In search of Ferdinand Magellan.

[Theriss]

Theriss, where are you bro? don't give up!

hey, sorry. School ended for me and I am now at home, with pretty crappy internet. I might still be able to try doing this, but I won't be able to stream it at least until the fall. I was using wing connectors and tail connectors as floats (they look very much like pontoons) and i did also try using the ram air intakes. I never was able to get anything to work, and I'm trying to avoid having to stage. I dunno. Maybe I'll try some more, but I feel like I would have to rethink my entire approach...

[Ekku Zakku]

Take your time! It doesn't look like anybody else is having a go at this, so I still think you can get 3rd XD still, feel free to ask us for help =3

[Atanar]

Do it get bonus points if I build a ship that atually looks like a ship?

[Kerbies_are_my_Minions]

There are no points, but you get two thumbs up if it does. I like things to look like things on things. And i'm still here to offer any help I can too.

[seanth]

Is this still a thing? I'm about 5 game hrs into a water-based circumnavigation and then thought to check out the forums. My goal is to circumnavigate without needing to refuel, but based on this shakedown run, I think I'm short by about 5000L 500L (2013.09.16: dumb typo edit) of fuel.

Anyway, if this is still considered active, I'll post stats, images and a timelapse video of my trip

Edited September 16, 2013 by seanth

[Ekku Zakku]

Is this still a thing? I'm about 5 game hrs into a water-based circumnavigation and then thought to check out the forums. My goal is to circumnavigate without needing to refuel, but based on this shakedown run, I think I'm short by about 5000L of fuel.

Anyway, if this is still considered active, I'll post stats, images and a timelapse video of my trip

It's still a thing so long as people want to do it! If you've got the time for it, we'd love to see you try and succeed XD

I've already circumnavigated without refueling, pretty easy. All you need to do is figure out your average speed, divide the circumference of Kerbin by that speed to give you your travel time, then calculate how long your engines will run with the amount of fuel you have (throttle your engines up to full and look at the fuel drain per second in the resource menu at the top-right) and then add fuel (and maybe engines to keep up the average speed) until you have enough fuel to make the whole trip.

Example:

130 m/s average speed = 468 kph

circumference of Kerbin = 3770 km (I add 430 km to make up for not travelling in a straight line, so make it 4200 km)

travel time = 4200 km / 468 kph = 9 hours

basic jet engine uses .3 units/s according to the wiki (but you should calculate your actual rate in-game)

let's say 3 jet engines uses ~1 units/s of fuel, so if you average 130 m/s, 9 hours being 32400 seconds, you would need 32400 units of fuel to make the journey. Of course, this can be optimized by adding stages (I had 6 pontoons of fuel and engines that I ditched as they ran dry), but it makes calculating much more difficult.

At least, that's how I calculated that my boat would make the trip XD I'm excited to see that other people are taking on this challenge even way after us first two people (I think ever) made the trip =3 I was the second ever, but the first to do it without refueling. It's a journey that I think every hardcore KSP player should do, it's so rewarding when you finish! Just make sure to have all the fuel you need on the outset, you REALLY don't want to have to do it twice lol

[seanth]

My first attempt at circumnavigation ended poorly, due to the intersection of poor design, poor planning, and poor piloting. A few notes first.

I started thinking about circumnavigating the planet via boat in relation to some deep water kethane drilling designs I've been working on (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/49318-Deep-water-kethan-mining). The logic being that I want to make sure I can reach any ocean on the planet with my ship designs. So, technically, I wouldn't need to circumnavigate the planet; I'd just need to go half way and back. But if you're going to do that, might as well loop it. I grabbed a map of Kerbin off the web and planned my route:

The ship designs that did this before me are much, much faster than my designs. But my designs are based on craft built to transport heavy cargo, such as two completely full orange tanks. So, I'm completely ok with my top speed of ~60m/s.

Once I decided to make the attempt, quick maths indicated a travel time of around 31 hours. There's no way I would record 31 hours of video to act as documentation that I had succeeded, so I wrote a short little script that would take a screen shot of KSP every 10 seconds and then I'd make the images into a video.

