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

[MythicalHeFF]

On 6/14/2022 at 3:12 PM, 18Watt said:

 Personally, my list has Gilly at the top.  I took a different approach, wheels on Gilly were just too frustrating for me.  

Currently on Eve, which is definitely going to take a while, but for gilly I’ll probably just use a small craft that rolls using SAS instead of wheels.

[Zacspace]

You guys ever run into the issue where your wheels just stop working? Like for instance, after driving halfway around a planet? asking for a friend.

Anyway, I'll treat you to a classic tragedy in however many parts this is:

Spoiler

A beta version of Honeybadger Surface Exploration Vehicle with a slapped together lander on the pad

Seems to work so far

We made it. The second stage is for circularizing around Eeloo

In an eliptical orbit with the lander here. I'm starting to doubt there's enough dV to make it home after

I botched the landing and hit the ground pretty hard. This is all that's left of the lander, but I'm pretty sure the rover made it.  Most of it anyway. Back to the drawing board if not. These capsules are still sliding in this shot

came to a stop around 1km away from the crash site. Jeb flies over to inspect the rover to see if it's recoverable.

Not bad.

Limp back to the command pods so Bill can fix the wheel and we can pick up our crew, which will consist of the four orange bois

I almost didn't pack repair kits since I thought any impact that could break one of these wheels would also destroy the rover, but I'm glad I did anyway

And we're off! I left out a bunch of pics because pictures of the same rover on the same planet surface is boring, so here's the milestones. #1? brown ground! neat!

#2, driving through the terminator. Don't worry, We'll be back.

#3 Don't set flags! Jeb has a girl waiting for him back home, good thing he's only two weeks from retirement. He's planning to finally take that vacation he's always talked about. It's not like anything bad could happen.

At some point while driving I noticed the command pod just... slide out of the rover and into the distance. I made a named save just to see if it would be fixed by a quickload, but nah, Lost 100km to this one.

*drives truck through police station reception desk*

It's Haaa Noon

Coming up on Terminator 3. Mediocre movie overall, but one of the best car chases ever put to film.

And that's it. This thing will no longer move more than a few feet before the wheels glitch out and I have to either time-warp or quickload to reset them.

KSP.log says: Part roverWheel3 exited collision with Eeloo Zp210131230, but it wasn't in collision count list!

Fate has ordained.

But they were never coming home whether they finished their mission or not. The lander blew up, remember?

And well, I guess that's it. If there's a lesson to be learned here it's to never have hope for the future so you can avoid disappointment. That and the flags thing from earlier.

I'm not really that bent out of shape about it. This was supposed to be a test-mission for my new rover, and I guess I did test it. Would have been nice to complete the trip though.

I made it halfway around Eeloo while mostly doing other things. This rover's SAS is sufficient to keep it pointed mostly the right direction and upright enough  of the time that I was able to set it driving and then go make myself a snack or watch a video or something and then come back and slightly adjust course. It cruises around 60m/s on Eeloo and can drive at 2x timewarp. I didn't test higher warp and mostly drove at 1x since it needed less babysitting that way.

Edited June 18, 2022 by Zacspace

[18Watt]

11 minutes ago, Zacspace said:

You guys ever run into the issue where your wheels just stop working?

Well, not exactly in the way you described.  But in general, yes I’ve had rovers deteriorate to the point they barely functioned. That was more of a problem with earlier versions of KSP, but I still strongly recommend frequent quick saves.

Also,  in case you overlooked this rule, you are allowed to deliver and use replacement rovers.  Just like the original rover, any replacements must be flown to the destination from Kerbin- you can’t F12 (cheat) the replacement to where it needs to be.

Replacement rovers need to be substantially similar to the original rover, but do not need to be exact copies.  If you found a few ways to improve the original design, you are absolutely allowed to incorporate them.

So, if you want, you can fly a replacement rover out, and land it near (as close as you can get..) your original rover.  Transfer the crew and continue the mission.

I’m sure you have tried to get your original rover functioning enough to complete the drive.  If your rover is just plain immobile, again, the rules explicitly allow you to fly a replacement rover out to complete the drive.

