Driving to the South Pole in Kerbal Space Program

I had this crazy Idea to Drive to the South Pole in Kerbal Space Program, so i posted my idea on reddit and it blew up a little. So with the support of reddit behind me, we took off on out newest adventure!
Anyone wanna see this happen in Kerbal Space Program 2? or is it still too buggy?
Truck Download:
kerbalx.com/crafts/75671/
Video Chapters:
0:22 Start Day One
7:43 Day Two three and four
9:34 Day Five
12:03 Day Six
15:27 Day Seven
19:03 Day Eight
Please Consider Subscribing!
Thank Everyone who enjoyed my post and took the time to check the video out too!
Music In Order: (All From Epidemic Sound)
A House of Glass - A House of Glass
It's My Day, It's Friday - Johan Glössner
Summer of 59 - CHRIS SHARDS
The Forgotten Rusty Carousel - STATIONARY SIGN
Ringing in My Head (Instrumental Version) - COMA SVENSSON
Fair N Square - WILLIAM BENCKERT
Bad Omens - JON BJÖRK
Extra Extras - DYLAN SITTS
Cx2 Brainwash - DISSIDENCE
Mama Swing - LUCAS PITTMAN
Purple Voyager - ELFL
#kerbalspaceprogram #ksp #challenge

[@ianmobbs804]

"There's the space center, disappearing over the horizon. Last time they'll ever see it" - exactly how i treat all my kerbals

[@danzstuff]

LMAO

[@hhhhhhhhh1071]

They just line up for job interviews like they want to die

[@adamantium1983]

As you should treat them, I typically figure they are doomed 😂

[@cherriberri8373]

I really like the return journeys, honestly.

[@redneck472]

This video made me realise how big the KSP map really is. The fact that it took you this long to drive around one planet in this game, and how I go thousands of times this distance just casually really gives some perspective for me.

[@sidspooki]

Honestly same, I thought it would take half the time. It really shows just how massive the planets really are.

[@Paalleujo]

@@sidspooki what’s even more insane is that everything is scaled down by 1/8, so Jool is how big the earth is

[@sidspooki]

@@Paalleujo Yeah I couldn't imagine doing this in earth scale. Would be Insane...maybe I can imagine doing it in earth scale.

[@tacwedie9898]

@@sidspooki Wouldnt it take how much time it takes to circle around the Earth's polar radius irl?

[@sidspooki]

@@tacwedie9898 Nah, luckily kerbin is smaller than the real earth, about 10.9 times smaller according to Google.

[@r-labs9357]

No cities, no colonies, nothing, only a space complex

[@MemeReviewer]

The KSC is eternal

[@ferociousfeind8538]

As I understand it, there are a few small settlements! There's the island with a runway directly straight ahead from the KSC runway, but there's also some radio dishes somewhere?

[@MemeReviewer]

@@ferociousfeind8538 this ^ lil’ airstrip full of easter eggs uhh, south of the KSC iirc, a legacy/old KSC somewhere in the mountains, and then repeater dishes throughout Kerbin

[@Ramash440]

I'm surprised the thing didn't disintegrate after so many tumbles. The crash tolerance on wheel parts truly is a sight to behold.

[@littlesneez9002]

*looks at profile picture* No, the craft was made because of Belkan Technology, that aloud it to take more crash damage.

[@piscessoedroen]

​@@littlesneez9002the craft also moves in a way that it reduces the damage

[@anttitheinternetguy3213]

After the Belkan war many Belkan engineers moved to kerbistan where they were welcomed by primitive kerbals living in caves. In 12 years time kerbals were sending kerbonauts into the trajectory towards the sun like it was going out of style, all thanks to Belkan ingenuity. That explains the toughness of this car.

[@nzredwolf4048]

This puts into perspective how big the KSP map is. Think about it, if you're not at some easter egg, or some launch site, you're almost guaranteed to be in a place where no other player's spacecraft has ever been.

[@Seethenhagen]

Now make a boat that takes them back to the KSC on a nice relaxing cruise.

