The Kerb-ball Run: Driving From KSC to KSC2/Baikerbanur on Only Fuel Cells.

[MattJL]

A disastrous disco-themed Take Your Kids to Work Day has resulted in the destruction of all the solar panels stored at Kerbal Space Center!  With a high-profile launch coming up too quickly to make new ones, and the entire ground crew boogieing down with the sudden plethora of disco balls, it's up to one unwilling Kerbal to drive out to the stockpile kept at the second Space Center at Baikerbanur, over 2,000 kilometers away!

The challenge is, on the surface, simple:  Build a car or other wheeled vehicle and drive from KSC to Baikerbanur (also called "KSC 2," "Inland Space Center," or "Inland KSC"), which is located at 20° 39′ 26″ N, 146° 25′ 14″ W.  (Don't worry, I've included a map in this post, second picture in my demonstration run - it's at the end of the red line).  (ADDENDUM:  Thanks to help from @James Kerman, I now have a straight-line distance estimate of 763,962 m, though that is mostly over water.  I'll try to work out the great-circle distance over the next couple days).  However, it wouldn't be a challenge without some rules.

Your vehicle must:

• Use fuel cells (and thus liquid oxidizer/liquid fuel) as a power source.
• Use said fuel cells as a power source for the majority of the trip.
• Remain on land for the majority of the trip (limited water crossing is allowed).
• Drive the complete distance from KSC to Baikerbanur.
• Have at least one Kerbal on board.

Your vehicle may:

• Use another source of propulsion for crossing bodies of water (i.e., jet engines).
• Use batteries to store electric charge.
• Use a command chair or a command pod of your choice (command chairs are encouraged!)
• Use mod parts (though nothing horribly unrealistic, like a fuel cell that converts 0.00001 units of fuel and oxidizer into 10000 units of electric charge), though see below.
• Refuel, though see below.
• Drop parts off along the way, like spent propellant tanks or unneeded pontoons.

Your vehicle may not:

• Use RTGs, solar panels, or related parts as a power source.
• Collect parts along the way (i.e., pick up a pontoon set that was "left behind" at the shoreline).
• Use another vehicle as assistance (i.e., dropped from a plane or sailed on a boat).
• Transfer your Kerbal to another vehicle (i.e., tag-teaming halfway there).

Reloading (F5/F9) is, of course, totally acceptable, but you get major props if you manage to do this all in one shot.  Required proof is limited to a nice and friendly Imgur album.  The start/finish line is considered to be the launch pad at both KSC and Baikerbanur, though leaving from the runway at KSC is fine as well.

There are two main categories to be judged:  Stock and Modded.  Vehicles built entirely out of stock parts, though in a save that features mods that don't otherwise alter the behavior of stock parts (i.e., Trajectories, SVE, texture replacements, the like) are considered to be Stock.

There are, likewise, two ways to win in this challenge:  Time Trial and Starting Mass.  Time Trial is exactly what it says on the tin - have the fastest possible drive time from KSC to Baikerbanur.  The current record is 1 day (6 hours) 34 minutes 25 seconds.  Refueling is not allowed for Time Trial contestants.  Starting Mass hopefuls simply have to have the lowest mass car, as given in the VAB/SPH readout.  The current record is 6.026 tons.  Refueling is allowed for Starting Mass contestants, whether by actually going to a "gas station" landed beforehand or using an ore refinery.  Savefile edits for refueling are not allowed.

Rule Tweak:  I'm really, really impressed with the mass of the cars so far, so I'm bending the rules a bit (for now) and judging all entrants against one another by starting mass in addition to how fast they make the run.

Extraplanetary Kerbball Runs (driving 2,000 km or more across another planet) are welcome, and will be judged as their own category.

Below is my demonstration run, to show that this is possible - albeit just barely!

https://imgur.com/a/eRk8d

Below is the leaderboard, which I'll try to update as soon as I can:

Time Trial (Stock)

• Urus28: 3 hr 59 m 27 s
• Marschig: 5 hr 6 m 39 s
• DoctorDavinci: 6 h 34 m 25 s
• Azimech: 6 h 35 m 17 s
• - -

Starting Mass (Stock)

• Marschig: 3.150 t
• Azimech: 4.270 t
• DoctorDavinci: 5.866 t
• Urus28: 13.897 t
• - -

Time Trial (Modded)

• - -
• - -
• - -
• - -
• - -

Starting Mass (Modded)

• - -
• - -
• - -
• - -
• - -

 

Safe Driving!

Edited December 21, 2017 by MattJL
Would someone be so kind as to tell me how to embed Imgur albums successfully? It's been too long. >__<

[Thor Wotansen]

Looks like fun, I might have a crack at it.

