Eve Elcano challnge

[Dfthu]

I have decide to do a eve circumnavigation . Hopefully all goes well for me! So for I have done minus and kerbin challnges and now im going for eve. I will be doing a polar Circumnavigation.  I have made a rover that can go at about 20m/s and can go at 4x warp. It is going to be a challenge to get jeb home though. Once I complete this I would the first person to do both Eve and kerbin and that's cool. I would a map like my kerbin challenge but I cant find a eve map.

LEG ONE

Today I just launched the rover to Eve. The reentry at eve was bit hairy. I lost about half of my ablator but I landed ok. After a little testing on the surface everything deemed to work good. I plan to put flags every 50KM. Have some pics!

LEG TWO

Today I have started to real progress. Right now im beside a mountain range. I tried to drive form the IVA view but its really hard to drive. The rover starts to bug out at 4x warp but 3x works fine. According to my research it will take me 88 flags to plant, so about 4400km. Most of these shots are beauty shots but there still good.

LEG THREE

It seems like I get 4 flags each day and I have to plant 88 flags. If I do 4 flags everyday it will take me 22 days to complete. But ill more time on the weekend. I've been looking at the other side of the planet and found.... a ocean! I didn't see that and now ill have to navigate a bunch little islands but I will be fine. At one point today I was at 35m/s! But besides that once again everything pretty much normal. I heard the sunets on Eve are green so that will look pretty.

LEG FOUR

I made some real progress this leg. The one bad thing about doing a polar circumnavigation is when you drive around the poles it gets dark. I'm a little surprised I have broke any wheels yet. I found this map I can use for eve so you guys can see my progress. The land on Eve is pretty tame, I thought it would be bumpier but its not.

LEG FIVE

This was a nightmare. This is why it took so dang long to do. Have you every been to poles? They are absolutely horrible. There are lines of mountains and valleys with like 90 degree angles. My wheels wanted to go backwards without me touching the keyboard.!! Sometimes the rover just fell apart for no reason. NEVER GO TO THE NORTHPOLE, YOU WILL DIE HORRIBLY. I had to reload so many times. I really hope the south pole is better. Now some of you might wonder where the map is. I removed because I cant figure out where I am on the map. Now you guys can get some pictures of my nightmare. Hope you like them. hahahaha

LEG SIX

I/m still getting those mountains and valleys. Looks likes its about to end now, thank god. But I didn't get much driving done this leg . Im now driving along the ocean coast.

LEG SEVEN

I'm now in these chain of islands that I have to navigate now.  I have left all of those valleys and mountains and that's great.

 

LEG EIGHT

I have planted 34 flags now so I am about halfway. I almost went down the wrong path that lead to a dead-end. There are some big mountains up ahead and that cant be good. I have a question for you guys, Do you like lots of pictures or fewer pictures. Please tell me down below!

LEG NINE

Turns out that climbing mountains is fun!  Turns out those mountains where fun. At the tops of the mountains I planted a flag. I even got to 50 M/s going downhill!

LEG TEN

I am now sadly leavening the mountain range.   Remember at poles I had the phantom force? It was back for couple minutes but after that it was fine. I planted a couple new Flags on tops of mountains. I got up to 60 M/S going downhill. I was really surprised it didn't go out of control.

 

 

Edited February 1, 2016 by Dfthu

[damerell]

Interestingly compact design. How's it powered?

[Dfthu]

22 minutes ago, damerell said:

Interestingly compact design. How's it powered?

It's powered by the TR-2L Ruggedized wheel. I have four of them. It's compact because I had to put it inside a faring for eve reentry. If I didn't the wheels and maybe the rover will explode form overheating. And that fuel tank at the back empty, I needed it to be as light as possible.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Dfthu

[damerell]

I mean, what supplies electric charge to make the wheels go around?

[Dfthu]

3 hours ago, damerell said:

I mean, what supplies electric charge to make the wheels go around?

Oh. There's 8 RTGs inside the cargobay in case the solar panels are blocked by something. I also have 12 little solar panels on the back. If you look at Leg one pictures during Eve landing, you can see the panels.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Dfthu

[damerell]

That seems a sensible design with the RTG backup. I've got a bigger RTG in some mod with a similar mass/power ratio to the stock one, which means I don't need the same part count for an emergency power source, but of course that's abandoning stock parts.

[SpaceplaneAddict]

How do you plan on crossing stretches of "water"?

[Dfthu]

7 hours ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

How do you plan on crossing stretches of "water"?

I wont cross it. Ill just drive across these little interconnected islands on the side of the ocean.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Dfthu

[SpaceplaneAddict]

44 minutes ago, Dfthu said:

I wont cross it. Ill just drive across these little interconnected islands on the side of the ocean.

Not all of them are interconnected

[Dfthu]

Yea. I'm going to plan carefully.