Eve Extreme EVA

[Col_Jessep]

Welcome to Eve Extreme EVA, the ultimate test of faith and mental strength for a young Kerbalnaut!

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Some additional info:

I was aware that the fuel might not get me all the way from 2145m to orbit. Kerbal Engineer displayed 12,299m/s in vacuum but I did switch 3 aerospikes for the small Rockomax 48-7s. You have to attach the lander to the rest of the ship somehow... I probably wasted a bit with a suboptimal gravity turn, too. But every Kerman has 600m/s on his back which makes for a great Plan B if things go south - or down...

Since I deemed having a Kerbalnaut in the command seat during descend as too dangerous I send Shepsey down in a small spaceplane. I brought a spare to test the plane in Eve's atmo first but forgot to put a probe core on it - doh! Still, it worked well enough although I had hoped for more lift in Eve's atmo but you really feel the 1.7g. Instead of landing the plane and risking a crash I used a capsule with parachute and decoupled it over the ascend vehicle. The area turned out to be flat enough but you don't know that before you land.

Shepsey almost didn't make it. I waited too long to leave the ascend vehicle and was already entering atmo again before I had a clean orbit. Thankfully persistent holding of Shift+W saved the day. When I picked Shepsey up with the return vehicle he was down to under 10% EVA fuel.

Eve is really an exciting place and I will be back but not anytime soon. And next time I'll bring 500m/s more!

Edited November 26, 2013 by Col_Jessep

[AndrewBCrisp]

Wow. That is impressive. If and when I make a Kerballed landing on Eve, I'll have to keep the idea of separate descent and ascent vehicles in mind.

Also:

"Please repeat. That last transmission was unclear."

*snerk*

[Geschosskopf]

Me likes . And thanks for the numbers on the jetpack fuel

[Col_Jessep]

If and when I make a Kerballed landing on Eve, I'll have to keep the idea of separate descent and ascent vehicles in mind.

My first design (that I scrapped before it left LKO) actually had a rover. Poor, young Shepsey was supposed to drive to the ascend vehicle. I think I would have landed 60km or more off target and I don't even want to imagine how long it would have taken me to drive...

If you build a plane you should over-engineer it though. I thought the lift from Eve's denser atmo would cancel the increased gravity out. Didn't feel like it to me. Make the plane fly well on Kerbin, then double the wings!

[Col_Jessep]

Me likes . And thanks for the numbers on the jetpack fuel

Hmm, don't quote me on that. I have seen the number a couple of times on the forum and it seems to be about correct. But i'd go with 500 because you will probably waste some delta-V due to low TWR and having no navball. I was so glad that I could just burn in direction of the milky way!