Crossing the Ocean FOR SCIENCE!

[Geschosskopf]

Ever since the Bronze Age when Kerbals began flying in rockets, those few who returned alive have told tall tales of a mysterious continent across the ocean to the east of KSC which they've claimed to have seen from orbit. Of course, no sane Kerbal has ever believed such claptrap. I mean, they can see Mun pretty good with telescopes and travelers' tales of it have always agreed with ground observations. But another continent on Kerbin? Preposterous!

However, the tales persisted in Kerballore and popular culture soon became filled with totally lame mass-market novels and video games set in the fabled "Land of the Dawn". Eventually a respectable Kerbal scientist had enough of this rot and decided to prove once and for all that no such continent existed. To this end he designed a jet-powered boat by the simple expedient of taking a blue wrench to the wings and tail of a standard seaplane. Then he threw a couple of unimaginative Kerbals in it and told them to head east until they ran out of fuel, then swim back.

So the JetBoat began its myth-busting odyssey, thumping and skipping over the waves at about 105m/s. Within 11 minutes, even the top of Airbase Island had sunk beneath the western horizon. And other than the odd piece of booster and the floating hulks of ditched SSTO failures, the crew saw nothing but blue water for a long, long time. Kerbol set behind them, the stars started coming out, and eventually the Sacred Strut appeared along the ecliptic to hold the heavens together. And there was still no land in sight, but the fuel gauges were still reading well over 1/2 so there was nothing for it but to continue.

But then, unbelievably, at T+49 minutes, a bit of land appeared fine on the port bow. And it refused to be just an island. Instead, it grew into a massive headland fringed by steep cliffs, with lowlands stretching off behind it as far as the eye could see. There was no denying it; they was the mythical Land of the Dawn!

Rounding the headland, the crew found a gentle slope on its NE corner and, 54 minutes after leaving KSC, rolled up onto the beach using the powered rover wheels inside their boat's pontoons. They got out and reflexively planted a flag under their headlights.

And then they contemplated their situation. They still had 2/3 fuel so could return to KSC. But their boss would surely fire them for making him look like an idiot. But OTOH, they might become heroes of the popular culture and even feature in future lame books and video games, and become rich. Or they could stay here, at least until the snacks ran out. All they could decide to do was sleep on this.

But before they turned in, they figured out how wide the ocean is. (54 minutes) x (60 seconds/minute) x (105 meters/second) = about 340km give or take (depending on where you measure). Yay SCIENCE!

[DerekL1963]

Nice write up!

[M4ck]

Good job by the way, the cockpit cam looks hilarious. My only question: how comes Jeb wasn't assigned to such a breakthrough mission? My only idea was that he rejected it because "MOAR BOOSTERS" couldn't have been used here...

[Geschosskopf]

Good job by the way, the cockpit cam looks hilarious.

Yeah, I love that false "3rd Kerbal" in there with a face made of the halves of the 2 that really are.

The cockpit and pontoons are from Firespitter, the all-in-one engines are from B9, the rest is stock. I really like the cockpit. Besides the humorous cam view, it's got built-in headlights and is the lightest 2-man cockpit I've found. But it doesn't have reaction wheels. This is no problem for an airplane with control surfaces SAS can use, but this boat only had the rudders on the pontoons, so I had to add a set of reaction wheels for pits.

My only question: how comes Jeb wasn't assigned to such a breakthrough mission? My only idea was that he rejected it because "MOAR BOOSTERS" couldn't have been used here...

Well, Jeb was busy testing a Tylo lander .

[SuperWeegee4000]

"The Sacred Strut." I love that.

Also, "OTOH?" I wish people would spell these things out. It would make things a little easier....

[Geschosskopf]

Also, "OTOH?" I wish people would spell these things out. It would make things a little easier....

OT1H = "on the 1 hand"

OTOH = "on the other hand"

OTGH = "on the gripping hand", a reference to the classic Niven-Pournelle sci-fi books about the Mote in God's Eye and the 3-armed aliens.