Unfortunately, Eeloo is not the easiest place to just ‘swing by’ and drop a rover off at.  But I’m sure you already know Elcano runs are never easy.

Oh, it looks like you are using the giant rover wheels, the ones that use ‘tank steering’?  I have never had good results with those, so can’t offer any help getting them to work.

[Pouicpouic]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:49 PM, king of nowhere said:

We can now say that the experts agree that dres sucks, with moho a close second

I can't figure out where to find the fun in "driving" on the water. It's just hours of waiting without pressing any buttons, unless I'm wrong? So, for me, Laythe is by far the first planet that sucks. I still prefer to fight with my rover to reach 40m/s like on Dres than to do nothing for hours.

Not to mention the time on the water, I'll wait for the micro-moons before judging

[OJT]

32 minutes ago, Pouicpouic said:

I can't figure out where to find the fun in "driving" on the water. It's just hours of waiting without pressing any buttons, unless I'm wrong? So, for me, Laythe is by far the first planet that sucks. I still prefer to fight with my rover to reach 40m/s like on Dres than to do nothing for hours.

Not to mention the time on the water, I'll wait for the micro-moons before judging

I know it would not count as pure Stock entry, but I suggest installing Scatterer: in addition to fancy scatter effects (duh) it also adds waves to seas and oceans, vastly changing the sailing experience. Whether for better or worse is up to you to decide, but it definitely adds a twist

[king of nowhere]

4 hours ago, Pouicpouic said:

I can't figure out where to find the fun in "driving" on the water. It's just hours of waiting without pressing any buttons, unless I'm wrong? So, for me, Laythe is by far the first planet that sucks. I still prefer to fight with my rover to reach 40m/s like on Dres than to do nothing for hours.

Not to mention the time on the water, I'll wait for the micro-moons before judging

I did a laythe elcano, and it was indeed boring. on the plus side, i could just leave the game running in background doing something else, and only check on it once every few minutes to correct drifting, so it wasn't onerous.

as for difficulty, it's difficult to explain. i like difficult. i did pick slate as one of the most difficult terrain to drive on. but... there is a difference between difficult and annoying. and it's hard to define, and it is why I can't explain it. But other planets are difficult. mountain terrain on tylo is difficult. the poles of Vall are difficult. slate is difficult, and now i am doing wal and it is mighty difficult, but in a fun way. not dres. dres is annoying, without being difficult. moho straddles the line.

this difficulty to explain is also why i appreciate someone else sharing my opinions; perhaps, even if I cannot define what makes dres annoying, there's something objective there.

[MythicalHeFF]

5 hours ago, Zacspace said:

You guys ever run into the issue where your wheels just stop working? 

Happened to me twice now. The first time, on Pol, was no big deal, as it happened when I was literally 500 meters from finishing the circumnavigation.

The other time it occurred was on Eeloo, and it was after I had unloaded a rover that I’d already used to complete Ike and Dres. I tried replacing the wheels with EVA construction, but that resulted in it being unable to drive straight for some reason. So I ended up having to send a replacement.

[18Watt]

5 hours ago, Pouicpouic said:

I can't figure out where to find the fun in "driving" on the water.

For me, the fun is all in designing a vehicle that works well on water.  That extends to the operation of the boat- Maintaining either good speed or efficiency (or both) while on the water takes a little planning and effort.  Especially if the boat uses liquid fuel, and the weight and COM are constantly changing as you burn fuel.   But yes, otherwise there is a lot of waiting.

Each of the 3 CBs that have water present unique challenges also.

• Kerbin - the boat needs to have some amphibious capability, as there’s a small stretch of land you need to cross.
• Laythe - Need to have a lot of range, because there are some very large distances between islands.
• Eve - Again you’ll need amphibious capability.  Jet engines don’t work.  And it’s Eve.

 

[Zacspace]

8 hours ago, 18Watt said:

you are allowed to deliver and use replacement rovers. 

