Munar Rover Circumnavigation

[Colonel_Panic]

has anyone successfully made a non-stop rover trip around the Mun? I noticed the surface rotation speed of the Mun appears to be lower than the maximum speed of a rover, so it should be possible to make the entire trip nonstop in daylight using solar energy... but it's also a really big moon, and would take a very long time.

I'm also thinking about starting a series of endurance race challenges around some of the smaller moons in the Kerbol system. Thoughts?

[DChurchill]

My stock rover has RTGs so no worries on the energy. Just enough to have a very slow drain from lights and wheels, with a couple static solar cells. Kind of silly, really. Light side, I don't need lights, so the solar cells are redundant, dark side I need lights and the solar cells are useless. Might have to rethink that design.

That's a really loooonnnnng drive, though. Dunno if I have the patience.

[deadshot462]

I think someone had attempted this in 0.14 with Tosh's rover mod, don't know if they ever finished it. More recently, someone posted their circumnavigation around Duna, it was cool because it took a unique route that went through the various terrain types.

[Tex_NL]

I think it would be more a mental endurance challenge rather than a design challenge. From KSC to the north pole took me in the order of seven hours, no way I could have possibly done that non-stop. Driving fast in low gravity can be tricky, especially when you engage physics warp to safe time.

I'm not sure if anybody will be willing (or desperate enough) to accept your challenge.

[Ekku Zakku]

Oh. Ohoho. You guys think circumnavigating the Mun or Duna is a feat? Me and one other person circumnavigated KERBIN, by water even (mostly). It took me around 11-12 hours, and the other guy around 13+ I believe. I'd circumnavigate the Mun any day XD

[Spaceisbeautifulul]

I'd like to see some proof on that. Doing it by boat seems near to impossible....

But, "Driving Duna" is possible.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Spaceisbeautifulul

[AustralianFries]

"Speeding" across the ocean in an unpowered glider took 40 minutes, and that was the longest 40 minutes of my entire life. So to drive across the Mun uninterrupted, which would take like 30 times as long?

Lolnope.

[GusTurbo]

I'd like to see some proof on that. Doing it by boat seems near to impossible....

But, "Driving Duna" is possible.

He did it, and it was quite a feat. I've never circumnavigated anything, but I did drive a rover to KSC2 in 10.5 hours of game-time(it took much less real-time).

[Ekku Zakku]

I'd like to see some proof on that. Doing it by boat seems near to impossible....

But, "Driving Duna" is possible.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25016-In-search-of-Ferdinand-Magellan/page5

The other guy who did it is also in that thread, he did it before me XD

You can actually get a LOT of speed on the water (300+ m/s) if you use proper boat building techniques; there's hardly any friction in the water with the right parts, it's great stuff! It's actually impossible to circumnavigate completely by water, it's required that one travels across land at one point or another, so the boat needs to be amphibious as well. Although it is much faster to circumnavigate mostly by water rather than mostly by land; quite hard to keep up 150+ m/s over rolling hills and mountains XD

Edited June 22, 2013 by Ekku Zakku