The Elkano challenge (all versions accepted!)

[Ho Lam Kerman]

On 6/8/2019 at 10:36 PM, DRAG0Nmon said:

Ho Lam Kerman, that is amazing. Did you find the Curiosity camera arm stuck in the rock?

 

Yes, it's in a spoiler. I visited every anomaly on Duna.

[DRAG0Nmon]

Still accepting entries?

[Speeding Mullet]

As this is a Heritage Challenge and OP is kicking about still, I feel honored to announce my completion of a Duna Elcano!  It initially started as an entry to one of @Death Engineering's fantastic challenges, and as such the mission report is in large part a Duna Von Braun mission, but I threw in an Impromptu Elcano as well

Mission Statistics:

• Version - Stock 1.7.0
• Wet weight - 198.585t
• Dry weight - 124.575t
• Total mission cost - 293,809 snacks
• Propellant mass fraction - 0.3726867588
• Mass per crew - 33.0975
• Science points - This is not a science mission

Crew Manifest:

• Gusbert Kerman - Scientist
• Hans Kerman - Scientist
• Kagas Kerman - Pilot
• Ragas Kerman - Pilot
• Endous Kerman - Engineer
• Dudgar Kerman - Engineer

Here's a couple of photos to whet the appetite:

 

SM - Had fun!

[minerbat]

did anyone complete this challenge on every world? and is it still open? i am thinking of doing every heritage challenge on the highest tier... no idea if i am doing that but i am thinking about it...

[rkarmark]

1 hour ago, minerbat said:

did anyone complete this challenge on every world? and is it still open? i am thinking of doing every heritage challenge on the highest tier... no idea if i am doing that but i am thinking about it...

Claw (former staff member afaik) did it on every planet and moon in the stock game.

 

While I am not actively managing it you are more than welcome to try it out. Do it for your own enjoyment though, no prize other than bragging rights. Remember this will take a long time since you can basically only do rover speed/boat speed since flying isn't allowed.

Edited August 9, 2020 by rkarmark

[GKSP]

I just sent out my second-ever manned Duna expedition.  In the six-ship fleet a rover is one of the primary payloads.  I might try my hand there over the next months.

[Kerminator K-100]

Hey @rkarmark I made a chart with the average times to complete this challenge:

This could be useful on the OP to give potential challengers a sense of how big a commitment this is.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Kerminator1000
Typo in picture

[Kerminator K-100]

On 8/9/2020 at 11:33 AM, rkarmark said:

While I am not actively managing it you are more than welcome to try it out. Do it for your own enjoyment though, no prize other than bragging rights. Remember this will take a long time since you can basically only do rover speed/boat speed since flying isn't allowed.

Wait, does this mean you can't get a badge?

[rocketengineer1982]

On 8/26/2020 at 5:26 PM, Kerminator1000 said:

Wait, does this mean you can't get a badge?

@Kerminator1000  I'll be claiming my badge (Kerbin, land) when I finish.  The list of people who have completed circumnavigations in the first post hasn't been updated in years, so I wouldn't take it as an "official list" of who's completed the challenge and is entitled to a badge.

Side note:  @rkarmark Does that mean that you're looking for a new manager for this challenge?

Edited August 31, 2020 by rocketengineer1982

[Teilnehmer]

On 8/26/2020 at 9:05 PM, Kerminator1000 said:

You’ve accidentally written Pol’s radius instead of its equatorial circumference.

Pol

276460

13823

231

4

 

[Kerminator K-100]

7 hours ago, Teilnehmer said:

You’ve accidentally written Pol’s radius instead of its equatorial circumference.

Woops, fixing that now

[Nantares]

can I post my entry in my own mission report thread?, or i have to post both

[FahmiRBLX]

4 minutes ago, Nantares said:

can I post my entry in my own mission report thread?, or i have to post both

To be safe, you have to post both, or keep priority on this thread first, then the Mission Report.

Or you could copy the whole post (yes, Edit Mode then copy everything) and paste it here as a post.

Edited September 4, 2020 by FahmiRBLX
Danggit typo, was typing on one hand

[king of nowhere]

I was on laythe with a boat for a jool 5 science run (i'm writing about it in mission reports), so i decided, since i was there, i may as well get an elcano too

here is my boat

what? you're saying that's not a boat but a plane?

let's see: it is a floating vehicle, it moves on water... so it's a boat. according to the dictionary, a boat is a small vessel for travel on water, this thing is for travel on water, so it is a boat.

but it can fly too. so what?  it's a flying boat!