Honestly it never occurred to me, but now that you mention it I might just send a new rover and finish this.

3 hours ago, Jack Joseph Kerman said:

Happened to me twice now.

Glad to know it's not just me. A little distressing though to know that it's a possibility and seemingly without a better workaround.

[Pouicpouic]

9 hours ago, Zacspace said:

You guys ever run into the issue where your wheels just stop working?

more than 13 000km done with this rover (around half of the whole challenge), and already 14 (out of 40 at start) repairs kits used. But i have lost at least 4 times wheels just after a quicksave, so i reloaded. Approx 50 reload (F9) in total (Many of them  at the beginning of each circumnavigation to test the maximum limits of the rover)

[Pouicpouic]

I noticed a rather curious detail with my propellers and I can't understand why...

For Kerbin as for Laythe, with the same settings and in the same position, I sail about 2m/s faster near the poles than near the equator. And on the contrary, in rover mode on the polar caps, I am about 2m/s slower than near the equators (on the flat)
For example, I am at about 44m/s cruising speed on kerbin at the equator against 46m/s at the poles (on water) and 70.5m/s on the polar caps, against 72.5m/s at the equator. Knowing that the altitudes are comparable, I can't understand the logic.
For Laythe it is the same imbalance: 36m/s on the water towards the equator, against 38 towards the poles. And 72m/s at the equator on land against 70 at the poles. (I'm sure I can find some screenshots to illustrate this but it will take some time)

I don't know if you have noticed these differences between pole and equator with the same settings on your rovers?

[18Watt]

Just now, Pouicpouic said:

I don't know if you have noticed these differences between pole and equator with the same settings on your rovers?

Yes, I have noticed that!  There was a discussion about it somewhere, I can’t remember where right now.

A few theories were proposed, I don’t think we ever really established a solid answer.

• Temperature differences.  That would affect jet engine and propeller performance, as well as drag.  The effects seemed reversed with respect to what I would expect, however.
• Errors with how KSP calculates surface speed at high latitudes, perhaps rounding errors.
• Buoyancy and water drag differences at high latitudes- I’m not really sure exactly how KSP calculates buoyancy and hydrodynamic drag.

So yes, the effect you are describing has definitely been observed by several players, including me.  If you have any additional theories to explain the effect, please post them!

[Pouicpouic]

1 hour ago, 18Watt said:

• Temperature differences.  That would affect jet engine and propeller performance, as well as drag.  The effects seemed reversed with respect to what I would expect, however.
• Errors with how KSP calculates surface speed at high latitudes, perhaps rounding errors.
• Buoyancy and water drag differences at high latitudes- I’m not really sure exactly how KSP calculates buoyancy and hydrodynamic drag

Without any mods it seems difficult to do better, but maybe the experts with all the mods can try to find a logic by comparing the values (drag, buoyancy, etc.) ? ok, it's not very interesting but I'm sure there are enthusiasts who want to know.

[Pouicpouic]

Polar circumnavigation of Laythe completed!

I think I chose one of the most grounded routes. About 25% of the time out of the water, the only active driving moments around 70m/s average. The remaining 75% in power saving mode on the water at about 35m/s. (approximately 1h20 of autonomy in EC).

Spoiler

Considering the detours, the unforeseen accidents and the time needed to switch to boat mode, I'm not sure I gained anything, but at least I would have seen a majority of the world's landmasses.

The global average should have been close to 44m/s, that is to say about 22 hours counting a few misfires and small time-warp during power recharge. The game tells me that the trip lasted 5d5h11 IGT (35h).

Forced to pass through impressive slopes

Spoiler

Impossible to not tilt the head by reflex when driving along the cliffs

A little break at my permanent polar base on Laythe.

Spoiler

A real-fake 3 MWp wind turbine feeds the base and its special antennas to never lose contact with the KSC.

(here is a video dedicated to this project realized in early 2022)

Now it is a question of succeeding to go to Pol with the transfer vehicle.

