Re-Design the Wheel

[veio]

Favorite moment: 3:03. Beams EVERYWHERE.

Beamplosion! Yeah I think the game wasn't removing the old vehicle from the last launch properly.

[Highlad]

I have a potential entry for this, but I'm not sure I understand the challenge. It's OK if the craft is the wheel, instead of having bearings/axels?

Go for it, if your submission is a wheel and it rolls! Of course if it is not very ingenuitive or awesome then it wont get a high I+A score.

[[email protected]]

The leaderboard could be broken down by top speed, avg speed, distance travelled, and turning radius (with 0 turn getting highest points, not turning getting none).

Also, ASAS and reaction wheels should be exclueded...because they are wheels.

[Highlad]

Those are some good ideas (I quite like the turning circle thing) but I think that I would like to keep the challenge simple and focused on the 'coolness' or inginuity of the designs rather than the tech specs

[Iceman1415]

Here's my (stupid) attempt:

More screenshots:

1) apparently the Clamp-O-Tron Sr. Docking Port has a impact tolerance of 20, even better than landing legs. So yeah.

2) I uses decouplers so the docking port don't randomly break off

3) I uses torque instead of fuel, so I can play with it forevar. Trading off speed though.

4) BTW try a rover with a lot of torque on mun (or somewhere with low gravity). It's really fun. Remember to but on some I-beans for protection.

[Highlad]

Cool entry, I like the docking ports

I have added you to the leaderboard!

[Noname117]

Well, I saw this challenge, knew I had built a Ferris wheel already (no pictures exist online yet), and decided to take it on. After a bunch of testing, I built this:

This thing is powered by a combination of 12 jet engines (a number which decreases as it is accelerating, as you will see in the next screenshot) and reaction wheels.

Engines starting to fly off:

The top speed it reached:

and the damage done to it on the speed record attempt after it had stopped:

So yes, it isn't pretty and causes some pretty bad lag, but it beat the record by 6 m/s despite losing some jet engines. I actually recorded the speed to be 31.8 m/s, but it was only for brief instances and can only show proof for 31.7 m/s. Thanks for the challenge

[Highlad]

Awesome design! I have put you on the leaderboard at 28.2 m/s as your wheel broke at that point. Even then you have grabbed first place! As much as i wanted to put you in first place on the I+A Leaderboard, Your wheel didn't have a bearing of any kind, so i put you in second!

Loved it! And your welcome

[Noname117]

well, technically my engines broke at that point, not my wheel. It began to lose the jet engines at around 28 m/s, but stopped losing them and sustained a speed of 30.0 to 31.8 m/s for.... maybe a minute,maybe 45 seconds, but for a long time before I made the conscious decision to slow it down. No parts were lost after it reached the top speed shown, and that top speed was reached long after parts had disconnected (and would be able to get back to that point from a halt with no extra damage done). It was originally intended to be for a bike, but I realized it had more potential in this form, not to mention lag. I may try working on a rocket trike today to beat my own speed

[Highlad]

looking forward to it.

[Noname117]

Even though I think my previous wheel technically passed the 30 m/s mark,since the only breaking was to the engines and it sustained the 30 m/s speed without breaking after it had gotten there,but since you are counting it as 28 m/s... I only had to try again...

Tried a trike, but it sucked and couldn't get to 10 m/s without breaking... then I built a new giant wheel which is less of a lag monster.

I found it to be pretty sturdy, though tests revealed it does lose a single aerospike at above 30 m/s...except for its first test run, which the following photo is from:

It hit 39 m/s without a single piece flying off, though I did not get a picture of it stopped afterwards, and I really should've. I thought it would do a little better on other tests, but it would just lose an engine and not reach the speed it did on its first run. It's been fun building giant wheels, I don't know why I had stopped at my ferris wheel before.

[Highlad]

Cool stuff! I shall revise your scores.

[9911MU51C]

Only mod used was the B9 aeroplane pack for the air brakes to slow it down, top speed of 22 m/s

[Highlad]

small and simple, I like it! Onto the leaderboard you go!

[Noname117]

I looked at my craft and realized how stupid I was. I mean, using liquid engines for power? How kerbal is that even? Not enough. So I made a couple modifications and got this:

which wound up,surprisingly, stopping intact.

And thus the 40 m/s mark has been surpassed

[Highlad]

haha! Is nothing more kerbal than strapping SRBs to something and watching it go

I will once again revise your scores

[Dunbaratu]

Do any parts exist in the stock game other than wheels that allow rotating attachment points? The challenge doesn't require that you attach your wheel to something (so the whole craft can be the wheel), but how *would* you attach it if you wanted to put it on something and can't use existing wheels as the attachment point?

Effectively for a real axle you need a disconnected part - a piece that can rotate inside another piece - and I think that's the problem - the VAB won't let you build detached parts - everything has to be a tree. So the only way I can see to do it is to build it with a deliberately weak connector designed to break off once physics starts.

[Sesni]

I'm not sure if it's a wheel or a rectangular box containing sas and batteries.....

BTW that's top speed, without the speed from going off the runway. Also, it was at 5.2 m/s for fractions of seconds.

[Noname117]

Effectively for a real axle you need a disconnected part - a piece that can rotate inside another piece - and I think that's the problem - the VAB won't let you build detached parts - everything has to be a tree. So the only way I can see to do it is to build it with a deliberately weak connector designed to break off once physics starts.

Build a deliberately weak connecter that breaks with PHYSICS??? Sounds like somebody forgot about decouplers.

[Dunbaratu]

Build a deliberately weak connecter that breaks with PHYSICS??? Sounds like somebody forgot about decouplers.

Brain fart. Right. That would work.

[veio]

lol yeah mine all use decouplers of some sort. Ideally try and use a cylindrical object as the axial;, square doesn't work so well...

Nice work noname117, that got some good speed.

[Kasuha]

Jebediah's Wheeeeeeeeel.

Maximum measured speed 30.6 m/s.

Jeb is pathetic driver.

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Edited November 24, 2013 by Kasuha

[RocketTurtle]

Haha! Nice wheel! It looks something like a combination of a unicycle and a bicycle! And it even has bearings!

[Noname117]

Now I am starting to worry that it might not be me passing the 50 m/s mark sometime in the future

[Noname117]

Seeing Kasuha's newest wheel, I began to worry that my 40 km/s record may not stand. I realized something he did right: using wheels larger in diameter than mine. Combining that knowledge with knowledge obtained from previous experiments, I made something new:

The top speed it achieved without breaking:

and then it tipped onto its right wheel:

and that wheel started to disintegrate:

And then it takes a sudden turn to the left:

This is the highest speed I saw it going at total, and it was technically still rolling, albeit about to stop rolling and lose all structure.

The end of the "death turn" and the end of the rolling:

and the debris field:

So, that puts the record speed at either 48 or 53 m/s, depending on whether the point where destruction began or the point where rolling stopped is counted as the maximum speed. I may have just solidified my lead for a little while

Edited November 24, 2013 by Noname117