SunShooter Standalone: Elcano-One (MISSION ACCOMPLISHED)

[B-STRK]

Table of Contents:

Leg 01 = Six Shooter (This post)

Leg 02 = Down to the Dregs

Leg 03 = Reflections

Leg 04 = Investigations

Leg 05 = Race the Sun

Leg 06 = When you just want to go over the high points

Leg 07 = The Shape of Things to Come (Part 2)

Leg 08 = Cool Runnings (relatively speaking)

Leg 09 = The Dark of the Mun

Leg 10 = And We Run

---

The following thread is a spinoff from my Apollo 1.0 Challenge attempt thread, which will remain dedicated to the story of the Apollo Applications Program/Beyond goals. That way, this thread is dedicated to the Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge, keeping things clean from an organizational standpoint (though the story will jump between the previous thread and this one as critical dates go by).

PREVIOUSLY, ON THE SUNSHOOTER PROGRAM:

One of the Beyond goals has been the delivery of a MOLAB to the Mun--except that instead of a MOLAB, Subproject KRISTEN design director Carlisle Kerman proposed instead a circumnavigation rover, the Elcano-SunShooter Munar Magellanic Expedition (ESME) Vehicle, a proof-of-concept to demonstrate key technologies that will eventually be integrated into SunShooter's extraplanetary exploration and exploitation architecture. In SunShooter XIV, the Kerbal Space Program launched ESME and her all-female crew of Samene Kerman (pilot-ESME control), Marliana Kerman (scientist-ESME navigation), and Leevy Kerman (engineer-ESME systems) to the Mun.

Their mission was to scour select survey sites for a potential Mun base, and to investigate a couple of anomalies identified in the SunShooter X Munar mapping/observation mission. Above all else, though, was the primary goal: the circumnavigation of the Mun, on the resources which they had, with minimal (if any) support from Kerbin. The plucky ladies have just touched down and brought ESME to life. And they are about to embark on the grand munar journey...

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The use of copyrighted material in this particular post was not authorized by the original authors. I could probably cite the Fair Use provision, but honestly that just creates more headaches than it's worth. So, if any member of Coyote Kisses is reading this post, I hope you take the use of your song "Six Shooter" here as both a compliment to the song and as free publicity. Also, I swear I did not profit from this. At all. So please don't sue me or ask for a takedown?

---

SunShooter Standalone Complex: Elcano-One

An Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge Entry by B-STRK

LEG ONE: Six-Shooter

(ES-1/Regan Landing Site to Snow White Base to Survey Site 1)

As the ESME-01 makes her way to Snow White Base

"Elcano-One, be advised. We've set an alarm for about two and a half days, at which point we advise you halt journey, go on standby, and rack out. In three days we have to launch some SunShooter hardware, and it will interfere with flight control for your mission."

"Copy, Crystal Palace," replied Samene. She turned to Marliana, though Leevy, who was at the back in the crew tank, could still listen in and pipe up via intercom. "So, you think we can get this done in three days?" she asked with a grin.

"Two and a half, Sam," replied Marliana.

"Ugh, and here I was thinking of a 'three days' joke. Thanks, 'liana."

~~~

At Snow White Base

Leevy: "I've got the parts, and I'm now heading over to the SEPOMS, Crystal Palace. Okay, taking off the light, installing probe core, and antenna, replacing light... and she's done!"

CAPCOM: "Understood, Leevy. Please turn the package on."

Leevy: "Got it... she's alive! I can open the goo, gravioli readings coming in, ooh, pretty surface light! Tell the lab coats that all instruments are working and ready for their stuff. You see that, Podvey? THAT's how you do it! You need your mommy to wipe your butt for you after making poo-poo, too?"

Meanwhile, at the kerbonaut complex on Kerbin, Podvey Kerman (the one responsible for installing a remote unkerballed experiment package without probe core or antenna) feels an odd tingle in his ear.

Podvey: "Hmm... did someone just call me out? And implied I need diapers?"

~~~

Back in the ESME

Samene: "Okay, Crystal, Leevy is back in her seat--and grinning like a madgirl, that creeps me out a bit. ESME was docile coming in, twelve, fifteen m/s max. Now we get to test her limits, maybe even give Carlisle a few heart attacks."

CAPCOM: "Copy, you are go for Elcano proper. And somehow, I don't think you can give that guy a heart attack. Even with the ES-1 landing, he mostly kept his cool. Keep us updated, and if all goes well, we will see you at Survey Site 1."

Samene: "Thank you. Elcano-One out. Okay Marliana, this is how we do it. Leevy takes care of the engineering stuff, the fuel cell, reac valves, the works. You can handle the steering wheel and the gas pedal--well, drive lever. And I'll take care of attitude control."

Marliana: "Got it. I should really thank Bob for letting me have this spot--what are you plugging into the data port, Sam?"

Samene: "Just a little driving music."

Marliana: "Oh no, Sam, it's okay if you like Stage One Direction, I won't judge, and yes for what they sing, I can admit they can be talented, but that doesn't mean that others may like them. Like, for example, me. I'm more of a Pretty Reckless fan. So, you know, things can get a little tense here."

Samene: "Marliana, Marliana, Marliana. I can't believe you would think that of me. Just because I let Bill and Hudgar have a piece of my mind about it, suddenly people think I'm just boyband crazy."

Leevy: (muttering) "I don't think people just think..."

Samene: "But (1) I am a girl of varied musical tastes. ( I also happen to be a girl who is sensitive to the needs of her crewmates."

Leevy: "So as long as they don't intend to insult Stage One Direction, it seems."

Samene: "Damn straight! And (quatro), the song in here is more appropriate--as an ode to this wonderful chariot that will take us around the Mun, and to her awesome crew that'll turn every head with an eye for beauty."

Marliana: "Oh gods, she's gone poetic. What's with the Mun and going romantic?"

Leevy: "Eh, I'm being complimented, let her poetry away!"

Samene just grinned, plugged in her memory module, and hit Play. An infectious, Western-style riff began pounding through the intercom.

Marliana: (smile growing on her face) "Okay... I likee."

Samane: "Thought you would. Ready, girls?"

Marliana: "Roger!"

Leevy: "Let's burn regolith!"

Samene: "Punch it!"

Marliana: "With pleasure." (Jams the drive lever full forward)

I took a cheap shot, a clean miss

Burning my defenses by the shakin' of her hips

And then she moves in, a quick kiss

Breathing down my neck, she had me wrapped around her wrist

Samene: "We're running the batteries down, Leevy. Activate the fuel cell."

Leevy: "Roger. Whoa! We're getting a lot of juice. We're throttled, right Marliana?

Marliana: "Yep!"

Leevy: "And we're still gaining 14 EC per sec. More than the KF wheels need. Universal Storage is the s^%+!"

I tried to break loose, tight grip

Knocking me unconscious when she bit her bottom lip

It was a lost cause, a fast fight

She ain't taking any prisoners; and she's through playing nice

Samene: "I wanna try something, 'liana. Drop to under 10 m/s and turn her hard left."

Marliana: "Aren't we going to tip over?"

Samene: "Trust me. We've got low gravs, I can use it. Go!"

Marliana: "Executing--we're tipping right!"

Samene: "SAS, rolling left! Ball level, six on the floor. Jam it, Marly!"

The ESME is stabilized on the munar surface and picks up speed along her new course

Marliana: "We're drifting... Hard traction, all wheels, new course set. Oh yeah!"

Samene: "Gods-damn, I LOVE THIS MUNCAR!"

Loaded the bullets with my blood in the rounds

Yeah, she's a sweet six shooter, she knows how to get down

Until the kick-back, when my heart hits the ground

She said: "You think you're so tough, baby put your hands up!"

~~~

CAPCOM: "Elcano-One, CAPCOM. Be advised, we are charting your course direct to a crater garden. Your call?"

Samene: "Slowing down. Well, I wouldn't want to push our luck yet. Suggested course?"

CAPCOM: "We're sending some advanced ground navigation data up to you now, keep you on the high ground. How read?"

Marliana: "Receiving, and..."

Mission Control has some advanced navigation and guidance planning systems.

Crew morale monitoring, too!

Marliana: "Oh, haha, very funny. I have half a mind to shut down ESME's crew cams."

Samene: "Alright. Let's get through this thing."

CAPCOM: "Do keep the bottom half of the ball--"

Samene: "Shut up."

CAPCOM: "Yes, ma'am."

~~~

Marliana: "Crystal Palace, we've crested the hill. That crater's a pretty sight. Too bad it ain't eating us tonight. Resuming course downhill, 20 m/s--approaching a drop."

Leevy: "Take her at speed!"

Marliana: "Okay, and we're... airborne!"

Leevy: "Hang time!"

Samene: "FPI (flight path indicator) dropping, gravity hold. Attitude control, leveling to surface. Touchdown, tail first!"

Leevy: "Wheels are holding, port, starboard, nose bogey frames are holding."

Marliana: "Going downhill. My hand's off the throttle. We're coasting... at thirty meters per second!"

Samene: "And she's stable as a rock. You think you're so tough, Mun? Baby, put your hands up!"

EDITOR'S PLEA: And on-the-fly tweakable power and suspension, too?

SQUAD, please hire lo-fi and Gaalidas!

Marliana: "Leevy, we're coming up on another hill. Looks a tad steep. Can you give me more power?"

Leevy: "I'm giving you all shes got, Cap'n! Tweaking all wheels to torque factor 2."

~~~

CAPCOM: "Elcano-One, you are coming up on Survey Site 1. Another crater garden in the way.

Marliana: "We see it... whoa. That's a large garden."

Samene: "Our destination's to the left."

Marliana: "I see it. And thank goodness it is. We'll take this slow, looks a little bumpy going down."

~~~

Marliana: "We're here. And... yeah. Crystal Palace, Site 1 is a wash. Even discounting that big as heck crater at our three o-clock, this place has more humps than Fergie Kerman's lovely lady lumps."

Samene: "And you have issues with my playlists?"

Marliana: "To each their own, Sam. Anyway, too bad about that, I'm getting 8% concentrations here."

CAPCOM: "We copy that, Elcano-One. Although we did not need the color commentary on the terrain features... Anyway, first checkpoint is down. Next checkpoint is the first of the possible anomalies that Crisgola caught during SunShooter X."

Samene: "Understod, Crystal. 'liana, I'll bring her around, you get the flag. So what are we gonna call this place? The Dunes of Fergie?"

Leevy: "I vote for the humps!"

Marliana: (rolling eyes) "You guys will never let me live that down, will you? Okay, Zayn Kerman, I'll have you know I have a more appropriate name for this place, based off its most prominent feature. Sinkhole Promenade."

Samene: "Yeah. I don't see the difference with the name I just proposed."

Marliana: "Says the Stage One Direction fan."

Samene: "Was that meant to be an insult?"

Leevy: "Girls, behave! (muttering to herself) Besides, Garbage is the best band around."

MISSION STATUS: First Leg of Elcano-One circumnavigation complete

NEXT WAYPOINT: Anomaly #1

ADDENDUM: Forgot to add, credit where credit is due--besides Coyote Kisses, I mean.

To katateochi of

, because

that introduced me to the song. And dayum does he know his s^%+! Edited July 10, 2015 by B-STRK
TOC addendum and update

[Geschosskopf]

Looks like you're off to a good start.

[B-STRK]

Looks like you're off to a good start.

Thank you. ESME survived Legs 2 and 3, though one occasion each reminded me why one can never slack off on a munar drive, not even in warp and everything looks flat. But those incidents also validated (somewhat) the wisdom of having positive control over the craft when she tumbles in the low munar gravity. Those were incidents I could not screencap, though, as I was too busy trying to keep ESME alive, prograde/retrograde, and upright coming down--a crosswise landing will just start another tumble.

[Mister Dilsby]

Rockin'.

[Geschosskopf]

Thank you. ESME survived Legs 2 and 3, though one occasion each reminded me why one can never slack off on a munar drive, not even in warp and everything looks flat. But those incidents also validated (somewhat) the wisdom of having positive control over the craft when she tumbles in the low munar gravity. Those were incidents I could not screencap, though, as I was too busy trying to keep ESME alive, prograde/retrograde, and upright coming down--a crosswise landing will just start another tumble.

Would you mind posting up more details of your kOS system? It sounds quite interesting. I could get it to do simple, 1-time things but never thought about using it for full-time stability control like this.