Spoiler

This is the 2nd real critical point of my goal, but I think I have a good margin. --> Usually, when I manage a single stage from kerbin ground to minmus, I also manage to do Laythe-Pol with the same ship...

but I learned recently that I was a bit too confident with the theory.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Pouicpouic

[18Watt]

10 hours ago, Pouicpouic said:

Polar circumnavigation of Laythe completed!

Leaderboard updated, very nice!  I enjoyed the video of your Laythe base deployment, that was neat.

Good luck getting over to Pol!

[Pouicpouic]

Pol completed!

Spoiler

I had neglected the dv saving resulting from my takeoff altitude (almost 3500m / In retrospect I had a big chance to land on a very slight slope... 300m further it was a F9)

With 2200m/s left in laythe orbit, even a blind kerbal could reach Pol! (already 23 years since the departure of kerbin... I will soon have to put corrective glasses to my pilot)

Honestly, I drove at less than 25m/s average. But taking the time to admire the landscape, it went relatively quickly. We agree that micro-moons are definitely not the best places to drive.

Spoiler

I never took the time to make a big base on Pol, although with the difference in altitude and the anchors there must be a way to create something nice.

No reloading, but I did break a wheel.

And here we go again! refueling, catching the rover, gas! Next stop : Tylo 

Spoiler

Well, I don't have too many illusions, it's Tylo, my craft is anything but light and I have to land on the thrusters...

gimbal setting at minimum : ok

F5 : ok

go!

Slowly, slowly, Last burn .... wait ?

I think it's the first time I landed a ship on tylo on the first try without breaking anything. Probably thanks to the good dv margin, a less stressful descent

Edited June 19, 2022 by Pouicpouic

[Pouicpouic]

On Pol, half a wheel would have been better than 16... but not on Tylo !

Spoiler

Nothing broken on the first resistance test :

I know myself... I will abuse until the rover is destroyed for sure.

[18Watt]

20 hours ago, Pouicpouic said:

Pol completed!

You are really getting through these quickly!

20 hours ago, Pouicpouic said:

I will soon have to put corrective glasses to my pilot)

Yep, these things do happen as you age.  Or so I've heard..

20 hours ago, Pouicpouic said:

Honestly, I drove at less than 25m/s average. But taking the time to admire the landscape, it went relatively quickly. We agree that micro-moons are definitely not the best places to drive

Yep, that's actually a pretty good speed on Pol.  Much faster and you risk having really high jumps, which can damage a rover.

 

20 hours ago, Pouicpouic said:

I think it's the first time I landed a ship on tylo on the first try without breaking anything.

I have yet to accomplish that- my personal record is a successful landing on the second attempt.  And I've only done that once.  Another fantastic entry, looking forward to your Tylo entry.

 

[Pouicpouic]

4 hours ago, 18Watt said:

You are really getting through these quickly!

Arround 4h30 at 22m/s, considering that we travel 20% more than the theoretical perimeter (difficult to estimate but it gives an idea)

Spoiler

Elcano Challenge	diameter (m)	perimeter (km)	%circu	km estim	maxSpeed (m/s)	AvSpeed estim (m/s)	Minimum dur. (h)	IGT (Days)
Kerbin	600000	3770	1,05	3958	74,5	57	19,3	3,21
Minmus	60000	377	1,04	392	70,2	55	2,0	0,33
Mun	200000	1257	1,08	1357	72,6	50	7,5	1,26
Duna	320000	2011	1,2	2413	76,3	53	12,6	2,11
Ike	130000	817	1,1	898	93,8	62	4,0	0,67
dres	138000	867	1,02	884	60,8	45	5,5	0,91
eeloo	210000	1319	1,05	1385	85,1	57	6,8	1,13
laythe	500000	3142	1,04	3267	76,3	44	20,6	3,44
pol	44000	276	1,2	332	34,4	22	4,2	0,70
tylo	600000	3770	0,2	754	143,3	72	14,5	2,42

Spoiler

Edited June 21, 2022 by Pouicpouic

[OJT]

@Pouicpouic @Jack Joseph Kerman I honestly can't comperehend how fast the two of you going through this, let alone that you judge the celestial bodies on how fun they are to drive on

I always found rovers in KSP especially frustrating. Wheels  are prone to random failures while encountering seemingly minor bumps, motors in them are quite limited in terms of speed they can achieve (which makes the previous issue even more frustrating), behaviour under phys time warp is unstable.

