The Elcano Challenge: Ground-Based Circumnavigation (Continued)

[Claw]

@Speeding Mullet  Nice job on Minmus, and that rover is pretty fancy. I love seeing the detail work people put in on these things.

 

 

4 hours ago, ThaZeus said:

I am now preparing my mind and soul to start my attempt!

Good luck! Every time I do one of these, I ask myself "what am I thinking?" But when it's done, it was a neat trip.

 

I've also managed to update all the land based badges. I am still working on the prop and wreath badges. I think Minmus is my favorite looking badge so far.

 

Here you go, @Speeding Mullet ---------> 

[Speeding Mullet]

7 hours ago, Claw said:

Here you go

Fantastic thanks very much I will wear it with pride.  Nice badge!  Funny thing is I've obviously cleared my head of the SSTO block and last night managed to create a single stage from water to space vehicle, so double win!

I do tend to go nuts on the detail, wonder if you ever spotted my Jool 5 Kethane Expedition, now that was some ship (well maybe 30 ships in one anyway).  Luckily I have the computer to handle it

SM

 

 

 

[Claw]

2 minutes ago, Speeding Mullet said:

wonder if you ever spotted my Jool 5 Kethane Expedition

I haven't seen it, but I will have to go look. Hopefully someday soon I'll finish my combined Jool5 / Elcano mission. (It's close, but delayed for...reasons...)

 

 

(Also, side note, the water badges for Kerbin and Jool are now posted! Along with the new Master Mariner badge.)

[Speeding Mullet]

Just now, Claw said:

I haven't seen it, but I will have to go look

Remembering how hard the Jool 5 challenge was, I can't even bear to think how massive an undertaking Joolcano would be!  Anyway, take your time with "reasons" lol

 

The thread's old but it's here. I think the albums still work.

SM

 

 

[Chemp]

2 hours ago, Claw said:

(Also, side note, the water badges for Kerbin and Jool are now posted! Along with the new Master Mariner badge.)

Thank you for taking the time to redraw the badges! It's a lot of work and I guess time isn't one of the assets you ave an excess of atm. I've always been proud to wear that badge.

 

[Claw]

On 3/1/2016 at 4:06 AM, Chemp said:

Thank you for taking the time to redraw the badges!

Thanks! They took a lot longer than I expected, but (I think) came out pretty well considering that's the first badge of any kind that I've made. At least I had a good example to start from.

[BowWhalley]

I cant wait to try this, I'll post my progress on this post :).

First Attempt:

Spoiler

 

Images: http://imgur.com/a/qDpRV

Log One: Alright so I FINALLY got my design down. I am going to Minmus. I somehow got the rover into orbit, I haven't tested the rover's weight on minmus with hyperedit already so this will be interesting. I don't quite know how I got it into orbit, I am currently on a kerbin escape trajectory and have 8 days to re-fuel the plane to get an encounter of minmus, luckily I designed a good lifter that should be able to send a tugboat to the rover, I don't quite know though how I'll get it on the trajectory it is on, I'll have to find out.

 

Log Two: Ok, so I am no longer on escape trajectory, nor am I going to minmus or sending a tugboat. I am in fact, going to do the moon instead, and I am about to explain why. So, as my previous log states, I was on an escape trajectory, I decided that sending a tugboat to that trajectory would be too hard. Instead, I have decided put my self on an odd orbit of kerbin, I decided a lunar assist would be great for this, I started my burn then realized, I am encountering the moon with a bit of fuel, not much but enough that could land me on the surface, so I burned myself pro-grade and put myself in an orbit of the mun. Tomorrow I will land on the moon and finally start the Elcano challenge. I have a docking port on top of the rover so if I need, I can refuel. SideNote: I have realized that I do not have lights on the rover, luckily with a docking port, I can easily adapt lights onto it.