[B-STRK]

Would you mind posting up more details of your kOS system? It sounds quite interesting. I could get it to do simple, 1-time things but never thought about using it for full-time stability control like this.

I'm not using kOS--that would be damerell's Mun run. He could probably help you out.

Considering the Apollo challenge is zero Mechjeb (and interpretations of that rule extended to the Vertical Velocity and Horizontal Landing Aids as well), and (in the event I were given the option to use kOS, which is not banned by the Apollo challenge) my coding skills can't make orbit (), I've had to hand-fly/drive all the flights so far, apart from the stock-available SAS vector-holds, of course. It helps that the control setup for my gamepad allows access to rotation, rover drive, and engine thrust simultaneously (with translation just a d-pad away). The other would be the three available SAS modules that dampen out rotation and help keep attitude, and provide a lot of control torque. Most of the time, it's just lucky that I'm given enough air time to recover, and nothing vital hit the ground in the meanwhile.

[damerell]

I'm not using kOS--that would be damerell's Mun run. He could probably help you out.

I have no shame about using things other people wrote (and not in any challenge but Elcano), and MechJeb's stability control is all I needed (and my hand-kludged one was horrible), so I can't help so much.

kOS is excellent at roll/pitchover detection, though. There is a kOS example library with functions to calculate roll and pitch easily. What it's not so hot at is reliably activating an action group, sigh - but it gives me another chance to get the camera boom down in an emergency.

(Edited to add; or it may be that Infernal Robotics is not great at noticing action groups have been activated. More testing needed.)

The thing it does do very nicely is automatic management of the Universal Storage fuel cell (run it when low on electricity unless also low on oxygen), electrolyser (run it when full on electricity, unless also full of hydrogen or oxygen or low on water), and water purifier (run it when full on electricity and not full on water). Sure, I could work these myself, but it's fewer gauges to watch when I'm trying not to drive off any (more) cliffs, and three more action groups I don't have to find.

Edited June 18, 2015 by damerell

[B-STRK]

SunShooter Standalone Complex: Elcano-One

An Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge Entry by B-STRK

Leg Two: Down to the dregs

(Survey Site 1 to Possible Anomaly #1)

Back on the way to Waypoint 2

Samene: "She does get some serious air on the downslope, Crystal Palace. If we start pushing the high thirties we'll have to break out the brake rockets, and we can only do that so many times before we need a resupply."

CAPCOM: "Copy, Elcano-One. We see you at a crater, are you--"

Samene: "Just skimming the rim, CAPCOM. Just skimming the rim."

~~~

Every time the ESME skids her turn Takumi-style, her speed drops.

Which would have been a damn good way of braking on low-gravity worlds

except for the part where the wonky friction that wheels (KF or stock) impart on the ground

also makes rovers do barrel rolls in the process.

(No need to press Z or R twice)

Marliana: "Whoa! Okay, maybe I took that turn a little too hard."

Samene: "It's cool, the reaction wheels' got it. Setting her back down. How are we on power, Leevy?"

Leevy: "The cell's been on sice we departed Sinkhole Promenade, and shes just sipping reactants. We got enough LH and LOX to last forever--okay, the twenty-one days the manufacturer promised, but still. Doing the math, at this rate, we can go 'round the Mun and still have enough to do the poles."

Samene: "Good to know. Alright. Let's open up the test run a little more."

~~~

CAPCOM: "Elcano-One, another crater garden up ahead. We've got a suggested route plotted out for you."

Samene: "NO COMMENTARIES."

CAPCOM: "No, no of course not. Wait one, Elcano, our data uplink seems to need a little adjusting, perhaps we need to calibrate for solar interference." (Off-mike, to GNC) "Strip this map of all the side jokes and send the route to them clean. Quickly!"

Without commentary

~~~

Inset right: On the way to the land bridge, the CSM Katie Bell flies over the Elcano team

Leevy: "Wait! Stop on over here."

Samene: "What up, Leev?"

CAPCOM: "Elcano-One? What is your sitch?

Leevy: "Crystal Palace, Leevy. This looks like an interesting feature to mark on the map. I mean, this turn-off here leads to the Northwest Crater, and obviously the two branches off to our left lead off to other areas of the Mun... I say we can call this land bridge a crossroads of sorts? he he"

CAPCOM: "Interesting insight, Leevy. Do you have a suggested name?"

Leevy: "How about 'Bridge of Sighs'? chuckle chuckle"

Marliana: "What does this place have to do with sighs, anyway?"

Leevy: "I dunno... sounds like a cool name, though? snicker snicker"

CAPCOM: "Well, far be it for me to contradict the explorer on mission, but go ahead. Plant your flag and stake your claim."

Leevy: "Roger, Crystal Palace. tee-hee"

Samene: "Uh, Leevy? What's with the grin?"

Marliana: "And the creepy under-your-breath laughing?"

Leevy: "Oh, nothing. I'm just leaving my mark on the Mun..."

Also without commentary. (No, seriously, Leevy does a better job than I could.)

CAPCOM: "LEEVY KERMAN, YOU TAKE THAT FLAG DOWN NOW THIS INSTANT!"

Leevy: "Uh-uh, CAPCOM. You want it down, you can come up here and do it yourelf. This is my land bridge now!"

CAPCOM looked helplessly at Gene Kerman, who looked helplessly at Christina Kerman. She, in turn, simply gave Gene a withering look that seemed to say, You have got to be kidding me if you think I'm going to handle babysitting kerbonauts. Nearby, Carlisle could only chuckle at the occasional... exuberance of the mission crew.

Gene: "Okay, tell Leevy she doesn't have to take down the flag." (To NETWORK) "Take a note: the moment Leevy Kerman is back on board the Katie and headed home, remote-kill the flag."

~~~

"We're back at speed, Crystal Palace," reported Sam. "We're coasting around 25 m/s here. She seems to handle well in cruise... Alright, we have a turn coming up ahead. Marlene, let's take her out of cruise."

"Got it, boss. Got throttle, executing turn--"

EDITOR'S NOTE: as the events below will reveal, I was too busy to take a screencap of the events below.

Instead, I am, er... placeholding with this earlier screencap of another of the ESME's more banky moments on hard and fast turns,

if only to demonstrate some of the rover's handling characteristics, and the need for a pilot on board.

You can call this picture the soupotumble if you wish.

The entire ESME rover shuddered as a wheel hit a snag on the ground.

"WHOA!"

Mission Control

ROVER (Rover GNC/Control): "Flight, ROVER, their gimbals have gone wild."

Gene: "Come again?"

ROVER: "I'm reading altitude climb, sudden torque in all three axes--wait, it's dampening..."

ESME-01

Fig. 1: graphical representation of ESME telemetry data during the incident

(source: KSP)

"We're flipping left!" cried Marlene.

"No we're not! SAS arresting roll, I've got her." One eye on the navball, the other out the window, Samene slammed the flight stick to one side hard. "Flipping her level--"

"We're falling, Samene! Five meters, four--"

"S&^+! I haven't lined her up yet!"

ESME-01 landed crosswise her flight path. Her right side wheels caught the regolith, the force from which flipped her back into the air, as though the rover tripped on her wheels. Matters were not helped by the roll bar/landing strut taking the full force of ESME's roll--though since that bar caught her before she could land on her back, there was some wisdom to those roll bars.

"We're rolling right!" reported Marlene, her breath catching on each word.

"Countering! Got her back level, keep the SAS on..."

"Uh, we're going backwards--"

"Retrograde's closer," Samene explained quickly, full focus on her task. "She's lined up--"

"Touching down... now!" ESME shuddered as her tail strike guards struck the surface, followed by her rear drive wheels, then the other four. "Full brakes!"

"Slowing... and we're down!" A gasp. "Oh my gods."

Then suddenly, over the intercom: "Wee! That was fun! Can we do that again?"

Marlene could only stare at the intercom panel in utter disbelief. "What the hell is wrong with you, Leevy?!"

"Elcano-One!" The radio crackled to life. "Report your sitch! Are--"

"Samene here. We're stable-one, Crystal. Holy... I think we caught a rut there."

"That was some rut. For a moment there we thought you bought it."

"Well, Kerbal Foundries do make their wheels good. And Carlisle's design isn't too shabby, either. We got her back under control, we'll be resuming shortly. Out. Well, girls, I think we gave Carlisle his heart attack with that. You okay, 'liana?"

At this point, Marliana was borderline hyperventilating. "I'm sorry, guys. I should have paid attention to the surface. I shouldn't have taken that turn at speed--"

"It's okay, Marliana. I was watching everything. We didn't notice that rut until it was too late. You got this, Marly. You're a good driver." Samene rubbed the otherwise heaving shoulders of her copilot. "Breathe."

It was a full minute before Marliana breathed normally. "Okay."

"You want to take a break?"

"No..." Marlene shook her head, gripping the wheel tight once more. "No. It's okay, Sam. We got out of this spill okay. We can keep going."

~~~

At that orbital height, the crew could just probably EVA their way to it.

Leevy: "That's the second time we've seen the Katie pass overhead. You think we should have parked her at a higher orbit?"

~~~

Marliana: "Crystal Palace, Elcano-One. ESME's behaving well so far since that nasty tumble. We're approaching Waypoint 2 now and... kerb, this is some gradient. Ten deegs, fifteen..."

Leevy: "Guys, I'm checking your nav data here, and why is the waypoint lower than us?"

Samene: "Alright, we're cresting this hill, and... oh you have got to be kidding me."

Samene: "Crystal Palace, please do me a solid and slap Crisgola when you see her. I think she neglected to say that the anomaly she thinks is here happens to be at the bottom of a gods-damn crater!"

CAPCOM: "We will pass your assessment when able. (I'm not going to be the one to slap her, though.) It is your judgment call, Elcano. The circumnavigation takes top priority, but the scientists here are hoping for some observational data."

Samene: "Wait one, Crystal... Okay, we are making the call. We're going down."

CAPCOM: "Are you sure?"

Samene: "The SCAN SAR hasn't been able to cover this crater yet. But I'm eyeballing it, and the slopes don't seem too severe. ESME's been able to take the gradient getting up here, and I think she can take it going down. We've got a good design here. We have all the power we need, as well as the Puffer brakes. We can control this."

CAPCOM: "Understood, Elcano. We'll be watching, and we're putting the Regan on remote standby, just in case."

Samene: "Copy. Okay, Marly, what I want to do is to take this in switchbacks, take the slope at an angle to reduce the gradient we face."

Marliana: "Yeah. I recommend we don't go past ten as much as possible. But stand ready on the Puffers, just in case. I've had enough tumbles for today."

The legendary Eight-Six of Akina negotiates the--

Oh, I'm sorry. Wrong show.

~~~

Marliana: "Alright! Crystal, We are at the bottom of the crater, in one piece. We had to use the Puffers for a bit when it got hairy, but we're down okay. Heading over to the waypoint now."

Leevy: "Caution light!"

Samene: "The hell's going on?"

Leevy: "Okay Sam, just chill, it's not the Master Alarm, just some lower-level concern. Crystal Palace, our thermostat caution just came alive. Okay, it's the power pack. We are at 700 degrees and climbing."

CAPCOM: "Copy, Elcano-One. We confirm your readings, and they are on yellow. Those wedges are rated for 1400 degrees--"

Samene: "And we're not waiting for that, Crystal Palace. Leevy, shut her down. How long have we been running her?"

Leevy: "Roger. Over an hour, ever since we left Sinkhole."

Samene: "I see. I thought US' inbuilt radiators would have been able to take care of those... We'll run on reserves for now."

Leevy: "So much for Universal Storage being the s&^+..."

~~~

Marliana: "Crystal Palace, we are at the Waypoint. Uh, all I'm seeing here are Mun rocks."

CAPCOM: "That anomaly should be there somewhere."

Samene: "Well, maybe Crisgola needs to get her eyes checked. We're at the bottom of the barrel, and all we see are dregs."

CAPCOM: "Start a spiral search."

Samene: "Cripes... and while running on reserves, too. Copy. Marlene, let's get this over with and get out of here..."

Minutes later

Marliana: "Hold up. I think I just saw a glint off port."

Samene: Probably another rock."

Marliana: "Too much flare to be a rock. Leevy, can you break out the spotlight?"

Leevy: "Bahamuto ICU-360 online. Swinging her portside. Whoa. I see..."

Samene: "I see it too!"

Marliana: "Crystal Palace, please buy Crisgola a pint for us. I... I think we found it!"

CAPCOM: "And 'it' is?"

