The Elcano Challenge: Ground-Based Circumnavigation (4th)

18Watt · March 6, 2023

On 3/2/2023 at 7:10 PM, Zacspace said:

Finished my Mun run.

Got ya added to the leaderboards @Zacspace! Nice job!

Ianwubby · March 6, 2023

1 hour ago, 18Watt said:

Welcome to the craziness of Elcano @Ianwubby!

Thank you! Glad to be here

Was a little busy over the weekend, but I still got some good driving in.

Spoiler

Starting off, with the peninsular landmass looming ominously in the distance...

Passing very close to the land, reaching the highest altitude we've seen since the initial descent!

Another refuel, another checkpoint...

Fast-forward to the next checkpoint, finally back in the depths! None of this "coastline" nonsense.

5 hours later, my camera clips into the terrain, and I swear I'm like 99% confident that's the KSC off in the distance

Worst-aimed refueling drop so far...

Sunrise!

Checkpoint 15! Jebediah is very excited to be on day 7 of his voyage.

The path so far

OJT · March 6, 2023

This has been a year of firsts so far. First Parallax attempt, first fully underwater attempt. What's next? Bloody Jool Elcano?

Pouicpouic · March 7, 2023

15 hours ago, OJT said:

First Parallax attempt, first fully underwater attempt. What's next?

(you forgot the 1st Elcano Grand Tour with a single rover and the multiple records of JJK, 18watt, Damerell and me)

--> I'm close to finishing a craft to push it to the next level... in the next few days it will be ready!

OJT · March 7, 2023

2 minutes ago, Pouicpouic said:

(you forgot the 1st Elcano Grand Tour with a single rover and the multiple records of JJK, 18watt, Damerell and me)

But then again, these have been done already. I'm talking about the firsts

With that being said, you got me intrigued :ph34r:

Pouicpouic · March 7, 2023

7 minutes ago, OJT said:

firsts

So the first single rover elcano grand tour is not a first ??

But you're right, minimising this world first will push me to really achieve my next goal.

OJT · March 7, 2023

12 minutes ago, Pouicpouic said:

So the first single rover elcano grand tour is not a first ??

Oh it was this year? Lmao

You can definitely tell that I wasn't following this thread too closely :lol:

Pouicpouic · March 7, 2023

58 minutes ago, OJT said:

Oh it was this year?

not in 2023 yep but less than a year ago.

This thread was on page 5 last May --> @18Watt should be proud to have expanded the list of fans looking for one of the most complete challenge in all KSP !

Nazalassa · March 7, 2023

Maybe I should think of getting back to this challenge, I wanted to try but I just forgot about it :)

Spyro 152 · March 9, 2023

Am I allowed to use a sub?

king of nowhere · March 9, 2023

I completed the circumnavigation of Polta, my fifth OPM world.

Though technically I won't complete it until I return the crew on kerbin, which I won't do for a while because I'll be circumnavigating Priax and Tal first. So, besides being the first to circumnavigate a modded planet, I'll also be the first to complete a whole modded gas giant subsystem. whether @18Wattdecides to add this on the leaderboard now or later is up to him.

18Watt · March 10, 2023

6 hours ago, Spyro 152 said:

Am I allowed to use a sub?

Yes. However, on Kerbin it will require amphibious capability, as there is a required land crossing. On Laythe a submarine would work without amphibious capability.

Eve would also require some amphibious capability. @Ianwubby is currently doing a Kerbin circumnavigation on the ocean floor.

Anyway, yes, submarines are valid entries, so long as the rules are followed.

1 hour ago, king of nowhere said:

Though technically I won't complete it until I return the crew on kerbin

Actually, the Elcano rules do not require you to return the crew to Kerbin- So your Elcano entry is already valid, I'll get ya added tonight! (The crew I used for my Eve Elcano run is still sitting on Eve...)

I also do not like sending crews out and never having a plan to return them safely home though. But for Elcano purposes, they don't need to come home.

Spyro 152 · March 10, 2023

Am I allowed to have my sub jump out of the water to be realistic?

Just to have a look around

Ianwubby · March 11, 2023

The seafloor Elcano continues...

Spoiler

Jeb's next landmark is that big island just visible on the edge of the horizon - he'll just scrape past its leftward edge, before continuing back into the deep sea.

Sunrise is rather pretty down here, even if it's not very realistic...

Jeb celebrates completing the first week of his journey! Just a lot left to go

Another day, another refueling drop. Clipping the camera under the terrain, you can just make out the island looming in the distance.

Getting closer...

And there it is! Granted, it's pretty hard to make out, but the island is visible above the horizon now.

Experienced some "phantom pitch" for a little while here that I got really worried by, but apparently I'd accidentally enabled "trim" controls, which I didn't realize was a thing before. Thankfully it was easily fixed, once I'd discovered the cause.

It's a lot easier to see how close I am to the island from the refueling plane.

While passing the island, Jeb reaches the highest altitude of the trip since the initial descent! Just 499 meters below the surface.

The next couple days go by with barely anything interesting to note, to the point that Jeb doesn't even realize he's completed day 10 for nearly a full hour.

