Obscure Underwater Kerbin Easter Egg? Join the search!

[DAL59]

In altitude maps of Kerbin, a smiley face is visible is in the south west sea.  

While I'm not the first to notice this, I don't believe anyone has actually taken a submarine there.  Could there be a fifth monolith or something else?  

Edited September 14, 2017 by DAL59

[FungusForge]

I actually have taken a sub down there.

https://imgur.com/a/zlIEf

Dunno if the utter lack of visible terrain down there has been fixed since I tried it. However, I didn't thoroughly explore it, as it was hardly visible from the map view, and the aforementioned invisible terrain.

[KerikBalm]

No, you're not the first, its been known for a long time and its on the wiki:

https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/List_of_easter_eggs#Kerbin

No spoiler tags because the title itself has the words easter egg in it:

Quote

In the ocean just south of the KSC, about midway between land and the southern ice cap (about 30° 0′ 0″ S 80° 0′ 0″ W), engraved into the ocean floor is a giant smiley face, best seen from orbit or on a topography map like File:Kerbin heightmap.jpg. Also surprisingly it's really close to kerbin a lowest trench according to kerbal maps. 

 

[Silverwood]

I did not now there were things under the sea. Amazing! 

How do you get a submarine by the way?

Keith

[Xyphos]

50 minutes ago, Silverwood said:

How do you get a submarine by the way?

looks like mod parts, I reconize the infernal robotics arm underneath, never seen the other parts tho.

more importantly is how he managed to get a kerbal to plant a flag, usually when my kerbals EVA underwater, they float up to the surface.

 

[MrChumley]

The yellow sub parts are @RoverDude 's otter submarine parts.

 

On the old thread it said it got bundled with the above pack.

[selfish_meme]

3 hours ago, Silverwood said:

I did not now there were things under the sea. Amazing! 

How do you get a submarine by the way?

Keith

You don't need sub parts, stock parts will do

 

[DAL59]

There's seaweed!!!  I'll have to go add that to the easter egg wiki page.  

[nascarlaser1]

5 minutes ago, DAL59 said:

There's seaweed!!!  I'll have to go add that to the easter egg wiki page.  

I think that may be a visual mod he is using.

[DAL59]

Actually, its not really an easter egg, because the cacti/trees aren't easter eggs.  Still something interesting though. 

[Galileo]

The seaweed is from KSPRC if I'm not mistaken.

[Scarecrow]

23 hours ago, Silverwood said:

I did not now there were things under the sea. Amazing! 

How do you get a submarine by the way?

Keith

I agree with selfish_meme, you don't need mod parts to build a submarine.  I built this one in stock a few versions ago, but I have just downloaded it again from Dropbox, and it still works in 1.3

 

 

[Silverwood]

Ok - and do the engines work as well? Or do you need some special systems?

I and going to try this afternoon though!

[something]

For some reason, jet engines and air intakes seem to work perfectly below see level....

[Silverwood]

Ok - but how do you get the sub to submerge?

[something]

46 minutes ago, Silverwood said:

Ok - but how do you get the sub to submerge?

I think filled Ore tanks have a higher density than water...

 

 

[Kerbal101]

@Silverwood As MrChumley said, get USI exploration package. If you want your Kerbalnauts to walk on the seabed, get KIS/KAS installed and then toss something heavy into the backpack before going EVA.

With stock parts you will have problems balancing as they miss water intake for ballast support; will need to rely on (unrealistic fact of) jet engines for underwater travel + staying underwater; and fuel problems, as USI underwater propeller is electric powered, with a small nuclear reactor in the cabin.

[selfish_meme]

2 hours ago, Silverwood said:

Ok - but how do you get the sub to submerge?

You use ballast like filled ore tanks to make your craft heavy, also opening and closing cargo bays and service bays changes their buoyancy allowing you to control sinking and rising. Stock propellers do not work well as you will see if you download my sub, but jets work fine

https://kerbalx.com/SelfishMeme/KAe-Deep-Sea-Vehicle

[Ty Tan Tu]

There is this strange little glitch I discovered with a poorly designed boat that tended to have its nose pushed down at higher speeds. I think it most be Unity, but between the surface view and the underwater view, there is this tiny angle where you can see the floor of the ocean crystal clear (with clipping at a distance). Here is a picture. The dot in the center left is actually the boat and sea level. I am well off the coast from KSC and almost out to the under sea ridge.

Edited September 15, 2017 by Ty Tan Tu

[NSEP]

Yeah i might go there with a sub and build a base

Who knows, maybe there is GOLD there?

[XLjedi]

You don't have to use ore tanks for a sub.  It's possible to build a positive buoyancy sub with dynamic dive planes...  like this one:

...and you could fly this one to the location with a seaplane if you like.

https://kerbalx.com/XLjedi/UV-14-Barracuda

 

 

 

[Silverwood]

Ok I will try this one then.

Your designs look great by the way.

 

[DAL59]

This isn't a challenge- you don't have to actually pilot the subs there(they're very slow and would take several hours- or even days- of real time.(Maybe I should make a sub speed challenge))  The more people who search, the greater the chance of finding another Easter Egg!  

[XLjedi]

3 hours ago, DAL59 said:

This isn't a challenge- you don't have to actually pilot the subs there(they're very slow and would take several hours- or even days- of real time.(Maybe I should make a sub speed challenge))  The more people who search, the greater the chance of finding another Easter Egg!  

I took my sub there from the KSC and returned in a single mission... didn't take long at all.  You just need the right sub and support craft.  For the mission below, it was in fact for a posted challenge.

https://imgur.com/a/E8Apw

In response to your OP though, I believe the smiley marks the deepest part of the Kerbin ocean.  I labelled it Challenger Deep in my mission.  If you consider an Easter egg to be the deepest part of the ocean, then I s'pose it's an egg.  OH... and I found out the Kraken lives there.  I took a picture of it winking at me.

Edit:  I just put the sub out there with Hyperedit and the lowest part of Kerbin's Ocean is in the lower part of the Smiley's right eye, or the left eye as we view it on your map.  The coordinates are Lat: -28.905, Long: -83.1116 and the depth is supposed to be -1388m.  

Here's a pic on the approach to the area.  The outline of the Smiley covers such a large area as to not be visible when you're actually onsite.  Everything is just smooth cascading slopes.

I put my landing gear down so I could skim along the bottom.  I figure add 2 meters to any reading I get with the front wheel touching the ocean floor.  ...and here's a pic near the actual "Challenger Deep" marker which was set for -1380m at the above mentioned coordinates.

I got a reading with the front wheel down of -1386m so I figure the actual depth report of -1388 is probably accurate for this spot.  I'm within 85m of the target marker placed at Lat: -28.905, Long: -83.1116, depth -1380

I then proceeded to drive south for about 10km and just noticed a gradual climb to about 1200m depth.  I figure at some point I probably crossed into the mouth area of the smiley, but again didn't notice much other than gracefully sloping terrain.

Edited September 15, 2017 by XLjedi

[DAL59]

What about the eyes of the smily?