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Munar Polar Exploration Revisited

aphazael
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aphazael

aphazael

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So there was an earlier challenge about landing a craft on or near a munar pole, but it didn\'t do very well, and it predates .14, so there was no way to measure how close you were to the pole. But now, we can!

So I submit to you my first attempt at landing on a munar pole:

3U3tU.png

FFN9f.png

I suspect that that pyrimidical-shaped mountain might be the site of the pole itself. I would love to see someone confirm this. I would also like to see what things at the south pole looks like.

So, THE RULES:

You must land your craft as close as possible to one of the Munar poles. You must submit a screenshot of the surroundings, and of map view showing your coordinates on the map (note that ksp\'s screenshot function doesn\'t record that text, so you\'ll have to take one with an external function).

There will be four categories you can score in: 1) closest distance to a pole with stock parts, 2) closest distance with any mod parts allowed, but no cfg edits or plugins, 3) any mod and any plugin allowed (no cfg edits still), so you can drive up to it in a rover if you want to/can get there(now I really hope it\'s the top of that tall peak! :D ). The fourth scoring category will be largest ship brought to close proximity of the pole by any of the above means, scored on some metric to be determined later based on the mass of the craft and the distance to the pole.

In addition, unlike my initial attempt, you must land an intact craft for it to be a complete success.The point is exploration, so you should be able to check things out once you\'re there. You don\'t need to be able to get back home or anything, but you should be in a state where you could lift off again and move around if you wanted to. So, I\'m going to make another attempt later today and post my results of that as well.

Good luck. Happy hopping!

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Awaras

Awaras

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yesitis2.gif

I know that those are just errors in the mesh of the mun surface, but this actually fits quite nicely with the \'Mun is an artificial construct\' theory I saw in another thread...

Once the Kerbal civilization gets advanced enough to be able to lift the huge, heavy pyramid from the north pole and fit it inside the hole on the south pole, the ancient machinery inside the Mun gets activated and something... wonderful happens. :D

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aphazael

aphazael

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I like the artificial moon idea. Reminds me of: 'I must warn you that the chamber we are about to enter does not physically exist within our planet. It is a gateway into a vast track of hyperspace. It may disturb you... It scares the willies out of me'

So I landed on the slope of the 'northern polar anomaly' with stock parts!

prT2P.png

Not quite at the pole, but pretty darn close:

0hWsO.png

I\'m kind of on the shoulder of the thing. Not quite at the pyramid itself:

tJ87X.png

I\'ve got a little RCS fuel left. I\'m going to try to manouver a little closer and see what\'s up there. Then I\'ll have to go check out the great southern pit. I\'m starting to imagine a game where we try to drop objects into the hole, (ie blowing up the death star!)

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samstarman5

samstarman5

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I know that those are just errors in the mesh of the mun surface, but this actually fits quite nicely with the \'Mun is an artificial construct\' theory I saw in another thread...

Once the Kerbal civilization gets advanced enough to be able to lift the huge, heavy pyramid from the north pole and fit it inside the hole on the south pole, the ancient machinery inside the Mun gets activated and something... wonderful happens. :D

Yeah, something wonderful. One can hope.

http://youtu.be/r9AFXIlTDzs

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aphazael

aphazael

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Whelp, I guess the big crater is NOT the south pole...

screennrn.png

screenaja.png

What would be the coordinates of the exact south pole? 90 00 00 S?

Really it should be 89 59 59, so you\'re almost there. Nice work!

And thanks to everyone. You\'ve all done some good science today.

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Awaras

Awaras

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Really it should be 89 59 59, so you\'re almost there. Nice work!

And thanks to everyone. You\'ve all done some good science today.

Did it:

screenklk.png

There is something seriously weird with that piece of land... I tried to get there with a rover 2 times, and every time the location was different:

The first time, there were huge gaps between the tiles, and my ship fell apart and fell through:

screenioi.png

screenjuj.png

The second time, there was still a gap, but it was different, so i approached the south pole carefully:

screeneqe.png

You can see the stars underneath! :D

After I went back to space center to verify my coordinates, and then returned to my rover, the terrain became completely different, without gaps:

screenyzy.png

Wider area of the site:

screenyuy.png

Now to try to get the kerbonauts home with just one rcs tank...

*edit*

Yay!

screenrzr.png

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thorfinn

thorfinn

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Yeah, the terrain generator isn\'t completely consistent.

I think that you finally found what is causing the explosions of landed ships too: the ships don\'t really move, it\'s the TERRAIN that changes!

I\'ve seen the patch of land my craft was in changing elevation, about 5-6 meters downward, after going to the tracking station and resuming a flight. The difference wasn\'t visually perceptible for me, though.

(see http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=8700.msg128166#msg128166 )

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Causeless

Causeless

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Yeah, the terrain generator isn\'t completely consistent.

I think that you finally found what is causing the explosions of landed ships too: the ships don\'t really move, it\'s the TERRAIN that changes!

I\'ve seen the patch of land my craft was in changing elevation, about 5-6 meters downward, after going to the tracking station and resuming a flight. The difference wasn\'t visually perceptible for me, though.

(see http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=8700.msg128166#msg128166 )

Well yes, HarvesteR himself confirmed that before the official release of 0.14, I believe. It\'s why craft are saved with an 'altitude from ground' value now, since HarvesteR found that the terrain was much less accurate and this is also what seems to cause the tile seams. The bug was fixed for 0.14, and the other non-active ships exploding was another bug fixed in 0.14.1.

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l00

l00

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Hmm... the 'terrain changes on reloading the ship' bug happened to me too (0.14.1).

What i find stange is how consistent the inconsistency is (lol).

In all my attempts at landing at the North Pole, and in all the pics i see here, when

we reach the Pole, there is a gap in the surface. I made a quicksave on the ground

and reloaded. The surface was now fine, no polygons missing / out of position (and the ship

is dropped and goes boom).

And this is the significant part: every single time i land, there is that gap, and

every single time i load the save, the gap is gone. That would indicate that terrain is

generated differently when approaching the terrain, and reloading it.

I also tried making a save 6000m above the munar surface. After reloading the save and

landing, the gap was consistently there. Is it possible that the final, most detailed level of

terrain generation simply doesn\'t kick in on approach?

It may also be possible that this is an issue with the updater

(part(s) of the game not updated) and that is why HarvesteR

has no trouble with this anymore :).

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Awaras

Awaras

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Hmm... the 'terrain changes on reloading the ship' bug happened to me too (0.14.1).

What i find stange is how consistent the inconsistency is (lol).

In all my attempts at landing at the North Pole, and in all the pics i see here, when

we reach the Pole, there is a gap in the surface. I made a quicksave on the ground

and reloaded. The surface was now fine, no polygons missing / out of position (and the ship

is dropped and goes boom).

And this is the significant part: every single time i land, there is that gap, and

every single time i load the save, the gap is gone. That would indicate that terrain is

generated differently when approaching the terrain, and reloading it.

I also tried making a save 6000m above the munar surface. After reloading the save and

landing, the gap was consistently there. Is it possible that the final, most detailed level of

terrain generation simply doesn\'t kick in on approach?

It may also be possible that this is an issue with the updater

(part(s) of the game not updated) and that is why HarvesteR

has no trouble with this anymore :).

Yup, exactly as it happened to me...

This inconsistency is something that should be pointed out to Harv so he can take a look.

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