The Elcano Challenge: Ground-Based Circumnavigation (Continued)

[Bubbadevlin]

Screw it! I have been trying to get back into KSP, and i think a circumnavigation might be what i need  I am thinking Eve, because you know, its Eve. I will post again with my progress.. when I make some

 

[Claw]

2 hours ago, Bubbadevlin said:

I have been trying to get back into KSP, and i think a circumnavigation might be what i need

Do it!

Of course it's entirely up to you, but I'm not sure if I would start with Eve. It's fairly large and (unfortunately) the terrain/water/sky/everything is about the same shade of pinkish/purple. Though, again, it's entirely up to you.  Not many folks have been there.

 

[Maverick_aus]

The Next Exciting Chapter in the Elcano Adventures begins today!

 

[Alchemist]

10 hours ago, Martian Emigrant said:

Just being facetious here. But technicaly I believe Kerbins diameter is measured at sea level. So it should be 1,200,000 metres plus KSC elevation + Nadir elevation.

I just had a Stupid thought. If we had a competition for the kerbal that gets the furthest from the KSC, without leaving Kervin or being airborne, we would have taller and taller rovers at the Nadir.

There's also the factor of how the linear distance converts to spherical surface distance at this point. The measurement was done against a flag planted on the shore when starting the circumnavigation, and it showed 1199992,5 m, which actually means a few kilometers off (yet, it's comparable to the actual size of the space center area). I think the other side of the big lake is slightly further.

As for getting the furthest in linear distance, the mountains nearby may get actually further than any surface point around this bay and lakes. Just because the elevation totally overwhelms the error made by slight offset at this point

[Alchemist]

Well, I ended up taking the long route

Currently navigating along the island on the edge of the atoll. It feels much longer than it looks on map. Now I regret not checking both ends to measure its length... or I still can add a little detour to this big detour

 

[Bubbadevlin]

12 hours ago, Claw said:

Do it!

Of course it's entirely up to you, but I'm not sure if I would start with Eve. It's fairly large and (unfortunately) the terrain/water/sky/everything is about the same shade of pinkish/purple. Though, again, it's entirely up to you.  Not many folks have been there.

 

I have done Kerbin before (1.0 era).

I already have a craft built and its currently sitting in Eve orbit... But.. re-entry is being ****** because I used Gigantor solar panels.. which just seem to heat up SO much 

Edit: So I somehow made it into Eve's Atmosphere, but... I put the parachutes on the underside of the rover for some reason.. time to start over 

Edited August 20, 2016 by Bubbadevlin

[Maverick_aus]

14 hours ago, Bubbadevlin said:

... But.. re-entry is being ****** because I used Gigantor solar panels.. which just seem to heat up SO much 

Edit: So I somehow made it into Eve's Atmosphere, but... I put the parachutes on the underside of the rover for some reason.. time to start over 

Ooh no! Frustrating I bet. But classic Kerbal moment, hey? lol

[Alchemist]

After all these detours I finally completed this ocean:

Going to the huge crater

From one ocean to another

[HazelPine]

Finally had a little free time to finally get the ship design finalized! Now all I need to do is rename all the intrepid kerbals and launch it! First though, I'll have to make a couple bits of art to go along for the first bit, along with some other cool stuff. This week, the trip will begin!

 

Also, I decided on the path I'll take. I'll improvise as I go along! No plans other than making it around the planet once, this should be a fun twist to the adventure! I hope I don't get too lost...

 

And the best part? My main kerbal will be called Cpt. Sparrow!  Hope to get started on the trip by thursday, so wish me luck!

[Maverick_aus]

Day 13 - Unflipping Day!

Highlights include:

-crane-lifting the vehicle then...
-Kerbal crane rides
-chilled beverages
-tacos
-beach party

Now, the circumnavigation can finally continue!

Edited August 23, 2016 by Maverick_aus

[Just Jim]

I'm out of likes again... tomorrow  

[W. Kerman]

Need to get back to this challenge...

[Maverick_aus]

Latest update of my Elcano is live. I'm trying something a little different, and getting more into a narrative approach with some character stuff. Constructive feedback welcome, but be nice, it's my first-ish try.

[HazelPine]

Of all the the things that could have happened, this is the worst. Possible. Thing.

 

 

I managed to lose the .craft files for every single ship related to my entry. I WAS about to start the trip, so I made a new save and planned to port over the ships. I had them all saved to my clipboard. But while I was renaming all the kerbals in the new save, I took a screenshot to get an image of their names for easy persistence editing. It was about then I remembered that the original save was already deleted by the game, and I had overwritten the ships.

 

Oh well, time for a rebuild. At least it's a chance to make an even better design, although I never really used the old one.

 

I guess I'll just put a helipad on it this time.

 

EDIT: Made a new ship, with helipad! Full story at:

 

 

Edited August 26, 2016 by Pine

[Maverick_aus]

4 hours ago, Pine said:

Of all the the things that could have happened, this is the worst. Possible. Thing.

