The Elcano Challenge: Ground-Based Circumnavigation (Continued)

HazelPine · October 1, 2016

I haven't had enough time to continue my attempt in a loooong while, but tonight I got some time in, and reached a new milestone! The RV Evergreen has arrived at the beaches of the south polar cap! Almost out of fuel already, so I'll have to land a fuel carrier plane on the ice. Took about 2 and a half kerbin days to get there, on account of the ship 'sailing' at around 60 m/s on average.

I'll update my thread soon-ish.

EDIT: Okay, here's the Day 2 and 3 report!

Edited October 1, 2016 by Pine

W. Kerman · October 1, 2016

Going to try Minmus today... I'll have a link to that mission thread later.

richfiles · October 2, 2016

So... I discovered that Gilly Vanilli is... broken in at least 1.1.3 and is still broken in the 1.2 experimentals... ;.;

Long story short, the flexible docking port based suspension... is rigid as a rock in newer versions of KSP. Apparently, it has to do with the way the game auto-struts wheels to compensate for some nasty wheel behavior. Seems wheels auto-strut to the part with the largest mass, and not based on proximity, thus the wheels are being auto-strutted across the docking ports, rendering their flexibility useless.

That flexibility is what saved all those Kerbal lives when I decided to test Gilly Vanilli's lithobraking capabilities at speed. :rolleyes:

I REALLY wanna use a variant of Gilly Vanilli, or my revised version. (wheels not installed in this screenshot) 26E3D4AAC9D1D98BC610BD65603B805509654A5C

Pretend these wheels are on the vessel above...

Sadly, as I was saying, the vessel is kinda... Not going anywhere with the issues in the current versions of KSP. I'm hoping that wheel auto strutting can be limited to fan out to only a limited number of parts worth of separation, as well as to be able to form isolated auto-strutted networks. that do not cross coupling devices. Till this is a feature (if ever)... Docking port based suspension is dead.

So then... If I want to use a vessel I know works, are there any restrictions regarding, say playing an older version of KSP, such as 1.0.4? I think that one still worked with my Gilly Vanilli style rovers... I think. I have a feeling it's the only way I'm going to be able to try this, at least with the vehicle I WANTED to take out for a really, REALLY long roll around the block (ALL the blocks).

Edited October 2, 2016 by richfiles

W. Kerman · October 2, 2016

That's really cool. Sorry it stopped working.

Claw · October 2, 2016

On 9/30/2016 at 0:36 PM, Chemp said:

I've finally managed to conclude my Circumnavigation of Laythe.

Congrats!

And not only did you complete Laythe, but you earned the Master Mariner. Here's your patch...well done! --->

Flamingo · October 2, 2016

This is the report of my hopefully succesfull drive around the world.

gilflo · October 2, 2016

Hi

Here is my preparation with The "Gliding Cheetah"to break my 4 days 42mns ride time for the maritime Elcano challenge .

Chemp · October 3, 2016

On 2.10.2016 at 4:33 AM, Claw said:

Congrats!

And not only did you complete Laythe, but you earned the Master Mariner. Here's your patch...well done! --->

Thanks! I will wear it with pride!

I'm taking a little break of land and sea vehicles to get a grip on the all new concepts v1.2 offers, especially the communication networks because I've never even tried Remote Tech or anything down that alley. In any case, my "spiderweb" is already taking shape, although it still looks like my spider has had some coffee... :wink:

You can expect more circumnavigations as soon as I have some kind of permanent base on a planetary body. Maybe Duna? At least the screenshots from the devnotes looked most promising where biomes are concerned.

W. Kerman · October 3, 2016

Next weekend I can do more of my mincano, until then:

richfiles · October 5, 2016

@Claw You still gonna be doing this on the forums, or are you done with running Elcano too?
We're all sad to see you leaving the dev team... ;.;
Still, I wish you well in whatever non green dude related endeavors you pursue...

gilflo · October 5, 2016

Elcano fastest maritime ride via Crystal canyon

After preparation just a few post ahead, here is the first part. Kinsey reached The land crossing part after 3H12mn sea and canyon ride at 1014kms from base.

