Emod

What a great idea! Maybe something like a hill with tombstones, one for every kerbal that gave his life to science. I guess the amount of tombstones is a good way to tell for how long the space program have been going on, and/or the level of bad luck.. I suppose the game also can auto-fill in name, date and where it happened. Here's somewhat the same idea from the old game Cannon Fodder:

Ah, Eve my favourite purple planet! Thank you. Here's my contribution: Eve Concept V5 1375 ton and 616 parts in 25 stages for the price of 790000 funds. It has a comfy 113-ton 145-part sea level lander, rover and a scout rover to send down. Landing sites are usually shores near the equator, found with the tiny scout rover. Landing in water (or whatever it is) works too. However, with all the failed attemps and totally misplaced landings I've found that Eve's mountains are really beautiful sometimes. I'm a little proud of the horizontal staging system, it's odd but works. Also the rover throw-off from the lander looks kind of cool when you see it from inside the lander. Main thing with this ship is to make it user friendly, for you guys MechJeb is the only mod used. I guess I'm in for level 3 then. Tried to make it rocket-like too.. It's made for 0.23.5 version but still works, just with smaller margins. Thread and download here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/84643-Eve-Concept-Single-launch-Eve-sea-level-can-lander-and-rover Earlier version flown here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/78841-Single-Launch-to-Eve-and-return-Challenge?p=1141156&viewfull=1#post1141156 Have fun!

Great! New designs usually means improvements. Nice work. So, the smaller landing legs are actually good enough for Eve landings now?! Didn't think of that at all in my designs. I made some improvemnts to my design as well: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/84643-Eve-Concept-Single-launch-Eve-sea-level-can-lander-and-rover?p=1242321#post1242321 But I'm too lazy to lazy to calculate score, but I should be able to beat the original poster of this thread. Also, it could be nice if he could take some time and maintain it a little..

I made a 2 kerbal Eve sea level lander. Weighing about 230 tons means I have to build a overdevilish booster for it, so yeah, I cheated it to Eve using hyperedit..

Well thank you! Yes, and it floats nice too. Let's see , in general every X200-16 tank has one aerospike and one 48-7s. I made a flight with an earlier version here http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/78841-Single-Launch-to-Eve-and-return-Challenge/page4 Since then, I've got the weight down.

My almost first. Terminal velocity was totally unknown at that time. Orbit too, just went straight up.

Eve Concept v5 is what you need when you want to go to Eve and back in one single launch. Of course you also want to land at sea level in a comfy lander can, and then drive around in a spiffy rover checking out the neighborhood. While doing that, up to three travelmates remain in orbit, telling you not to goof up. Update: Added a small probe to land and scout for a nice landing spot. Edit: In the 0.24 update the LFB KR1x2 has been nerfed, meaning the booster isn't as effective as it should. So a newer version of Eve Concept (V5.25) with moar boosters is availeble. Looking for a nice pizza place... Downloads: http://kasplutt.dlinkddns.com/L/Eve_concept_v5_25_nmj.craft Newer version for 0.24+ http://kasplutt.dlinkddns.com/L/Eve_concept_v5_25_nmj.craft Newer version for 0.24+ Stock http://kasplutt.dlinkddns.com/L/Eve_concept_v5.craft With Mechjeb http://kasplutt.dlinkddns.com/L/Eve_concept_v5_nmj.craft Stock ____________________ Action groups: (Yes finally learned how to make them) 1-Toggle ladders 2-Toggle mid-ish RCS-ports ____________________ Instructions: Scoop in some more kerbals in the hitchiker container for company. No need to put a dude in the lander can until time for landing. Ladders are provided for easy climbing. Wait for launch window. Or was it lunch? Blast off to 100000m. You can disable the mid-ish RCS ports to save RCS fuel. Off you go to Eve. Do a course correction half way. Aerobrake at Eve. 60000m is a good altitude. Orbit at 130000-ish works fine Circulize the orbit. Ending up in some weird angled orbit seems to be fully normal. Detatch the little rover and land it somewhere. Drive around to find a nice landing spot. Put a dude in the lander can and stage to detatch the lander from "the pig". Aim for whatever, maybe the rover? and stage to detatch the lander tanks and then stage to deploy the drogue chutes. Apply brakes and stage at 1000m-ish over ground to jettison the rover and stage again to deploy main chutes. Land. Doh. If using MJ, landing at 5m/s saves fuel. More than 6 m/s means crash. Have a safe and productive day outside! No shooting. Well back in. Stage to jettison the landing "ear tanks" Take off and stage again to jettison the legs. MJ's "Limit to terminal velocity" is handy. If manual, throttle down to 80% at the second half of stage 5 and 4 Start turning at 27500m going up to 100000m at a 40% curve. 150dV should remain if MJ is used. If manual, just enough. Rendezvous the two ships as you like. The lesser angle of the final orbit is to prefer when leaving. Spacewalk over your dude to the pig. He has a lot to tell! Waiting for a launch window back is just boring. If you expand the way home orbit half way to Duna, you will intercept Kerbin nicely without waiting. Do a course correction half way. Land at Kerbin as you like. If enough fuel left, the pig can land as it is, without the chutes. What? I thought YOU had the map?! _______________ Vehicle facts: 1375 ton at liftoff. 25 stages 605parts Lander weight 113 ton. Rover 750 kg. Almost debris free. Just one stage left on the way to Eve. _______________________ Notes from the engineer: I haven't done any science in this thing. Maybe you should smack on some more batteries for that. The second most tricky part, the lander, has evolved over time, The main problem is always weight. First landers only used 48-7s engines because of that, but aerospikes have been found more effective despite a lot heavier. Some 48-7s' remain for steering. Horizontal staging (any better word for that?) and engine dropping were weird ideas that became so good. Rockomax sized tanks is preferred to reduce part count. The "ear tanks" have always been present in any form. Mainly for attaching chutes, RCS thrusters and lights that should be jettisoned before take off. Ideal TWR for Eve launches seem to be in 1.2-1.4 range The booster just took about 1/4 of the time to construct. The central stage appeared just beacuse "it looked so nice" and what looks nice flies nice. Right? Horizontal staging reappears here too, because it seems to be my thing. Booster has so far proven very reliable. Strutting sucks but holds it together nicely. The rover was my almost first try to make one. When using the 1x1m steel plate and eight wheels it suddenly become very stable and useful. Later on I found out that the rover provided with the game is almost identical. I swear, I had forgotten it..! The small probe-rover is almost a copy of the rovers from the mighty Eve Explorer by Stewen Lawyer. The most tricky part? Always the ladders Ok guys, landning was awkward , but now we're home. Have fun! /Emod

