Are the Kerbin Ice Caps Solid?

[Smokey the Bear]

Hey folks, sorry for the odd question. I'm planning on doing the Elcano challenge (circumnavigating a planet by ground or by boat), except I plan to do it with a submersible. It's gonna be a long haul, but before I run off trying to helm some massive sub, I need to plot my course. My problem is, as one could easily see from a  map of Kerbin, there is no direct sea route to circumnavigate the globe.

 

My question is this, then: are the ice caps of Kerbin solid? Would a submersible be able to travel underneath them? It's been a long time since I last visited the ice caps, and I wasn't even looking to see if there was a gap under the ice.

 

Thanks in advance

 

-Bear

[Just Jim]

Interesting question, but I believe they're solid.

[GrouchyDevotee]

Some Lucky Kerbal should find out and report back.

[Zhetaan]

They're solid; ice caps, so far as I understand the way the game generates terrain, are sheer-walled landmasses that happen to be coloured snow-white.  The only way under them is to glitch the terrain.  There is no 100% aquatic circumnavigable route over Kerbin.  If you're doing it with a submersible, you can achieve a 95% circumnavigation; there's a small overland piece across an isthmus that still counts for the aquatic Elcano.  Of course, it requires that you make your vessel land-capable somehow.

Kerbin does have only one world ocean, so if you were to follow the shoreline, you would still end in the place where you started, but even though the total distance travelled is much greater than one circumnavigation, I have no idea whether they would accept this as an alternative 100% aquatic Elcano.  It would likely end up as part of a separate class if they took it, but it's a good point to make that Elcano himself was limited to oversea routes.

[Lego_Prodigy]

If you tell me how to make my MK2 planes go underwater and survive, I will go ahead and test it for you.

[bewing]

7 hours ago, Lego_Prodigy said:

If you tell me how to make my MK2 planes go underwater and survive, I will go ahead and test it for you.

Add ballast, in the form of full ore tanks.

[Lego_Prodigy]

Ah, But how do I stop it from snapping off my maneuvering surfaces?

As you can see from my avatar, thats what happens to most of my water landings.

[bewing]

A submarine has to be so heavy that it really can't fly. So to get it into the water, you drive it in.

[Wrench Head]

What you need is the SM marine pack he has build a sub that works well. 

 

[Lego_Prodigy]

I have made a mental design for a submarine intended for endurance. On a side note, I don't really feel all that comfortable using mods, as I believe that if I can use only stock components with enough imagination, I can then already do almost anything. that, and I don't wanna get too over-reliant on modded parts.

[linuxgurugamer]

4 minutes ago, Lego_Prodigy said:

I have made a mental design for a submarine intended for endurance. On a side note, I don't really feel all that comfortable using mods, as I believe that if I can use only stock components with enough imagination, I can then already do almost anything. that, and I don't wanna get too over-reliant on modded parts.

 Admirable, and it's certainly doable, look at EJ and d'asfeld does to see how they can do it. 

However, the pots in the game aren't really designed for  Aquatic use. 

So using a  mod with pars designed specifically for that use case would make sense.

[Lego_Prodigy]

Nope! Im doing it 100% stock baby!

On another note, how do you guys get those badges in your signatures?

[bewing]

user dropdown/Account Settings/Signature -- and then stuff a URL to an imageserver in the signature box.

[Wrench Head]

Still looking but I have been all around north pole.

Now searching the Asteroid crater near equator then off to the south pole.

I been playing for years and have found no viable way to use Stock parts to have a good Submarine.

 

[Lego_Prodigy]

Busy flying in a flying wing to the south pole with lights at nighttime to investigate this question, Imma try to get as close to the edge as possible and either ditch, or somehow land the wing very close to the edge and do an EVA for an answer,

[Lego_Prodigy]

Mission abort, although it would take forever for me to actually design a working stock submarine to answer this question, let alone actually get it to the south pole

[Klapaucius]

On 4/2/2018 at 4:48 AM, Lego_Prodigy said:

If you tell me how to make my MK2 planes go underwater and survive, I will go ahead and test it for you.

If you have the Mission Builder, you can launch from the bottom of the ocean. Of course, without ballast, you will float to the surface, but you can do.  This plane is actually a work in progress for a Laythe flyer (a bit rough around the edges, and in the first image grossly underpowered for Kerbin), but I just moved it to Kerbin to demonstrate.  

You can also see the giant cliff that is the edge of the polar area.

 

You can, with enough power, launch from the bottom of the sea (my first day noodling around using the stock slim shuttle):

 

[DeltaDizzy]

The Ice Caps are completely solid. Due to the way KSP's terrain system works, you cant have terrain over a gap, with more terrain underneath the gap.