Marliana: "Looks like a monolith just like the one near KSC, only most of it's buried underground. We're stopping over her while I go down and check."

Samene: "I agree. I'd also like to take the opportunity to cool down the power pack before we go on. I don't like the idea of that thng blowing up on us, or melting down the battery bulkhead halfway through our journey. Leevy, let's shut down the non-essentials and break out the emergency solar panel--"

At this point, Carlisle broke into the comms.

Carlisle: "Carlisle here. Mission specifications were to keep this journey solar-independent for as long as possible."

Samene: "Well, doc, while I'm trying to cool down the power pack, I can't very well run her, can I? And even with all systems off, we're drawing power for comms and telemetry. In any case, we're only breaking out the solars for as long as we're stopped over, just keep the battery charged while the fuel cell is offline. Once we're cooled off, it comes down. Unless, of course, you want us to run our batteries down until we cool off, which may take Kraken knows how long. How copy?"

Gene: "Elcano, FLIGHT, stand by." (off comms, to Carlisle) "I'd listen to them, Carlisle. They're the ones on the ground there. If Samene says she won't run until they're cooled off, then they don't run. And if they need to go to solar power in the meanwhile, I say they go. Proving your design 100% is second place to their safety."

Carlisle: "I never implied I never cared for their safety. I just thought we had this overheating beat... Okay, solar while stopped over doesn't compromise the test run agenda much, anyway."

Gene: "Thank you, Doctor. CAPCOM, tell them they're GO."

Inset: Leevy Kerman installs the OX-STAT panel for hibernate/warm shutdown status

And, geez, those US wedges take a long time to cool down...

Christina: "Relax, Carlisle. It's all about the circumnavigation, right? They've still got it. And there's a long journey ahead."

Carlisle: "Can you blame me? A dream I hope to achieve, a design crafted of my own hands, as though she were my own flesh and blood... You wish me back in my office and not here in Mission Control, right?"

Christina looked to Gene for some support. Gene, in turn, gave her a withering look that seemed to say, You've got to be kidding me if you think I can handle babysitting subproject directors.

Christina: "No, C, no. Though if we're going to be productive, let's you and I look into this heating issue, alright? Let's start in the conference room, where we can place a couple of calls to Universal Storage..."

MISSION STATUS: Second leg of circumnavigation complete. Anomaly discovered.

ROVER STATUS: Issue with US power pack. Heat generation during continuous operation a concern. Criticality to be assessed.

NEXT WAYPOINT: Survey Site 2

Crisgola finally freed her Snack! wedged in the vending machine when she was approached by a frightful intern bearing a pint of ale. "Uh, can I help you?"

"Ma'am," said intern shakily replied, "I have been given strict instructions by CAPCOM to pass on the following messages verbatim from Marliana and Samene, regarding your anomaly observations."

"Oh, they found it?"

The intern handed over the ale. "Marliana says thank you for locating the anomaly."

She took the draught from his hands. "Thanks! I was planning to get my own pint, but--"

TWACK!

"Ow!" She brought her free hand to the cheek that was just slapped. "What the f$#* was that for?"

"Samene sends her regards, and says thanks for forgetting to mention the f$#*^#@ crater," he replied hastily. Then he took off for the exit, before Crisgola decided to shoot the messenger.

Edited June 18, 2015 by B-STRK
In the stinger. Samene. SAMENE sends her regards! :p

[Geschosskopf]

Nice report. Glad you survived the tumble.

Is this same monolith that used to be like a mile down a deep sinkhole in the high southern latitudes, or one closer to the equator?

[B-STRK]

Nice report. Glad you survived the tumble.

Is this same monolith that used to be like a mile down a deep sinkhole in the high southern latitudes, or one closer to the equator?

It's the one closer to the equator.

(That deep sinkhole would be interesting to look at, though it would be one hell of a detour from the circumnavigation.)

My bigger worry as of now is the US fuel cell. I'm not sure how long it can continuously run without overheating, and I'm also not sure how much heat the Mk2 battery the core's mounted on can take as well.

[Daishi]

"Let's start in the conference room, where we can place a couple of calls to Universal Storage..."

Nox Industrial Inc. are the manufacturers, I'd suggest giving them a call instead. They'd be happy to provide competitively priced technical support, providing you have retained proof of purchase and are still within the 30 day warranty period.

My bigger worry as of now is the US fuel cell. I'm not sure how long it can continuously run without overheating, and I'm also not sure how much heat the Mk2 battery the core's mounted on can take as well.

Seriously though, this series is awesome and i'm happy to have a look for you tomorrow Not sure how the heat model works personally, so we may have overlooked some figures in the mod post KSP 1.0. Did it only start overheating in the shadows of that crater, or was it a gradual climb?

[B-STRK]

Nox Industrial Inc. are the manufacturers, I'd suggest giving them a call instead. They'd be happy to provide competitively priced technical support, providing you have retained proof of purchase and are still within the 30 day warranty period.

Seriously though, this series is awesome and i'm happy to have a look for you tomorrow Not sure how the heat model works personally, so we may have overlooked some figures in the mod post KSP 1.0. Did it only start overheating in the shadows of that crater, or was it a gradual climb?

Thanks Daishi! It's an honor hearing from you--and I was planning to drop a query on the US thread about processor run times, too.

I wasn't actively monitoring operating temperatures until the TempGauge went active at 700+ degrees (is it in Kelvin or Celsius? I never did figure that out from all the devnotes...), so I can't tell if there was a sudden spike right before I entered the crater. There are some observations I can give, though, if it could help:

This leg was the first time I decided to try running the fuel cell continuously (in Leg 1, I was alternating on and off whenever the battery was running low). The time I turned the FC on for Leg 2, the MET timestamp on a screenshot I took shortly after was 4d 03:09:42. When TempGauge went active, the screenshot I took after verifying which parts were heating with an F10 check (which is the screenshot used in the story), the MET was 4d 04:58:56. So if it was just from constant use, a gradual build-up, it took 2 hours for the parts to reach 700+ degrees, from whatever their vacuum rest temperature was. And to be fair, that's not even overheating by any standard--it's just Samene being extra cautious, it's her butt in the rover, after all.

I'd already run Leg 3 immediately after Leg 2, once the temps dropped down to around 450, but for that I went back to turning off the FC whenever the batts were full, but this time paying attention to the temps on the TempGauge (I hadn't thought of using the debug menu to bring up part-specific numerical temp readings, d'oh!). One nice thing about Kerbal Foundries wheels is that they have wonderful coasting behavior, so I'm not on the throttle as much on level or downslope, so I get more time to cool off the FC in between batt top-ups. She still heats up every time the processor goes on, of course, but with the longer downtime, I can keep the temps down to around 400 degrees before I have to turn her on again, by the time I ended Leg 3 (another ~100km or so run).

Heating rate on Leg 3 when the fuel cell was on was between one to two degrees per second. FC off, the cooling rate seemed maybe longer, I couldn't tell (call it 1 deg/sec?), but the longer downtime helps with temp management. All these, the cargo bay was open, partly if it helped cool off the wedges, and partly because I forgot to set the fuel cell to an action group.

Before I started Leg 3, however, I decided to see how far the wedges could cool down if I just time warped it. I wasn't paying attention to the clock sorry, but it was long enough for the sun to go higher in the sky (it brightened considerably), and the TempGauge went as far down as ~375 degrees, estimated (maybe even lower), before she started to climb again purely on solar heating. My guess is, an hour to two hours of cooling. I felt it too long, so I F9'd to the quicksave I made right before I began cooling off, and went ahead as described a couple paragraphs above.

Although the fuel cell heating is a concern, I think it's not critical: as Leg 3 had shown (I just need to do the write up), I can manage temperature levels just fine since I don't have to run her continuously. Downrange with the Apollo challenge this run is attached to, though, I am worried about the Elektron, since I think that will be the processor that I would run continuously (though admittedly a lot of it might happen in the background) to convert the water byproducts back to LH and LOX for the fuel cells. (Plus, that would be the wedge whose craft would be seeing a lot of sunlight.) I haven't tested yet the Elektron's heating behavior though.

And--Leevy's lament notwithstanding--I actually do still think of Universal Storage as da bomb , making it the (second-generation) core solar-independent heavy EC power system in the Apollo challenge submission I'm doing. Way better than piling on the PB-NUKs, in a smaller and lighter package than the equivalent LFO fuel cell package, and more useful in atmo bodies when deploying solar panels is not an option. Processor heating would be the only concern on the horizon, though there are ways to design around it with stock or mod radiator solutions.

Also, that it took 2 hours for the wedges to even reach 700 degrees is an improvement over a couple US versions back (1.0.0.2, I think?). I was that guy that seconded having a radiator or heat sink wedge to wick off fuel cell or even craft heat in the thread. I had an electrical mini VTOL then, using Rover's ducted fans. Back then, I'd be seeing the fuel cell assembly start glowing (F10 check) about 30 minutes of continuous operation. Though the way that VTOL was designed, its girder fuselage (to which everything else attached) was what sucked up all the heat from the fuel cell plus the engines. And yes, it got hot enough to blow up the girder.

Anyway, I'm about to embark on Leg 4 soon, I plan to make another stress test of continuously running the fuel cell again, this time checking temperature rates. I can pass on any observations that I pick up. And I can't wait to see what US2 will bring.

And I will pass on to Christina the note about calling up Nox In., Inc.

EDIT/CORRECTION: am running Leg 4 now. My earlier observations were inaccurate, or at least out of context as of now. Tentative data: Heat rate gain in this run is being observed at 6 seconds per degree up from the start of the run. I'm gonna run her to as close to 1000 degrees as I dare before shutting down the cell for a cooldown.

Edited June 19, 2015 by B-STRK

[Daishi]

EDIT/CORRECTION: am running Leg 4 now. My earlier observations were inaccurate, or at least out of context as of now. Tentative data: Heat rate gain in this run is being observed at 6 seconds per degree up from the start of the run. I'm gonna run her to as close to 1000 degrees as I dare before shutting down the cell for a cooldown.

Happy to help! Trying to get my head around the part heating guidelines, and what would be required for a stop-gap radiator. I probably said no to you originally not knowing how serious heating was with KSP 1.0 - but if things are exploding when they shouldn't be, it's a concern. Apparently the Apollo cells were capable of running for 14 days uninterrupted (pretty sure they couldn't be turned off and on by the crew, ala Apollo 13), but that was with proper solar radiation shielding the CSM provided; something that US1 currently lacks. :|

Paul did most of the coding and config patching when I was away; so i have no idea how anything is balanced so far. I know at least the structures do nothing helpful to dissipate\protect against heat - so we have to at least counteract that somehow before US2 is a viable product and we introduce shielding. A radiator or heatsink is probably easiest in the short term.

I'll have a chat with Paul in regards to the heating model, and we'll work out the best way to get a radiator working. When we do, see if you can engineer some kind of a airdrop probe to rendezvous with your rover, and swap out a water tank or two with a few of these

[B-STRK]

Happy to help! Trying to get my head around the part heating guidelines, and what would be required for a stop-gap radiator. I probably said no to you originally not knowing how serious heating was with KSP 1.0 - but if things are exploding when they shouldn't be, it's a concern. Apparently the Apollo cells were capable of running for 14 days uninterrupted (pretty sure they couldn't be turned off and on by the crew, ala Apollo 13), but that was with proper solar radiation shielding the CSM provided; something that US1 currently lacks. :|

Paul did most of the coding and config patching when I was away; so i have no idea how anything is balanced so far. I know at least the structures do nothing helpful to dissipate\protect against heat - so we have to at least counteract that somehow before US2 is a viable product and we introduce shielding. A radiator or heatsink is probably easiest in the short term.

I'll have a chat with Paul in regards to the heating model, and we'll work out the best way to get a radiator working. When we do, see if you can engineer some kind of a airdrop probe to rendezvous with your rover, and swap out a water tank or two with a few of these

http://i.imgur.com/VXevuNn.jpg

No problem there. I actually completed legs 4 (nearly 100km) and (surprisingly enough) 5 (about 160+ km) while leaving the FC on. Pleasantly surprised to see that the fuel cell held up, it didn't even hit 700 until more than halfway through Leg 5. Had the thermal debug displays on as well to keep track of things. I'm planning on writing up in the story an experiment report of sorts (addressed to you guys in-story!) that would go over the findings, but I can drop in some highlights now that may be taken into account when you guys begin tweak:

I got different heat rates across the journey. At the start of Leg 4, when I turned the fuel cell on for the continuous stress test, the heat gain rate was about a degree over six seconds. The start temps was 426.2.