[@SlizMaster]

i agree

[@Beepthing]

I was going to comment this

[@TinyBearTim]

Ekranoplan

[@John_Gillman]

boats in ksp are pretty hard to do (i think) and if you hit the water too hard your entire craft falls apart and gets destroyed

[@Seethenhagen]

@@John_Gillman True, but the point of a cruise is to relax and see the sights on a slow voyage :^)

[@rolfrolfes7594]

Some tips for you: 1. Turn off SAS while driving. A well desigent car will be stable on Kerbin gravity levels. When you have airtime for some reason and you see that you wont land on your wheels turn it on, to steady your vehicle. 2. Turn off some of the wheel motors to reduce top speed on tricky terrain. 3. The car design should have: high ground clearence, low center of mass, high mounted lights and most important: seatbelts for your crew !!! If I ever try this myself I will use Mechjeb rover-autopilot. Its probably cheating but so much more convenient for long travels.

[@sidspooki]

Thanks for the tips! I'll take it into account next time!

[@whatisbestinlife8112]

@@sidspooki Next time?

[@Monkeycrazy448]

@@sidspooki n e x t t i m e ? ANOTHER ONE 100 PERCENT OERMRDIVGOIJEHSNODIJHVBEDROJFVBWEUIRVGYEB steals 82 blood cells

[@fallout_hun]

Nice to see the actual journey after all those reddit update posts!

[@sidspooki]

Definitely! A lot different than screenshots lol

[@awolnation2446]

Saw it trending on Reddit and it was cool to see bits of the journey.

[@MagneticEel]

@@sidspooki will you do ksp lore, I haven't seen anyone do that. Except for the ex ksp dev who wrote something on pastebin.

[@CrimeMinister1]

I saw this in my recommended but was following some of your posts. It's doing numbers, kid

[@sidspooki]

@@MagneticEel I can definitely look into it, I know nothing about the lore so id have to do some research!

[@aidan9411]

I have a great idea on how to get them back: Rocket them back, basically either fly or use a rocket to put another rocket down on where they are that then takes them on a ballistic trajectory back to the ksc.

[@sidspooki]

I'll definitely check this out and play around with it. I have them to save and also Bill Kerman is out by the river also.

[@mosqa7802]

@@sidspooki use the trajectory mod to land the rocket accurately

[@grifinorange]

Launch it out the back of an airplane

[@alternativewalls4988]

Can't you just make an airplane with an empty extra crew module and pick em up?

[@aidan9411]

@@alternativewalls4988 it's more fun to rocket

[@12...]

I wonder why kerbin has so few trees perhaps their roots extend for hundreds of miles underground and the part you see is just a tiny part of the plant, like with mushrooms

[@steamkaptain9234]

perhaps

[@bettergs2790]

You can change amount of them in settings

[@casualbird7671]

I loved watching the truck become progressively more damaged in each clip, excellent journey

[@sidspooki]

It was very entertaining, shame i missed the north pole footage when most the damage happened lol

[@ironperegrine7765]

This is the kinda content you'd see from a channel with 50k subs, great stuff man and hoping you go far! May the algorithm be with you :D

[@sidspooki]

I really appreciate it!

[@judestips8238]

algoriithim fake

[@supercool5454]

@@judestips8238 how so?

[@darkdruidsvale]

the algorithm has summoned me

[@Galactipod]

He could do without the spit sounds.

[@dimanyak373]

I remember landing a ship(like literal ship) on Laythe slightly off course and having to drive it towards the base for hours without timewarp(because the ship used propellers) and then realising it was only a small fraction of the sea. Just puts it into perspective how even small moons are massive, let alone Planets.

[@sidspooki]

We'll get to the moons next!

[@dimanyak373]

@@sidspooki Cool! Didn't expect you to respond so fast.

[@sidspooki]

@@dimanyak373 I keep my notifications on, so unless I'm asleep I'm usually pretty quick lol

[@Hotrob_J]

"so I reloaded and suddenly I was underground" is the eternal mood of ksp

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

Made me remember how, a long long time ago, a bunch of KSP KZbinrs did this big charity stream where they would take turns driving to the North Pole. They drive to the south pole too, the year after, and the year after that they drove from Duna's north pole to the south.

