Charon Circumnavigation

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
I started todays run in Charon's dawn. Light streaming in low from my left, casting long shadows. It's nice to be driving in the light!

Basically the terrain here is quite flat, perfect for bombing along at max speed, which is unfortunately still 23 m/s for me. The overnight repairs have fixed the hull structural damage, but not the lack of power in the engines. I suppose I should be happy with the reduced speed, as it does drastically reduce the damage the SRV takes, and is good for fuel economy too. I have no idea what to do to regain my 38 m/s top speed though, so that is a bit frustrating.

I have gone a little too far south at -71 degrees, but still need to get quite a bit further east to reach the antidopal point.

Slowly I have been driving back into the night. I am travelling faster to the east than the sun is rising, so my Charon Dawn has been left behind, hopefully I'll get a second one in a couple of hours time :D
I parked up, in the darkness, at
-71
141

I'm feeling a little embarrassed by the exploits over on Ariel, so here is a picture showing a canyon I drove through a couple of days ago

EwWdMxP.png


It doesn't match the vast deep fissures on Ariel, but it's the best I can offer right now.
 
If I recall correctly, damage is capped at no more than 50% hull loss in one hit. But of course, it you fall, hit once, bounce, and hit something again, it can be all over.

Usually I let the damage accumulate, but repair right away if it gets below about 55% or so.

Not remotely true. :) Proof.

That said, SRVs are pretty ludicrously tough these days. After the most recent patch updating their physics, I can hit a wall at 400+ m/s and be very confident in surviving as long as I do so at about the right angle. They used to be more fragile.

But if you're staying under 100 m/s or so, I'd be pretty darn confident in no single hit taking you all the way out.

I started todays run in Charon's dawn. Light streaming in low from my left, casting long shadows. It's nice to be driving in the light!
.

Driving at dawn/dusk is my favorite by far. Those long dramatic shadows never get old!
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
Goal for this weekend, bearing in mind that I have a housefull of guests all day on saturday, is to reach the antipodal point.

Trying to find where I put my sunglasses.

[video=youtube;gvKs2VLmVnY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvKs2VLmVnY[/video]
 
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Not remotely true. :) Proof.

Like I said, I was repeating what others had said on the forum repeatedly. The video looks like pretty solid evidence! Although it's possible that it counted two independent strikes in that, within one frame of the video or something. But who knows. ;) :D
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
Have got to
-70
-167

Finally negative long !

I'm looking forward to seeing Pluto in the sky again soon.

Had two "Whoa" moments, one was when I fell down the steepest ravine I've seen in a week!
 
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Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
I started off this morning confident in being able to get to my antipodal point today.

This is a random picture - not much to see except the scanner shows the SRV travelling along a saddle between two craters, a couple of days ago.
NyuPA7A.png


I'm still stuck at a max speed of 23 m/s and no idea why it got capped, when last week I could easily do 38 to 40 m/s.

Anyway. I had decided to simply go straight ahead, and damned be the craters, until I lost 20% hull in a landing half way across a bigger crater. I've gone back to skirting around the crater edges again :D

This is where I've stopped. I need to do some chores and repears and refuel. When I start up again I'll be searching for the exact point I need to be precisely opposite my starting point and so be HALFWAY round Charon

a0fMfnW.jpg
 
Dumb question, but do you have Drive Assist off? I know speed is capped with it on.

Otherwise, I got nothing... 23m/s is about as fast I dare go and usually ends in vicious snap-rolls and hull damage!
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
I'll check that - thanks for the tip.

I'm just going flat out (almost) all the time now, as at this speed I can avoid most of the large rocks by small adjustments in the line I take or hopping over groups of rocks. Most of my 'accidents' today have been from hopping over some rocks or flying down a steep decline and being unable to avoid a sneaky rock when landing. That and simple inattention..... speeding over bumpy ground does at least take some attention to avoid complete disaster :D.
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
Drive assist was OFF. Clumsy fingers I guess, but it has cost me quite some time!

And here it is, the exact opposite point of Charon, from where I started.

7j6Zb44.png


It took a bit of driving back and forth to find the precise point, and I almost stopped searching as I was within a couple of feet of it a few times!

Halfway round :D

I'll take a picture of the stats before continuing.
 
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Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
I've made a mistake and am going the wrong way!

In order to find the antipodal point I had to retrace some of my southerly progress and go back north to get to it. Having got my evidence of finding it, I then continued on the the same general direction.... north and east instead of following the great circle, south and east.

So I've done a zig to the north and will have to zag back south to go around the planet properly!

Also I was too eager to get going again and forgot to take a record of my stats at the antipodal point :(
 
I've made a mistake and am going the wrong way!

In order to find the antipodal point I had to retrace some of my southerly progress and go back north to get to it. Having got my evidence of finding it, I then continued on the the same general direction.... north and east instead of following the great circle, south and east.

So I've done a zig to the north and will have to zag back south to go around the planet properly!

Also I was too eager to get going again and forgot to take a record of my stats at the antipodal point :(

Dang, this pole to pole circumnavigation stuff sounds tricky! Having done my original one around the equator I had considered going back and doing the same planet pole to pole but I don't like the sound of all this navigational floundering around where all the lat/lon lines converge!
 
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Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
If you want, I could create you a route to run using StatusDisplay - which can, from one user's report, be used to display "inside" the Rift's display.

Another possibility is for an "on-the-fly" route to be created from one's current location and heading for a number of arc-degrees of circumference.
 

Ian Phillips

Volunteer Moderator
If you want, I could create you a route to run using StatusDisplay - which can, from one user's report, be used to display "inside" the Rift's display.

Another possibility is for an "on-the-fly" route to be created from one's current location and heading for a number of arc-degrees of circumference.

Ideally what I would like is a number of points along the great circle. I have two, my staring point at
69.3697
39.1685

and the antipodal point at
-69.3697
-140.8315

So I need to figure out the 3/4 waypoint and I can simply aim for that. Easy peasy......

The latitude is simple. It's the equator. 0 degrees.
and 90 degrees on from -140.8315 would make the coordianates
0 lat
-50.8313 long

So, that is my next point to aim for (somewhere close to it is good enough :D)
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Ideally what I would like is a number of points along the great circle. I have two, my staring point at
69.3697
39.1685

and the antipodal point at
-69.3697
-140.8315

So I need to figure out the 3/4 waypoint and I can simply aim for that. Easy peasy......

The latitude is simple. It's the equator. 0 degrees.
and 90 degrees on from -140.8315 would make the coordianates
0 lat
-50.8313 long

So, that is my next point to aim for (somewhere close to it is good enough :D)

Here's a spreadsheet that'll allow a great circle route to be calculated from an arbitrary point at an arbitrary heading:

https://1drv.ms/x/s!AhwMM1shYJvNohCpFGCnz6JgExPW
 
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