Elcano or Bust!

[Kerminator K-100]

ELCANO OR BUST!

My quest to circumnavigate every planet and moon. And get the master circumnavigator badge!

I recently discovered the Elcano challenge and thought: "I NEED TO DO THIS!!!". So here you go, my attempts to circumnavigate all the planets (and moons)

This will be written in the style of @purpleivan's own circumnavigation: Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation - (You should check it out, its really funny and interesting)

Order (Subject to change):

1. Kerbin
2. Mun
3. Duna
4. Ike
5. Laythe
6. Tylo
7. Eve
8. Minmus
9. Dres
10. Val
11. Eeloo
12. Moho
13. Bop
14. Pol
15. Gilly

The flag: 

 

Each circumnavigation will begin with a map, a craft file, and a picture of the craft, as well as stats and estimated time.

Then will come an index and after that every leg of the trip.

Edited August 27, 2020 by Kerminator1000

[Commodore_32]

Just now, Kerminator1000 said:

-snip-

If this is an entry for a challenge, then you need to post in the challenge´s thread, not a new one.

But if this is a serires based on the Elcano, then this is fine.

[Kerminator K-100]

1 minute ago, Commodoregamer118 said:

If this is an entry for a challenge, then you need to post in the challenge´s thread, not a new one.

But if this is a serires based on the Elcano, then this is fine.

It's a series of entries for the challenge. So when I complete a circumnavigation I cross post to the challenge thread and that is my entry. This is meant to be a catalog of the trips.

[Commodore_32]

1 minute ago, Kerminator1000 said:

-snip-

Ok, this is fine, good navigation!

[Kerminator K-100]

Kerbin

The blue marble that is home to an inexhaustible amount of tiny green aliens. Yup, that's where we're going. 

Crew: 

Jeb - Pilot/ Commander

Val - Co-Pilot

Bill - Lead Engineer

Bob - Lead Scientist

Proposed Map (Subject to change)

The Craft: Circumnavigation Amphibious Rover MK1

Some pictures: 

(Before launching I added some more wheels)

And some stats: 

Land Speed: 30 m/s 

Water Speed: 18 (Full) to 25 (Empty) m/s

Delta-V: 47787 m/s 

EC: 4000 units

Snacks for 200 days

INDEX:

Leg 1

Edited August 27, 2020 by Kerminator1000

[Kerminator K-100]

FIRST LEG - "Wait boat mode is faster than rovering! Switching routes!" 

It seemed like this was doomed at first because the rover wasn't powerful enough to go up any slope steeper than 8 degrees. But then I remembered that the rover was amphibious. So I think a map change is in order.

LEG ONE MAP:

The brave kerbonauts started about an hour after noon from the KSC (Jeb and Bill had eaten too much lunch)

They had eaten so much that Val had to plant the first flag.

Val climbed back in and they began their drive. For the first bit the driving was easy and the view great

 Soon they left the coast behind and moved slightly inland for easier slopes

The humidity cleared up slightly and the kerbals could see the mountains in the distance

The rover than drove into a spot that Bob decided to call the wrinkles

The highest point on this leg:

Getting kind of treacherous here. Jeb claims he can see a tree in the distance.

"I was right" - Jeb. A quick break to plant the flag and look at the tree.

Jeb wanted to go swimming but the beach was too far away.

The Kerbals moved on into this valley. 

"Jeb, aerial footage shows a city right here!" - Val

"No cities here." - Jeb

Passing through the edges of the "city", the crew saw another tree!

"They seem to be following us" - Bob

The crew declined to take a closer look and moved on.

They soon came to a small cove and decided to stop before crossing the water (to test the boat mode capabilities)

Jeb had a quick existential crisis but moved on quickly to go swimming.

Jeb ran back and drove into the water

The crew (and me) realized that the water was slightly slower but allowed for time warp up to 4X! (Yay! My sanity!)

The sun was setting so the crew decided to stop for the day.

Jeb swam ashore to plant the flag

But before he got back in he decided to do some underwater exploration

"Looks like there is a lot of water" - Jeb

The crew shut down the rover, ate some snacks, and decided to turn in for the night.

END OF LEG 1

For the sake of my sanity, I am going to finish this over the water (You can time warp in the water!) and will only do this for one hour max per day. (Any more and I start going crazy)

Leg 2

Index

[Kerminator K-100]

Update: 

I'm going to take a brief break from this. It is really boring to do this and I haven't gotten confirmation that the challenge is still active. It would be really annoying if I did this and found out it was for nothing. 

[rocketengineer1982]

4 hours ago, Kerminator1000 said:

Update: 

I'm going to take a brief break from this. It is really boring to do this and I haven't gotten confirmation that the challenge is still active. It would be really annoying if I did this and found out it was for nothing. 

Yup, driving (or sailing) around a planet can be really, really boring at times.  Put on some music, pull up a YouTube video to listen to on a second monitor, or start an audiobook.  Of course, if you take a route similar to mine, periods of boredom are interspersed with periods of extreme stress while you pray your vehicle doesn't break.