[@typryor2227]

There’s something a little eerie about seeing the remnants of the previous failed missions, these derelict machines sitting patiently in the vast expanse of Kerbin, but slightly less eerie cause of the upbeat music

[@robertlapray2065]

You had me with "I mean, I can't really get that loud Mr. Beast I have roommates" (0:18). This felt like a fusion of the best parts of KSP craziness and the IRL "I travelled to..." videos. The river crossing with the music and tumbling was hilarious.

[@sidspooki]

Thank you!! I really appreciate it!

[@zaiden_2006]

wild to actually see how the KSP devs made such a complicated world without sacrificing FPS (except for when the kraken strikes)

[@sidspooki]

It is pretty cool to see!

[@nikkiofthevalley]

This is actually not that difficult to do. All you have to do for stuff like this is to split the planet into sections, and remove the sections you can't see. And you can also decrease the resolution of textures and number of vertices in the meshes the farther away from the camera a section is. It's not ridiculously difficult to optimize stuff like this, it isn't rocket science.

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

Cause the world is pretty empty, it's only crafted to be seen from large distances, smaller stuff is incidental

[@AnUnknownPlayer.]

“Complicated world” - empty barren nothingness

[@zaiden_2006]

@@AnUnknownPlayer. complicated because of the size more than the detail

[@getnaenaed99]

I haven't even played Kerbal Space Program, but I love seeing people go on disgustingly long road trips in games with huge maps for some reason. I think I just admire the dedication of trekking for hours and hours through a procedurally generated wasteland

[@sidspooki]

I appreciate it!

[@rectum_ravager]

well done, the amount of patience and determination this challenge must of needed is insane. i think it would be cool to build a long range heavy lifting vtol to carry the rover back to the KSC

[@sidspooki]

It definitely became a chore at one point, but I had a lot people cheering me on so that's really what kept me going.

[@rectum_ravager]

@@sidspooki r/kerbalspaceprogram is a great comunity

[@darkdruidsvale]

ive clearly been watching too many WW2 videos as of late cause i read that as "long range heavy artillery VTOL" and got confused as hell XD

[@crimsondart1050]

The amount of raw dedication required to do such a task is mind blowing

[@sidspooki]

I appreciate it!

[@ValentineC137]

11:20 If you rightclick on the SAS module you can make it SAS-only which makes it so it only gives to stability and doesn't spin when you use WASD

[@SWDennis]

Ahh, really nice to see a video. Also saw the reddit posts :D

[@sidspooki]

Awesome! Thanks for checking it out :)

[@fishrsa9046]

Man I remember when I drove a really fast (44m/s or 150something kph top speed) rover from ksc to the North tip of the Africa shaped continent that ksc is on. It took HOURS of driving. Not sure what I expected tbh, but it taking so long definitely surprised me. Makes me feel like the planet is really big even though its tiny compared to earth. There is so much I haven't explored yet. I wish there was more dynamic and interesting scenery to make it fun to explore, like individual eco systems and shit like that

[@sidspooki]

Very true, as fun as it was to do, im not sure ud do it again. Lots of green hills, and the occasional tree is about all you see lol

[@poorlydrawn443]

@@sidspooki that sounds a lot like north dakota

[@MandMs05]

@@poorlydrawn443 Wait, it's all North Dakota?

[@linecraftman3907]

Look out for Parallax update! It'll have trees, grass and more biome specific stuff!

[@electricpants8196]

@@poorlydrawn443 grew up there and yeah it's literally just that for the whole state lmao

[@teplapus8795]

You can try to sail them back by boat.

[@HDTomo]

That seems as interesting as this drive (from an idea perspective) and I would watch

[@valecasini]

2:12 lol the "liftoff!!" Is really funny though you are on a ground vehicle 😂 An idea to takes them back is an unmanned hopper like rocket that from the KSC go to the various Kerbal that U lost on the way and rescue them (obviously those Kerbal at the South Pole too... They deserve it😅)

[@polishkerbal6920]

A silly thing about rovers: if you want ur rovers to drive long distances but you dont wanna pilot them for 2 hours then i recomend the mod "bon voyage" it simply auto pilots your rovers (and even kerbals). it works with timewarp on or in tracking station (or other vessel) so yeah download it i was totally not hired by them to make this ad

[@sidspooki]

I may use this for my next mission!

