Spacek's Elcano Mission.

[SpaceK531]

Elcano is the hip thing to do nowdays, it seems. Here's mine.

11 July 2016 : Initial Design

Before the original Elcano challenge was posted in 2015, there was the no-rules circumnavigation challenge. Unlike Elcano, where the spirit is the most important part, the no-rules circumnavigation challenge was all about results.

I decided that instead of circumnavigation using depressed trajectories and rockets, I decided I was going to do a water circumnavigation. I got about halfway around Kerbin before deciding to do other things, then KSP changed parts and all hope of completing that circumnavigation was lost. This circumnavigation attempt can be read about at its original post.

Even though I stopped, and I can no longer complete the original circumnavigation that I set out to do, I still want to complete a water circumnavigation.

Through last night and this morning, I worked hard on designing a ship that could work as well as my original ship even with the new water physics. Here are snapshots of that journey:

12 July 2016: The first leg

What a wild first leg I had! The journey can be divided into three parts: High-Speed Watercraft long pontoon, Inasta and Inasta II, and Inasta III.

The first leg was High-Speed watercraft long pontoon, the test boat.

High-Speed Watercraft long pontoon made a good first leg but was not fit for a full circumnavigation because kerbals cannot re-enter the craft if they leave, which makes flag-planting impossible. Also, the proper opening ceremony had not been made. I officially start the circumnavigation with Inasta.

Alright, so, actually Inasta II was the real start of the journey because it's the only one I haven't lost progress on, but I already need to send a recovery craft.

Finally made it to the end of leg one.

13 July 2016: Refueling before the second leg

I present to you General Refueling Aircraft, purpose-built to refuel Inasta III (yes, I know). Stage separates the klaw, 1 toggles klaw arming, and RCS toggles reverse thrust (R for Reverse Thrust of course). The design shown is actually the second iteration, as I have no pictures of its first iteration. The only difference is the addition of struts on the wings.

Lets refuel Inasta III:

 

Hopefully I complete this voyage before I die.

Edited July 14, 2016 by SpaceK531

[Geschosskopf]

Good luck!

[Maverick_aus]

Looks like you're having fun. 

[SpaceK531]

13 hours ago, Maverick_aus said:

Looks like you're having fun. 

Hopefully I don't have too much fun, the challenge might become unbearable!

[Claw]

Haha, awesome mission so far. It's one of those things that's maddening and ridiculous at the same time. "Drive around the planet, what?!"

That's a pretty elaborate setup. Looking forward to seeing how it proceeds. Good luck!!

[SpaceK531]

17 hours ago, Claw said:

It's one of those things that's maddening and ridiculous at the same time.

Well, I tried it before and things worked out really well the first time (link in the OP). This time things are just not coming together.

I'll show you:

14 July 2016: Second leg setout and The Screamin' Tortoise II, III, and 1.1

I realized there was a better way to refuel Inasta III than the side. Here's what happened:

 

I present to you The Screamin' Tortoise, a craft I devised on a whim between Inasta III making landfall and the first refueling attempt. It can reach over 80 m/s over water when fuel is low, which is good because I'm kinda impatient (but you couldn't tell from all the missions I've attempted in this challenge). This pic shows me playing with the balancing of fuel to eek a few 0.1 m/s out of it.

Now, some of you may be saying, "but wait, replacement craft should be the same or similar!" Whether or not what I am doing is in the Spirit Of Elcano is, of course, up to Claw as the proctor of the challenge. Here's my interpretation of the replacement craft rule: the rule is written so that you can't replace a plains rover with a mountain rover, or replace a land vehicle with an amphibious vehicle by delivering it to the current circumnavigation position. Dispatching a vehicle of a different design and having it progress under its own power is fine, because the new vehicle and potential same/similar replacements will have then clocked enough miles to count as having circumnavigated.

Now, the folly of moving the goalposts: sometimes you can improve things and sometimes you can't. Here's an example of where trying to improve things just doesn't pan out.

Alright, so The Screamin' Tortoise II did not fare so well. I thought that perhaps the issue was the tanks, so I reconfigured it to the original prizewinning shape, hoping that would be enough to get those nice speeds I had experienced earlier.

I knew I had a winning design with The Screamin' Tortoise 1.1, so the next day I completed the first leg.

15 July 2016: leg 1 of The Screamin' Tortoise 1.1

This time I won't let The Screamin' Tortoise 1.1 crash. Definitely.

Incidentally enough, there's a Squad developer proctoring this challenge.

Next up: developing and deploying refueling spots, and Leg 2 (finally).

[Maverick_aus]

Some interesting design work there in the different craft. Carry on mate. 

[Claw]

3 hours ago, SpaceK531 said:

Now, some of you may be saying, "but wait, replacement craft should be the same or similar!"

Well, I would say the replacement vehicles are becoming substantially different than the original design. However, you are delivering them by driving them to the replacement site (vice air delivery or some other means). Since they are kerballed and being driven to the previous crash site, you're still good!  

[SpaceK531]

It's been a few days, hasn't it.

And what a few days it has been.

16 July 2016: Lets set up refueling spots.

While piloting the Inastas and Screamin' Tortoises is invigorating fun, there comes a time in any watercraft's life where it needs more fuel. This album details the experimentation that went into making sure a viable fuel source for The Screamin' Tortoise 1.1 is available.

17 July 2016: moving the refuel spots into position

Unlike my last circumnavigation attempt, which you can read about as a linked thread in the OP, Elcano frowns on hyperediting fuel spots into position. This means they have to be delivered.

18 July 2016: Housekeeping

There's been quite a few things going on before The Screamin' Tortoise 1.1 made it to camp 1. The unwritten (until now) rules of this expedition are: I can't leave fuel left out in the wild, and any kerbal that's sent out has to be back at the KSC for the completion ceremony. This means that no kerbals may die. Here's me trying to take care of these things.

19 July 2016: Finally, Leg 2!

Well, after running aground, I discovered that I had no useful quicksaves, but I did save before departing for General Refueling Aircraft in The Screamin' Tortoise. Lets try that again, and try to make some progress at the same time.

20 July 2016: Innortal's Time Loops: KSP Death Loops

Quicksaving in flight on craft that have intersecting parts may not be the best idea.

21 July 2016: Maybe make some progress today!

The best laid plans of mice and men... I did not save the game at all. While I did not want to refuel General Refueling Aircraft, I also did not want to go back and re-do all the housekeeping in a more efficient order. Maybe today I will get some circumnavigation under the belt.

What a grand adventure I'm having!

Edited July 24, 2016 by SpaceK531

[damerell]

Who refuels the refuellers, indeed.