Airplane to Eve Delivery Request

[XLjedi]

This is actually a request for anyone to post a link to a craft that I might be able to use for the following purpose:

I need a re-entry craft to transport my plane through Eve's atmosphere.  I figure if it will work on Eve, it should work anywhere, correct?  Whether it lands safely on the ground or requires that I eject the plane in the atmosphere... I'm open to suggestions.  I'd probably opt for ejection in atmosphere, and just start flying.

If you could share a final re-entry stage craft that would accommodate cargo with the following dimensions, I would appreciate it!

• Height:  4.6  (5.7 if gear would need to be extended for some reason)
• Width:  4.2
• Length:  9.4

Would be great to see a range of ideas that I can draw from.  The more examples the better!

Edited March 28, 2020 by XLjedi

[Shadow dream]

Looking at your KerbalX Hangar, I am shocked about your request! Such a talented designer

What craft are you talking about? What kind of connection ports does it have? (Fairing, Decoupler, Dockingport,...). A picture or two might be helpful!

If you fly carefully, you can drop a plane from orbit into Eve. I did it once with the craft in my Sig (quickly attached a detachable terrier and F12 her into Eve Orbit) and got her onto the ground no problem. As far as I can tell you only need a transfer stage - get a MK3 LF tank, slap some NERVs onto it and you're good to go.

[XLjedi]

8 minutes ago, Shadow dream said:

Looking at your KerbalX Hangar, I am shocked about your request! Such a talented designer

What craft are you talking about? What kind of connection ports does it have? (Fairing, Decoupler, Dockingport,...). A picture or two might be helpful!

If you fly carefully, you can drop a plane from orbit into Eve. I did it once with the craft in my Sig (quickly attached a detachable terrier and F12 her into Eve Orbit) and got her onto the ground no problem. As far as I can tell you only need a transfer stage - get a MK3 LF tank, slap some NERVs onto it and you're good to go.

Thank you.

I just wanted to get some feel for what type of re-entry designs might be required.  I don't often leave the Kerbin SOI.  The few times I've tried to go through the Eve atmosphere in the past I just sploded.  So figured I'd poll for some designs to see what the parameters are. 

It's this plane with the wings folded:  https://kerbalx.com/XLjedi/F5U-Crusader

I spose the logical connector would be a docking port, probably on the belly between the wings?

 

[Shadow dream]

Hm, I need to update to 1.9.1

The plane seems reasonably light, so it should be easy to put a radial decoupler on the belly. Then I would build a transfer stage, as said. MK3 LF, NERVs, some RW for stable maneuvers. Finally a Launch Stage to get it into LKO.

-- Or you can go the easy route for testing first: F12 the plane into orbit and use a (detachable) small LFO tank or RCS to deorbit. (Maybe F9 first). From there on, just gently lower the PE, like 70km. It will take some time flying, but that is necessary for Eve - it's very easy to gain speed on the way down and hard to bleed off the excess heat. Maneuvering is risky too, the G-Forces like to tear you apart. It's best to rely on SAS to hold you in a slight upwards orientation to help bleed off speed. It's the smoothest flight experience. Once you get lower, the atmosphere gets so thick that speed is no problem anymore and you can pretty much fly as usual.

 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Shadow dream

[XLjedi]

@Shadow dream which version you running?

I was kinda hoping folks already had an Eve stage to de-orbit already complete they wouldn't mind sharing... not really looking for anyone to build one from scratch. 

The idea is to cheat whatever the de-orbit stage is into orbit and cofirm it works.  Then I'll refine the design to what I need and work out the Eve orbital delivery solution to drop the package.

[Shadow dream]

I am running 1.9 because I enjoy messing with the broken drain valves :)

If you don‘t want to just deorbit your plane as is, your best option would be to place those 10m inflateable heatshields front and back with a basic rig of struts or beams form maximum protection and drag. Clamp it onto your plane with a radial decoupler on the belly and you‘re good to go!

[XLjedi]

28 minutes ago, Shadow dream said:

I am running 1.9 because I enjoy messing with the broken drain valves

In that case, you could probably just change the first line of the .craft file to 1.9.0 with any text editor and it will work.

29 minutes ago, Shadow dream said:

If you don‘t want to just deorbit your plane as is, your best option would be to place those 10m inflateable heatshields front and back with a basic rig of struts or beams form maximum protection and drag. Clamp it onto your plane with a radial decoupler on the belly and you‘re good to go!

I think I'll wait and see if anyone posts anything...  and resort to that later if no responses.

[Shadow dream]

10 hours ago, XLjedi said:

In that case, you could probably just change the first line of the .craft file to 1.9.0 with any text editor and it will work.

Yeah, it does - so I made a quick video for you:

(I don't know why those tanks blew up when doing physical timewarp - it certainly was not Eve's fault, she was quite nice actually)

[XLjedi]

1 hour ago, Shadow dream said:

Yeah, it does - so I made a quick video for you:

(I don't know why those tanks blew up when doing physical timewarp - it certainly was not Eve's fault, she was quite nice actually)

Ha... well, I'm not sure why my craft have been blowing up then?  That seemed pretty tame.  

Shame to have such a nice helo on Eve and can't use the jets.  I may have to fix that.