Plummet

I always seem to end up with a combination of Aerospikes and Vectors for Eve missions. Maybe fewer Aerospikes and a couple more Vectors would have been better!

I've been enjoying the challenge of trips to Eve and after completing the KSP2 Eve mission and taking a few (non-returnable) planes there, I wanted to see if I could build a horizontal take-off and landing plane. The end result uses 5 Vectors and 6 Aerospikes. It can glide to a landing on Eve and then return to a low Eve orbit. The wings, stabilisers, tanks and engines all separate in stages during the ascent until only a remaining small stage is left. It was super hard.. the biggest problem I had was struts disappearing which my plane relies on and which are also needed for the re-entry heat protection structure. I ended up rebuilding the craft from the top-down to see if that stopped the problem but it still happened. In the end, I had to teleport in a replacement vessel (exact same fuel state and orbit) with save file editing. Also, the Kraken loves to chew on the shields on the top of the re-entry structure, and the 2 refueling stops (1 in Kerbin orbit, 1 in Eve orbit) required very difficult docking. I clocked up hundreds of quicksaves... Still, the landing and return-to-orbit were fun to fly! For my next mission, I am going to do something way more simple...

Yeah, it cost me a vast amount of time.. I tried rebuilding my ship from top-down, but then hit the same problem later in the mission when docking for refueling. In the end, I teleported in a replacement ship (complete with struts!) with exactly the same fuel state and exactly the same orbit by copying sections from the save file.

I think I found the issue. My struts had disappeared. I think I've hit the problem where merging craft causes struts to have the wrong base vessel, so at one of my decoupling points all the struts dissappear...

Hi I've been working on a complex & heavy Eve plane - horizontal landing and take-off. I've built and tested it out, including the heat protection and re-entry, and had it all ready to go. Now I've got to the real mission, I'm finding the wings keep snapping off after getting through re-entry and before landing. It seems I have to be incredibly careful with control inputs, but I never had this issue when testing it out before (with Teleport). I can't figure out what's changed - wondering if parts like wings can get weakened during re-entry, or whether they either survive intact or fail? I built and tested it after the latest update so I don't think a s/w change is to blame. Thanks

Interesting, I haven't noticed that. Then again, I have started mostly using the planner in the alarm clock mod. It is more basic in that it just sets an alarm rather than giving details of the burn, but it's good enough.

I read elsewhere that it's an off-by-one issue: KSP1 start from year 1 but KSP2 starts from year 0. https://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ uses KSP1 years. So: - Add a year to your KSP2 date when entering it as the earliest departure date - Subtract a year from the calculated departure date when setting your KSP2 alarm It's been working fine for me like that.

Same for me. 11 Kerbals in the same vessel (command pod and cargo bay) to and from Eve but it didn't complete. I believe that docking causes the issue - I docked with and refuelled the vessel in Eve orbit on the return journey. It seems that the save file lost track of which vessel had landed on Eve. I was able to fix it by editing a save file taken just before landing back at Kerbin. Here's how I did it: - Find the name of the vessel that went to and from Eve. Mine had become '(Combined)-44' at some stage during docking - Find the Guid for it: "Version": "0.1", "Guid": { "Guid": "bb017837-6add-49e4-bfbc-405dd2af6496", "DebugName": null }, "OwnerPlayerGuidString": "11e264d5-74df-4fe6-bd68-0f2d3a8dc92e", "OwnerPlayerId": 1, "AuthorityPlayerId": 1, "AssemblyOABConfig": { "RootGuid": { "Guid": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000", "DebugName": null }, "StagingState": null, "PartRelationshipData": null, "SymmetrySets": null }, "AssemblyDefinition": { "assemblyName": "(Combined)-44", "localizationNameKey": "", - Towards the end of the save file there is a travel log section which records various events for vessels. Find the section for landing on Eve. Mine looked like this: "TravelObjectIds": [ "a8647eb3-9928-43be-918a-9a6e62044122", "379e225a-a4d2-4ec4-89cd-9efc584e33d1", "4ee1ba2a-9baf-4442-b2f6-e48cbe4db3eb" ], "EventKey": "vesselLanded", "UT": 562894695.19543731, "FlightReportArgs": [ "Eve" ] }, - The GUID for my landing vessel (bb01...) is missing, so I added it: "TravelObjectIds": [ "a8647eb3-9928-43be-918a-9a6e62044122", "379e225a-a4d2-4ec4-89cd-9efc584e33d1", "4ee1ba2a-9baf-4442-b2f6-e48cbe4db3eb", "bb017837-6add-49e4-bfbc-405dd2af6496" ], "EventKey": "vesselLanded", "UT": 562894695.19543731, "FlightReportArgs": [ "Eve" ] }, Reload the modified file, land on Kerbin and the mission completes. Backup your save file first obviously...