In my first attempt, I reached the northern isthmus at night. My craft has two battery powered rover wheels mounted at the front, the plan being to use battery power to cross the land to save on fuel. Unfortunately, it being night, my ability to travel was limited to battery power, which I didn't have much of. Did I mention bad planning? Once my battery ran out, I planned on just stopping for the night and waiting for the sun to continue. But I hit the breaks too hard, snapped a front strut, and the trip was ended.

The time lapse of my attempt can be seen at http://youtu.be/ZWWQpWAplDg

The ship is completely stock parts, with the exception of a mechjeb controller. I use a combination of the rover autopilot, landing guidance, and spaceplane guidance to control my ocean-going craft over long distance. The rover autopilot is for moving the craft over land, as necessary. The landing guidance allows me to click on the map (or enter coordinates) to get ship headings and distance values. With the destination data, I can point my ship in the desired direction, get the heading, enter it into the spaceplane controller and have it maintain that heading. I set a timer on my mobile to let me know when I'm approaching the destination, and then I make adjustments as the ship reaches the end of one leg and I prepare the same thing for the second leg. I think of it as my Kerbal pilot being left in charge while I do dishes or whatever.

[seanth]

Hmmm. I may be stuck. How did people get across the northern isthmus? I went east from the space center and have crossed most of the isthmus, but the hills east of the largest lake in the isthmus are very steep. I am not convinced my poor little boat can get over them, and back tracking will use more fuel.

Anyway, I'm paused for the night and will look at things closer tomorrow.

[Ekku Zakku]

Hmmm. I may be stuck. How did people get across the northern isthmus? I went east from the space center and have crossed most of the isthmus, but the hills east of the largest lake in the isthmus are very steep. I am not convinced my poor little boat can get over them, and back tracking will use more fuel.

Anyway, I'm paused for the night and will look at things closer tomorrow.

My boat ended up going over half the mountain there somehow lol, but you should be fine so long as you're staying north of those hills. Then again, with the recent terrain update for Kerbin, idk what that area looks like now XD

[seanth]

Looks like this:

That map shows me a few possible passes with minimal backtracking. I'll try and resume my trip later today.

[AmpsterMan]

So here was I, think that circumnavigating the globe by spaceship was hard enough already. Then come a few people and do it BY BOAT!

jeez

[Ekku Zakku]

So here was I, think that circumnavigating the globe by spaceship was hard enough already. Then come a few people and do it BY BOAT!

jeez

join usssssssss~

JOIN USSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

in all seriousness, boats that are made right essentially go as fast as planes do at sea level lol, circumnavigating by air at a reasonably high altitude really helps the planes though of course XD

[seanth]

Finally made it across the isthmus. Six hours (including a significant period of time during the night when I ran out of electrical power and just had to wait for the sun), and it is not trivial. If this were multiplayer, I'd almost be tempted to return to drop some solar lights to mark what I consider a good path.

My craft pretty much hated slopes that approached 10° up due to how I positioned the front drive wheels and the rear wheels.

It's a boat. It was never meant to hike ~150km overland.

17hrs 39min (in game time) into my attempt.

Anyway, I'm back in the water and continuing on. To document it, I'm screen capturing KSP every 10 seconds like I did before. My calculations are starting to worry me a bit, though. Before setting out, I did the maths and added what I thought would be enough additional fuel. Now I'm not so sure....

If I make it, I'll upload the raw video, and then maybe make an edited one later.

EDIT: once I get the video up, I'm super curious to hear from the first two successful circumnavigators to see if the isthmus terrain was as rough for them as they'll see in the video

EDIT #2: I think, given the difficulty and spirit of exploration involved in doing this, it would be nice if Kerbin geography was named after people that are doing this (and other non-aircraft exploration of Kerbin). To that end http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/10088-Kerbin-Geographic-And-Science-Society?p=656269&viewfull=1#post656269. So, to use the map's names, I'm through the Strait of Zakku and just passed Kai's reef. Now is rest time.

Edited September 18, 2013 by seanth

[seanth]

Official 3rd!