I'm sorry to hear about dramas mate. I hope you enjoy the building phase and able to get under way when you're ready.

[HazelPine]

After too much time, I'm now ready to start the adventure!

 

I decided that a scout plane of sorts would be too time-wasting to use, so I made a little helicopter to take along with me! Flies very nicely, and should have enough fuel for quick flights to find paths for the ship. Also, cranes! I made a pair of ship cranes for all the ship craning needs I might have! I just need to load onboard my little jeep and I'll set off, so wish me luck!

 

All ready to set off, the Unnamed ship waits for the jeep to be loaded...

 

The Mini Heli Mk1 coming in to land, with the Unnamed ship visible from above.

[Martian Emigrant]

13 minutes ago, Pine said:

 

 

 

The Mini Heli Mk1 coming in to land, with the Unnamed ship visible from above.

 

I want one.

 

[HazelPine]

If you want, I can share the .craft file for you! Mind you, it has one or two mods in it.

[Martian Emigrant]

37 minutes ago, Pine said:

If you want, I can share the .craft file for you! Mind you, it has one or two mods in it.

It's just too cute.

Thank you. But for now I am sticking to stock.....A few mods are tempting me though....They will kill this old machine no doubt.

I have tried to make a stock gyrocopter with mixed results. I’ll get back to it.

[Martian Emigrant]

Still held-up by my real life.

Here is the link for the gorge crossing my team did a little earlier.

At that time I was down only three wheels as opposed to five now.  The ship was down to about 16 tonnes.

When you see the engines running on the way down the are not pushing they are reversing.

No brakes. Just bursts of positive or reverse thrust. Never went ballistic but I came close to having zero speed which is, I think, bad.

The crossing was done first try. Whew. I didn't believe it either.

 

Sorry about the length. The tire fixing bits can be skipped without any penalties.

 

 

My team should resume their trek sometime at the end of the week or early next.

 

 

[W. Kerman]

I officially hate boats, all of mine seem to spin out or break apart or... Well you get the idea. I would like to just go to north pole from the KSC, then go to where the Turkey-like desert and the Africa shaped landmass are closest*, and then head to the KSC again. Would this be an Elcano?

 

*Does anyone know how far apart they are? I estimated 26 km.

[Alchemist]

Still have to finish the report, but here we are

[Alchemist]

18 hours ago, Martian Emigrant said:

Still held-up by my real life.

Here is the link for the gorge crossing my team did a little earlier.

At that time I was down only three wheels as opposed to five now.  The ship was down to about 16 tonnes.

When you see the engines running on the way down the are not pushing they are reversing.

No brakes. Just bursts of positive or reverse thrust. Never went ballistic but I came close to having zero speed which is, I think, bad.

The crossing was done first try. Whew. I didn't believe it either.

After a few cases of using these ruggedized wheels, including driving several hundreds km on Eve (biome surveying; ISRU plane hasn't completed half the course by the next Kerbin-Eve window, so I sent attachable rover to tug it) and carrying a rover in a transport aircraft, I totally came to conclusion that the yellow wheels are much more reliable both in terms of what it takes to pop them and the problems a popped wheel makes (and the problems with them refusing to be fixed as well)

And good job tackling this kind of terrain! My Elcanoplan had to cross a few such slopes (with a bit less altitude, but still quite tense) on the ground part of the trip - fortunately, unlike wheels, strong enough jets can tackle even such slopes. But it still is quite risky

[Alchemist]

All right - it's fully complete

Mission thread (from the start)

New parts:
Along the shores of 2 oceans
Final run home
 

Map:

Edited August 29, 2016 by Alchemist

[Martian Emigrant]

2 hours ago, Alchemist said:

After a few cases of using these ruggedized wheels, including driving several hundreds km on Eve (biome surveying; ISRU plane hasn't completed half the course by the next Kerbin-Eve window, so I sent attachable rover to tug it) and carrying a rover in a transport aircraft, I totally came to conclusion that the yellow wheels are much more reliable both in terms of what it takes to pop them and the problems a popped wheel makes (and the problems with them refusing to be fixed as well)

And good job tackling this kind of terrain! My Elcanoplan had to cross a few such slopes (with a bit less altitude, but still quite tense) on the ground part of the trip - fortunately, unlike wheels, strong enough jets can tackle even such slopes. But it still is quite risky

I played a bit with the yellow wheels in my early days. I guess I should revisit them then. I thought they took less weight....Off to do research.

Edit:

On the subject of wheels refusing to be fixed. I found that doing a quicksave followed by a reload makes them fixable again. There seem to be a problem with what you see and what the program think of the wheel. Reloading the game puts everything back where they should be.....Broken that is. Problem with that is that sometime you would rather go back to an earlier state and not save right there and then.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Martian Emigrant