Further along the Leg 4 trip, I took another heat rate check. Temps then was 575 degrees, heat rate was 1 degree/10 seconds.

By the time I reached Leg 4's waypoint for a stopover and survey, temps was 660 degrees, heat gain rate about a degree over 1 min 3 seconds. All this time, the cargo bay door was open.

Here's where it gets cute. The stopover involved some EVA and housekeeping, but I kept the fuel cell on. When I got back, I found the cargo bay door closed (I don't know how that happened --maybe I accidentally closed it while mucking about in EVA*). When I opened and checked the fuel cell, though, heat rates went back up to a degree over 10 seconds.

(* = There's a hypothesis. I KIS'd some redundant struts off the ESME, at least one of which were mounted on the cargo bay. And I just read from the US thread that KIS has a habit of resetting parts animations in the process. Maybe that's what happened.)

So now it's the run to Leg 5. My average speeds for the first half were lower than the speeds during the second half, but while this was going on, heat rates dropped back down to a tenth of a degree per five seconds... about 50 seconds for a degree. Also notable in this leg is that, while all previous legs were run with the sun in the sky, this leg saw an eclipse, and the sun dip back down below the terrain horizon. So it was practically a low solar radiation run.

By the time I completed Leg 5 and stopped, it was dawn twilight light-wise, temps were at 702 degrees, and the heat rate was 1 deg/15 sec. The fun part was when I shut it off, since I needed to stop over until there was more light out for base survey: the cooling rate was a relatively brisk -1 degree per 4 seconds.

Finally, and this is the curious part, I didn't take notes about this, but IIRC, I didn't notice the parts temps of the surrounding parts change: the cargo bay (theoretically, which node the US core is mounted on, but which I think were built to either take or reject the heat well?), the battery (which was the bulkhead of the cargo bay, and would have been affected by conduction from the cargo bay), or the KIS container mounted nearby (which would have been affected by IR radiation from the heating processor), they were all still below 400 degrees. The US quadcore did heat up (second hottest, by a difference of 20-40 degrees, though I didn't check that much), as well as the other wedges.

I'd still say that the fuel cell, at least, is viable for short-term uninterrupted use. Certainly the radiator does its job quite well in dumping heat once the fuel cell is off. Haven't gotten her yet to 1000, and my bet is that it would take a bit more time to get her to 1000, let alone the max temp tolerance (so as long as the rover is at speed, though, considering the observations). I still haven't blown up a fuel cell yet, though back in 1.1.0.2, to reiterate, I managed to blow up a girder the fuel cell assembly was mounted to.

The differing rates are most curious, though, as are their contexts--I could almost imagine that the heat rate is inversely tied to the rover's speed . Solar radiation could be a factor--I mean, while in motion, the rover's orientation would sometimes block out direct line of sight to Kerbol. The fuel cell is mounted towards the keel of the rover, though, below the other wedges, which should (I think) have provided that block from the sun, though.

I think improvements to the heating model of the processor would be more critical to Sabatier and Elektron use, since their low conversion rates means that they're often left running continuously and long-term to get the desired products (though is heating tracked in background/out-of-focus processing?). That and... well, I was planning on making a long-range atmo electric flyer using a US fuel cell (hey, that's 6 hours endurance on one cell, without having to add extra tankage!), as well as the USI miniVTOL I had from 0.90.

That is a great radiator model! Kinda how I imagined a radiator wedge could look like when I asked the question back in the thread, solid block of metal--the piping in the back is great detail that I haven't imagined! (The other option that someone else raised, where the wedge opens up to deploy a foldable radiator panel, I thought might not have worked for cooling an atmospheric speed craft since, well, folding panels). I only have one tank to capture the water byproduct, though--I take it the water simply overflows and is dumped if there's no free water space? (As it is, that radiator would be well appreciated on the proposed electric flyer craft, to keep heat accumulation from seeping into more fragile parts, and on the long-term processors. And I don't have to worry about recycling the water on this run, anyway--no available facilities; it'll be when I drop a Mun base there down the road that recycling and heat management will be critical.)

Thanks again for all the help! I never expected this would have grabbed your attention**, the last two chapters have primarily been observational ramblings. I'll get my screenshots sorted out so I can get you the additional info on them for your and Paul's use, and Chapters 4 and 5 of the story out (which play out the stress test I put the fuel cell through.)

** = Actually all this makes me afraid that someone from R&S might have read my Apollo challenge mission report!

Edited June 20, 2015 by B-STRK

[B-STRK]

SunShooter Standalone Complex: Elcano-One

An Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge Entry by B-STRK

Leg Three: Reflections

(Monolith Crater to Survey Site 2)

Samene: "Alright, I think we've waited long enough. Gotta get back on the road. Take down the OX-STAT, Leev. And Keep the fuel cell off as long as we can. See how long we can last on batts."

Leevy: "A'ight, but keep the lights off, otherwise we're gonna burn more juice than necessary."

Marliana: "We're heading out, max thottle. That slope up ahead doesn't look to severe."

---

Meanwhile, back on Kerbin...

"Well that takes care of that," Christina reported as she shut off the conference phone, leaning back into her seat. "Nox Industries has word of our predicament and is looking into it. For now, it's out of our hands, apart from heat management. You seem tense, C."

Carlisle snapped out of whatever reverie he was in. "Sorry. I got it, though. Nox looking into it."

"It's just like watching a child's first swim, isn't it? You want to kill the lesson and get her back into your arms, but..."

"If you do, she'll never learn to swim. I take it your personal experience?"

"Too young to remember. I have stories from the rest of my family of my father having panic attacks every time I go out into the water. I guess I really was Daddy's little girl. No kids on my part to share that experience. ESME's still alive, Carlisle, and so are her crew. She wasn't even in critical status when Leevy called the caution, and Samene's just as much of a worrywart as Dad. We're still on-mission."

"Thank you for your compassion. ESME's not my only worry now. She's more than just Elcano now." Another pensive silence from the pale-skinned space architecture designer.

---

Marliana: "We're almost out of Monolith Crater and... okay, why are we slowing down? And why is SAS off?"

Leevy: "Batt's dead! Told you it wouldn't last long."

Samene: "Gah! Why do these wonderful wheels have to be so power-hungry? Let's get that FC back on, but when we're topped off, shut it down. Until I get the story from Crystal Palace, I don't want to run the cells longer than necessary."

Leevy: "On the bright side, this will do wonders for fuel economy. [thread=68089]I heard there was some sort of kOS script that could automatically handle the power management[/thread]."

Samene: "Yeah, that option's out. Even if we had the script bunnies to do the job--which we don't, thanks to competition from the gaming industry--Her Highness is still worried about an AI revolt like the last time MechJeb went homicidal."

Leevy: "It's kOS script. It's about as likely to spontaneously develop sentience as Bill is getting an engineering doctorate."

Marliana: "About that: then why is Bill Lead Investigator for EVA construction?"

Leevy: "Because Bill isn't stupid-stupid, he's just stupidly stubborn. He's one of those guys who disdains fancy mathematics in favor of hands-on dirty experience, even if it means overlooking the predictive possibilities offered by a theoretical understanding of what he's doing. Plus, he's willing to try anything once, no matter how dangerous, and the head scientists say that's a good quality in a Lead Investigator... and apparently guinea pigs."

Marliana: "Ah, that explains why that bridge went into orbit."

Leevy: "Well, let's not knock him too much. Dirty hands-on is as useful as book-theory knowledge in this business. And besides, we learned an important lesson that day: don't build bridges out of decouplers."

Samene: "Why in the Kraken's name would that madman want to make a bridge out of decouplers?"

Leevy: "He said we had to make a split-level bridge."

EDITOR'S NOTE: I HAVE NO SHAME

(Source: MyLittleFaceWhen)

---

"Speak your mind." It was as much an order as an act of compassion.

"Universal Storage is the cornerstone of all Project KRISTEN's power needs. One problem, if not the problem, in space colonization is energy. Without it, we have nothing. On the heavy consumption side, we have the rover wheels, both KM and KF. Resource harvesting and conversion, including Snacks! support. We even have e-aircraft on the boards. The options on the supply side are limited. PB-NUKs at this level are unless en-masse, but we can't do that with manned craft for safety reasons. Nukes are also out, same reason. Solar panels? Spamming the STATs, inefficient. The more efficient options, they risk breakage. And once missions start going to the outer planets, efficiency begins dropping like a lead balloon. Not to mention useless during night or terrain shadow ops, or in eclipses. LFO fuel cells, power-to-weight for both the cells and the fuel leave much to be desired for some specific applications."

"And so US gives you what they can't: powerful, efficient, compact, modular, and flexible."

This is really one of the advertised features of Universal Storage:

to pair the Elektron and the Alkaline Fuel Cell into an RFC (regenerative fuel cell) system,

provided you have enough solar panels and wedge space for the job.

(Further questions about the efficiency of the design may be directed to the proper forum,

I haven't gotten this far yet in my playthrough)

Image source: CMR Prototech

"In nearly all, if not all, respects. The only concern now is heat, as we have seen. I had been looking into continuous ops, not just for the fuel cells, but more importantly converting the water byproduct back to H and O. Using their Elektron and solar power as a base station, we can achieve a near-perfect closed loop regenerative energy storage system. It would be beautiful--so as long as the long-duration heat management challenge can be overcome." Carlisle hung his head as he ended his spiel. "ESME would have proven that. It would be beautiful."

---

CAPCOM: "Elcano-One, we have a bit of a request for you."

Samene: "Well, we aim to please. (eye roll) What is it?"

CAPCOM: "Data indicates that we don't have surface analysis for the Northwest Crater."

>MFW Mission Control asks us to drive into a hole in the ground, again.

Speaking of "again", again with the Krakenforsaken commentaries, GNC!

Inset: Marliana is really getting used to jumping all over the Mun.

Samene: "Oh great. You're asking us to go down another crater?"

CAPCOM: "It is still your call, Samene. The eggheads are just 'highly suggesting' to conduct an analysis there. They think the location looks promising."

Samene: "Any more crazy suggestions, and on top of unknowns about our fuel cell, and I'm gonna 'highly' my boot up their... What do you think, Marliana?"

Marliana: "Well, we've survived one crater already. And if you look at the slope data from the MOO, it doesn't look too bad. I say we go."

Leevy: "Same here!"

Samene: ":rolleyes: You'd say that for anything short of a trip to the sun, Leevy. Marliana, look at you. You seem to be getting more confident since our last spill."

Marliana: "Behind us now."

Samene: "And an entire Mun in front of us, we shouldn't forget. But what the hey? Crystal Palace, we're open to the crater. Just tell those eggheads they owe us big time. Leevy, how're the batts?"

Leevy: "Full up, oh Captain, my Captain. I just shut off the fuel cell."

Samene: "Okay, a thousand ECs should more than see us down this nice hill, right? Take us in, 'liana."

---

Inset: Thank goodness for monoprop engines (now if we could only mount them prograde...)

Marliana: "And here we go--whoa!"

Samene: "I've got her! Lining up, and we're back on the slope."

Marliana: "A lot of slope! A lot of slope! We're hitting forty on gravity alone! Brakes on! S&^+, forty-five!"

Samene: "Activating Puffers! Okay, speed down, brakes are biting, Puffers off. We used up quite a bit of gas there, looks like about 1-6th to 1/5th of the twin Cylinders' total capacity."

Leevy: "We still got one-fifty me's of dee-vee, Sam, still a lot."

Samene: "More of this on our journey, and it will all add up to 'still a lot.' Let's just open up the 'tares tanks, I like seeing a lot of gas in the fuel gauges."

Marliana: "She's not kidding. On our road trip to Crater Lagoon, she was so obsessed on keeping a full tank she hit up every gas station and pit stop on the way. All seventy-five of them."

Samene: "Well, I got us there, right?"

Marliana: "Yep! A week later."

---

Now Christina was just as pensive. As a decision-maker, though, she is paid to overcome such moments. "If Nox manages any further improvements, we'll be the first to know. Hell, two hours to hit 700 degrees from whatever ESME's rest temperature was is still respectable. Not to mention an improvement over the heating issues of prior models. And... in addition, I will also look into the new radiators that just came out, they could provide additional options to keep things on ice."

"Nertea's stuff? That kerbal's productive."