Log Three: Ok, I really didn't expect to make a 3rd log until tomorrow but this comes as an emergency, I was inpatient and decided to attempt to land before refueling. So, didn't have enough fuel and I was dumb enough to quick save once I was on a trajectory to land on the moon. Now I have don't have enough fuel to slow down from 500ms to 1ms, only 200ms. So I sent myself on an orbit again, not enough fuel, so I am on an escape trajectory. I will send a fuel tank and refuel, then I can try to land again.

 

 

EDIT: It is easier, saves time, fuel ect if I just scratch this attempt and re-launch straight to the mun.

Attempt 2 will be blogged soon.

 

FINAL EDIT:

I am no longer attempting this challenge, I have not done a challenge before and this one is probably not the best to start with. I am new to rovers ect so I have a fair bit to learn before I get into this challenge, I also am quite impatient so having slow rovers really isn't something I'd enjoy if I have to circumnavigate a planet/moon/other kerbol body.

Edited March 12, 2016 by BowWhalley
Attempt one scratched

[Claw]

1 hour ago, BowWhalley said:

I'll post my progress on this post :).

I look forward to it.

[damerell]

I'm on the final leg. Does anyone know of a fix for the issue that some surfaces are completely black at night? In the daytime they look normal but at night no amount of headlight can light them up.

[BowWhalley]

I have a question, I am not good at designing a rover that is fast, heavy and easy to turn, am I alowd to use someone else's rover and give credit?

[Claw]

15 minutes ago, BowWhalley said:

am I alowd to use someone else's rover and give credit?

Well, there is no rule against it. It's more about the adventure of doing the trip. I will say that a some of the challenge is in making the design, but the heart of the challenge is doing the trip. I do encourage you to give the designing/testing process a try, but I don't want it to stop you from doing the circumnavigation. So long as your mission meets the other rules, I'm not opposed to borrowing someone else's rover.

[damerell]

You may also find that some of ours are trickier to drive than they appear. :-)

[Chemp]

It took a lot longer than I anticipated but I have finally completed my circumnavigation. My vehicle of choice was an ultra-light, Kerbal-powered rover.

It's a very stable design that handles steep slopes without slipping. It's only drawback is that physical warp is impossible, though this is partially compensated by a cruise speed of around 50 m/s.

Here's the link to the mission report: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/130865-bill-pedals-around-kerbin/&do=findComment&comment=2407216

@BowWhalley: If you're interested, I'd be happy to share the craft file if you want to give it a try. If you want something faster, there's the craft I made for my water-based circumnavigation. It has a lot of potential for improvement but maybe it inspires you

Edited March 17, 2016 by Chemp

[damerell]

I'm finished. It's been a while, since I've only played in fits and starts, but I'm around Kerbin.

[silks]

This one might actually work. It's a stock rover/boat that can (probably) cross most lakes on Eve. I've written a script in kOS to handle driving and will record the trip. It will probably take around 2-4 weeks to finish. Meanwhile, here's a quick sneak peek of the video:

KOS also logs my position, so I can create maps like this:

 

Edited March 21, 2016 by silks
Video didn't load inside a spoiler.

[Claw]

Holy cow fellas. I'm really sorry. I either didn't get notifications of updates on this thread, or completely missed them. (And with Experimentals going on, I haven't been perusing the forum as much as usual.)

 

On 3/12/2016 at 8:20 PM, Chemp said:

It took a lot longer than I anticipated but I have finally completed my circumnavigation.

Wow @Chemp This is really amazing. Elcano is one of those awesome challenges that's pretty incredible on it's own, but somehow people keep finding a way to make it even more unique and challenging. Well done!

 

On 3/12/2016 at 6:02 AM, damerell said:

I'm finished. It's been a while, since I've only played in fits and starts, but I'm around Kerbin.

This looks great too! I love the big tank designs, mostly because they're so different. And the IVA view of your mission report adds some nice flavor to the drive.

 

On 3/17/2016 at 10:54 AM, silks said:

It's a stock rover/boat that can (probably) cross most lakes on Eve.

