Elcano challenge on Pol - Completed

[TheCardinal]

Pol is one of the few heavenly bodies on which no one has completed a circumnavigation yet. So i decided to attempt it with a small rover without RTG's to make it more interesting.

I've driven the rover now for some time and i wonder if i haven't bitten of more than i can chew. Sofar the rover has overturned three times, fortunately without massive damage and the RCS thusters have enough force to turn the rover back on it's tracks.

The hills are steep, really steep! I've encountered a hill with an incline larger than 50 degrees, possibly even over 60 degrees. It proved too steep for the rover and it overturned, started to slide and fall downward. I was able to right the rover with RCS while falling and managed to stop the fall. After a (long) breather i took a safer route to climb the hill.

Pol is a dangerous, dreadfull and foremost depressing place! Travelling on Minmus was a walk in the park compared to driving on Pol.

Startingpoint : 0 , -215.370 (which is the same as 0 , 144.630)

[table=width: 500, align:left]

[tr]

[td]Position[/td]

[td]Longitude[/td]

[td]Latitude[/td]

[td]Fuel[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Start[/td]

[td]0[/td]

[td]144.630[/td]

[td]-[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]Current[/td]

[td]0[/td]

[td]144.630[/td]

[td]8.54[/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]To go[/td]

[td]0[/td]

[td]0[/td]

[td]-[/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

Edited October 28, 2015 by TheCardinal

[AlexanderTeaH]

Wow, cool idea! I'm not sure I'd have the patience for this challenge, though, thus I'm impressed by your ambition!

[TheCardinal]

an example of a steep hill seen through a night vision camera

- - - Updated - - -

Wow, cool idea! I'm not sure I'd have the patience for this challenge, though, thus I'm impressed by your ambition!

I started the mission on Minmus thinking that the greatest challenge would be having enough patience, so i understand your feelings completely. It proved to be quite different. At a certain stage you'll get so immersed in the 'game' that it's almost as if your really there. I wasn't joking or exagerating when i wrote i needed a breather. One thing is for sure, you'll never look at a planet/moon the same way as before the "challenge".

[nsgallup]

Pol is pretty crazy, I like using RCS landers there

[TheCardinal]

I've stumbled onwards for a bit today. I'm asking myself what i was thinking when i started this trip. I managed to survive twelve times overturning and several times dropping from a steep cliff. I'm wondering how long will i be so lucky. Granted, the gravity is low but it only takes six or seven m/s to have something exploding. I've taken the procaution to refill the generatortanks from the main tank to make an explosion of the main tank less catastrophice ahould it occur. Without liquid fuel no more power until the sun shines again.

Time for a rest. Tomorrow we'll continue.

[TheCardinal]

Today i only managed to travel about half the distance i wanted to. No RTG's means no power when the generators aren't running and the batteries are flat. I didn't realise that braking with the reverse key doesn't work because for reverse power you need energy. The craft twice went without power and twice it got into a spin ending up on it's back. I also didn't realise that without power the BTDT scanner needs to be restarted. I only noticed that when i came to the next photo point (every 10 degrees i make a screenshot). Fortunately i still can proved that i traveled the distance with the photo's.

Today the rover 'only' turned over three times, still without major damage (the only damage was my pride). Every time i used the RCS to right the rover again. I took a lot of RCS with me on the rover because i intended to land the rover on Pol on RCS but there was sufficient liquid fuel and oxidiser to land on those. That has proven to be quite fortunate. I have to be very careful in using the RCS because only a third remains now and i still have to travel more than half the distance.

[Just Jim]

Pol??? You are definitely brave!

I landed on Pol once, and I still have nightmares!

I can't imagine driving a rover thru this!

[TheCardinal]

I can't imagine driving a rover thru this!

Nice picture of an interesting landscape! I haven't encountered that yet. It might be location specific.

Well today proved to be a miserable day on Pol. I have reached a mountain with the steepest cliffs i've ever seen. I've made several attempts to climb the mountain but it failed miserably. I even used the RCS thrusters once for an extra push upward but the end result remained the same: tumbling downward.