"Aren't they all? I just received word that SpaceY is pushing another SRB to the Program Acquisitions Office. More of this and I'll be buried up to my neck in product brochures. And that's on top of looking into the upgrades to the Universal Docking Ports for ALY's tugs. I swear, sometimes my job is devolving into shopping for groceries."

---

The disappointment on Marliana's face is palpable even through the crew cams

Y U FAIL HER MUN

Marliana: "Crystal Palace, we've just reached the Northwest Crater and have conducted the surface analysis, and it sucks."

CAPCOM: "Well... look on the bright side, at least you've proven more the ruggedness of the ESME rover."

Samene: "Stop trying to put a positive spin on this, CAPCOM. If it sucks, it sucks, and so do those eggheads that sent us down here. That's it, we're heading straight to Site 2, no more detours."

---

Moments are these are why, despite whatever bugs remain to be squashed,

or whatever limitations I am forced to face in order to have a playable game,

I nonetheless love this game to pieces.

Marliana: "Okay, we're just about out of Northwest. A lot of really rough ground between us and Site 2, though."

Samene: "Yeah, well, if it doesn't bother you. I mean, we just had another spinout back there--"

Marliana: "I'm alright. You got skills on the flightstick, girl, and Leevy there doesn't seem to mind. I think we can jump this."

Samene: "Jump?"

Marliana: "Yeah! Take this at speed."

Samene: "Would you look at that. Marliana Kerman taking to her baptism of fire. Leevy, start that cell up again. I guess Marly here wants to show us what she's really made of."

And Marliana is made of STUFF.

This leg has seen more jumps than the movie White Men Can't Jump.

Leevy: "What's a 'Men'?"

---

"Funding?" Reclusiveness notwithstanding, Carlisle was allowed to care for the concerns of others--a badly needed attitude in a highly integrated multidisciplinary program like SunShooter.

"Whatever controls Kongress has on my purse, I do have some discretionary funds for when I see the need."

"Thank you."

Christina shook her head. "No." Then leaned across the table, commanding the designer's attention. "If I had concentrated more on Project EVANNA earlier, it's because they were on point for Phase 1: land a kerbal on the Mun and see him home safely. That's done, mission accomplished. We are on different ground now, foreign even. For Phase 2, it is KRISTEN and EMILY that are on point. We have the SKYbary, and maybe one in LMO as well. We need that Munbase. Without it, without KRISTEN, we have nothing. So there is no need to thank me, because I need you to deliver."

---

Marliana: "Woo-hoo! Crystal Palace, Elcano-One is at Survey Site 2. Leg 3 is down!"

Samene: "And we're still in one piece. That's the important thing."

CAPCOM: "Won't disagree with you on that one. Okay, we have a job to do here. Get to surveying."

---

When you think about it, a crater makes a neat little basket to place a base in.

It's also perfect to collect the resulting debris from a catastrophic RUD.

Samene: "You're not going to believe this, Crystal. Best site we'd suggest for a Mun base in this locale is at the bottom of a crater."

CAPCOM: "Wait, did you say a crater?"

Marliana: "But it's a nice crater. Getting in and out doesn't seem to be too hard, it's not like the base rovers or the drill bit need to be that mobile, and the gradients down here are as nice and soft as a warm bed. Plus, it's the best ore concentrations we have in the immediate vicinity. And it's certainly way better than back at the Northwest Crater."

CAPCOM: "Well, the hope was that we could deploy a more dispersed base, not have everything concentrated in one location. Would be pretty nasty, for example, if a fuel depot explosion were to send debris flying towards the hab, or a lander drop right on top of a mining rig."

Marliana: "We hear, we hear. Well, if you want nicer ground, the ore concentrations are lightly lower. And that gets deader the more we head out to flatter ground westwards."

CAPCOM: "Alright, alright, your suggestion is duly noted. We got more sites to hit anyway, maybe they'll be more promising. Stand by and rig up for the next leg of your journey."

Samene: "Roger that. We could use a bit of a cooldown, anyway."

---

"Nonetheless, I thank you. It is good to work for someone who can combine vision with practicality, and compassion with strentgh. The last boss I worked for... well, Aro Kerman certainly wasn't you."

"Yeah I heard stories... Well, anyway, if you are in the mood to be grateful..." Again, another look to the calendar. This time, the 55 circled in red was annotated with Change of plans. "You could write me a speech."

---

It's amazing, really. That small observation on the Universal Storage Alkaline Fuel Cell in Leg 2, then the response from Daishi about it.. which led to an experimental stress test in Legs 4 and 5 to figure out the limits and thermal behavior of the Fuel Cell on my part, and a look into the same issues on the part of the mod authors (see posts above).

>MFW your mission report attracts the attention of mod authors regarding the mod you just talked about

But really. US is a staple in any modded game I play precisely because of the virtues of accessible verisimilitude that Paul Kingtiger and Daishi have infused into the mod, that opens up sustainable and useful applications in a given playthrough. The heating issue was one that was observed since it was made compatible for 1.0.x, and (as Daishi explained here, and both him and Paul in the main US thread) the authors have been grappling with the necessary heating balance to preserve US' underlying design philosophy while accommodating the new gameplay challenge. The first step was to rebalance the heating rates of all the processors for 1.1.0.3. ESME's running on US 1.1.0.4, and as will be revealed in succeeding chapters, the US fuel cell does hold up to a surprisingly reasonable long-time use. That being said, there is still some heat creep, and that was what probably attracted Daishi to make the response he did.

In any case, like Carlisle said, US is central to the solar-independent, LFO-independent power supply needs of the SunShooter Program, and the ESME Elcano run is the first test of that capability: to circumnavigate around the Mun on the US fuel cell alone + 1@ additional LH2/LOX reserve tanks (at least when the rover is running. In extended stopovers and where/when able, Leevy mounts the OX-STAT like she did at the end of Leg 2 to cool off the fuel cell and keep the batteries topped up) without resupply. That's 21 days' endurance (1 day internal to the fuel cell's supplies + 20 from the reserve tanks) on uninterrupted and continuous fuel cell use, discounting the possibility of overheat.

Trust me, this ain't just cheerleading for Universal Storage: back in 0.90, I had plans for those cells on Duna operations, along with electrical rotors and propellers and wings and Kerbal Foundries wheels and tracks and Karbonite drills and converters and Extraplanetary Launchpads and and IR arms and KAS magnets and winches that would have made the Ahnold Total Recall look like Little House on the--okay, maybe I exaggerate, but you get the idea. (More specifically,

, as well as katateochi's own Contellation analogue. Which should explain my need back then, and even now, for US as my heavy modular power solution.)

Plans which I plan to resurrect in SunShooter--presuming I get far enough to get to Duna.

As for the use of kOS as a power auto-management system, two good examples are the [thread=123355]Minmunar[/thread] and [thread=125326]Munar[/thread] circumnavigations of damerell, who is actively using kOS to help him drive a rover completely IVA.

And how stellar cartographers rued the day when Leevy was allowed to plant a flag.

Rued, I say. RUED!

MISSION STATUS: Third leg of circumnavigation complete. Potential base site surveyed and transmitted to Mission Control

NEXT WAYPOINT: --MISSION UPDATE-- New waypoint assigned

[B-STRK]

SunShooter Standalone Complex: Elcano-One

An Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge Entry by B-STRK

Leg 4: Investigations

(Survey Site 2 to Survey Site 3a (reassigned from Survey Site 3))

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"Elcano-One, you're clear for your next leg. New waypoint: instead of going further north, you will now head south to an alternate survey site for this leg. This way, we can at least keep any positives closer to the equator as much as possible, and keep your track within the circumnavigation restrictions. Also, ref your heating issues, MOD has a request."

"Well, other than having to get around the Mun via the scenic route, no, we got nothing else to do," Samene replied, wondering what other crazy request Mission Control would drop on her lap this time. "Shoot, Crystal."

"We're going to try and stress-test the fuel cell, and see how she reacts thermally. So for the next leg of your journey, please try and leave the fuel cell on as long as possible." It didn't hurt to say please, CAPCOM thought, especially since he just asked them to do the thing that scared them.

(Well, maybe two of them, anyway. As for Leevy, well a convo with the resident psychologist was in order.)

"As long as possible... Please define 'long'."

"As far as one thousand degrees."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me, CAPCOM."

"We kid you not. And we apologize for an error we communicated to you before. The wedges are rated for 1200 degrees, not 1400."

An eye roll. "And even more good news, Crystal Palace."

"You are free to exercise your discretion for safety, but we need this. We need to know how far we can take the cell, and thus take ESME as she is now. It's data we can send Nox Industries, it's data we can use to calibrate future implementations of Universal Storage equipment--you know how this works, Samene. We push the envelope--"

"And if the envelope pushes back, we damn well push it back even harder, or we might as well quit the game," Samene quoted an old instructor of theirs. "Leevy, you heard the kerbal. Let's bring up diagnostics and set a baseline."

"Breaking into rover systems debug menu and... done. Activating thermal overlays, capturing data. 426.2 degrees on the cell, baseline radiation, we're looking good so far."

"Alright, turn her on, give me the heat rate."

"Fuel cell active, power flowing to batts. Stopwatch... one degree per six seconds."

"Okay, I'm not going to do the math and estimate our travel time on that rate. 'liana, let's shove off, maybe we can make the next waypoint without setting something on fire. Leev, keep track of that heat data."

---

Samene: "Whoa! 'liana, remember, this is a GROUND circumnavigation, not an orbital one!"

Marliana: "We'll ground soon enough, this is what happens when you floor it."

Leevy: "Oh yeah, this trip is doing wonders for your confidence, M!"

---

Inset: more airborne activity from Marliana, who might have been assigned the wrong specialization

"This terrain's been bumpier lately," Marliana reflected, driving down a land bridge between two craters. "Almost like navigating a maze if we have to keep avoiding craters."

"Well, the one on the left doesn't seem too bad, compared to the one on the right," observed Samene. "Then again, with the number of jumps you've made, you could probably run us up a near-vertical wall with enough oomph."

"Maybe..." It was a good thing they were on relatively smooth ground, Marliana's mind entertained an intriguing thought there and then--one which would have distressed her, long ago, but as the kilometers whizzed by behind her...

---

PROTIP: when checking temperature data, remember to make sure you're on level ground.

Especially when travelling at 30+ m/s.

Samene: "Temps check!"

Leevy: "Coming up, Cap'n! 575 degrees on reading. Stopwatch, ten seconds for one degree."

Marliana: "Wait, the heating rate is getting slower?"

Leevy: "Don't look at me. Unless my stopwatch is lying to me or something. I've even double-checked it with the old 'one-one thousand' trick."

Samene: "Well, that's something... Crystal Palace, you read?"

CAPCOM: "We have your telemetry. Not as you feared, isn't it?"

Samene: "Not at all, CAPCOM. Please pass my apologies to Carlisle for making him worry."

CAPCOM: "Oh, I think you don't need to." (thumbs up to Carlisle, freshly returned from conference, who gave a thumbs up in return)

---

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Four in red... prepare to be put to bed. Painfully.

"Setting her for cruise control." Marliana leaned back in her seat and let time and distance warp on by. "It's a good thing ESME tends to be a bit stable in cruise control. Six on the floor and all."

"Don't jinx it, Marly," Samene warned--

FWOOMP!

"Oh great, you jinxed it!" the pilot cried as she grabbed the flight stick to right the ESME, and Marliana killed the cruise control. "Back on the ground!"

"Sorry! Must have been another rut." A skeptical eye from a skeptical mind. "Wait, are you being superstitious or just being paranoid?"

"Marly, Marly, Marly," chided Leevy. "You must know that in the great pantheon that those of us who believe and revere, revere, which includes the Great Makers, the Rators of Mode, That Which Guides Our Actions (One Craft At A Time), and the Kraken Itself, there is one above even all of them, even the Kraken Itself, the one we must love and fear."

"And who would that be, Leev?"

A cheerful reply: "MURPHY!"

"You don't seem to be too perturbed by the idea," Samene observed with a worried air.

"You should know by now. We BadS's just learn to live with the chaos."

Marliana and Samene turned to each other. "No more cruise control until she settles down?" the former asked.

"You're damn right," the latter confirmed.

What? She has a frickin' whole SPACE STATION named after her!

Source: Interstellar Wikia

(You have to admit: Murphy's Law is the perfect commandment for Kerbal Space Program.)

