics warp or it would just fall out of the sky.

I am actually messing around a lot with KIS/KAS at the moment, building a base at the UFO site, as well as attempting to build a plane to fly some extra kerbals i have along with me back to where Zely is to be rescued, so you'll be able to see some of the things it can do in my next update

[Overland]

well wishes for you and your craft comrade circumnavigator, historys proven its not easy.. but its a hell of a ride. I wish goodluck to you and shall be following your progress..

while currently im rather sick having just been discharged from hospital.. you give me inspiration to fire up 4408 II for a session.... yes.. it would seem I am insane

[Squiggsy]

well wishes for you and your craft comrade circumnavigator, historys proven its not easy.. but its a hell of a ride. I wish goodluck to you and shall be following your progress..

while currently im rather sick having just been discharged from hospital.. you give me inspiration to fire up 4408 II for a session.... yes.. it would seem I am insane

Hope you feel better soon mate! thanks for the support, I look forward to the latest installment in your adventure

while the Banzai! MkII is doing fine, we have one supply ship for the polar base without enough fuel to return and one crashed down after some glitchiness with delivering its cargo... cargo was dropped but some of it is pretty far away, thankfully the crew survived but this base is going to end up more populated than I thought if I can't work out a way to get them back, and I just wanted to quickly get some kind of base set up so I could set off again on my mission! I refuse to leave before this at least resembles some kind of base that my kerbals can live in and research this strange UFO

[Overland]

The path to success on this elcano challenge.. much unlike space adventures is one filled with wrecks and failures..in my first save they served as a beacon to mark the route and also to provide inspiration.. theres no better feeling about diverting to visit a fallen craft .. as when you arrive the full impact comes into play.. its a wonderful feeling that adds a touch of humanistic mortal-ness to our attempts..

no one ever said we needed to follow the line in a straight and true manner.. the real world and kerbal versions of circumnavigation are filled with unexpected losses and gains.. its all part of the experience that has become personally one of the most amazing experiences ive undertaken with KSP.. and I dare say you'll feel the same once you.. key in.. to the attachment we eventually feel to craft and crew (except valentina...)

Enjoy your gains fellow circumnavigatior.. we all experienced these times.. its the sign of being above those who would originally say its nothing more than holding W key and thus boring..

How wrong they are indeed

Edited May 28, 2015 by Overland

[Squiggsy]

The path to success on this elcano challenge.. much unlike space adventures is one filled with wrecks and failures..in my first save they served as a beacon to mark the route and also to provide inspiration.. theres no better feeling about diverting to visit a fallen craft .. as when you arrive the full impact comes into play.. its a wonderful feeling that adds a touch of humanistic mortal-ness to our attempts..

no one ever said we needed to follow the line in a straight and true manner.. the real world and kerbal versions of circumnavigation are filled with unexpected losses and gains.. its all part of the experience that has become personally one of the most amazing experiences ive undertaken with KSP.. and I dare say you'll feel the same once you.. key in.. to the attachment we eventually feel to craft and crew (except valentina...)

Enjoy your gains fellow circumnavigatior.. we all experienced these times.. its the sign of being above those who would originally say its nothing more than holding W key and thus boring..

How wrong they are indeed

Well said! I have also felt that this is one of the most brilliant and enjoyable things I have done in KSP, I never realized what a vast and diverse landscape Kerbin had. I have also never felt so challenged, or so attached to a group of kerbals before, I just left Luden and Olivia behind at the research base and carried on my mission and the Banzai! feels empty without them.

I have a few more detours planned, and I'm sure a hundred unplanned ones will crop up as I travel the adventure continues! (I'll upload my Banzai! MkII and base building interlude some time this evening)

[Squiggsy]

New part is up! its quite long, tried to keep it concise but a lot happened once more, hope you enjoy it, I've really enjoyed doing it and writing it, although I'm not much of a writer, it definitely adds to the enjoyment of the project overall to write it out and get a sense of how the crew respond to the situations.

[Starwhip]

Looking great! I like the new one. You have a massive advantage with the steerable landing wheels and their built-in suspension.

I have no steering, nor any suspension at all, but then again the medium gear seem super strong.

[Squiggsy]

Looking great! I like the new one. You have a massive advantage with the steerable landing wheels and their built-in suspension.

I have no steering, nor any suspension at all, but then again the medium gear seem super strong.

thanks! yeah that pair of steerable landing gear was a last minute addition before I set out on my journey, and it's proven to be a good choice many times already.

I actually hadn't thought about the fact that your craft has no steering, how do you get around that?

[Starwhip]

A combination of airbrakes, control surfaces, and reaction wheels.

There are two vertical stabilizers and six horizontal, for pitch and roll authority. When the Dawn Racer yaws, it tries to roll; the reaction wheels and horizontal stabilizers counteract that.

It has a turning radius of 100 meters or something ridiculous. But it's manageable.

[Squiggsy]

oh wow! have you ever had problems with it trying to lift off?

I actually also use just 2 airbreaks to help with turning, when I tested with them I found that they made a minor improvement to turning on the ground and a major one to turning at sea. still though once I get over about 30m/s my turning circle gets pretty large, and once I get over 45m/s it's probably in the region of km's not meters, but at anything under 30m/s its really rather good

[Starwhip]

oh wow! have you ever had problems with it trying to lift off?

Ha ha ha! ha ha... haaahhhhhh...

It's a chronic problem. Leave it running on land unattended and when you come back it'll be two kilometers in the air and rising.