Jokes aside, i like my vehicles to be adaptable to multiple functions. this is a space seaplane, i flew around the planet to get all the biomes, now i will sail it to get an elcano. propulsion is by propellers, nuclear-powered by 7 rtg, so i don't have to worry about refueling. I can keep a cruise speed a bit above 50 m/s, so hopefully this won't take too long

this is my start, 1 N 158 E. "ammarato" means "landed on water" in italian and it confirms that the plane is, indeed, being used as boat.since there are no obstacles over the ocean, i basically kept the game open in background while i was doing something else.

Spoiler

here i just realized that my "boat" is swerving southward. from then on, i kept checking and making course corrections every few minutes. when i forgot about it, i deviated from the equator significantly

obligatory cockpit scenery porn

Now I encounter land. luckily, my plane-spaceship-boat can also be used as rover

though driving like that does require my constant attention

here i took a bump and went soaring. but i choose my speed so as to not fly accidentally.

spotting tylo in the night sky

and this is vall

back on land again

 

and here i am, where i started, 18 hours later.

even though i spent most of the time not paying attention to the game, it was still quite exhausting. i have a rover that completed half a circuit of vall for the biomes, and i don't think i'm going to complete that. too long.

Edited May 22, 2023 by king of nowhere

[Matuchkin]

Small confirmation on the modded engine rule: are the small electric ductfans from KAX permissible for this challenge?

I am asking this because, while they do not utilize exotic or unrealistically efficient fuels, they simply have infinite fuel as electricity is a fairly simple issue to take care of, whether with solar panel or RTG spam.

EDIT: And also: I understand that this thread is old (and that I have frequented it before), but somehow I never thought of asking about the actual definitions of circumnavigation used, and cannot see valid definitions in the opening post. If I were to travel a path that would be considered a circumnavigation by any real life competitive/exploration association or body, would this automatically be considered a circumnavigation within the challenge's ruleset?

Edited December 1, 2020 by Matuchkin

[minerbat]

i did minmus! this will probably be a thing i do in school breaks the next couple of years...

 

Spoiler

launching with a weird looking fairing

jeb and bob are leaving

enjoying the view

weird glitchy line i encountered

the best thing of doing the elkano on minmus is the jumping  of steep cliffs at 30 m/s (and jetpacking around the rover and try to get back on the seat before you hit the ground )

meanwhile kerbol is setting at the start ship where bill is patiently waything for jeb and bob to return

three quarters of the way there

it feels good when the craft gets within 100 km and you see the indicator appearing

only the last flats to go

nearly there...

i can see the ship!

we are back! also don't worry about the flag...

when bob left the rover it started flipping like crazy and exploded so i couldn't take all the surface samples i had gathered with me ... stupid kraken!

after a quick flight back to kerbin, here we are!!!

plenty of flags

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by minerbat

[GKSP]

3 hours ago, minerbat said:

i did minmus! this will probably be a thing i do in school breaks the next couple of years...

Nice job!  Minmus was my first and I faced many kraken attacks when going super duper fast so I learned to quicksave often.  I'll probably start a new sandbox in 1.11 so I'll lose its reminders but I have plenty of debris left over.

[18Watt]

@rkarmark, I just completed a stock circumnavigation of Laythe.  I hadn't done that since about v0.9 or so, so figured why not?   My vessel is basically a MK2 fuselage with a Wheelsy for propulsion and a lawn chair for a Kerbal to sit in.   I used a 100% stock game, no mods.   Here's my basic route-

This'll be a longish post, so I'll try to figure out how to use spoilers..  First one is the boat design:

Spoiler

I used to go big with boats, bringing everything including the kitchen sink.   This time I went the other way, basically an airboat with a single seat.   I actually started out tinkering with a propeller-driven airboat design, however propellers don't play well with physics time warp, so that got axed pretty quick.  This actually isn't my first Laythe circumnavigation, here's the design criteria I use.

• Must have long range.  In other words fuel-efficient.   Needs to go 725km+ without refueling.   Turboprops would be great, but...
• Must go fairly fast, I shoot for 70m/s.
• Must be able to use physics time warp safely, 4X if possible.   Again, propellers don't play nice with time warp.   So, I used the Wheelsy jet engine.

I started with a pontoon or catamaran design.   I was getting close to my design goals, when fate intervened.   I accidentally plopped my refueling plane into the ocean during testing.   It turned out to be more efficient and stable in the water than the pontoon boat I had been tweaking for a few days!   Back to the drawing board, I ended up liking a basic MK2 fuselage.   Here's where I ended up with my design goals:

• Range on Laythe of 900km+
• Top speed of ~85m/s
• Can use 4X time warp at any speed!