[GDJ]

I've done this in KSP 0.19 (stone age period of the game). I managed to make it in 9 hours with it's terrain and physics. It was tricky then.

Oh what the heck, I'm in! I'll just dig up one of my old vintage designs and run with it.

[Piatzin]

So we start at the KSC, and finish at the old/inland one? No round trip?

[Van Disaster]

Hm, last time I did this it was "as fast as possible" - something like an hour and 50m of near crashing iirc will investigate more, 0.23 was a long time ago.

Edit: 1h40m -

Most definitely not fuel cell powered though! be interesting what you can do with current stuff. Off to make a new install...

Edited November 13, 2017 by Van Disaster

[GDJ]

I think that classifies as a Necro Post. Over 4 years ago.

[Van Disaster]

6 minutes ago, GDJ said:

I think that classifies as a Necro Post. Over 4 years ago.

It's more a reference to a gravestone that was horribly long ago though.

[GDJ]

28 minutes ago, Van Disaster said:

It's more a reference to a gravestone that was horribly long ago though.

Yeah!

Ahh well, sometimes a visit to a grave tends to put things into perspective.

[MattJL]

Glad to see that people are interested in pulling this off.  I look forward to seeing your designs!

3 hours ago, Earthlinger said:

So we start at the KSC, and finish at the old/inland one? No round trip?

If you can do a round trip on fuel cells alone, I'll be extremely impressed.  Basically warrants its own category.

Edited November 13, 2017 by MattJL

[DoctorDavinci]

I'm in .... Gonna run my latest rover design and see if she can make it

I now present for your approval, the Dukes Jalopnik

DCK was used to paint her ... no other mods used (although I might use the MechJeb Rover Autopilot to drive it for me)

[MattJL]

2 hours ago, DoctorDavinci said:

I'm in .... Gonna run my latest rover design and see if she can make it

I now present for your approval, the Dukes Jalopnik

DCK was used to paint her ... no other mods used (although I might use the MechJeb Rover Autopilot to drive it for me)

Looks sharp!  Autopilot is fine, don't worry about that.

I'm assuming that you're aiming for the Time Trial class, or do you plan on refueling?

[DoctorDavinci]

Just now, MattJL said:

Looks sharp!  Autopilot is fine, don't worry about that.

I'm assuming that you're aiming for the Time Trial class, or do you plan on refueling?

No refueling ... a one shot drive there

I'm recording it as I type this ... about 2/3rd of the way to the water crossing atm

[DarkOwl57]

You know, this challenge sounds interesting! One problem... It's mine.

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by DarkOwl57

[MattJL]

1 hour ago, DoctorDavinci said:

No refueling ... a one shot drive there

I'm recording it as I type this ... about 2/3rd of the way to the water crossing atm

I look forward to your results!

26 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:

You know, this challenge sounds interesting! One problem... It's mine.

 

Oh, no!  Though I guess this is in some ways easier and some ways harder than that race, because it's only a one-way trip at the expense of being limited to, basically, just fuel cells.  And one vehicle vs three.

To my credit, this is the first time I've been on the forums since late April 2016 (and I haven't played since November 2015!).  I wasn't able to find anyone who had done a fuel cell-only run to KSC2, which is what inspired this challenge.  How do you propose remedying this?

[DoctorDavinci]

Just now, DarkOwl57 said:

You know, this challenge sounds interesting! One problem... It's mine.

 

An challenge from 6 month's ago that never took place doesn't make this your challenge ... It also says at the bottom of the 2nd page that the thread is old and to please consider making a new thread

Spoiler

On another note, Jeb went out in a blaze of glory when he got to about 40km from the water crossing ... The MJ Rover Autopilot work brilliantly and I've been managing a steady 45m/s on average

Need to re-plot my route as driving over mountains isn't such a good idea

I also realized that it will take around upwards of 2.5 hours to do the trip there (editing video that is that long can be a pain) ... So I will do it in chunks, stopping after about 30 minutes to save my progress and edit/upload the video, then continuing from where I left off in the next video and so on

 

 

[Van Disaster]

1 hour ago, DarkOwl57 said:

You know, this challenge sounds interesting! One problem... It's mine.

 

Except if you're going to be like that, then it's really GDJ's one I relinked from four years ago - in fact yours is nearer that than this one is nearer yours, given this one is fuel-cell specific.

[GDJ]

ENOUGH!

Both are dead challenges. Mine by 4 years, DarkOwl57's by at least 2/3 of a year. Consider them both dead challenges.
I for one was looking forward to submitting my entry into this one but if there is any more bickering about dead challenges I will get this challenge locked up.


It's done. Let it go. I did 4 years ago.

Now, can we get back to the challenge at hand? I have a Western-Star inspired tri-drive rig with aTandem steer front end to build.