[@andygonzalez692]

That's great to know before I head into my own over-engineered adventure!

[@polishkerbal6920]

@@andygonzalez692 read the manuals tho

[@andygonzalez692]

@@polishkerbal6920 lmao what?, who needs those when you got ROCKETS!!!!!

[@polishkerbal6920]

@@andygonzalez692 oh hell naww

[@firockfinion3326]

Bro turned Kerbal Space Program into Euro Truck Simulator.

[@Lexyvil]

Whenever I play KSP, I always get so excited when I get to unlock the wheels in the tech tree, for reasons like this.

[@MaxGuides]

Build a boat with a claw so that you can drive up onto the deck & connect the two vessels. Much classier than some silly helicopter or cargo plane + it’s practically a straight shot back to the KSC compared to this trip via the sea. The space center is going to want that truck that made the journey as a trophy, some replica just wouldn’t be the same.

[@sidspooki]

I did that with the Barge and it was a buggy mess unfortunately the claw glitched out everytime and caused alot of chaos.

[@RangerIsAnIdiot]

respect to the kerbals that couldnt sleep for 8 days straight

[@sidspooki]

#nosleep

[@RangerIsAnIdiot]

@@sidspooki #nosleepfor8days

[@ICKY427]

hell of a journey! this reminds me i need to finish my kerbin rover circumnavigation. i started early last year, got i think over half way around and took a "break" that turned into a year and a half.

[@sidspooki]

It happens to the best of us, if you finish it, report back how it went! Lol

[@sometroll3328]

Use a classic troll physics method, ship some lamps to them and then put them on the back of their truck, they will use the light coming from the lamps to fly at the speed of said light! Edit: Make sure to use red lights, as red is the "fastest" color of light.

[@sidspooki]

Intresting! Lol

[@sometroll3328]

@@sidspooki trololol

[@linguinithe1st499]

I think its really crazy that you never used the timeskip, I was thinking you might not have known about until you literally mentioned that you weren't using it, serious dedication to the craft my dude.

[@sidspooki]

I was more afraid it would cause more issues. And also it seemed like cheating lol.

[@holzkopp6195]

I love how there's progressivley less rover on your rover

[@sidspooki]

Ikr, thats why I only reloaded if I ABSOLUTELY needed to, so it looked like it actually did the journey.

[@DRUNKRUSSAIN2]

Keep up the crazy challenges love to see it

[@-FutureTaken-]

This is really great editing! You deserve way more subs

[@sidspooki]

Thank you!

[@edwardjohntayco7724]

Why does kerbin looks like earth

[@slahous]

The amount of dedication and patience is insane.

[@su-5755]

This is incredible! I would love to continue watching your channel and I’m still blown away you only have a couple hundred subscribers. I definitely am subscribed and this is an amazing video!

[@sidspooki]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the sub! It's been growing really fast though, only 6 days in!

[@martiantexan7632]

I clicked just to see the rover you used and ended up watching awhile. Congrats man, lotsa work into that. I drove a rover from Mun equator to the north pole once, never something this impressive!

[@dieseljester3466]

I saw you doing this on Reddit while I was on vacation. Glad to see that you finally made it! Great job!

[@MNRockHounder]

Every time I refreshed my page this video popped up so I had to watch. Good work, that took a lot of determination

[@sidspooki]

Thank you for taking the time to check it out!

[@ImAFatCheezIt]

You could fly a plane with a massive cargo bay to the car and drive it into the cargo bay, space kraken wouldn't like it though.

[@scoobiejim1]

An impressive feat, and an awesome first video! Will be looking forward to more from you ;-)

[@sidspooki]

I really appreciate that!! So much!

[@Darkl0ud_Productions]

You'd think after all these years video capture would be an absolute breeze... Great video man I enjoyed it

[@rafa57games]

The fact that this video was uploaded 8 days a go it's just perfect

[@MaffiaRK]

Excellent! Great music choice too :)

[@NorthVietnam]

I just got this in my recommended, and I remember seeing this on Reddit and checking out your progress daily.