[Squiggsy]

Ha ha ha! ha ha... haaahhhhhh...

http://i.imgur.com/Kh88X9N.png

It's a chronic problem. Leave it running on land unattended and when you come back it'll be two kilometers in the air and rising.

haha amazing, so what you've done is built and aeroplane, called it a rover and hoped it stays stuck to the ground?

I have to say yours is one of my favorites out of the crafts Ive seen for this challenge, its just so... kerbal!

[Starwhip]

haha amazing, so what you've done is built and aeroplane, called it a rover and hoped it stays stuck to the ground?

I have to say yours is one of my favorites out of the crafts Ive seen for this challenge, its just so... kerbal!

Don't forget that it's also a boat.

But yeah, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head with your description, though it was more like "I built an amphibious rover and holy crud it can fly!?!?"

[Squiggsy]

Don't forget that it's also a boat.

But yeah, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head with your description, though it was more like "I built an amphibious rover and holy crud it can fly!?!?"

haha you have air land and sea all covered, got the ultimate vehicle there!

looking over all the vehicles entered into this challenge I actually really love pretty much all of them (the Banzai! included of course, not to blow my own horn or anything but I do love that craft) the amount of ingenuity that goes into them is just great, might start a thread in the spaceship exchange for people who take the challenge to show of their crafts to everyone because they are just great.

[Squiggsy]

New part is up in the OP! saw some of the most awesome landscapes yet!

[Geschosskopf]

Really impressive progress, Squiggsy!

[Squiggsy]

Really impressive progress, Squiggsy!

Thanks!

It helps that I am currently in a situation where I don't have much to do with my time and am pretty absolutely hooked on KSP, this challenge in particular

also the Banzai! is a joy to ride and makes good progress. either tomorrow or the day after I'm going to reach my the bit i'm most exited to get to, found an interesting looking place that i'm going to take a bit of a detour to go through when I was planning my route on Kerbal Maps

looks to me like a river flowing through a ravine between two mountains, saw it and instantly thought "I want to fly the Sparrowhawk down it, and the ride the Banzai! down the river

theres also what appears to be a dead straight line cut into the terrain just a bit down from it so i'm going to check that out too

[Geschosskopf]

Looks very cool. Beware the rapids in the middle of the river, though.

[Squiggsy]

Looks very cool. Beware the rapids in the middle of the river, though.

I'm more concerned about reports of a "freshwater kraken" dwelling in that lake...

[Starwhip]

I do believe you may have found THIS. (Unless Nassault actually found it on the way to the South Pole.)

In which case that is awesome.

[Squiggsy]

oh wow, yep that definitely looks like the spot!

It seems this Banzai! is not going to be the one to make it down there though, it is no longer water-worthy and will have to be swapped out for a new one at some point before reaching that point.

I'm currently updating the OP with Part 7 explaining what happened

[Squiggsy]

Ok part 7 is up ! driving a half-wrecked Banzai! is really entertaining, looking on the bright side, with less wheels it turns a whole lot better!

Edit: ITS WORKING, I don't know how, but I can still cross the water. ok so it's only going at 7m/s, but IT WORKS

after some fiddling with the throttle a bit more, managed to get up to 10m/s . Sitting pretty low in the water though.... :\

Edited May 30, 2015 by Squiggsy

[Geschosskopf]

The true test of a vehicle's design is if it still works reasonably well after severe abuse. Seems like the Banzai is a good design .

I see you crossed the path of the VACUOUS up there at your ISRU point. Going E-W, I found the terrain rather bumpy. Was it any better going N-S?

[Starwhip]

Ok part 7 is up ! driving a half-wrecked Banzai! is really entertaining, looking on the bright side, with less wheels it turns a whole lot better!

Edit: ITS WORKING, I don't know how, but I can still cross the water. ok so it's only going at 7m/s, but IT WORKS

https://40.media.tumblr.com/889eb9c1483b7bb290d87951d083f356/tumblr_np6kki2Xwn1r0o48lo2_1280.png

after some fiddling with the throttle a bit more, managed to get up to 10m/s . Sitting pretty low in the water though.... :\

It seems to me (after testing on my part) that the structural fuselages are EXTREMELY draggy in the water. Radial intake pontoons are way better.

If you replace the Banzai! again, try coating the bottom of the pontoons in intakes.

[Squiggsy]

The true test of a vehicle's design is if it still works reasonably well after severe abuse. Seems like the Banzai is a good design .

I see you crossed the path of the VACUOUS up there at your ISRU point. Going E-W, I found the terrain rather bumpy. Was it any better going N-S?

yes the ground was pretty rough up there, that's where i lost one of the steerable wheels on a sharp peak of a hill. lovely area though in terms of views though!

It seems to me (after testing on my part) that the structural fuselages are EXTREMELY draggy in the water. Radial intake pontoons are way better.

If you replace the Banzai! again, try coating the bottom of the pontoons in intakes.

The reason why I haven't is because of part count, my CPU is a quad core 2.9ghz, which normally is pretty acceptable, not good by any means, but I get by with pretty much any game I play, however since the version of PhysX KSP uses can't process on more than 1 core (or 2 I forget) it ends up being majorly useless when it comes to part count on vehicles, so everything has been designed to cut the part count down to make my journey less laggy, its funny though because I finally experienced playing in full green-time (no dilation) after the Banzai! got wrecked, enough parts got removed that the game ran smooth for once, I'm really quite enjoying it

can't wait for 1.1, this will finally cease being such an issue.