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Drive to the North Pole?


Valley

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I am watching HOCgaming's Kerbal Polar Express on You Tube - recording from his water charity live stream - and was wondering if anybody else had tried to drive to the North Pole? It seems like something I could do, seeing as I seem to make rovers and buggies that work. Sometimes.

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  Valley said:
I am watching HOCgaming's Kerbal Polar Express on You Tube - recording from his water charity live stream - and was wondering if anybody else had tried to drive to the North Pole? It seems like something I could do, seeing as I seem to make rovers and buggies that work. Sometimes.

Tell me the secrets of your rovers that work! Because uh, mine mostly work...until I hit one of those bad terrain segments and end up rolling down a hill as a result. Which is why I'm not playing KSP right now. Not being able to make a rover that doesn't randomly go partially out of control because of terrain bugs has killed my gameplay. :(

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I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as a rover which doesn't flip out for some reason. They're either unstable or you end up running out of patience and accelerating beyond the limits of what the vehicle can do. Given that most of Kerbin is just grassy fields and mountains (and a desert or two), expecting a rover to go quickly isn't a good idea; try driving across a rough field in a car you built yourself (in real life) at 70mph; that's 30m/s.

In other words: Yes, you can get to the North Pole in a rover but it will take you a very long time and you might as well take the 5 minute rocket option.

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Nah, furthest I ever drove was 20km on the mun when I overshot my landing by 40 km. After those 20 I decided to just send another mission instead. Spaceflight messes with your perception of distance, you don't realize just how large these planets are.

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  Ralathon said:
Nah, furthest I ever drove was 20km on the mun when I overshot my landing by 40 km. After those 20 I decided to just send another mission instead. Spaceflight messes with your perception of distance, you don't realize just how large these planets are.

You're telling me.

My first mission to the Mun I landed safely but did not have enough fuel to leave.

I send a rescue mission and land 36 km away.

I had my dude walk all 36 km, it took me about 10 hours with something stuck in my W key on my keyboard.

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The furthest I've driven was 25km on Eve, back in 0.19. I had landed a manned rover, and I drove it a long way to get to my base. But the second I got close to the base, I experienced the rapid unplanned disassembly bug and the whole base exploded, leaving my rover surrounded by wreckage. It was seriously not cool... ;.;

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  Skorpychan said:
I'm tempted to do it on Kerbin, now. Just to plant a flag as the first kerbals to drive to the north pole, and the first one that didn't want to be there.
And maybe, just maybe, James and Jeremy Kerman will beat Richard Kerman to the North Pole.
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  Sapphire said:
The furthest I've driven was 25km on Eve, back in 0.19. I had landed a manned rover, and I drove it a long way to get to my base. But the second I got close to the base, I experienced the rapid unplanned disassembly bug and the whole base exploded, leaving my rover surrounded by wreckage. It was seriously not cool... ;.;

This exact thing happened to me. but on Duna in .20.2.

I would take the rover and drive towards the base. as I approached about 200 - 400 meters, the station simply exploded completely. I luckily had a previous quicksave and reloaded.. tried different approaches with the rover.. same results. I then tried to load from the base instead. all was fine. I tried loading from the lander and flew it closer 500m - 200m- 85m landed got kerbals out.. walked to the base.. all was fine..

It only exploded when I approached with the rover. even if it was 5 km away.. and it came within the 2.2 km .. the base would load ok. I got closer and closer.. then at about 328m. boom.. base explodes.. weird..

Because of this. I don't use rovers except on the Mun.. it is the only place it seems to work so far. For all else I bring extra fuel and fly a pin point landing near a base or place of interest.

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  Meraco said:
This exact thing happened to me. but on Duna in .20.2.

I would take the rover and drive towards the base. as I approached about 200 - 400 meters, the station simply exploded completely. I luckily had a previous quicksave and reloaded.. tried different approaches with the rover.. same results. I then tried to load from the base instead. all was fine. I tried loading from the lander and flew it closer 500m - 200m- 85m landed got kerbals out.. walked to the base.. all was fine..

It only exploded when I approached with the rover. even if it was 5 km away.. and it came within the 2.2 km .. the base would load ok. I got closer and closer.. then at about 328m. boom.. base explodes.. weird..

Because of this. I don't use rovers except on the Mun.. it is the only place it seems to work so far. For all else I bring extra fuel and fly a pin point landing near a base or place of interest.

I actually Circumnavigated the Mun once...back in...hell if I recall. 0.17 maybe? Pre-docking anyway. Granted, I was using a Bigtrak rover that could pull 80 m/s on the Mun (Record was 90, but usually it did more like 80.) It was completely invulnerable to impact damage, so the resulting occasional super high speed tumble was not at all a problem.

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I drove all the way around Duna using this rover. It works very well. I used very similar rovers on Eve and Laythe. I've also tested it on the Mun and Minmus (which is why it has the RCS), but it works better with more gravity. Lots of wheels is good because it puts less strain on each wheel so they don't blow (the Duna mission was unmanned, and I didn't blow a wheel). I used ASAS to keep the rover stable when it caught lots of "air".

yHxFDed.jpg

Complete Mission Report Here.

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  WillHop said:
Originally Posted by Skorpychan

I'm tempted to do it on Kerbin, now. Just to plant a flag as the first kerbals to drive to the north pole, and the first one that didn't want to be there

And maybe, just maybe, James and Jeremy Kerman will beat Richard Kerman to the North Pole.

As long as there's gin and tonic on the way!

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  Brotoro said:
I drove all the way around Duna using this rover. It works very well. I used very similar rovers on Eve and Laythe. I've also tested it on the Mun and Minmus (which is why it has the RCS), but it works better with more gravity. Lots of wheels is good because it puts less strain on each wheel so they don't blow (the Duna mission was unmanned, and I didn't blow a wheel). I used ASAS to keep the rover stable when it caught lots of "air".

yHxFDed.jpg

Complete Mission Report Here.

That's almost exactly what my Duna rover looked like. Same frame and wheel configuration at least.

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