KSP 1.0.4 Mission to Eve

[xebx]

Here is a report of my second interplanetary trip, Jeb was in deep space returning from Duna, i decided mission to Eve had to be :

- 7 kerbals (2 pilots, 2 engineers, 3 scientists) half my 14 kerbal team, they need experience

- Valentina leads the first mission, Jeb leads the next one

- Plant flags on Eve and Gilly surface

- Send two permanent Survey and Com relay Satellites, a Refuel Station and a Driller Ship

- Get science and back to Kerbin

All parts are stock except Airbrakes and Sepratron that are tweakscaled 200% to help reduce part count.

The mission was slightly oversized and there is probably room for improvement, but it already needed a lot of tests and calc.

The big part is the Eve Lander, it weighs 2050 tons at Kerbin-liftoff and 750 tons at Eve-liftoff (8200 m/s delta-V), it uses jettisonable ISRU and 2 drillers to refuel at the surface.

All pics here : (3+3 episodes)

Val mission :

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Jeb mission :

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6 contract mission have been completed for now.

In the end it's a little costly, but finance are balanced by the contracts and i don't launch mission to Eve for 7 kerbals everyday in KSP and i had 12M money at that time. (now 19M)

Installed Mods :

Kerbal Engineer Redux

MechJeb2

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Stage Recovery

Antenna Range

StockBugFixModules

SolarActionGroup

PlanetShine

EngineLight

TweakScale

Hyperedit (for test only, i call it the hypersimulator)

Kerbal Joint Reinforcement (near the end of ep3)

Edited September 16, 2015 by xebx
updates

[Mister Dilsby]

Well done! Good planning and nice execution. Have not seen a lot of 1.0.4 Eve returns yet, so thanks for posting.

[lajoswinkler]

Yeah, this is the first one I saw. It's much easier to return nowdays, because of lower delta v requirements and possibility of refueling, but landing is harder. Well done.

[Cydonian Monk]

Agree with the above - Well done. I'll need to give another Eve landing a shot at some point, but it probably won't be until 1.1 at the earliest.

[xebx]

Thanks !

A good aero and good twr 8000 m/s delta-V rocket is required to orbit Eve after landing near sea level.

I chose isru because i wanted to stay stock and lower cost, but it's doable without isru with SpaceY Heavy Lifters (for example) to help to send a little monster on Eve surface.

Landing without heatshields and with a fully fuelled ship looked like impossible, but now i see something possible (heatshields+slowing before 60km and 30km), anyway i'll probably stay with this proven design.

There are a few successful Eve landings and back on youtube, and recently i've seen a single stage winged rocket able to orbit Eve from 7000m. (astrobond)

Oh and next time Jeb will send an 8 wheels Rover and a new all-in-one huge Driller/Lander/Refuel Main Ship (100 parts only, insane fuel capacity) that will be tested on Gilly...

Edited September 11, 2015 by xebx

[xebx]

I'm updating the first post with 3 new episodes : time for Jeb to go to Eve !

[astrobond]

A little late... but congrat's for those big Eve missions xebx !!!

Very nice and well done ships

I also have to make a real mission to Eve in 1.1, my Eve SSTO was "Hyperedited" to Eve, so that's not a "real" Kerbal mission ^^

Fly safe with Valentina

[dtondo]

Awesome!

[technion]

Yeah, this is the first one I saw. It's much easier to return nowdays, because of lower delta v requirements and possibility of refueling, but landing is harder. Well done.

I'm not sure that makes it much easier.

Landing definitely is harder, and landing a return rocket along with an appropriate mining operation is harder still. I've never seen anyone try to haul a massive 3.5m setup to Eve and back, and I've never imagined hauling a jumbo tank to Gilly. I'm definitely not knocking it here, just saying the fact you can build a mission that large doesn't make it easy. You can't just put a chair on a probe core anymore because of the drag, and placing an actual lander can with a nosecone in its place can cost you over a thousand dv on a small tank/engine combo.

I played with FAR and DRE prior to 1.0, looking forward to taking my trusty lander out there.

[magnemoe]

I'm not sure that makes it much easier.

Landing definitely is harder, and landing a return rocket along with an appropriate mining operation is harder still. I've never seen anyone try to haul a massive 3.5m setup to Eve and back, and I've never imagined hauling a jumbo tank to Gilly. I'm definitely not knocking it here, just saying the fact you can build a mission that large doesn't make it easy. You can't just put a chair on a probe core anymore because of the drag, and placing an actual lander can with a nosecone in its place can cost you over a thousand dv on a small tank/engine combo.

I played with FAR and DRE prior to 1.0, looking forward to taking my trusty lander out there.

Back in 0.9 you could get off with an 12 ton pancake lander with an chair at an high spot, pinpoint landing with mechjeb was also easy.

I have just done test runs on Eve in 1.04 no real missions, did some in 1.02.

Prefer to refuel in LKO and low Eve orbit with tanker from Gilly base this let me land everywhere.

My 1.04 mission will follow the 1.02 template but might take the lander out to Minmus for refueling if I have time, this will make the Eve burn trivial.

Kerbal scientist land in an science rover after the launcher is landed, he will do science in nearby biomes and return to launcher.

Pickup by the Eve system craft and return to Gilly base.

[xebx]

In fact the Eve mission and the Gilly mission are two different missions : the Eve lander is designed for a Kerbin>Eve>Kerbin mission, with its own isru refuel on Eve and without interaction with other ship.

During the first mission (Valentina ep1-2-3) i came through the fast path, i had to burn more fuel for insertion, i also lost a few fuel in inefficient manoeuvres and in the end the return module needed a refuel : i transferred fuel from the Gilly lander to the transfer booster and it was ok.

During the second mission (Jeb ep 4-5-6) i learned from these errors ep 4-5-6, came through the slow path, burned less fuel and had enough in the return transfer booster (100% full waiting in LEO). No fuel were transferred, only crew between Eve and Gilly mission.

The Drilling/refueling station is something i want to settle on the moon of Duna and Eve system, even i don't need them, i like the idea. (and i had contract related to this)

Edited October 3, 2015 by xebx