But above all else, the wheel do not behave even remotely close to reality. One moment they barely get any traction with the surface and then all of a sudden the wheels randomly generate tons of grip during sharp turning. I saw better car dynamics on mobile racing games for God's sake, surely it should've been easy for the devs to get it right? Because sailing in comparison works wonderfully, and sailing has nothing to do with rocket science! (well, so far at least)

This is especially annoying for me because I'm a massive car nerd and automotive engineering student and I would absolutely love to build rovers and drive them around. But the issues I mentioned above do not make it viable for me to build rovers altogether: I only had sent couple of unmanned rovers on Duna and one each on Moho and Eeloo and the rest of the time I stuck to rockets/planes/helicopters because they are much more reliable. I tried to build a rover not too long ago for 100 EC Challenge (which, coincidentally, is also hosted by 18Watt) and, even though I achieved decent results, I would rather kick myself in the berries than drive that thing again 

You lads (and whoever dared to do this challenge) have my utmost respect

[Pouicpouic]

1 minute ago, OJT said:

I always found rovers in KSP especially frustrating. Wheels  are prone to random failures while encountering seemingly minor bumps

1 minute ago, OJT said:

the wheel do not behave even remotely close to reality. One moment they barely get any traction with the surface and then all of a sudden the wheels randomly generate tons of grip during sharp turning.

If you go up the topic, you'll see that I've left some tips for the construction and the essential settings to have a robust and drivable rover.

Everything is important: the control point, the friction adjustment, the control for the SAS, etc.
Since I discovered these settings, I can't send kerbals on a mission without a good rover to make unimaginable jumps

And right now, I am clearly in love with my latest creation for this challenge.
If someone wants to name this beauty, I'll take it !

[Pouicpouic]

3 hours ago, OJT said:

I would absolutely love to build rovers and drive them around.

Look at my videos posted previously on the Mun: from the moment I had a rover capable of this, I needed my weekly dose of tests
And on the Mun, you don't need 16 wheels, nor half my rover to have fun jumping craters.

Spoiler

video that lags a lot but just to show the capabilities of the stock wheels (this is a friend's rover, driven by me)

 

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by Pouicpouic

[damerell]

11 hours ago, OJT said:

I always found rovers in KSP especially frustrating. Wheels  are prone to random failures while encountering seemingly minor bumps, motors in them are quite limited in terms of speed they can achieve (which makes the previous issue even more frustrating), behaviour under phys time warp is unstable.

The Kerbal Foundries mod includes KSPWheel, an entirely different wheel simulation module, which was written out of frustration with the behaviour of stock wheels. (There are some KSPWheel configs for the stock wheels, although they're pretty old and may have rotted). Roving has many frustrations for me, mostly involving cliffs and the dark, but my wheels do more or less obey me.

[MythicalHeFF]

Eve complete! This one took a really long time, but all in all I actually found the journey to be quite pleasant and enjoyable, which is something I didn't really expect. About 3/4 of this circumnavigation was done in just the last 48 hours, as I was sort of slacking off for the first few days of it. This run took a polar route as opposed to an equatorial one in order to maximize the amount of time I would be spending sailing in the oceans.

Full Imgur Album (100+ images):

https://imgur.com/a/ma0R8Ds

Getting to Eve:

Spoiler

This mission required a total of three launches: one for the Eve lander, one for the rover, and finally a third launch for the crew. The rover itself was launched first, and it features a design almost identical to the one I used to circumnavigate Kerbin, with the only major difference being that I removed the deck of wing parts, as Eve's atmosphere is so dense that catching air at any significant speed would just cause the rover to get lifted up into the air and flip out of control. The rover is called the E.E.L.P (Eve ELcano Propeller vehicle), derived from the K.E.L.P (Kerbin ELcano Propeller boat), which I used to circumnavigate Kerbin.