[@q_nx2321]

I always passed these places in orbit and was like these are not long distances this vid really gives you a perspective

[@BenSmith0]

Protip for rovers: The RAPIER's odd COM location (it's located outside the collision boundaries of the part) can be exploited to lower the center of mass of your rover too. This will add quite a bit of weight; but, done right, can make your rover virtually unflippable, and even self-righting.

[@TheRenofox]

I love road trips, and always wanted there to be more to do with rovers in KSP. This felt like a real adventure!

[@sidspooki]

It was quite the adventure that is for sure!

[@Th3Mafia]

cool little (well big really) adventure video! :D thanks for cutting it down :)

[@pollo_frito22]

30 minutes??? It felt like 5! Great content, would see it again.

[@sidspooki]

Wow, thats a fantastic compliment! Thank you!

[@Ph33NIXx]

Damn... I drove from south of equator on Minmus to the Minmus Monument in KSP2... and.. that took a while.. this is like that but 10.000 worse. Your commitment to what ever damage you receive is inspiring.

[@roka0012]

Gotta give it to you, you have patience lol. great vid

[@duncanurquhart5278]

IIRC putting an airlock facing upwards allows you to set it as the control point for the craft and have SAS work to keep it pointed up, stabilizing you in air

[@LeeSpork]

Personally, I rebound my wheel driving keys to be the same as the RCS keys instead of the rotation keys, since I generally don't have RCS on my ground vehicles. This way, I can drive as normal without reaction wheels getting in the way, and I can also quickly reach over to W/A/S/D and make sure I land on my wheels when I accidentally get some air.

[@sidspooki]

I rebound them to the arrow keys on my keypad (the 8,4,5 and 6 key). I used a wedge to wedge the drive key down most of the time so I only had to worry about turning and looking after the rotation of the craft when I went airborne.

[@haha69funi28]

it was great seeing the 1000 yard stare of the kerbals in the rover stay unmoving

[@Joostmhw]

The only logical way to get them back is to build a space station rocket building facility which creates a rescue vehicle to land and return from the pole to orbit. Then it’s just a simple trip from there back to the launchpad.

[@peopleperson]

amazing video, excited for more!

[@masondecker5218]

Anyone remember HOCgaming and the Kerbal Polar Expedition? Glad to see a worthy successor!

[@sidspooki]

I never saw it but ill definitely have to find it and watch it!

[@SimenRomstad]

Ive been waiting for this video!

[@sidspooki]

I'm glad to hear it! I was very excited to make it.

[@Hiljaa_]

The insane amount of dedication my god I love you instantly

[@sidspooki]

Thank you so much!!

[@maxbertell9665]

This was very fun, keep it up my boi!

[@sidspooki]

Thank you!!!

[@everydaykerbalnaut]

You have more will power than me. Good job!

[@jussomdude8506]

i had this same thought but could never keep the car from blowing up. happy to see someone made the voyage in one piece lol

[@Reichsmarschallenfuhrunggruppe]

19:50 That flip is crazy

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Turning KSP into KTP: Kerbal Truck Program. Reminds me that I build a boat the other day. Which isn't finalised yet, but promising.

[@sodaithink]

Oh wow! I saw all the reddit posts! Im extremely impressed!

[@sidspooki]

Thank you for checking the video out!

[@alltheclovers266]

Could you do something similar on other planets/moons? Maybe picking an arbitrary altitude to stay above as a substitute for not going over water.

[@sidspooki]

It's definitely something I can look into!

[@deltainfinium869]

@@sidspooki If you do, grab Kopernicus and just manually add water the the worlds so its easier to see where the boundary is.

[@toby7366]

Watched the entire journey on Reddit, so glad you made it!

[@sidspooki]

Thank you!!

[@perfectidiot]

Followed your Reddit updates still can't believe you actually did that xD

[@sidspooki]

Me either

[@kspreplicasandstuff3103]

watched all the reddit post of the route planning, nice to see you actually made it

[@sidspooki]

Thanks you for the support!