---

"Just to update you guys, we are forty-nine minutes plus since we started the fuel cell, and we're now in the 600's, and still climbing," Leevy advised. "But heating rates are still slowing down. Way down."

"Okay, so just to update you guys, too," said Marliana, "I've grown tired of dodging craters."

"I was worried you'd say that," said Samene.

"Murphy!" Leevy cheerfully added.

"You up to this?" the scientist asked the pilot, challenge in her voice.

"Oh, so the scientist is asking me if I'm afraid of piloting a craft into a crater? Well, admittedly the answer should be 'yes'," Samene bashfully conceded, "but we've gone this far, so why not? Cinch those belts up, girls. The rover's all yours, Marly."

Meanwhile, back in Mission Control...

CAPCOM: "Wait, did they just say 'pilot a craft into a crater'?"

ROVER: "Whatever they did say, CAPCOM, their track is unchanging. Straight into that crater set."

Gene (FLIGHT): "Oh gods, what a time to be a bold kerbonaut--Carlisle, can ESME take those craters?"

Carlisle: "She is built for the stress, no doubt, and so as long as they land wheels down, Kerbal Foundries construction is strong... but as for the crew..."

CAPCOM: "Marliana? Samene? We are reading you headed into a crater. Repeat, we are--"

---

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A pictorial representation of the journey of a kerbal from scientist to stunt car driver

Really, she is in the wrong profession.

(Not in picture: Mission Control having kittens.)

---

"Here we go, another jump!" Samene held the stick steady as Marliana let ESME fly over yet another crater lip. The battery of SAS reactions wheels would handle the rest. "Just a few more ramps and we'll be out of this crater. Coming down, pitching prograde--"

"Well that doesn't look good," Marliana quickly said, seeing their landing spot immediately below them at an awkward angle."

The way the landing slope was arranged, leading up and left, the front right wheel was the first to take the shock of landing. Physical dynamics as the rest of the craft came down meant that the rover skidded, and flew off the ramp, airborne once more, headed towards another awkward landing.

How awkward? There was no straight landing.

"I got this!" declared Samene, kicking rudder left and pitching up. Yep, they were angling for a flat landing on an angled slope. The same way a bee, for example, would land gingerly on a windswept petal, only this bee did not have the wings for recovery, and there was nothing gingerly about this landing.

"Are we going in properly--"

"Doing this by eye, 'liana! Coming down, leveling to ground--"

Six on the floor, full stop. Good eye, Sam!

"That was close," breathed she.

"That was good," praised Marly.

"That was fun!" declared Leevy.

"Leevy!" chided an exasperated Sam.

Meanwhile, back in Mission Control...

Carlisle: "I can hardly believe it."

Gene: "Yeah. So what we're going to do is first publicly give them medals for their display of skill and talent in the operation of a heavy rover, then publicly take them away for being dumb enough to put themselves in that position in the first place."

Carlisle: "I wish you luck with that. I am beginning to share their exuberance for their adventure."

Christina: "And that's about as much emotion as you'll get from Carlisle, Gene. Trust me on that."

---

EDITOR'S NOTE: I should have paid more attention to the map.

"ANOTHER CRATER?" Would there be no end to this roller coaster ride?

"Doesn't matter, Sam." Marly ground her teeth in determination. "The waypoint is on the other side. We're powering through."

---

Samene: "And we're here, thank the gods! What's the ore reading, Miss Scientist?"

Marliana: "7.6%. Comparable to Site 2. Not too shabby."

Leevy: "Way better ground, though, just looking around. Hey, I'm the engineer here, it's how I look at things."

Marliana: "I seem to recall getting an 8 somewhere along the route..."

Leevy: "Yeah, I saw the instrument repeater. That was way too bumpy to be a base site."

Samene: "So... good ground?"

Leevy: "Good ground."

Marliana: "Good ground."

Samene: "Heat?"

Leevy: "Overlay on. Fuel cell is at 660 degrees. Stopwatch..."

Samene: "Well?"

Leevy: "Not yet finished... one minute three seconds to 661."

Marliana: "WOW."

Leevy: "I know. The US QuadCore itself is at 548. The entire power pack is showing good heat rejection, except for the heat still feeding in. And here's the good part. Everything else in that compartment is sitting below 400 degrees. Even the compartment itself."

Samene: "So we won't have to worry about the entire rover melting, just the power pack itself."

Marliana: "And we're still some ways off from the 1200 limit."

Samene: "I'm actually feeling a lot better about this trip already."

Leevy: "So we keep going?"

Samene: "We keep going. Leave the power pack on, Leev. And keep the wheels warm, Marly. Before we set off, we've got a job to do."

This run was made after getting the call from Nox/getting the message from Daishi referred to back in Leg 3. From this point on, this circumnavigation became as much of a test of the US fuel cell as it was of the ESME. Well, it actually already was, but now seeing how much the fuel cell could take, and her behavior at different parts of the journey, is part of the experiment package, and part of what this circumnavigation is all about.

MISSION STATUS: Fourth leg of circumnavigation complete. Second possible base site surveyed. US fuel cell heating dynamics observed. Temp. ~660 degrees. Situation in acceptable parameters

NEXT WAYPOINT: Survey Site 4

[B-STRK]

SunShooter Standalone Complex: Elcano-One

An Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge Entry by B-STRK

LEG FIVE: Race the Sun (Not the Movie) (Or the Game)

(Survey Site 3a to Survey Site 3... a... how did this screwup happen?)

Leevy Kerman! What did your parents teach you? Flush your debris!

Alright, before they had to embark on the longest leg of their journey so far, some housekeeping duties were in order.

Samene had a flag to plant--partly for Elcano, partly to tell KSP "Hey! Land here, here there be ore! In concentrations whose economic viability we do not know, but... ugh, my head." Piloting is soooo much simpler.

As for Leevy, there were some support strut studs hanging off ESME that she wanted off. The less she had to worry about, the better. She did accidentally bump the cargo bay closed--it had been open the entire leg to help with heat management--and one stud mysteriously fell apart upon contact with the ground--but otherwise, it was an uneventful stopover.

Oy vey, your narrator jinxed it, didn't he?

---

"Sam, you're not going to believe this," moaned Leevy after she reboarded the ESME. "Heat rates went back up!"

"What? Check your instruments again!"

"I just did. We're back to a degree in ten seconds."

"I noticed the bay doors were closed. You think that had something to do with it?"

"I don't know. We were out for how long? Five minutes, ten max?"

"So the only difference between then and now is that we stopped, right? Crystal Palace, do you read?"

"We read you, Elcano-One," replied CAPCOM. "And we have your telemetry. We don't know how to explain it, either. It's your call."

It's not that pilots are not given to thoughtfulness--they are. Being who they are, though, their thoughtfulness has to run faster than the average kerbal. It only took three seconds. "I say we go on. This is going to sound weird, but maybe we'll cool off the faster we go. Just like a radiator in a car. What do you think, girls?"

"The only weird part about that analogy is that it's not like in a car, we're in a vacuum," Marliana pointed out. "There's no convection to help us out here."

"Well, it seems we slow down heating the faster we go, right? I'll take what we've got so far."

"I hear you. Booking it."

---

Inset: One would think that this terrain looks easy.

Well, one is mistaken.

Marliana: "Alright, we got another visual swing download from the Katie Bell. Not as many craters to worry about between us and the terminator line, at least. Some to worry about closer to our destination, but nothing worse than what we've faced."

Samene: "If they all were only this easy. Press on!"

Later...

Marliana: "Okay, maybe I spoke too soon. We're seeing some of the slowest average speeds around here, barely breaking out of the low 20's."

Samene: "It's just like in the craters--"

Marliana: "I can make up the upslope speeds with the downslope. Here, it's one hump after the other. This isn't helping your 'we must go faster' theory--or our travel rate. We've only lopped off about 23 kilometers in 20 minutes."

Samene: "Let me bring up the slope data..."

Samene: "Well, no wonder, Marly. You've driven us into red tide."

Leevy: "Uh, isn't that... insensitive?"

Samene: "I wasn't making any reference to that impolite euphemism for periods. Red tide, as in bad algae blooms."

Marliana: "Wow, she actually knows some science beyond aerodynamics."

Samene: "Oh, it's common enough to someone who lives close to the sea. Check the BTDT trace. Even if the SAR hadn't captured the entire area yet, we're in an area of radical slope changes marked off in--"

Marliana: "I see. Red, like a bad algae bloom. And just like a bad algae bloom--not to mention the 'other red tide'--this is getting irritating. We must go faster!"

Leevy: "Wow, Marliana has turned into QUITE the speed demon."

---

Once upon a time there was light in my life

But now there's only love in the dark

Nothing I can say

A total eclipse of the... er, sun.

"Wow, would you look at that?" exclaimed Leevy.

"And this is where the solar-independent power concept proves itself," Carlisle pointed out back in Mission Control, without any trace of smugness, as they saw the picture Leevy caught from her window, of Kerbin eclipsing the sun. A certain haunted mood descended on everyone, with the reflection that they, down in Kerbin, now shrouded the ESME and her crew in that unnatural dark, and were it not for the US fuel cell (heating behavior notwithstanding), they would have run ESME to the ground from lack of power.

---

Marliana: "Terrain's flattening out some, I think we're coming out of red tide."

Leevy: "Those must be the most refreshing words a girl can say any day."

Marliana and Samene: "Leevy!"

Leevy: "What? You were the one to bring it up, Sam."

Samene: "I DIDN'T MEAN THAT! I TOLD YOU THAT, DIDN'T I?"

Leevy: "Er... Oh, would you look at this, too? Heating rates are way down again. A while ago, it was five seconds for a tenth of a degree--fifty seconds for a degree. Now, it's eight seconds to the tenth--a degree per eighty seconds."

---

Marliana: "Oh, we are out of red tide now! (Leevy, NOT A WORD!). We're tagging forty, wow, up to FIFTY me's!"

ROVER: "We read your max speed as fifty meters per second... yes, that's actually take-off speed, Marliana. You sure you're still alright?"

Marliana: "Sure I'm sure!"

Samene: "Here comes a bump!"

Marliana: "Not a problem!"

Samene: "And those craters up ahead?"

Marliana: "After all we've gone through, and the speed we have? Not gonna be a problem, either!"

---

Wasn't it just sunrise a couple hours ago?

Inset: And oh, look! A nighttime obstacle course!

Leevy: "Holy... Are we outpacing the sunrise, girls?"

Marliana: "Really? Wow, I guess I can say I'm faster than light now!"

Samene: "Not to burst your bubble, Marly, but that is a bit of a hill behind us. Also, with the interaction among the Mun's rotation, her orbit around Kerbin, and the time of year, there will be some times that Kerbolrise and Kerbolset will be slower."

Marliana: "Way to dampen my mood, Sam."

CAPCOM: "Yeah, way to dampen her mood, Sam."

Samene: "Oh, thanks for butting in, CAPCOM."

CAPCOM: "Anytime, Elcano-One, it goes with the job. Anyway, even as your observations are impressively accurate, Samene, we actually read your position at the Munar terminator. The boundary between light and dark. You really are racing the sunrise now."

Marliana: "CAPCOM, did I ever thank you for knowing how to make a girl feel better?"

CAPCOM: "You're always welcome, but now on to more serious matters. We had chosen to make your drop in Snow White at sunrise to maximize daylight dravel time. As it stands, however, our projections were woefully inadequate. You are running straight into the dark at your rate. Also, you are running straight into an extensive crater formation. I would strenuously suggest navigating the high ground rather than going through the holes, Marliana. A crater in the dark can be a tricky proposition."

---

"'A crater in the dark can be a tricky proposition.' Yeah, so can high ground at 40 meters per second," Samene muttered about twelve minutes later as they tried to negotiate the land bridge in the light of twilight.

"We need to make up for lost time, Sam," Marliana muttered back. "At this speed, we're thirty minutes to waypoint, as the krow flies. And since there may be more detours or bumps..."

Both concentrated hard as they drove in twilight; even Leevy had stopped her usual cheerful banter, defering to the moment. Instead, she operated the Bahamuto ICU-360 spotlight, to light up their path further than their headlights could.

All the caution in the world may not be able to prevent all misfortune, but they can help in dealing with them.

BAM!

Taken after the second roll, trying to line up with the ground

Marliana: "Wheel bump! ESME flipping left!"

Samene: "SAS dampening--damn, this is violent! Carrying the roll instead! One roll! Two roll--arrested! Coming down--lining up!"

Marliana: "Throttling up! Keep her nose up, Sam!"