Next in line was the crew module and transfer vehicle. This vehicle will transport the crew of three Kerbals (Jeb, Bill, and Bob) to low Eve orbit, where they will then board the rover for their descent. 

Finally, there is the Eve lander and ascent vehicle, Waluigi. The lander weighs about 200 tons, and can ascend into orbit of Eve from sea level, which is where I plan to launch it from. It has a bit of a unique setup, in that instead of having a ladder on the exterior of the vehicle, the crew instead climbs through a tube into the cockpit, where they board one of the three command seats.

Once all three vehicles had safely reached orbit, it was off to Eve!

The Waluigi then landed on the surface of Eve in the Eastern Sea biome, as this was about the longitude where I could do a polar circumnavigation while spending as much of the time on the ocean as possible. During the atmospheric entry, a few parts came dangerously close to overheating, but we got by in the end.

Once the entry had been completed, it was time to pop the chutes and jettison the heat shields. I had to do both of these things very carefully, as one mistake would result in either the shields crashing into the lander on jettison, or the chutes tearing the whole craft apart on deployment. To remedy the latter problem, I had to deploy them in sets, starting with the drogues at 5000m, then followed by subsequent sets of chutes at 4000m, 3500m, 3000m, etc. To further complicate things, I couldn't use time warp, as doing so would also tear the craft apart. So that took a loong time.

Regardless, however, Waluigi made it down to the surface safely.

Next was the docking and crew transfer sequence, which were pretty trivial.

The EELP's descent was a little more risky than Waluigi's, as I needed to do a pinpoint landing on Eve. It wasn't entirely aerodynamically stable, and as such a few parts almost didn't make it.

Then, on chute deployment, this happened:

Yes, you read that right, that navball reads 22,000 kilometers per second. Thanks, Kraken.

One quickload later, and the EELP made it safely down to the surface of Eve, and only about 8 km from the ascent vehicle!

Once the landing was done, Bill had to get out and remove a few struts, as these would be dead weight for the rest of the trip.

 

Circumnavigation:

Spoiler

Now that everything had been safely transported to Eve, it was finally time to get circumnavigating. As I mentioned earlier, I'm taking a predominantly sea route, so most of the mission consisted of just that: sea. On Eve's oceans, the EELP can maintain a steady 56-57 m/s, which is slightly faster than the 51-52 I was able to do on Kerbin. Then again, Eve is larger than Kerbin, so the circumnavigation will probably take just as long.

The first hour or two through the Eastern Sea was fairly uneventful, so I won't show much of it here. I did find this cool peninsula that I thought looked like a gladiator helmet, though.

At about 50 degrees north latitude, I came to the first land crossing of the mission. I'm really glad that I went with landing gear instead of rover wheels for this mission; they can take much more punishment, and tend to be much more stable, at least in my experience.

Well maybe I should scratch that last part, as when I got onto the beach, the landing gear started jittering uncontrollably, and I couldn't figure out why. I later found that it had to do with the spring strength; I guess Eve's gravity is too much for the gears to handle under normal circumstances. I then decreased the spring strength to as low as it would go, and thing were a lot smoother from then on.

I called the landing site "Jitter Beach"

The EELP is pretty fast on land, being able to do up to 64-65 m/s. I probably could have gotten it to go faster if I had increased the motor size, but that may have done more harm than good considering the density of Eve's atmosphere.

A while later, I spotted the north pole! It's this massive cliff face on the edge of the Explodium Sea.

Once at the top of the polar cliff, I put the gear down and had Jeb go on EVA to plant a flag.

Which wasn't broken at all.

I then had a little bit of fun going base jumping with the EELP, only to crash into an invisible wall (well, invisible from the side I was facing)

After these shenanigans, I went back down from the cliff face and continued back out to sea.

This part of the circumnavigation would actually be my favorite, as my route took me through shallow seas with scattered islands and archipelagos everywhere. I would later refer to this region as the "Explodium Carribbean". You can also see the approximate route I took to get through it.