[@Sp00kq]

I was following your journey all over reddit

[@soopahsoopah]

11:05 so what you're describing is that drive key is the same as "pitch down" - you can get around that by turning the reaction wheels, not SAS, off when you're driving, although I can't tell from the video if you're actually using reaction wheels or not. But reaction wheels are very handy for crash situations. What I do is bind an action key to be able to toggle reaction wheels on/off, and leave them off when driving. But if I catch some air or start flipping, I'll switch them on and if I'm lucky and fast can regain control of the rover and at try to land on the wheels level to the ground. The stronger the reaction wheels the easier it is to get control. I've found it to be a pretty useful technique overall.

[@josephpentony4804]

Saw your Reddit posts. This is really neat.

[@sidspooki]

Awesome, thanks for checking out the video!

[@kitma9]

desert bus: kerbal addition lol, looks like somebody beat me to it at 13:10

[@VercilJuan]

Saw this in reddit quite a while back, nice dude!

[@sidspooki]

Thanks for checking out the video!

[@VercilJuan]

@@sidspooki no problem lad, it got recommended out of nowhere and I the map route seemed familiar so I watched it

[@heartsremedy]

bro you need more subs this is amazing

[@sidspooki]

Thank you! I appreciate it!

[@KatelynCollins225]

Ah I remember seeing all those reddit posts. Very impressive!

[@sidspooki]

Thank you!

[@vikkimcdonough6153]

If you want to drive without introducing a pitch-control input, you can use the translate up/down keys (K/I) to drive forwards and backwards, respectively, without affecting the pitch controls. It also helps to momentarily toggle SAS off and then back on every so often (with SAS enabled, tap F), since this resets your target attitude to your current attitude, which means your reaction wheels aren't trying to hold you in an orientation that happens not to correspond to that of the ground under you at the moment.

[@Illusionyary]

I had to refresh this video 6 times before KZbin would play it, bloody hell.

[@sidspooki]

Not good! Thanks for sticking through it!

[@user-pf9fq1nb8r]

absolute madlad!

[@marlboro9tibike]

Thx for taking a hit for all of us who dont have the dedication to waste hours of our lifes. Cudos to you!

[@hiphip4808]

In order to retrieve our brave kerbals we should have an aircraft extraction with JATO rockets

[@GIRGHGH]

I've never seen a vehicle so overengineered yet underengineered at the same time.

[@sudantarescosmonautics9422]

Watch it here, it makes your mission even more impressive. Congratulations!

[@hundvd_7]

Oh man, this reminded me of an incredible short movie by Nassault. Pretty much the same kinda journey, very different presentation. Looked it up again, the name is just: "Kerbal" - A KSP Movie It's 8 years old and still incredible

[@sidspooki]

Will do!

[@EkonIc]

Awesome video man.

[@sidspooki]

Thanks!

[@oclastax7057]

I saw your updated on reddit and now i got this recommended, nice

[@sidspooki]

Very cool!

[@wayacrazy.]

I absolutely love this video

[@sidspooki]

Thank you!!

[@charlesballard5251]

YOU!!!! ARE A MADMAN!!!!!

[@RichardMeikle]

Was keeping track of your efforts on reddit. Great achievement for all Kerbal kind.

[@sidspooki]

Thank you! Only the best for the kerbals!

[@MagneticEel]

This is great content, the stuff the community needs.

[@sidspooki]

Thank you so much!

[@techstorm7555]

That's pretty cool that I found this after seeing all of your redfit posts

[@ThatOnePlaythrough]

I was following you on Reddit. I was very pleased to see this full documentation suggested by youtube.

[@sidspooki]

Awesome! I'm glad the youtube gods are in our favor today!

[@ThatOnePlaythrough]

@@sidspooki All hail the algorithm

[@Zapdos0145]

this was in my recommended. this is a good day.

[@sidspooki]

Awesome!!

[@activated1138]

You should do some sort of skyhook rescue. First send a rocket/plane to send the actual skyhook to them, and then launch a second mission with some sort of design to catch it and dock midair and bring them back

[@sjoerdstougie]

you can select for the reaction wheels to be SAS-only, this can be done in-flight or in the VAB