Stats

Ship Name: Francis Drake

Total time: 24:38:41

Staging: no

Refueling: no

Stock parts: yes

Utilities: Mechjeb, TAC Fuel Balancer

Distance traveled: 3,777.16 km

Average speed (excluding travel over the isthmus): 64.145m/s (230.9km/hr)

Average speed (total): 59.38m/s (213.78km/hr)

Overall map of the trip, complete with locations named after the circumnavigators I'm aware of:

Close up of the overland (Isthmus of Kamm) passage:

Video of the trip, condensed into about five minutes (1 screenshot/10 seconds; 30 frames/second video)

I'm really curious whether the previous circumnavigators found the terrain on the isthmus as rough as I did. I guess there was a terrain update recently? My craft really hated inclines greater than about 10°, which necessitated taking a very indirect route, finding gentle inclines and generally sticking to the tops of hills.

For those considering replicating the challenge, I highly recommend using mechjeb or k-OS. There are huge stretches of time where the craft just crosses open water, which is pretty darned boring. My trip can be replicated using the following coordinates (named locations are on the first map):

1.) KSC to Point of Theriss: 4° 28' 21" S, 39° 24' 47" W. Approximately 363 km

2.) Point of Theriss to North Dig Island: 29° 7' 42" N, 19° 38' 15" E. Approximately 650.9 km.

3.) North Dig Island to NE of William's Point: 47° 29' 39" N, 58° 35' 50" E. Approximately 356 km

4.) NE of William's Point to West side of the Isthmus of Kamm: 47° 36' 39" N, 68° 56' 28" E. Approximately 71.9 km

5.) The Isthmus of Kamm has lakes and requires a very twisty route. See the Drake's passage map above for a rough route. Especially note that you don't go to the westernmost end of the westernmost lake (let's call it "Lake Backtrack"). Approximately 143.3 km (not linear)

6.) Eastern side of the Isthmus of Kamm to Russell's reef: 8° 25' 55" S, 149° 38' 39" E. Approximately 743.24 km. This is the longest unbroken stretch

7.) Russell's reef to an unnamed point south of the Strait of Zakku: 16° 22' 16" S, 155° 42' 15" E. Approximately 125.3 km. Be careful of Inattention Island; I nearly plowed into it.

8.) Unnamed point south of the Strait of Zakku to unnamed point SE of Kai's reef: 22° 6' 47" S, 173° 41' 14" E. Approximately 182.2 km.

9.) Unnamed point SE of Kai's reef to Cape Bestimate: 24° 57' 40" S, 138° 44' 22" W. Approximately 441.5 km. If you are like me, you're doing a fair amount of math to see if you'll actually make it.

10.) Cape Bestimate to Seanth's Landing: 20° 37' 44" S, 124° 1' 58" W. Approximately 145.3 km. Hey. I named all the other places after other players that have (or tried) circumnavigating, their ships, or their Kerbal crew.

11.) Seanth's Landing to Kerbal City's Bay: 9° 12' 38" S, 82° 40' 4" W. Approximately 428.5 km.

12.) Kerbal City's Bay to KSC: 0° 50' 43" S, 73° 33' 17" W. Welcome home.

I'm sure my coordinates can be improved on, as I wasn't really shaving the corners of things.

Of note: I really encourage an expedition to the east side of the Isthmus of Kamm. There is something really odd going on under the water there. Could just be a render glitch, or it could be a series of under water anomalies. You can see the regular outlines under the water at http://www.kerbalmaps.com

A note about my craft: the observant viewer of the video will note I use two of the orange Rockomax Jumbo-64 fuel tanks. Unfortunately, there's just nothing as big as them for liquid fuel. I dumped the oxidizer using the fuel balancing mod to reduce my overall weight before I left the runway. I considered editing the tanks to remove the oxidizer or even replacing it with liquid fuel (since they seem to have the same density), but I wanted to keep the craft's parts stock (with the exception of a mechjeb controller).

Edited September 24, 2013 by seanth

[Ekku Zakku]

Cool! That's awesome that you named a body of water after me, since I'm a Pisces XD also coincidental as that was the exact same place I had to do a quickload! Couldn't have picked a better place lol.