And here is where Jebediah stops for now, catching a bit of rest while he waits on the next refueling drop...

The path so far:

And, of course, the plan for the immediate future:

Also, quick rules clarification, would I be allowed to launch refueling missions from the alternative launch sites? I would assume the answer is 'yes', but the rules only refer to "the launchpad or runway", and not "a launchpad or runway", so I'd just like to confirm before I accidentally invalidate my run in trying to be slightly faster about refueling.

Edited March 11, 2023 by Ianwubby

Spyro 152 · March 11, 2023

My sub isn't heavy and it glides for a stupidly long time

I managed to cover several kilometres whilst gliding

My run might consist of gliding and then building up speed again and again

Is that allowed as long as I don't use thrust in the air?

18Watt · March 11, 2023

18 hours ago, Ianwubby said:

Also, quick rules clarification, would I be allowed to launch refueling missions from the alternative launch sites? I would assume the answer is 'yes'

That is a good assumption, yes you can launch refuel missions from alternate launch sites.

Also, I don't think I ever addressed your question as to wether your current run will qualify for a 'Sea' badge. If you complete the entire run on (or under) the water, it qualifies. NOTE- You will need to do a short surface trek at one of two crossing points. Looking at your recent progress, it appears you are headed for one of those 'land crossing' locations. If that's the only place you do on-land covering, then I am going to call your Kerbin circumnavigation a valid sea journey as well.

14 hours ago, Spyro 152 said:

My sub isn't heavy and it glides for a stupidly long time

@Spyro 152, I'm not sure I'm understanding what you are talking about. Could you perhaps post a few screenshots?

18Watt · March 11, 2023

@Ianwubby, I have another suggestion for you, if you are attempting a 'Sea' circumnavigation of Kerbin. The land bridge you are approaching contains two (or maybe 3?) inland lakes.

When I make amphibious boats they are always much more stable on the water than on land, so I usually cross those inland lakes on the water, because it's safer. My amphibious boats usually have a tendency to flip over on land.

However, while doing a Sea circumnavigation of Kerbin, using those inland lakes is not really specified in the rules. If you'd prefer to drive on the land for the entire land bridge crossing, that is OK too. It's up to you.

If you do decide to drive underwater across the inland lakes, watch out for trees! I have indeed seen trees generate under the surface of the inland lakes up there. I suspect you aren't reaching crazy high speeds while driving under water, but thought I'd mention that anyway. Good luck!

RoninFrog · March 12, 2023

I think I'll have a stab at the mun. I've tried to start elcano's before, and I've never been able to build a design robust enough to withstand my driving. But today I was just piddling around building random stuff and I built a rover that actually seems like it might do the trick. It's more like pitching a bowling ball than driving a rover, but so far so good. Here's the start of the journey including the relay setup, launch, and about 15 minutes of just driving and pulling random stunts.

It's a unicycle rover that just kinda keeps itself straight up through reaction wheels. Very bouncy. It's survived 200m+ jumps no problemo.

Edited March 12, 2023 by RoninFrog
how the crud do i get the video to be a video

RoninFrog · March 13, 2023

I'm halfway done.

Props to the rover's stability, SAS is literally driving it in the background while I type this reply.

Edit: This little rover is a stud. I sent it off a 700m+ cliff and no damage.

Spoiler

Edited March 13, 2023 by RoninFrog

RoninFrog · March 14, 2023

Finished!

I had to do some logistics work when a tire popped:

Spoiler

Here's the flag ring:

Zacspace · March 14, 2023

1 hour ago, RoninFrog said:

Finished!

Wow that little rover is a hero! I think I saw it hit the ground at 70+m/s in one of your posts. I love that something so simple and so silly is so effective. No surprise you finished your run so quickly.

kspfreak · March 15, 2023

@18Wattr are we allowed to modify non-critical parts of our vessel (such as science experiments or power sources) with EVA construction, or would that violate rule 6 of the challenge?

Edited March 15, 2023 by kspfreak

RoninFrog · March 15, 2023

Here's a rover prototype I made that I could potentially do a Kerbin Elcano with. It's got hinge suspension on the wheels so it can take pretty rough landings, and the whole thing transforms into a boat capable of a consistent 70+ m/s.

Spoiler

When it's on the water, the back half actually uses elevons to hover slightly off the surface with only the front pontoons in the water. This greatly reduces drag and makes the boat much faster.

Pouicpouic · March 15, 2023

Hello adventurers!

Despite a "Grand Master" badge and already at least 400h of play on this challenge, I still love driving rovers in KSP, and also spending hours testing stuff

And I discovered Parallax... since then I don't want to launch KSP without it.

I'll let you discover the goal of my next 400h mission in this challenge (in video). Mission that I already started 5 days ago, but (this time) I had to be sure of my move at least for the 1st critical step

Wish me good luck. :confused:

Spoiler

Here are some screenshots
Parallax offers us 2 more biomes for Kerbin : "Cold Shore" and "Cold ocean". So 11 Stock biomes and 2 parallax biomes for 13 crew reports on Kerbin (they are all stored in the rover science container --> goal 146 crew reports at the end)

Circumnavigation Map : ?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Lett