I think you did! Do you think you can calculate your score?

Yes that was a very nice one! Also using stack instead of radial decouplers on the lander's final stages were brilliant. Anyone more than me who has noticed that mechjebs "Land at target" and "Land anywhere" use two different techniques? The first make one efficent "sucidal brake", while the latter brakes more gently, even when chutes open, making it as a whole look beter but needs a lot more fuel. The latter also goofs up when not all engines are engaged or when TWR is so high the lander will go upwards when braking for chutes (and therefore cut the chutes). Yea, yea, wrong forum, I know..

Oops, forgot the struts completely. Payload won't go to Eve, maybe the rocket will..

Thanks! More points for everybody I tried to land in water (or whatever it is) with the LFB KR-1x2 you are using, but they desintegrate at contact while running, so wet landings are not recommended. Seems like lander legs got weaker when suspension was added. Locking suspension doesn't help either. If you have tested the mighty Eve Explorer http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/eve_explorer-mj/ recently you'll notice It cant land anymore without crashing because of the legs. Competition seems a little sparse here, so I've tested the other two Eve can-landers I know. Eve explorer by Steven Lawyer (his youtube video well worth a watch) and Leviathan-17 by Igor Sikorsky. I couldn't find a link to his ship atm, but could be downloaded from some Russian site. Maybe you can add them to your list, just for fun? Both are sea level landers (assuming 0 m), and I didn't cound the payload (Rover & plane) engines. Also, these were created long before the ARM parts so they're pretty heavy, and not at all optimized for this contest. Eve Explorer: 2330 parts 88 stages 4430 ton. 2 man lander (also with 4+1 rovers) 1000- -233 (parts) -440 (stages) -443 (weight) -20 (engines) +150 (sea level) +125 (+1 kerbal) Should be: 139 Leviathan-17: 1065 parts 36 stages 3085 ton. 1 man lander (Also with a rover AND a plane) 1000- -106.5 (parts) -180 (stages) -308.5 (weight) -20 (engines) +150 (sea level) Should be 535.

Nice, I tested it and works fine. Nice thinking of not using any lander legs..! Still, I'd like 10 additional style points for bringing a rover. Please?

yes, screenshots and craft file please

Posts has to be checked by an admin for some reason?! If edited they disappear until it's done

Thanks! I had quite fun doing it. Here's the craft file : http://kasplutt.dlinkddns.com/L/Eve_concept_v2.craft (I hope link works. I had a server mess when DynDNS closed my account and I had to get a new one. I hope the images in my last post works too after editing..) As for ponts count: 1000 - 5*20 for stages =-100 - 6*10 for engines =-60 - 48,9 for parts + 250 for land at 0 m - 165,6 for weight Should be 875.5!