I was also in the same situation as you questioning carrying the right amount of fuel, but it was just because of lagsbane slowing the game down a bit that made it seem like I was going for longer than I actually was XD

[rauthskegg]

I'm a bit late coming to this forum, but this challenge has certainly caught my attention. Look for my attempt soon.

[Ekku Zakku]

Awesome! I think more people will be willing to do this once they see that it's very much possible to do, it just takes some time XD if you want to stream your attempt, I'd love to watch!

[seanth]

Yeah, I'd love to see and/or hear your trip report. I'm also 100% willing to help in advising or whatever. When you make your trip, consider naming some of the features you pass by/over: https://github.com/seanth/Kerbin-map

[Kerbies_are_my_Minions]

Where's MY feature?! lol

Sorry I have not seen all the new attempts to this. I've been a little missing in action. I can't wait to see some more attempts, and as for the land crossing... I sent a little spy bot over to trace the path I took, and the terrain has certainly been altered. It's a bit more pot marked and rough. I stuck to the land, and did not re enter the lake. I stayed just north of the mountains, but south of the lake and I was able to cross pretty well. However, the east coast of that area has a steep bank, so I traveled farther south to a nicer beach.

[seanth]

Where's MY feature?! lol

I think I named more locations after your circumnavigation than any others:

Northern Isthmus: Kamm (Kerbies_are_my_minions)

Two islands in that northern sea: North Dig and South Dig (named after your ship)

Reefs near the Strait of Zakka: Russel's reef and Kai's reef (named after your Kerbal crew)

I should sit down and make a text file that says where names came from.

Want to name some others? https://raw.github.com/seanth/Kerbin-map/

I need to sit down and incorporate other common names and ones from the Kerbin Geographic and Science Society.

[Kerbies_are_my_Minions]

OH, sorry. Didn't realize. well, Kai's reef should then be Zai's reef.

I also think this is a great idea, but more Kerbin orriented explorers should be in on it!

[Ekku Zakku]

I think the majority of Kerbin's geography should named after players who have done amazing things in the game XD like the first few people who landed on the moon with no landing legs, the first few who came back from Eve (hell, I think Scott Manley was one of those few, but I think he can be named for other things as well XD), and us, of course, who chose to do something amazing in the deadliest substance known to Kerbals, water!

[seanth]

Kai's reef should then be Zai's reef.

Will fix that tomorrow.

I also think this is a great idea, but more Kerbin orriented explorers should be in on it!

I think the majority of Kerbin's geography should named after players who have done amazing things in the game

To risk derailing the intent of this topic, I agree 100%. The minor problem I have had with some previous cartographic naming exercises on the forums is, well...the game is about rockets. I feel like it's a little to easy to pick a location, hop into a rocket or a plane, go there, and name it. It's a completely different (and from my perspective, incredibly satisfying) experience to get to a location with a boat or a ground vehicle. You see so much more, and really get to appreciate the area you are going through.

When I was driving across the Kamm isthmus (wtf, I gave it a name and I'm going to keep using it), it was a huge pain in the ass, but it was also sort of exciting. Finding a path through that terrain was _hard_, and when I managed to find a path, there was a thrill of success. Sure, it's just a game, but when I reached the ocean again, I really felt like I had gotten a sense for the terrain I had just crossed. I'm not sure you can get that level of appreciation if you are in a jet just passing over the terrain.

For that reason, I (selfishly) feel like terrain features should be named by people that have taken the slow route and really passed through it vs over it.

tl;dr: the people doing the drives to location X, the polar expedition folks, and the naval circumnavigators rule.

[Kerbies_are_my_Minions]

I agree. The slow rout is the more appreciative rout. I'm am all up for using these names.

[Theriss]

1.) KSC to Point of Theriss: 4° 28' 21" S, 39° 24' 47" W. Approximately 363 km

Wait, I have a point named after me? HA!

Yeah, it's been a while since I've been here, but I am getting back to playing more now. Not sure if I'll do boats again though...

Yeah, that point is pretty appropriate... That's about where I crashed I actually made it a bit farther than that, but oh well.