I started my circumnavigation when Claw was moderating the Elcano Challenge.  It's never been a scored or ranked challenge.  It's a test of your own ability, and when you're done you can say with pride "I did it."  You pin the appropriate badge onto your signature and set your sights on the next big challenge.  It's not for nothing.  This challenge - like many of the other classic challenges - has grown quiet over the past couple years as KSP has aged.  It's also a difficult challenge in terms of engineering ability, piloting skill, and endurance.  Personally, I would love to see a resurgence of interest in completing ground circumnavigations in KSP: while everyone has focused their attention up, we focus ours down.

A lot of what Claw did while he was in charge of the Elcano Challenge was answering questions and providing technical and moral support to those attempting it.  He also kept an up to date list of everyone who had submitted a completion report, and once in a great while would have to let someone know that the route they had planned wasn't circumnavigationish enough to qualify, or that proposed modifications were too extensive to be considered the same vehicle.

It looks like your route is a classic water circumnavigation, although you've made the interesting choice of heading west from KSC instead of east.  The minimum land crossing route you chose should be perfect for your design.

It surprised me when you said your rover couldn't climb more than an 8 degree incline, but then I noticed that in the pictures you are only using the rover wheels for propulsion when on land.  Your rover has relatively few wheels for its mass, so I would suggest firing up one of the Panthers when you need to climb a hill.  Be careful when driving - the long wheelbase of your rover can cause problems when crossing terrain joints that aren't nearly flat.  I learned that one the hard way.

You're doing great!  The first leg is probably the hardest as you figure out what works and what doesn't - both in terms of driving your rover and preventing boredom.  Your design looks easily capable of completing a circumnavigation, so you're still interested in completing the challenge, stick with it!

Edited August 31, 2020 by rocketengineer1982

[Kerminator K-100]

14 hours ago, rocketengineer1982 said:

It surprised me when you said your rover couldn't climb more than an 8 degree incline, but then I noticed that in the pictures you are only using the rover wheels for propulsion when on land.  Your rover has relatively few wheels for its mass, so I would suggest firing up one of the Panthers when you need to climb a hill.  Be careful when driving - the long wheelbase of your rover can cause problems when crossing terrain joints that aren't nearly flat.  I learned that one the hard way.

 

Yeah the wheel base prevents any time warp. I also needed to use the jets to climb a small hill. 

I am thinking about building a new boat, specifically made for water because this one was made to go across the land and then use water in a few spots.

[rocketengineer1982]

@Kerminator1000

Stock water physics are... difficult.  Water drag appears to be excessive, and making a stock boat capable of high speeds (i.e. greater than about 20 m/s) seems to largely be a matter of reducing the number of parts in the water and/or exploiting quirks in KSP's drag calculation.

I've used FAR for years, which seems to do a more realistic (or at least reasonable) job of calculating drag in and out of the water.  It does have some downsides, however.  Anything you splash down in the water tends to bob for a long time, which can make recovery very irritating.  This may be why water drag in stock KSP is so high: you're not really intended to spend time in the water except when splashing down.  In addition, because FAR modifies the game physics, any Elcano attempt using it automatically falls into the "stock vehicle" category.

Most stock high-speed boats I've seen in KSP are hydrofoils/hydroplanes.  Of course, an Elcano vehicle doesn't need to be capable of high speeds as long as it is stable on the water - you can set it on a course and come back to check on it later, although you may want to do some tests and calculations to make sure that 1, its heading stays constant and 2, it's not going to run aground on the current course (yes, I've learned this one the hard way, too).

[Kerminator K-100]

24 minutes ago, rocketengineer1982 said:

@Kerminator1000

Stock water physics are... difficult.  Water drag appears to be excessive, and making a stock boat capable of high speeds (i.e. greater than about 20 m/s) seems to largely be a matter of reducing the number of parts in the water and/or exploiting quirks in KSP's drag calculation.

I've used FAR for years, which seems to do a more realistic (or at least reasonable) job of calculating drag in and out of the water.  It does have some downsides, however.  Anything you splash down in the water tends to bob for a long time, which can make recovery very irritating.  This may be why water drag in stock KSP is so high: you're not really intended to spend time in the water except when splashing down.  In addition, because FAR modifies the game physics, any Elcano attempt using it automatically falls into the "stock vehicle" category.

Most stock high-speed boats I've seen in KSP are hydrofoils/hydroplanes.  Of course, an Elcano vehicle doesn't need to be capable of high speeds as long as it is stable on the water - you can set it on a course and come back to check on it later, although you may want to do some tests and calculations to make sure that 1, its heading stays constant and 2, it's not going to run aground on the current course (yes, I've learned this one the hard way, too).

Well this one is fairly stable in the water and early tests had it going as fast as 25 m/s. I have experimented with hydrofoil, RAPIER powered, boats before and hit 50 to 100 m/s before lifting off (flips are very common at those speeds). I have a fairly deep water course plotted out but the real challenge will be making a good boat. 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Kerminator1000