That looks absolutely crazy. Again, not ever one of those things I would imagine when thinking of this challenge. I love the ingenuity. 

 

Great job Kerbonauts! You've been added to the front page. I'm looking forward to your next journey!  (Grumbles something about maybe finishing Tylo some day....maybe.)

 

 

[Warzouz]

Just a quick question, as I'm starting designing rovers and the first one performs quite well : do this challenge allow MJ rover autopilot ?

[Claw]

Just now, Warzouz said:

do this challenge allow MJ rover autopilot ?

Use of mods will affect your type of entry ("stock" vs "stock craft" vs "modded"), but yes...you can use MJ's autopilot.

[Warzouz]

1 hour ago, Claw said:

Use of mods will affect your type of entry ("stock" vs "stock craft" vs "modded"), but yes...you can use MJ's autopilot.

OK, I may test a Mun at x4 in "stock craft" then. I'll tweak my rover this evening to host kerbals (it's the prerequisite I miss).

 

[Claw]

Wow, so it's been a while... Here's my Laythe polar circumnavigation as part of my JoolCano-5 mission.

 

It was neat to see the poles, but the boat itself left me a bit worried about how far it would go between refuelings. In the end, it made it to the goal landing sites, though it was a bit tight on one of the stops.

Here's the full mission report, if you want to see the Jool-5 landing and ascent. I'm also getting the Tylo mission report and return to Kerbin reports ready! 

 

[Claw]

And here is the Tylo Circumnavigation. I wish I could truly be excited about Tylo, but the most exciting part was being complete! (No kidding.)

 

 

Again, here's the full mission report. I said it in the mission report, and I'll say it here. Julella and Obemy's faces say it all. Here's their expressions as they completed the rendezvous with the Iron Narcissus, about 24 days after initially landing on Tylo.

 

 

All that remains for the Jool-5 is the return portion, which I'm in the process of uploading now...but that'll all be linked from the Jool-5 thread.

 

Good luck on your next adventures!

[Claw]

So I realized just a couple days ago that the original Elcano Challenge was posted on 23 March 2015. So it's been a year now, and I figured what better way to celebrate Elcano Cake Day than to finally finish up my JoolCano mission. It went on a couple month hiatus, but at the last minute I was able to finish it up. If you're interested in all the details, you can find the whole thing starting here. (The mission itself launches starting from this post.)

 

Combined Elcano and Jool-5 complete! I managed to circumnavigate all five Jool moons in one big Mothership. Not to worry, I learned my lesson. I'm sure I won't ever do that again!

 

Happy one-year of Elcano, and good luck to everyone who's still out there chugging away!

[damerell]

1 hour ago, Claw said:

And here is the Tylo Circumnavigation. I wish I could truly be excited about Tylo, but the most exciting part was being complete! (No kidding.)

I'm not looking forward to Tylo; if there's one thing my lander project isn't built for, it's high-g vacuum worlds.

[Claw]

1 hour ago, damerell said:

I'm not looking forward to Tylo

I don't want to sour people on Tylo because it is supposed to be a challenge after all. But I would not at all recommend it to anyone who isn't truly serious about Elcano. And I think that's saying a lot, considering how much of a challenge Elcano is to begin with.

I've never felt so relieved as when the crew finally made it back to the Tylo start flag, until maybe when they made it back to the mothership and the JoolCano was nearly complete (and I knew I finally finished Tylo).

[damerell]

5 hours ago, Claw said:

I don't want to sour people on Tylo because it is supposed to be a challenge after all. But I would not at all recommend it to anyone who isn't truly serious about Elcano. And I think that's saying a lot, considering how much of a challenge Elcano is to begin with.

Mmm. It had struck me that it's about as far as Kerbin, but I spent at least half of Kerbin at sea with the rover sailing itself. I think for "Elcaneverything" I plan to start at Moho and work out, so it'll be a fair time before I get there, at least. I might have improved my tools.