THUD!

Samene: "And we're down."

Marliana: "Easing up on throttle, twenty, seventeen... Okay, everything is still intact. I am starting to get used to this."

Samene: "Crystal Palace, be advised: We hit another bump at speed there, but we are down and fine. Something has to be said for hitting bumps at low gravity and high speed. It gives you more time to react--usually."

CAPCOM: "It's still a protocol we will not recommend for the books, Sam. But great hands, girl. Great stick work. Good to have you on board."

---

Okay, now this is weird. The vessel classification kept rapidly switching between Base and Rover.

Does this also explain why I could quit to the Space Center even while in motion, so as long as I was on the ground?

GNC: "FLIGHT, I think that last bump is the least of their problems. They hold their course, they will hit the Canyons."

Gene: "Really, now, the Canyons? Well, no one wants to hit the Canyons, do they?"

Carlisle: (muttering to Christina) "Forgive my confusion, but there must be an inside joke somewhere here, is there?"

Christina: (muttering back) "Trust me, C, no matter how curious you get, just don't hit the Canyons." (to Gene) "There can be opportunities for additional surface scans, though, Gene. And in any case, unless they want to make a detour--"

Gene: "Their call, though. Apart from that, I concur. Send it up, CAPCOM. Tell them to hit the Canyons. Marliana's about to get all the rough ground that she asked for."

---

Yes, it says "Canyons" there. I just forgot to hit the surface analysis device.

Marliana: "Crystal Palace, we're just about out of the Canyons, just a bit of a climb and we can call it done."

CAPCOM: "Except for one thing, Elcano-One. You missed a spot."

Marliana: "Huh?"

CAPCCOM: "Your surface analysis data."

Marliana: "Dude, we have data for the Farside Crater and Highland Craters. That's two new biomes we didn't expect to hit."

CAPCOM: "Yeah, considering you angled your path towards the mouth of the Canyons with the Crater, it was expected. But you notice what's missing in your list?"

Samene: "CAP, no time for riddles here--"

CAPCOM: "THE CANYONS! THE FREAKING CANYONS! You actually hit the Canyons, and somehow you manage to get surface data for every possible biome there BUT THE CANYONS!"

Marliana: "Oops?"

Samene: "So you want us to turn around?"

CAPCOM: "Ugh... just press on. Geez, of all the data-mining opportunities to miss..."

---

"You really can't avoid a short cut, can you, Marly?"

"We survived the Canyons, Sam, and the Gardens of Craters, and a handful of flipouts already." She turned to Sam and grineed. "What's another crater?"

GEORGE GEORGE GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE WATCH OUT FOR THAT--

"Upslope!" cried Samene.

To: Fengist Fr: B-STRK Re: Elcano Challenge Rules

I swear, this really really REALLY is a ground circumnavigation!

It's just that the highlight reels enjoy a lot of air.

The crater lip not only sent the ESME airborne, it also managed to flick it left, causing it to barrel roll on the way down. An easy enough maneuver for any experienced pilot to deal with (and no, it is not Z or R twice, or LB + RB), so not the drama.

"Phew," sighed Marliana after they hit the ground on all six wheels, "that ramp was more wicked than back at my ex-boyfriend's skate park."

Samene could only goggle at the self-proclaimed geology nerd. "You. Actually. Dated. A. Skater. Boy."

"What? I'm not always a prudish, bookish wallflower. I actually have a life outside of academia."

Still unbelieving. "A. Skater. Boy."

"Probably explains why she's taking to this road trip easier than expected," Leevy offered.

---

The Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge

Subtitle: Zero Dark Three-Alpha

Samene: "Crystal Palace, Eclano-One, we are at Three-Alpha. None the worse for wear, too. Oh, and would you look at that? Check the map, Marliana."

CAPCOM: "We see it too, Sam. You guys are a third of the way around the Mun. Good progress, girls! How's the site?"

Leevy: "Dark."

CAPCOM: "Apart from that smart-a** comment, Leevy?"

Leevy: "Well, I can't evaluate the terrain in these conditions. I could use a little extra light. A lot more than the spotlight, that's for sure."

Marliana: "Wow, I really did race the sunrise. And WIN!"

Samene: "How's the fuel cell holding up?"

Leevy: "We're at 712 right now. Last time I checked at 702 degrees, the heat rate was at 15 seconds for one degree."

Samene: "Okay, that one's going fast. Crystal Palace, request permission to shut down the fuel cell temporarily, I'd like to see some cooling properties."

CAPCOM: "We see no harm in that, Elcano-One. You are go for fuel cell shutdown."

Leevy: "On it! Switching off and... Lovely! We're cooling at a rate of one degree every four seconds."

Samene: "Now that one's fast."

Leevy: "Crystal Palace, I'd like to recommend we stay over until it gets light out, so we can properly evaluate the surrounding terrain. I don't want to make a call in the dark... literally. We can also observe the fuel cell at rest, I'd like to confirm some hypotheses I have since the last stopover."

Samene: "I concur."

Marliana: "Well, as much as I am enjoying this... yeah. Stopover's cool."

CAPCOM: "So be it. Do note that we are coming up on a priority alarm, at which point, you will suspend operations until we can get back to you."

Samene: "Roger that, Crystal. We are circling the wagons and keeping the steer hot."

MISSION STATUS: Fifth leg of circumnavigation complete. Site to be evaluated. Fuel cell nominal but approaching ceiling temperature.

NEXT WAYPOINT: Survey Site 4

Edited June 23, 2015 by B-STRK

[B-STRK]

SunShooter Standalone Complex: Elcano-One

An Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge Entry by B-STRK

LEG SIX: When you just want to go over the high points

(Survey Site 3a-the second to Survey Site 4)

---

WELCOME TO THE KERBAL SPACE PROGRAM SOCIAL MEDIA CENTER

Home > Media > Kerbonaut Blogs> Leevy's Leavings

~~~

Leevy's Leavings

Stuff from the mouth of Leevy Kerman

(That I am told does not know when to shut up!)

Hi! This is gonna be a quick blog, very little to talk about today. Unless you want to hear about all the stuff the girls and I talked about in our little road trip, like us playing Dock, Hitch, or Disassemble with the rest of the kerbonaut corps--but I guess you don't want to read about that, right?

Moving on.

Things are starting to get boring, actually. We waited three hours so we can have a good look at the survey site, things seem okay, so we're marking this as a possible. We now have two hours before we have to call a break, so Crystal Palace can work on something big. Sam's telling us to punch it, we have two hours to the alarm, and she wants to make it to Waypoint 6 by then.

This is one of the longest legs of our journey, about 150+ kilometers, and I thought the fuel cell redlining would make things exciting, but she's taking her sweet time getting there. At least Samene ain't stressing about it anymore, she just be cruising along, just like the ESME.

And Marliana, wow, one day behind the wheel and she's suddenly NASKAR material. I mean, she managed to drive us into two big craters, no big deal for her, right? Two craters. TWO. That's two ones.

"Samene, I swear, that crater popped out of nowhere!"

"Yes, and so did your skater ex-boyfriend, Marliana. Completely out from left field."

And that's... awesome?

Well, not for Samene. Now she's complaining about using up all our prop just trying to brake our drops. Crater one, there was this steep dropoff, Samene was afraid of going out of control, so poof! go the Puffs, and bingo, we're now 50% fuel, down from about 60%. She really needs to learn to relax about the gas. Remember the saying? If the gauge says "empty", it just means you've got a couple of kilometers left.

That first crater was BIG. I mean, the crater had craters. Crater-ception? Marliana talked about stuff that we all knew already: no air on Mun, 100% of all meteorites hit, yadda yadda.

Oh, but what really made Marliana light up? We're supposed to be doing our surveys at the designated waypoints, right? Apparently not, because suddenly Marly started jumping in her seat, going "We're getting 8's! We're getting 9's!" and insisting on stopping halfway to the next waypoint. TWICE. That's two ones. Again.

"Marliana, I don't think you get the idea of circumnavigation. Circumnavigation usually involves circumnavigating something.

Not moving at all isn't circumnavigating."

And that's... terrible.

I don't know about these locations. Marly's going "They're the best concentrations so far on this trip, why shouldn't the base be here?" and I'm going "I'm not liking the slope readings at all, haven't you checked the SCANsat?" and Samene's all "Look, I don't care if you're right, Marliana, or you're right, Leevy, but so as long as I don't plant my face on the ground on touchdown, it's good enough for a base."

I'm the one who's right. Base setup is an engineering problem. I'm always right. Right? But who listens to us engineers, anyway, when it's all "In the name of science" and "Economic viability of ore extraction" and "Ooh, shiny!" It's a shame, though. All this lovely ore, and they have to be locked in some of the worst spots to build a munbase. Don't blame me, Sam, if you manage to tip over that new drill rig Carlisle is cooking up!

Speaking of tip-overs: The most exciting part of the trip, though? WE MANAGED TO ROLL OVER!

You ever seen turtles flipped onto their shells? How helpless they were as they tried to flip back upright?

I know how we can help them: give them Advanced SAS!

We were just cruising along, in Four-Red status, then suddenly, BAM! We're in the air, and rolling as fast as the centrifuges back in ground school. Sam's all "She's spinning too fast!" and Marly's like "You're feeding the spin!" and Crystal Palace is all "[CENSORED]", "[CENSORED]", and even more "[CENSORED SO HARD THE FCC IS FEELING THIS RIGHT NOW]." So Samene managed to get it all under control, but there wasn't enough time to straighten out our landing, so she just let us land on our right side wheels, but we were nearly upside-down. Marly's all "You can't recover!" and Sam's "I'm not trying to recover!"

What she was doing was using the reaction wheels to gently set us on our back, so we don't break anything important. It's a good thing that Kerbal Foundries wheels are tough, and that all the important bits and bobs are all within the profile of the ESME hull, so we could gently roll onto our backs like what Sam did. I wasn't expecting it, really. Anyway, once we were on our back, all Sam had to do was power up the wheels and flip us back on our feet. Presto!

The Kerbal Space Program apologizes for the dark photographs sometimes taken.

The Mun's orbital and rotation mechanics are not cooperating with the ESME's speed.

Well, we're here now in Waypoint 6, actually. And would you look at that, it's dark again! Crystal Palace is thinking about asking us to stay over for longer, maybe until the sun is high above our heads, so we'd get longer travel times. Sam and Marly are thinking about trying to drive in the dark--I can't blame them, we're halfway around the Mun now! I don't know about that, though: we do need to evaluate these sites for possible base locations, and you can't do that if you can't see the terrain, so I'm with Crystal Palace on this. A SCANsat reading can only tell you so much, and without really fine resolution at that.

And amazingly, we made it to Waypoint 6 within the two hours to the alarm, with minutes to spare! Imagine that? Nearly 160 kilometers, maybe even longer since we weren't exactly driving in a straight line, with TWO extra stopovers, and one rollover event, and all that in two hours. That's highway speeds!

Anyway, have to sign off now. Crystal Palace says they need the bandwidth for the big launch they're going to do today. Once they're done, then everyone's going to decide if we head on out in the dark, or stick it out until there's more light out. Until then, I do have a fuel cell to babysit (though it isn't giving us much trouble, really; her heat just keeps going up and down, but at the end of this leg we're sitting at 732 degrees, the same as when we set out. Heat's just weird, I guess), and some suspensions to check.

TTFN, kerwitches!

Leev

~~~

NOTE: The content of this publication does not reflect the official opinion of the Kerbal Space Program.

Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author(s).

---

MISSION STATUS: Leg 6 of circumnavigation complete. Site evaluation postponed due to lack of light. One rollover event, no damage.

NEXT WAYPOINT: Elcano-one placed on standby for priority SunShooter launch

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yeah. Leevy is no Gossip Girl. But finally! Time to go and attend to making the survey efforts of Samene, Marliana, and Leevy pay off, back on Kerbin...

Edited July 1, 2015 by B-STRK

[Geschosskopf]

This is an exciting read. I really need to get those KF wheels for myself .

Also, although I use US, I've never messed with its fuel cells. Thanks for all the info on them.

[B-STRK]

This is an exciting read. I really need to get those KF wheels for myself .

Also, although I use US, I've never messed with its fuel cells. Thanks for all the info on them.

Thanks Gesch! Couple of exciting things ahead--one in the main SunShooter page, and when that's done, one here in relation to that fuel cell.

