Minmus Elcano Challenge Run - Take Two

[Sp1f]

Hello everyone. Here I am again giving it another shot, after my failed attempt to complete the Elcano Challenge by circumnavigating Minmus in a rover last September. This will time I'm going fully stock, and doing the challenge in an early-ish career mode save.

Background

Long story short, last year I built a reusable Mun rover and lander system, for use from a research station in Mun orbit. Then I learned about the Elcano Challenge, and impulsively decided to circumnavigate the Mun with the rover I already had there, the Gnat. That went well, so I decided to fly the rover to Minmus and circumnavigate that as well. I was making good progress, then unfortunately my save was corrupted. It couldn't be retrieved.

Not to be deterred, I started a new career save,  and powered through the earliest part of career mode. As soon as I felt I had the kredits, I built a research lab in Mun orbit and a reusable rover lander system, a basic one with mid technology tree parts. The idea was both to improve upon the design of the Gnat and it's lander, and also to gather a bunch of science  quickly to get the labs in orbit cooking away and unlock the technology tree fast. I didn't really expect to do an Elcano run with this rover, but I just came back from an extended break from KSP, and I like to drive it, so what the heck.

For challenge completion purposes, here are some screenshot's of the first rover mission so you can see that I flew it from Kerbin:

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Rover 1 launches from Kerbal Space Center with Bill and Jonbert Kerman (no relation) on board.

Booster separation.

Ditching the lower stage and fairing.

Coming down to the Mun for a landing.

Beauty shot. Wendo Kerman, Lead Engineer of the Rover 1 project, assures us that all parts were correctly installed according to the directions.

Returning to dock with the lander.

Docked to Mun Station

Now we'll join our heroes, Buzz and Wendo Kerman (no relation) as they set off on the story that may (hopefully) lead them to circumnavigate  Minmus in Rover 1.

Prologue - Mun Landing 2

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Chapter 1 - Onward to Minmus

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credit to u/jansenart for the flag design

 

Chapter 2 - The First Day

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Chapter 3 - Into the Highlands

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Chapter 4 - Another Chapter

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Chapter 5 - The Rover Repair Contract

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Chapter 6 - Challenge Complete!

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Edited March 22, 2022 by Sp1f
update

[18Watt]

Nice!  The upside-down rover body (lander can) is really interesting.  My first question is if it makes driving awkward?  Or do you have a probe core or docking port that can make the nav-ball appear correct?  I think I need to try out using an upside-down rover body.  Again, that is really interesting!

[Sp1f]

The upside down rover body was an accident, but I thought it was funny so I left it that way. The rover is controlled by a RoveMate probe core underneath the lander can, so the controls function normally. Btw chapter 1 is up.

[Sp1f]

Chapters 2 and 3 have been added.

[Sp1f]

Chapters 4 and 5 have been added. Here's a video of Rover 1 descending onto the Lesser Flats.

 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Sp1f

[Watermel00n]

I'm going to do my own elcano after reading this!

[Sp1f]

Challenge Complete! The OP is updated with Chapter 6, the final chapter in this particular Elcano journey. I actually finished some time ago but have been procrastinating with this last upload.

Here's a bonus video of Valentina trying her hand at roving using the Elcano Support Hopper.

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Sp1f