Really nice job. I managed an Eve mission in KSP1 (single Kerbal) and have built and tested a launcher for this mission, but can't get it down to the surface with the inflatable heatshields not working properly. Your build looks far more compact than mine.

Ernus mission Hi I'm struggling to put an Ernus mission together. One basic problem I have is that my Kerbal heat-explodes on surface Eva, even it I land when the Sun is low and keep him in shadow. Any way to deal with that? Plummet

Landing on Titanus After my Etal mission I thought the rest would be easy...but then I found Titanus! With high gravity and very high atmospheric pressure it's another hard challenge. Much like Eve, but with the benefit of oxygen for air-breathing engines. I experimented with different engines but eventually used the Whiplash Turbo Ramjet as the thrust ramps up significantly as the speed picks up so you get increasing TWR. I used four outer Vectors to get the party started - you need to get air moving through the ramjets and they help to lift the craft through the thick lower air. There's an inner core of 5 ramjets, with 4 on the outside. On top of all that is a Vector with drop tanks, followed by a final Aerospike stage. So, the staging order goes: - Fire up the ramjets and Vectors, drop the legs, drop the Vectors, drop the outer ramjets, drop the lower stage and light the Vector stage, drop the Vector drop tanks, stage and fire up the Aerospike. It's tricky to get it right and it took many attempts to find the optimal curve before I was eventually able to limp in to a 200K circular orbit. It won't handle sea-level - needs to be at least 3000m ASL. Parts are mostly stock - I used lithobraking legs just so it looks tidier (landing speed is around 10m/s so I could have used multiple sets of stock legs). I also used the ladders from the lithobraking pack - those are great, I had real hassle with Eve using fiddly small ladders. Of course, you have to get there first... I used my standard Space-Y heavy lifter and a nice reverse gravity assist from a handily placed Tylo to get to low Titanus orbit in one launch Then you have to deal with the heat. I used the same trick as Eve - 4 inflatable shields at the base and then a 'flower' of 5 shields at the top to act as an airbrake and to keep the craft oriented through entry. I started from a very low (165K) orbit and dropped the PE down to just 168.5K in order to start a very shallow re-entry. At first the whole thing swings like a big pendulum but eventually it settles down and it was all a bit smoother than Eve. Once through the heat, the upper 'Flower' decouples as one unit, then the craft flips upside down allowing the lower 4 shields to be jettisoned. After that, let the speed come down as the air thickens before deploying 2 drogues followed by 6 chutes. I was lucky to land at a high enough elevation at the first attempt. Then, a quick flag plant before we're off again. Now I just have to go and pick my guy up... surely after that the rest of the planets will be easy! Plummet.

Landing on Etal Thanks KillAshley for putting this great planet pack together. I like to set myself the challenge of landing on all (solid) planets and moons in new planet packs. I've done a few so far (OPM, GPP, Gameslinx). Just getting started with New Horizons as I've spent a fair amount of time struggling with an Etal landing mission... It's one of the toughest challenges yet I think. I finally managed it using a lander I made using Space Y parts. I couldn't do it with stock. The huge gravity requires high TWR and high DV. I used a Space Y Multi-Ratite as the landing engine (!) and 7.5m Space Y parts. The lander has rover wheels to help absorb the landing impact - no amount of landing struts would take it. It also has drop tanks and a mining/refuelling setup. It packs about 6000 dV. I had to upgrade my heavy Space Y launcher to get it there and only just had enough fuel to land. It took many attempts. The drop tanks are dropped during descent, so less dV is available after refuelling. It has enough to get back in to a ~150K circular orbit. After that I sent a rescue probe to pick my Kerbal up, and that packed enough punch to get her straight back home to Kerbin - so two Kerbin launches in total for the mission. Looking forward to visiting the remaining planets and moons...hoping Etal was the tough one as it took ages! Plummet.

Heh! That's true! I'm glad though..keep the challenges coming!

Mission accomplished! Finally completed my goal of planting a flag on all the landable bodies in this great planet pack. I used my standard stock-parts mining lander for all of the landings except Fume. I built a special stock-parts ship for that. I use Space-Y for the Kerbin launches. Took about 5 Kerbin launches in total - I was able to hop from moon or planet to the next to cover most of the system. Thanks again Gamelinx and others for putting it together, I really enjoyed it. I'm not finished yet though, will definitely go back to spend more time of some of these bodies, especially Telos and Butai. Still tempted to get a new PC so I can see them in their full glory! Plummet.

Anyone bagged them all yet? I'm heading home from Quarta, just got Scorch and Fume to go...