 

Edited November 15, 2017 by GDJ

[GDJ]

Now then, since MattJL made up the scenario that KSC needs vital equipment from KSC2, why send a car all the way there to bring back......what, maybe a single Solar Panel? Maybe some thermometers? OOH, maybe a Gravitoli sensor in the trunk?


If you need vital equipment, don't send a car to do a truck's job.



You send a truck.

A really big truck.

A truck that can move alot in one go.


This is THE truck.

Edited November 15, 2017 by GDJ

[MattJL]

4 hours ago, DoctorDavinci said:

On another note, Jeb went out in a blaze of glory when he got to about 40km from the water crossing ... The MJ Rover Autopilot work brilliantly and I've been managing a steady 45m/s on average

Need to re-plot my route as driving over mountains isn't such a good idea

I also realized that it will take around upwards of 2.5 hours to do the trip there (editing video that is that long can be a pain) ... So I will do it in chunks, stopping after about 30 minutes to save my progress and edit/upload the video, then continuing from where I left off in the next video and so on

Oof, ouch.  Yeah, I had my fair share of wipeouts, I'd imagine the situation to get much worse at that speed.  Glad to hear that the autopilot works out!

You don't have to upload a video if you don't want to.  It'd be cool, but don't sweat it if it's too much pain - I'll take your word for it from an Imgur album.

3 hours ago, GDJ said:

Now, can we get back to the challenge at hand? I have a Western-Star inspired tri-drive rig with aTandem steer front end to build.

Agreed.  I just felt kinda bad about not being aware of the other challenges.  But hopefully that's behind us; I'm looking forward to seeing that rig!

EDIT:  Just caught that rig post.  Looks beautiful; can't wait to see it take on the run!

Edited November 15, 2017 by MattJL

[DoctorDavinci]

Alright, so I spent the better part of two hours plotting way-points to KSC2 .... 347 way-points in total with mostly flat terrain with a few areas where I will have to babysit with the brakes and perhaps adjust the top speed

I have to manually drive the Dukes Jalopnik across the water as the autopilot does not control anything but the wheel steering and the wheel motors but overall the trip there will be done by the rover autopilot

I have dropped Jeb off at the KSC2 (he is packing solar panels) and Val is driving to go pick him up ... Here is the first leg of her journey

 

[MattJL]

6 minutes ago, DoctorDavinci said:

Alright, so I spent the better part of two hours plotting way-points to KSC2 .... 347 way-points in total with mostly flat terrain with a few areas where I will have to babysit with the brakes and perhaps adjust the top speed

I have to manually drive the Dukes Jalopnik across the water as the autopilot does not control anything but the wheel steering and the wheel motors but overall the trip there will be done by the rover autopilot

I have dropped Jeb off at the KSC2 (he is packing solar panels) and Val is driving to go pick him up ... Here is the first leg of her journey

 

Impressive!  And you're attempting a trip back, too?  I really can't wait to see this in full.

[DoctorDavinci]

Just now, MattJL said:

Impressive!  And you're attempting a trip back, too?  I really can't wait to see this in full.

Not sure if I have enough fuel for a round trip but I am confident that she should make it there with little difficulty ... Depends on how much juice she needs to get there

[MattJL]

2 minutes ago, DoctorDavinci said:

Not sure if I have enough fuel for a round trip but I am confident that she should make it there with little difficulty ... Depends on how much juice she needs to get there

What's your method for doing the water part of the run?  Assuming a hidden Juno or something along those lines?  I found that the water crossing was the most fuel-intensive part of the journey (something like 100+ units of fuel for a wimpy 20 km of travel).

Edited November 15, 2017 by MattJL

[DoctorDavinci]

Just now, MattJL said:

What's your method for doing the water part of the run?  Assuming a hidden Juno or something along those lines?  I found that the water crossing was the most fuel-intensive part of the journey (something like 100+ units of fuel for a wimpy 20 km of travel).

There is a Juno on the underside ... My goal was to keep the weight below your posted record (the DJ is 5.888 tons) and make it there without refueling (and possibly back )

The water part will be slow going for me but I more than make up for it with speed and handling on the ground ... I estimate 45 minutes or so to get across the channel

[MattJL]

5 minutes ago, DoctorDavinci said:

There is a Juno on the underside ... My goal was to keep the weight below your posted record (the DJ is 5.888 tons) and make it there without refueling (and possibly back )

The water part will be slow going for me but I more than make up for it with speed and handling on the ground ... I estimate 45 minutes or so to get across the channel

Ah, cool.  Yeah, 30-45 minutes sounds about right (I estimate 37 minutes from dead reckoning my run).

Very impressed by the average speed so far.  I think the highest I ever hit was 32 m/s, and that was rolling downhill.