Eve Biome Hopper

[Laie]

On 9/10/2018 at 2:54 AM, jinnantonix said:

I would argue that anything can be done if you add mods, so then it really isn't a challenge.

I hear you. If there was an obvious solution there would be no need for an challenge. But OTOH, the stock means leave so much to be desired...

I never bothered with Eve planes before but put one together yesterday. Seems as if getting from the rim of the crater lake to the island in the middle is about the highest range you can reasonably expect (mine couldn't quite make it, but it's certainly doable). Moving at 60m/s, that takes nearly 20 minutes. Extrapolating from there, it would be some four hours of flight (and ~15 fuel stops) to fly around Eve once; if you want to visit every biome, it might easily become six hours or more.

Scaling the plane up to carry a rover would allow you to visit several biomes in one landing, and also to avoid the poorest ore concentrations and harshest terrains. But still, I'm not convinced that this would be a good or worthwhile solution.

[Kerbolitto]

2 hours ago, Laie said:

Seems as if getting from the rim of the crater lake to the island in the middle is about the highest range you can reasonably expect (mine couldn't quite make it, but it's certainly doable). Moving at 60m/s, that takes nearly 20 minutes. Extrapolating from there, it would be some four hours of flight (and ~15 fuel stops) to fly around Eve once; if you want to visit every biome, it might easily become six hours or more.

What about flying higher to get lower atmospheric pressure / better speed / better isp ?

[Gordon Fecyk]

On ‎9‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 7:54 PM, jinnantonix said:

From what I can see, BV can be used as an automated driver for stock rovers.

There is a Bon Voyage part you need to attach to a stock rover to make it work, though it's simple to modify one or more probe cores to include a BV module. If you're trying to keep part count down it might be a good idea to do this. I've done this to the RoveMate and the Mk2 probe core.

Having used BV on Eve, it doesn't work for boats or ocean travel at all. So there will be some manual driving / boating, even if it's to navigate some of the land bridges.

[jinnantonix]

I have a jet/boat with ISRU that can do about 70km range.  Typically I fly at 55km/s up to around 5000 m then glide to the surface.  I have no problems using 4x warp which reduces game time for the flight to only 4 minutes (and MechJeb helps).  Warp also works when jetboating at 30m/s on liquid.   I was able to do a mission which collected from 6 biomes in a few hours, and I think I can do all 15 biomes with another few hours of game time (~40 hops x 4 minutes), but I am still testing and finding challenges.

Kerbolitto, I have tried flying higher and gliding longer and it makes little difference to range or game time.  

Laie, it is an interesting idea to make a jet/rover hybrid, let us know if that results in a positive outcome.  With a combination of Mechjeb and Bon Voyage that may reduce the game time.  

[Adstri]

Maybe make a Gilly hopper as well?

It would yield a lot more science.

[jinnantonix]

On 9/19/2018 at 9:14 AM, Adstriduum said:

Maybe make a Gilly hopper as well?

It would yield a lot more science.

A Gilly Hopper doesn't really need a lot of thought.  I am planning to collect all the Gilly science with the interplanetary transfer stage.  It has ISRU, so I can fly around Gilly all I like, and then refuel for the trip home.  The only real challenge with Gilly is landing a big heavy craft in near zero gravity.  Takes patience.