Although it could hit 80m/s, it didn't have the range I needed at those speeds.   I found I could get about 900km with an average speed of ~50m/s, starting out (heavy) at ~40m/s, ending up around 60m/s when lighter.   During my actual circumnavigation, I only hit speeds over 75m/s on the final (short) leg.   Anyway, here's the boat I used:

Next up, Getting To Laythe:

Spoiler

I was able to launch both the boat and the refueling-plane on the same rocket.   After refueling in orbit of Kerbin, it had plenty of dV to reach Jool.   Mounting the boat to the rocket was a real pain, because I needed to get rid of the coupler from the boat- otherwise there was too much drag in the water.   That's another story, I ended up getting the job done.   Mounting the plane was easier, because I didn't care about having a coupler stuck to the belly, the air drag is negligible.   Gotta keep the belly of the boat clean though.

The launch vehicle looks like it would be awkward to get to orbit, but it's actually one of the easiest rockets to get to orbit I've built!   One key was carefully making the boat and refueling plane have almost exactly the same mass, to keep the rocket balanced.   I did that by altering the fuel load in each vehicle- neither one of them would need a full load of fuel on arrival.   I managed to get the whole thing to a 150X150km orbit, with 2243 dV remaining.   Not enough to reach Jool, but not bad either.

After refueling, I hit a patch of really good luck.   First off, I figured I'd have to wait a year or so for a good transfer window.   Nope!   Literally the day I finished refueling there was a transfer opportunity that would work with my dV.   Next, I managed to get a Tylo encounter right off the bat, which usually takes a lot of fiddling to get.   Even better, I also managed to get a Laythe encounter right after Tylo!   It wasn't ideal in terms of dV, but was a real time-saver.

Once the assembly reaches Laythe, I decouple the refueling plane, and leave it in orbit.   The boat is still attached to the delivery rocket, which brings them into the atmosphere.   Every time I bring a boat to Laythe, the best description for the arrival is a Big Belly Flop- it's not pretty.   But, it worked, I ended up with the boat just a few km from a shore.   I bring the refueling plane down after completing the first leg.   Here's some shots of the launch vehicle:

Next spoiler:  MISSION LOGS:

Spoiler

Mission Logs, brief timeline of the voyage.

• Y3 d287 - Launch from KSC, 150X150km orbit.   2243 dV remaining.
• Y3 d288 - Meet a tanker for refueling.  Burn for Jool, get both a Tylo and Laythe encounter.
• Y4 d193 - Mid-course correction, tweak Tylo and Laythe encounters.
• Y7 d83 - Arrive at Jool's SOI.
• Y7 d139 - Tylo flyby.
• Y7 d140 - Small correction burn halfway between Tylo and Laythe.
• Y7 d141 - Hit Laythe's SOI, make a 90X90km orbit with 1,000 dV left!  Separate refueling plane.  Boat and rocket enter atmosphere, successful splashdown (of the boat..). Blow off radial-decouplers which held 'chutes, no damage to the boat.
• Y7 d141 - 15.50N/171.04W, plant flag for START.  Flag falls over (due to bug in 1.11).  Depart for first leg.
• Y7 d141 - 25.34N/124.38W, arrive at Stop # 1.  Great-circle distance 389km.  
• Y7 d143 - De-orbit refueling plane, land near the boat, begin refueling.  (takes about 3 days to refuel..)
• Y7 d148 - Pass through the 'west eyeball' of the smiley-face, stop because it's dark.
• Y7 d 150 - 23.04S/52.78W, arrive at Stop #2.  Yes, there is a really small island there.  Great-circle dist. 738km.  Actual distance probably much greater because my navigation sucked on that leg, see the diagram.  Fly the plane from Stop #1 to refuel the boat.
• Y7 d157 - 39.66S/64.89E, arrive at stop # 3.  Great-circle dist. 825km!  Longest leg of the circumnavigation.
• Y7 d163 - 06.04S/160.81E, arrive at Stop # 4.  Great-circle dist. 794km.  That was a long stretch also.
• Y7 d 168 - Arrive back at the START.  The flag is still laying on the ground, some weird bug with 1.11.  Great-circle distance of last leg was 307km, actual distance probably much higher because I had to go around an island, see diagram above.
• Total great-circle distance (of legs added together) was 3,054km.  Due to navigation errors and avoiding islands, I estimate total distance covered was about 3,500km.

Next spoiler: Screenshots of the waypoints:

Spoiler

The START-

Stop # 1-

Pass through west 'eyeball' of smiley-face-

Stop # 2-  There's a really small island right there.

Stop # 3-

Stop # 4-  I'm so close!  But, I didn't have enough fuel left to make it back to the START, so stopped for fuel here.