Beautiful sunset

Driving over one of many small islands

Managed to spot Gilly from the Mk1 cockpit IVA view

Sunrise

"Smiley Island" because it kind of looks like a smiley face

Large crater/extinct volcano maybe?

Once I'd passed about the equator, it was out of the shallows and back out into open sea. Didn't really bother taking any screenshots of this leg of the journey, as it was rather boring.

"Gorilla Island". Looks like a gorilla, if gorillas didn't have legs and they had a really screwed up arm.

Decided to make the lights purple to fit the atmosphere of Eve

The South Pole. Looks very similar to its northern counterpart.

And then, right after passing the south pole and planting a flag there, this happened:

Jeb had somehow managed to clip into one of the structural fuselages and was now trapped inside the EELP's right pontoon. I was also on a slope at this point, which meant that I couldn't really come to a full stop to fix it. So Jeb had to spend a few minutes as a stowaway.

Once we returned to flat ground, however, Bill got out and removed the pontoon's back nose cone, setting Jeb free.

After that slight hiccup, it was back to driving. Twilight driving, at that.

It actually turned out that on the route I chose and the time I left, that Kerbol never completely set for the entire journey around Eve. It almost felt as if I was in perpetual twilight, like Eve was tidally locked or something.

7/8 of the way there!

Sunrise again

Back to the ocean

Almost there

Finished!

 

Base Jumping Shenanigans:

pls sub i beg of you

Boarding the Ascent Vehicle and the Gilly Rover:

Spoiler

Now that the EELP had reached its final destination, the crew began making preparations to leave Eve. For now, however, they will remain in the Waluigi ascent vehicle's outer command pods, as I don't want to actually leave until my Gilly rover arrives.

Jettisoning the outer parachute assemblies

Alright, now it's time to think ahead. I drew up plans for a Gilly rover, and at first I was going to try and simply roll around the moon using SAS, but this was scrapped once I tested it and remembered how insanely low Gilly's gravity truly is. Consequently, I went with a more conventional rover design, but placed ion engines on the top in order to keep the thing on the ground. In testing, it could drive at 20 m/s or so, which sounds slow, but really isn't once you remember how small Gilly is. Just gotta be careful to not lose traction and accidentally fling myself into orbit.

I didn't even bother waiting for another transfer window, I just gave the launch vehicle an ion stage with way too much delta-V and set off for Eve.

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Jack Joseph Kerman

[Pouicpouic]

3 hours ago, Jack Joseph Kerman said:

Jeb had somehow managed to clip into one of the structural fuselages

3 hours ago, Jack Joseph Kerman said:

Bill got out and removed the pontoon's back nose cone, setting Jeb free.

Hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing for 2 min, thanks, my day is off to a great start!

3 hours ago, Jack Joseph Kerman said:

The EELP is pretty fast on land, being able to do up to 64-65 m/s. I probably could have gotten it to go faster if I had increased the motor size, but that may have done more harm than good considering the density of Eve's atmosphere.

How do you manage to be in warp x2 without breaking the propellers ? --> with a rotation speed <240 rpm you still reach >60m/s ?
That's where we see my lack of experience on Eve and with the propellers... and therefore that my rover will not be very adapted...

I have the impression that your propellers are rotating in the same direction? If it's the case you didn't have any torque problem that made you turn slightly to the left ?
or is it only the blades that are oriented in the same way ?

3 hours ago, Jack Joseph Kerman said:

About 3/4 of this circumnavigation was done in just the last 48 hours

You killed the final boss of KSP so fast! --> the kraken must hate it...   watch out for him in the coming days.

Wait, your trip duration is really 3d4h IGT ? (308 -->311.4) amazing!

3 hours ago, Jack Joseph Kerman said:

only to crash into an invisible wall

Besides this memorable base-jumping moment, did you really do the rest without breaking anything and without reloading?
It will really cheer everyone up to see such a safe trip!
The moment when Eve became too easy in KSP   Bravo !

Edited June 22, 2022 by Pouicpouic