Still 40% of fuel in the Gliding Cheetah and 250kms of land to cross to join the sea at W7 point.

gilflo · October 11, 2016

Hi Claw

Hi Guys

Kerbin grand tour Circumnavigation record is broken by Kimsey with his Catamaran Gliding Cheetah, 159T modded catamaran driven by 2 KE-90 "Dudley" TurboJet engines. Kimsey did it in 1Day 5H 44mns

Here is the Story:

0/ Presentation and preparation

1/ From departure to escape out of Crystal canyon

2/ Film inside Crystal Canyon

3/ south path land's ride

4/ First refueling mission

5/ South sea ride

6/ Second refueling mission

7/ Final rush

8/ Return of tankers

Next challenge for Kimsey is to break the Laythe grand tour record with Gliding Cheetah.

Could i suggest a new challenge by adding to Elcano Challenge a record time?

Cheers

Edited October 11, 2016 by gilflo

damerell · October 11, 2016

5 hours ago, gilflo said:

Could i suggest a new challenge by adding to Elcano Challenge a record time?

While your craft is undeniably impressive, I don't think that would be appropriate. Elcano tends to be a leisurely process, a contemplative journey [1], etc. Speed records would detract from that and would also increase the problems with assessing whether almost-flying craft are permitted.

[1] Yes, I sound a bit up myself. :-/

gilflo · October 11, 2016

2 minutes ago, damerell said:

While your craft is undeniably impressive, I don't think that would be appropriate. Elcano tends to be a leisurely process, a contemplative journey [1], etc. Speed records would detract from that and would also increase the problems with assessing whether almost-flying craft are permitted.

[1] Yes, I sound a bit up myself. :-/

Well, i understand, but we could keep the rules of Elcano and give that challenge another name.....like Kerbin Grand Tour Race

ChaoticPheonix · October 14, 2016

Well, looks like I found my next challenge in KSP...

With that being said, may I present the Odyssey. (Super original name, I know :P)

http://i.imgur.com/7Vso1v2.jpg

(Won't allow me to put in images for whatever reason, the "Insert Into Post" button does nothing.)

nascarlaser1 · October 28, 2016

Dear Mr. @Claw

I have 3 questions for this challenge (looks fun btw)

1. Am I still allowed to participate? or has this ended (if so I'll just do it myself without the challenge, and you may disregard the next 2 parts of this message.)

2. Can I use kis/kas instead of sending replacement craft all the time? I will bring a limited amount of repair parts, so if they run out I still will have to send a resupply ship, but I have severe issues, a.k.a. rapid unplanned disassembly, when it comes to bringing craft via airplane places.

3. Given my issues with bringing cargo in planes, can I start and end from the runway instead of flying it somewhere else?

Thanks!

Edited November 3, 2016 by nascarlaser1

Magzimum · October 30, 2016

Friday, I read about the crazy adventures of Claw (seriously, Jool-5 and Elcano in one mission! Congrats!). As I was playing around with rovers yesterday, I thought that I should do a circumnavigation of a moon or planet too. To my novice eye, Minmus appears the easiest: due to its size (small) and location (near Kerbin). I decided to give it a go.

The whole adventure is logged in this Imgur album.

The rover is a pretty simple one. It has just the basic stuff you'd expect. Hidden from the picture below are the two reaction wheels on the bottom, to keep the rover straight during the many jumps on Minmus. There are 4 RCS thrusters that face upwards, but that make the rover crash when used. There is about 3000 units of electric charge, so the rover can keep going at night. The rover is quite heavy: 5.1 tons, Kerbals excluded. This is done on purpose, to give it a little traction on Minmus. So, there are quite a few beams used, some for structure and some just for the looks. The two monoprop tanks are there mostly for their mass, as I almost never used the RCS (did I mention it makes the rover crash? Yeah...). The rover comes with illuminators, which make it a little easier at night, but which mostly just look cool. And it has redundancy in solar panels and antennas since those stick out and may break. Nothing sticks out from the wheels on the front, and it has enough ground clearance to be able to make some big jumps. The rover is connected to Kerbnet, so I can place waypoints, which makes it easy to trace where I have been. Compared to placing flags, it is much easier: you can do it on the move.