Back at the START!  The flag is on the ground due to a bug with 1.11.  Also, now that the Kerbals have an inventory system, I guess each one only gets one flag.  Normally I would leave flags all over the planet (or moon) to mark my trail, but the Kerbal I brought only had one flag.

And finally, some Random Screenshots:

Spoiler

Passing Tylo-

Ok, so here's what's going to happen.  When it's safe, I'll deploy the 'chutes.  Then I'll decouple the big rocket, hopefully it will fall away from the boat and not hit it.  Then the boat will parachute safely to the ocean.  If it looks like I will hit land, I'll deploy the wheels and hope for the best.  Fingers crossed, this is always an ugly procedure.  It worked out fine, but luck played a part..

Refueling plane coming in from orbit.  The red square is my boat, waiting to be refueled.  This entry worked out pretty well, I ended up almost exactly where I needed to be.

Yikes!  One of Laythe's geysers was located just offshore, and went off right in front of me.

Refueling plane on the way to fill up the boat.  It attaches to the boat via a Klaw Jr, which is mounted on robotic parts- servo, hinge, piston.  No rover wheels, the wheels are aircraft wheels, so maneuvering is tricky.  The Wheelsy engine does have reverse thrust, but it's still tricky.  The MK2 cargo bay contains two small drills (they suck!), the small ISRU converter (it sucks too!!), an RTG, a big fuel-cell, two big solar panels, a small probe-core, small SAS, two small ore tanks, and a passive radiator.  It's not an efficient ISRU machine, even with an engineer (the boat pilot..).  But, it got the job done.  Easy to land and fly.  Actually very hard to take-off, the Wheelsy engine is too close to the ground.  The two tiny rockets are to de-orbit it, because it doesn't come down with the boat.  They don't add significant drag, so I didn't bother trying to make them de-couple.

 

 

[18Watt]

@rkarmark, howdy!  I just completed a lap around Dres.   This time the vessel was a lot easier to construct, just a buggy with two seats.   The trip actually served another purpose, I was scouting for high-concentration ore deposits.  Didn't find any (but I haven't been to the poles yet..).   I traveled along the equator, going west-bound.   That direction worked out well, I basically chased the sun all the way around Dres, and completed the circuit without it ever getting dark.  Took a little over 1 Kerbin day.  (but took me 3 real days..)

The biggest challenge was the boring terrain.   After that (in my Darth Vader voice), I find Dres's lack of gravity disturbing.   Makes it difficult to reach high speeds in a ground buggy.   Although the flip side is that it's really easy to land ships on the surface.

The Buggy:

Spoiler

The buggy is pretty basic.   4 wheels, two lawn-chairs, and a probe core.   Power is from two batteries, recharged by 4 RTGs.   There's a medium reaction wheel and some science experiments.  

The reaction wheel is sufficient to flip the buggy over, even on Kerbin, so it was plenty for Dres.   I didn't really need 4 RTGs, that was overkill.   Building out of structural panels worked well, the thing is nearly indestructible.

Oh.  Yeah, it's gold too.   Be honest, who wouldn't want to drive a solid-gold golf cart?

This next photo is from the end of the drive around Dres.   All parts still there.

Getting there:

Spoiler

I mounted it to the top of a tanker design I use a lot.   Tanker has ISRU with 2 drills, a Science Lab, and seating for 13.   After refueling at Minmus, it has plenty of dV to reach Jool (or Dres).   Uses 4 KS-25 engines.   The solid boosters are just to get it off the pad, I drop them off long before reaching orbit.

Refueling at Minmus with the drills and ISRU.   After Minmus, I burn to solar (Kerbol) orbit, and burn to Dres.

Here's my starting point, roughly 180E or 180W.   Getting the buggy off the rocket is not a pretty maneuver.   I retract the rocket's solar panels, then decouple the buggy.   Then I rock it back and forth with the reaction wheel until it falls off, and plops to the ground.   It's a long drop, but the buggy is tough.

Mission Logs:

Spoiler

Not much to report for mission logs.   Basically went to Dres, did the long, boring drive around it.

• Y37 d72 - Launch from KSC, to 110X110km orbit of Kerbin.   Burn to Minmus for refueling.
• Y37 d74 - Mid-course correction to Minmus.
• Y37 d82 - Land Minmus, start refueling.
• Y37 d98 - Reach solar (Kerbol) orbit.
• Y37 d396 - Burn to Dres.
• Y38 d205 - Mid-course correction burn to Dres.
• Y39 d167 - Land on Dres, 8.77S/179.43E.   Start from here, heading west.
• Y39 d167-168 - Stop every 20deg Longitude to place a KerbNet marker.   Not gonna bore you with each one.   For the most part I stayed within a degree or two of the equator, although I did venture off course to check out a deep canyon, and also to swing by another ship which happened to also be on Dres at the time.
• y39 d168 - Complete voyage, back at the starting point.   No damage.   Not even a flat tire.  I brought 8 repair kits, just in case, but turned out didn't need any of them.