[B-STRK]

SunShooter Standalone Complex: Elcano-One

An Elcano Circumnavigation Challenge Entry by B-STRK

Leg 7: The Shape of Things to Come (Part 2)

Continued from SunShooter: Race to the Mun and Beyond, Interlude #2

(Survey Site 4 to Potential Anomaly 2--and stand-by)

FIDO: "Alright, all three vehicles are now headed for the Mun. Staggered arrival, CARE to drop, followed by Spike to park an hour behind, and the CmLS a day out, also to park."

Gene: "Good job again, kerbals. Triple-launch event, and the debut of the Shimmer."

BOOSTER: "So as long as it's not her last launch. Did you see the windows shake?"

Gene: "CAPCOM, get on the horn to the girls. Tell them to head for their next waypoint and await the package drop."

BOOSTER: "Though you still won't tell us what's in the Package."

Gene: "All in good time.:wink:"

EDITOR'S NOTE: Too bad the other Arch wasn't right next to this one.

Then I could accuse the Mun of trying to subliminally force-feed me McNuggets.

I do love McNuggets, though.

"Don't get me wrong," Samene called to Crystal Palace as the sun rose over the ESME-01 and the Mun arch they discovered at the end of the 7th leg of their journey. "The downtime's great, the fuel cell could use a rest and so could we, considering the terrain we just ran through, and the landmark outside ain't too bad a sight, either. We could have gone on to Leg 8 and just waited for the CARE Package there, though. Save us some time, too."

What CAPCOM back home at Kerbin could not see, though, even through the crew cams, was the common impatience infecting the three. Elcano-One was way more than half-way around the Mun, by some estimates, 2/3 of the way. Their next waypoint, and the last marked survey site, was only about a tad over a hundred kilometers away. CARE Package was under an hour before her scheduled orbital insertion burn. Then FIDO discovered that the burn node was directly over Elcano-One's position.

"This way," replied CAPCOM, "we get the package faster to you. I think you will be pleased with what's inside. Plus, waiting an hour gives you more light to work with." The orbital insertion was turned into a suborbital drop over the girls' heads.

"This package better be worth it." Samene traded a wry eye with Marliana.

---

One hour later...

Compact Autonomous Reliable Expeditious Package. Look, not all the acronyms have to make sense.

"CARE Package is down!" Samene announced over the radio as the drone resupply pod touched down.

"Yeah, I give it a 2.6 on the landing," Leevy laughed, "you were hopping her all over the place, Crystal Palace."

"If you hadn't noticed, Leevy," replied a testy CAPCOM, "we were trying to get the pod closer to you."

"We are in a muncar," Marliana pointed out amiably. "We could have just driven over."

"Ugh! Fine, drive over then. Let's get this present unwrapped so you can get on with your journey."

---

Samene and Leevy were the ones to get off the ESME, while Marliana remained to mind things (like the brakes). The two girls approached the CARE Package, as it tipped over towards them.

"Let's get it open, Leev," Samene ordered. Leevy opened the doors of the Pol cargo container, and...

"NO WAY! Crystal Palace, Leevy, is this for real?"

"As real as it gets!" CAPCOM replied. "The boss got in contact with US marketing, who passed it on to Nox Industrial, and Daishi himself dug out that prototype radiator from their labs, tweaked it a bit, and sent it over to us."

"NO WAY!" joined Samene.

"Way! They were concerned about the fuel cell running hot--Nox and New Horizons designed Universal Storage processor systems with long-term continuous usage in mind. Now that they're building up to Universal Storage 2, they'd like to be able to nail down heat dynamics--like you said, Samene, heat can act weird sometimes."

"NO WAY!" exclaimed Marlene--okay, now NO WAY is getting infectious as well.

"Now, remember that what we've got is a prototype. We're still not sure what the effects will be out in the field. Right now, we're putting the radiator through simulations and vacuum chamber tests. Seems to hold up okay most of the time, it keeps the fuel cell to a comfortable temperature for extended periods. Other times, though, the fuel cell manages to reach 700 degrees, especially in simulation if we warp, though the radiator does somehow slow down the heating rate. Daishi himself says that at the very least, it'll keep the fuel cell temps down, especially away from the critical 1200."

"And since we're in the field, we get to be the ones to test it, right?" Samene inquired, though she already knew the answer. "Alright, we'll put it through its paces. What now?"

"Daishi says to replace the water wedge with the radiator. We've included a couple of radial water tanks to take its place. Don't forget to drain whatever water's in the fuel cell's storage into the tank, should give you a couple liters extra room. We don't expect your run to fill up even one of the 10 liter water radials for the remainder of your journey, so it should suffice."

---

Leevy: "Dang, this wedge is heavy! Marly, I can't jump or MMU up to the ladder!"

Marliana: "Got it! Dropping suspension on the wheels--can you--"

Yup, ESME can ride low!

CAVEAT: Actually, she cannot. Set suspension to 10, and it's as if metal bearings are grinding in them wheels.

PROTIP: Don't drop the tweakable suspension any lower than necessary when operational.

Leevy: "Yep! I can reach it now. Climbing up... oh great. The spotlight's in the way. I'm moving it over forward temporarily... and done!"

---

Carlisle Kerman, Project KRISTEN: The next ESME is going to need more space in the cargo bay.

James Kerman, Project EVANNA: You mean to say, less junk--

Carlisle Kerman: She is quite perfect just the way she is, James. As is the rover.

Leevy: "You know, the radiator block kinda reminds me of the cylinder blocks of a muscle car engine, don'cha think? Makes the ESME seem more... macho."

Samene: "Funny description, when you think 'Esme' sounds like a delicate name."

Marliana: "Delicate, hell! After all we've gone through? The flip-outs, the hard landings, a hot cell and running in the dark? I say ESME's the baddest ride this side of Kerbol, and we girls be the baddest girls in the kerbonaut corps!"

Leevy: "Well, look at you again, Marly! Over three days ago you wouldn't be caught dead driving a 4x4. Now you're willingly throwing yourself into craters like there's no tomo--"

Samene: "Don't jinx it, Leevy. I don't know if I'll ever get used to being thrown into craters... Just get down here so we can pipe the remaining monoprop in the CARE to the ESME."

---

EDITOR'S NOTE: Not a day goes by that I don't praise KospY for KIS/KAS, either.

Marliana: "Hard KAS lock with CARE established. Pumps activated. Over 200 units of monoprop for us, that should make you happy, Sam."

Samene: "Well, it's not a full tank, but I'm counting my blessings. ESME... hmm... wonder where Carlisle got the name for his dream rover?"

Leevy: "Well, we can ask him when we get back."

Marliana: "Okay, last drop's in the tanks! I'm locking the cockpit monoprop tanks as a reserve. Unplug us, Leev, it's time to get this show on the road!"

Leevy: "Aight! Get her started, Marly. I'm setting the det charges on the CARE Package. Can't littler the Mun with derelict craft, after all!"

---

MISSION STATUS: Seventh leg of circumnavigation completed. Mun arch discovered in crater.

ROVER STATUS: ESME upgraded with prototype Universal Storage Radiator wedge.

NEXT WAYPOINT: Survey Site 5

A short update, as while the terrain getting to this Mun Arch was some of the worst encountered in this trip yet, and there was one near flipover that again gave me pause, it was more of the same-old, same-old. The real new development was getting a care package direct from Nox Industrial!

NO, REALLY!

So Daishi and Paul, if you're reading this, very gracias for all your work with US. And Daishi, much danke for letting me play with the prototype radiator! Wow!

Still running tests with the radiator, BTW, alongside running Leg 8 (and the rest) of the circumnavigation, and with varying results, though having a radiator per processor does have some impact on slowing down heat gains. I think that result has to be considered based on the US design philosophy, where in this case the heat conduction is processor-->core-->radiator. I'll be making observations through the rest of the circumnavigation (only a couple more legs left, worth 1/4th of the way around the Mun!) and appraise you guys of anything interesting, or any gathered hard figures.

Edited July 2, 2015 by B-STRK

[Daishi]

They couldn't jump with it? It shouldn't have been that heavy! o.O

NO WAY!

[Geschosskopf]

Fascinating . I look forward to US 2.

Your use of the US fuel cell inspired me to set up a closed circuit system. I built a rover with 4x ruggedized wheels, no battery, no solar cells, and no RTGs. Instead, it had a hex core with a fuel cell, an electrolysis thing, 2 LH tanks, 1 LOX tank, and 1 water tank, all full. I started both devices and away went the rover. Indefinitely. No consumption of resources, constant net output of 2 EC/s (IIRC, 14 output by the fuel cell and 12 input for the electrolysizer), and no overheating. The 4x wheels required 2.8 EC/s max and SAS was using a wee bit as well, so top speed was only 21m/s, but still.

Of course, this was all mounted radially on a pole above the rover where air could circulate freely around it so maybe convection kept it cool, but I was surprised you could make a "perpetual motion machine" this way. Energy was obviously leaving the system in terms of work done by the wheels moving the rover, but still the system kept running without using resources. If this same system needs a radiator for cooling in space but otherwise keeps on without consuming resources, it's even more of a perpetual motion machine due to even more energy leaving the system via radiated heat.

Now, the whole fuel cell system weighed about 2 tons, which is a lot for just 2 EC/s. But it does work. Is it supposed to be that way?

[B-STRK]

-snip-

That question's more certainly suited for Daishi or Paul to answer. Last time I tried the closed-circuit run was back in 0.90, and it wasn't perpetual-motion. IIRC, the finding I had there was that there's a difference between the consumption rate of water of the Elektron (slower) and the production rate of the fuel cell (faster). So even if one fuel cell can power one Elektron, water wasn't being electrolysed back to H and O fast enough to meet the fuel cell's needs. Even in the separate tests of those two today (which I did to test heating values), I think the Elektron runs slower in the water-conversion department than the fuel cell in water-generation. But I'd need to run another test to be sure. We could also recheck the configs or the published parts stats to see the actual per-second production and consumption rates for EC, water, H and O.

Paul does make adjustments to the parts stats based on balance tweaking plus the latest research he could get on equivalent real-world systems. I'll forward the query to Daishi; if it becomes a parts balance issue, they might want to have a look at it.

- - - Updated - - -

They couldn't jump with it? It shouldn't have been that heavy! o.O

NO WAY!

Actually partly my fault. I set the ladder's angle in the SPH so that the tip was flush with the floor, but the KF wheels in the editor are always set in a retracted position. So when the vessel is launched, the wheels extend to the set suspension height. For the ESME, that means that when she runs at the 65-70 suspension setting I usually leave her at, the ladder tip ends up above the head of a kerbal standing underneath it. They need to jump quite a bit just for "[F] Grab" to show up. That, and Samene, Marliana, and Leevy carry a couple extra tanks of KIS EVA propellant for long-duration EVA or emergencies. So they're already lugging around some extra baggage. (It actually makes a noticeable difference in their munwalks, less of a hoppy shuffle and more of very tiny Mexican jumping beans action when they're loaded in their KIS inventory)

[Daishi]

Fascinating . I look forward to US 2.

Your use of the US fuel cell inspired me to set up a closed circuit system. I built a rover with 4x ruggedized wheels, no battery, no solar cells, and no RTGs. Instead, it had a hex core with a fuel cell, an electrolysis thing, 2 LH tanks, 1 LOX tank, and 1 water tank, all full. I started both devices and away went the rover. Indefinitely. No consumption of resources, constant net output of 2 EC/s (IIRC, 14 output by the fuel cell and 12 input for the electrolysizer), and no overheating. The 4x wheels required 2.8 EC/s max and SAS was using a wee bit as well, so top speed was only 21m/s, but still.

Of course, this was all mounted radially on a pole above the rover where air could circulate freely around it so maybe convection kept it cool, but I was surprised you could make a "perpetual motion machine" this way. Energy was obviously leaving the system in terms of work done by the wheels moving the rover, but still the system kept running without using resources. If this same system needs a radiator for cooling in space but otherwise keeps on without consuming resources, it's even more of a perpetual motion machine due to even more energy leaving the system via radiated heat.

Now, the whole fuel cell system weighed about 2 tons, which is a lot for just 2 EC/s. But it does work. Is it supposed to be that way?

Nope, something broke I've found the Elektron stops working when the tanks are overly full, so perhaps that feature somehow interfered with the resource draw of the fuelcell too? Half empty the tanks and run your rover again, and see if that feeds\produces resources as normal. The resource generator module might have bugged out.

Edited July 3, 2015 by Daishi