Finally i decided to drive around it. It took a long detour. I estimate that i've travelled three times as much as the normal distance. I was almost at the next stop at latitude -50 when the bottom suddenly dropped away. The incline of 40 degrees upward changed into a downward angle of 50 or 60 degrees. Even though i took great care to pass the edge ever so slowly, it resulted in a tumbling drop which took an enormous effort to stabilise and and stop. The rover took a lot of damage. The liquid fuel tank exploded, as did one of the generators. Only one generator remains with less than 12 liters of liquid fuel. I can only hope the sun will appear soon otherwise this mission will be over soon. Perhaps the fuel is just enough to reach the point where the sun is visible. I still have about 20% of RCS remaining. The RCS thrusters have survived the fall and remain functional. At least the rover still can be righted after a tumble. Pol is a hard nut to crack, much harder than i anticipated. For those who are thinking about circumnavigating Pol, think again! Minmus was occasionally treacherous but at Pol the dangers lurk everywhere. Take at least two RTG's on board of your rover. I consciously did not and now face the consequences of that decision.

Only 11.82 liters of fuel remaining. It'll have to do.

[TheCardinal]

This morning i limped the small distance to the next stop 0,-50. It's extremely clear that the stability of the rover is compromised. The rover now handles like a babypram with just two of the four wheels attached (diagonally) to it. The shifted center of gravity makes steering quite difficult. It's as if you try to push the pram with just the thumb and indexfinger on the handlebar of the pram but on the extreme left or right with one of the two wheels directly beneath.

I'm considering several options to restore the center of gravity, which has shifted forward, as much as i can. The remaining RCS fluid has been pumped to the back. The Kerbonauts have some parts in their inventory which maybe can be attached to the backend. I'm even considering having one of the girls ride on the outside, attached to the backend. Even that minimal amount of weight might improve the chances of completing the mission. I'm unsure at this time if i should reduce the torque on the tracks. I should do that to prevent flipping backwards when speeding up but on the other hand, it increases the energy consumption in relation to the speed (i.e. travelled distance). It seems like i'm in a "Dammed if i do and dammed if i don't" situation. From the map view i can see that the rover is still about 40 degrees from the terminator. The amount of fuel should be sufficient to at least reach the terminator, so i'll have to risk not reducing the torque until reaching the terminator. Giving up is not an option as a relief/rescue mission requires several years to reach Pol. No choice but to continue limping towards the finish.

Edit: Neither Serena nor Marella have any parts in their inventory, so no parts to attach at the back. The option for one of the Kerbonauts to ride outside is also out.

position 0,-45 fuel: 11.69

A 5 degree progress at the cost of 0.13 l of fuel. In theory the fuel should be sufficient to complete the mission even without sunlight. It means i don't have to shut down the BTDT scanner and SAS which use energy every second no matter if i drive or not.

That is at least positive news. Driving is very difficult due to the different weight distribution, but we will persevere.

Edited October 26, 2015 by TheCardinal

[TheCardinal]

Position: 0, -40 fuel: 11.57 Y12D345 4:22

[lajoswinkler]

Turn on the scatter, set it to maximum. Pol should be entirely covered with those spikes.

You're gonna get very frustrated with this body. I suggest examining the slope map for Pol and planning your route using that data.

http://www.kerbalmaps.com/

[TheCardinal]

Turn on the scatter, set it to maximum. Pol should be entirely covered with those spikes.

You're gonna get very frustrated with this body. I suggest examining the slope map for Pol and planning your route using that data.

http://www.kerbalmaps.com/

I'll try the scatter (let's see if my old girl can handle that).

Frankly, i didn't make a slope map for Pol, i started at it completely blanc. I had the intention of completely following the equator. And i DID get very frustrated. After the damage which completely ruined the balance of the rover, i had to adopt a new driving style and i loosend the "equator following" part a bit. Now I skip the longtude 0 point when it lies on top of a mountain. Now I accept a point slightly up or down the equator as well.