All parts (launcher and rover) are stock, but I did use KER, so I guess I compete in the "Stock Craft" category.

Above: A good close up of the rover on Minmus. Jeb & Bill are the pilot and engineer (Bill had an easy time, as nothing broke that needed fixing).

And here a picture showing all the waypoints. The trip was completed in 3 Minmus-days, and in about 6 hours of game-play, including some reloads and touristic detours. It actually went according to plan: everything worked as expected, the average speed was probably around 30 m/s if you exclude the touristic stops. And the rover did not break (one monoprop tank went missing, but that did not stop the mission).

Next I am gonna build a mining colony on Minmus so the rover(s) will be put to good use for that.

The Imgur album contains 66 pictures, with description... I did not link all pictures here, since that would make the thread too long. Thanks for giving me the idea to do a circumnavigation. I got the idea that I have seen a LOT more of Minmus in just these few hours than in months of gameplay before.

Chemp · October 30, 2016

1 hour ago, Magzimum said:

The rover is connected to Kerbnet, so I can place waypoints, which makes it easy to trace where I have been. Compared to placing flags, it is much easier: you can do it on the move.

Congrats on your circumnavigation.

That's an innovative use of Kerbnet, finally there's a way to document the trip without having to include a capsule in the design.

damerell · October 31, 2016

14 hours ago, Magzimum said:

Friday, I read about the crazy adventures of Claw (seriously, Jool-5 and Elcano in one mission! Congrats!). As I was playing around with rovers yesterday, I thought that I should do a circumnavigation of a moon or planet too. To my novice eye, Minmus appears the easiest: due to its size (small) and location (near Kerbin). I decided to give it a go.

The whole adventure is logged in this Img ur album.

In which you write "When acceleration/decelleration was needed, the reaction wheels were toggled off, to prevent it from flipping itself."

It's possible (and highly desirable) to bind the rover movement commands to different keys to the rotation commands.

Sharpy · November 2, 2016

On 31.10.2016 at 1:14 PM, damerell said:

In which you write "When acceleration/decelleration was needed, the reaction wheels were toggled off, to prevent it from flipping itself."

It's possible (and highly desirable) to bind the rover movement commands to different keys to the rotation commands.

Definitely true for forward/back; good for left/right, although you still drive by pressing left+A, right+D. But decoupling pitch from acceleration is essential. Personally, I found putting SAS to prograde and keeping my fingers on Q/E to be the safest mode. In case you jump, bounce, roll, whatever, SAS will point you horizontally and ahead, and you have enough time to roll wheels down, which makes most landings safe.

damerell · November 2, 2016

MechJeb's Rover Stability Control does this (but also controlling roll, and with regard to the shape of the ground underneath you). The downside is that it does it even when all your wheels are on the ground, which tends to eat electric charge spinning your reaction wheels.

Sharpy · November 9, 2016

How serious is the "No deviating" rule?

I'm circumnavigating Duna currently... but the equator is fairly devoid of "interesting stuff" so I'm zig-zagging between biomes quite a bit...

nascarlaser1 · November 9, 2016

Does anyone know if @Claw is still active on this?

I posted 3 questions about the challenge in an previous post, but he does not seem to log on any more.

Thanks!

Martian Emigrant · November 11, 2016

On 2016-11-09 at 6:18 PM, nascarlaser1 said:

Does anyone know if @Claw is still active on this?

I posted 3 questions about the challenge in an previous post, but he does not seem to log on any more.

Thanks!

I do not know. But.

He has shown no sign of life on this tread in a long while.

His profile page shows is last activity on the 25th of October.

So....Again IDK. But I consider this tread to be terminated as far as he is concerned.

You can of course do the challenge for yourself and post the results here. Or open a new challenge and rule over it?

ME

Sharpy · November 15, 2016

*shrug*

I don't know if it qualifies. Deviations from the equator were... considerable :wink: But the route was much more than the equator's length too, and took me through all the biomes of Duna.