Random Supporting Screenshots:

Spoiler

Here's a shot of the buggy airborne.   Due to the low gravity, the car spent a lot of time airborne.   I did not have any rockets or RCS or anything, so the time spent in the air was only due to 'jumping'.   It actually severely limited the speed, it was hard to get much over 30m/s before the buggy bounced in the air.   With no thrusters, when the buggy is airborne there is no way to accelerate.

I took a detour a few degrees south to check out a canyon.

I think this was my worst wipe-out of the trip, although it probably doesn't look very spectacular.   I hit a rock or something, and the buggy bounced straight up.   In the photo, notice that I ended up 241m off the ground, with almost no lateral velocity.   So, from there it was a straight drop from a height of 241m!   Yes, the buggy survived.   And I drove a little more carefully.   For about 2 minutes..

Back at the start, end of the voyage.   I have a lot more screenshots, but they all look the same.   A gold buggy on a grey planet.   Blah.

Here's a screenshot of the KerbNet markers I placed during the journey.   They are placed about every 20deg of longitude.   I don't think I ever got more than 10deg from the equator.   Never did find great ore concentrations, might check out the poles next.

 

[Popestar]

So, I want to get clarification here.  No drones/automated rovers, right?  A Kerbal must be present on the craft at all times for the circumnavigation?

[18Watt]

23 hours ago, Popestar said:

So, I want to get clarification here.  No drones/automated rovers, right?  A Kerbal must be present on the craft at all times for the circumnavigation?

That is the second rule of the challenge.

Quote

The vehicle must be Kerballed during the circumnavigation.

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by 18Watt

[Popestar]

21 hours ago, 18Watt said:

That is the second rule of the challenge.

 

Yeah, I saw that.  But, I also didn't read through every post in this thread, and the possibility exists that the rule was updated in a post but not the rules themselves.  Hence, why I asked. 

[damerell]

On 12/30/2020 at 8:43 AM, 18Watt said:

 

  Hide contents

I think this was my worst wipe-out of the trip, although it probably doesn't look very spectacular.   I hit a rock or something, and the buggy bounced straight up.   In the photo, notice that I ended up 241m off the ground, with almost no lateral velocity.   So, from there it was a straight drop from a height of 241m!   Yes, the buggy survived.   And I drove a little more carefully.   For about 2 minutes..

 

I spent a lot of time on Minmus, well, not actually on Minmus. The almost complete lack of traction means once you eventually are up to speed, there is no prospect of braking. My later low-g rovers mounted nose thrusters.

[Claw]

On 8/9/2020 at 11:33 AM, rkarmark said:

Claw (former staff member afaik) did it on every planet and moon in the stock game.

@minerbat I'm late to the party but yep, that was me. @Thalamask was hot on my heels, but I don't think he completed.

 I'm not sure if I want to think about or admit to how much time it took. But it's definitely possible (see links to the Grand Elcano mission in my signature, though some of the content is broken due to age). If you have any questions, let me know. Good luck!!

 

On 1/9/2021 at 2:06 PM, Popestar said:

So, I want to get clarification here.  No drones/automated rovers, right?  A Kerbal must be present on the craft at all times for the circumnavigation?

Since it's in legacy mode, I guess I can weigh in. The spirit of the challenge was to take a kerbal along with (no drone). And for the player to drive it (not automated). So it wasn't intended that one would simply make a rover, turn on an autopilot, then go to bed. If that makes sense?

It's a long, long journey (I know). But that's part of the core of the challenge. Also, there's actually quite a lot to see along the way if you look for it.

Edited January 29, 2021 by Claw

[Popestar]

5 minutes ago, Claw said:

Since it's in legacy mode, I guess I can weigh in. The spirit of the challenge was to take a kerbal along with (no drone). And for the player to drive it (not automated). So it wasn't intended that one would simply make a rover, turn on an autopilot, then go to bed. If that makes sense?

It's a long, long journey (I know). But that's part of the core of the challenge. Also, there's actually quite a lot to see along the way if you look for it.

Makes perfect sense.  But as I don't use Autopilot, preferring to drive the rovers myself, I had to ask.  If a Kerb has to be on it, then I'll have to craft something with the external command seat!