The new driving style works fine. On other days i could only manage to travel about 20 degrees (per day). Today, despite the bad balance and the limited fuelsupply, i managed to do 50 degrees.

[Just Jim]

I'll try the scatter (let's see if my old girl can handle that).

Yeah, scatter should give you the spiky rocks.

I planted a flag where I tool that screenshot, the location is 7-39-55S by 73-41-26W. It seemed an innocent enough valley from orbit... yeah. Upon further exploration it turns out most of Pol looks like this.

[TheCardinal]

I've set the scatter to 100% but i haven't seen any spikes yet. Probably because i did something foolish, like climbing a mountain. At the moment the rover is at the highest top of a mountain (3413 meters high). I found myself at more than two degrees from the equator so i decided to climb the mountain to reduce the distance to the equator. I feel somewhat like a kitten in a very high tree except there's no firebrigade which can save me when excrements hit the fan.

But it also gives a feeling of victory which makes it all worthwile even at the cost of slower progress. Besides, what's the use of circumnavigation when you don't go about exploring.

Edited October 27, 2015 by TheCardinal

[TheCardinal]

This day has been quite fortunate. I've travelled a greater distance than i thought possible. The new way of driving turns out to be THE way to drive on Pol. It is a lot faster than before and the fuel consumption is down. The sun might have something to do with that as well. The six solarpanels on top don't provide enough power to charge the batteries. They're just enough to keep the BTDT scanner active, whiich means the batteries don't deplete as fast as before.

The design of the rover is good but could have been a lot better. Something which i will keep in mind when circumnavigating an other moon or planet. Choosing tracks instead of wheels was one of the best decisions i've made when designing this rover. And the nightvision camera! Without the NVC i couldn't have travelled in the dark which would have made this voyage even longer. Still almost a quarter moon to go but the chances of making it seem a lot more plausible than after the unfortunate crash which destroyed one of the generators and the fuel supply. I still haven't seen any spike, despite of setting the scatter to 100%. (Perhaps it doesn't works when the body is in memory).

[TheCardinal]

The mission is completed. I'm back at the starting point. It has taken 6 Kerbal days to drive around Pol. Today with the end in sight, i've travelled the largest distance during this trip. And surprisingly, with fuel to spare. The last degrees i've left the generator running to have all batteries at full capacity in case the second (and last) generator would be damaged. It's a shame i haven't found any spikes during the trip. It's only gueswork but perhaps the spikes are condensed gasclouds from Jool. Spontaneously appearing when and where ever the temperature is right. Perhaps an automatic station can be built here to monitor the forming of the spikes. That's up to Kerbal Control. Both ladies, Sarena and Marella are extremely glad the trip is over. The monotoneous environment is getting on their nerves.

A small part of the BTDT track is missing due to me forgetting to start the scanner again after completely draining the batteries. I do have pictures of every 10 degrees of latitude change which i will present in an album as soon as i have the chance to sort them out. (I have about 300-400 screenshots).

After driving full circle on Pol i honestly can say that it's difficult but doable. Make sure you have plenty of SAS and power. I only had 1650 batterie capacity. More than once i had to stop between normal stops to reload the batteries. The extra fuel i took with me wasn't necessary but the mass was usefull.

The six small solar panels on top were of little use. Either take more/larger solarpanels or leave them off. The tracks were fenomenal, never any trouble. I believe that i would have had innumerable flat tyres when i had used tyres. During the trip, the rover often came loose from the ground at bumps, landing several meters further. It is possible to drive without a nightvision camera but i don't recommend it. No matter how many lights you'll put on the rover, it doesn't compare to the image you'll get from a NVC.

[TheCardinal]

As promised, the album with pictures. Some picture are included, just because they're so beautiful, some because there's something special there. Most are just documentation of the route taken.

http://imgur.com/a/cK4SU

[damerell]

Nice one; reading that sounds like the worst of Minmus and Mun in some horrifying combination.