The Eve Rocks Challenge (v0.90 only)

[Laie]

My Level 1 mission (apologies to Laie, this was from a few months ago - I recreated as much as I could of the mission, but some stuff will be missing).

http://imgur.com/a/zjuyh

This looks like it was a good mission, but I'm sorry to say that there's just too many holes in the report. You've got the Eve lander itself, an interplanetary tug, a tanker... I'd like to see how they work together. How did the mission look like after assembly in orbit, when did the refueling happen?

You've staked out the landing site with a rover and a glider, this seems to be the most ingenious part of your mission. You don't have to show any proof, but I encourage you to showcase it.

About the Eve ascent, see this. No need to provide twenty+ pics, but only two and no data just won't do.

[Laie]

Here is my Eve Rocks Challenge (Eve sample + Eve sea sample) "without Kethane" no refueling one shot last try

The Craft file of "Eve Jeb Landing AR 9"

http://imgur.com/a/uSEsd

http://imgur.com/a/RBGIM

Congratulations, you've mastered the Eve Rock Challenge on Level 2!

As you may have found out by now, I'm amazed at how you turned that remote landing site and steep cliffs into an advantage by using a glider. Nifty!

[totalitor]

I have a question: when I have taken a soil sample do I have it when I do spacewalk on orbit to return ship?

[Laie]

I have a question: when I have taken a soil sample do I have it when I do spacewalk on orbit to return ship?

If this is a "how do I" question: when you go on EVA, the science stays in the pod. But while your kerbal is close to a pod (eg on the pod's ladder), you can right-click the pod and take all science.

(BTW, you can also take science from instruments that way, allowing you to take home the results while leaving the hardware behind.)

If this is a "do you need proof" question: No, I don't need proof of a unbroken chain of transfers.

[gm537]

This looks like it was a good mission, but I'm sorry to say that there's just too many holes in the report. You've got the Eve lander itself, an interplanetary tug, a tanker... I'd like to see how they work together. How did the mission look like after assembly in orbit, when did the refueling happen?

You've staked out the landing site with a rover and a glider, this seems to be the most ingenious part of your mission. You don't have to show any proof, but I encourage you to showcase it.

About the Eve ascent, see this. No need to provide twenty+ pics, but only two and no data just won't do.

Okay I think what could help all the confusion about how much / what quantifies a "necessary proof" would be your entry with all the stuff how you want it?

I am working on this challenge right now and while I would say my craft is pretty 'straightforward' I of course want to make sure I comply with all rules of entry into the competition. And for me the easiest way to be certain is to have an example submission which meets (and perhaps explains meeting) all the requirements.

That's my two cents. Thanks for running a darn good challenge.

[EdFred]

Good rule of thumb:

Screen shot of each stage showing vessel info and dV remaining. Screen shot of anything "significant". Circularizing burn, transfer burn, Jeb doin his thing on the surface, etc...

I probably go overboard in my documentation, but see my signature for a guideline.

[Laie]

Okay I think what could help all the confusion about how much / what quantifies a "necessary proof" would be your entry with all the stuff how you want it?

My own entry is currently sitting on the surface of Eve, planting flags and waiting for the return window -- 300 days to go. A lot of other things will have to happen before that, so it will be a while. But knowing myself, I expect that my own mission report will only be in the "make do" category.

If you want to see a picture-book submission, I'd say you should have a look at Norcalplanner's entry. And Astrobond made a good job of it too, but I had to fail him at first for keeping all data displays shut.

I am working on this challenge right now and while I would say my craft is pretty 'straightforward' I of course want to make sure I comply with all rules of entry

Well, a submission should give me "a good idea of what your mission looked like and how it played out". If you want me to tell you how to do it right, I'm sorry, I can't put it any better than that. But I can tell you very specifically what is wrong in this particular case: MAV3RICK shows me all vessels in VAB, then jumps directly to Eve orbit without *any* intermediate steps. Three more pictures and a few explaining words may be all it takes, but I'm not going to download the craft files and figure out for myself how the vessels looked by the time they reached orbit, and how they fit together.

[2001kraft]

Hey guys!

I have found out that Eve does support spaceplanes, I recorded a video testing all the main aspects e.g. landing, take offs, stalling, climbing, level flight, descending.

Main problem: probably due to Squad trying to be realistic, the composition of Eve's atmosphere may very well affect the way spaceplanes or planes in general fly there. The aerodynamics are mega-strange, you need several vertical stabilizers in order for a gr8-working aircraft on Kerbin to be stable on Eve. To my dismay, I suck at building spaceplanes. Thankfully, I already know the rule #1 for this challenge: the smaller, the better. You actually can get into orbit with a spaceplane, too. But you need a crap load of fuel in order to do so. I'll think of something, but it will definitely be complicated. Maybe put an extra pair of fuel tanks on the sides? I don't know. Since Eve does not contain oxygen, you can't use air intakes and in stock there are no alternative methods of fuels besides ion, which is as useless as a Mk.3 fuselage. Guys, if you have any suggestions, please let me know. I don't know if I can do this myself, without any of your awesome ideas.

Kudos to all those who completed the challenge

[Zipmafia]

I have a few suggestions.

1. Possibly start your own thread for advice. This one is for entries of people that have succeeded in going to Eve and back.

2. Enter the terms "ksp eve", "spaceplane eve", and "ksp spaceplane" into the search field on this forum, and Google. You will probably find alot of good information, that is how I learned everything.

3. Check this out!

Edited November 13, 2014 by Zipmafia

[2001kraft]

Alright, thanks

[hazard-ish]

Hey everyone. After being told that I can't use an external command seat for my lander, I had to redesign my lander. I say redesign, I just swapped the seat for a lander-can . Anyway, I've bult a lander that is not a flat, panckae disk of asparagus and is capable of acheving eve orbit from an altitude of about 6500-7000m with a little fuel to spare. My lander functions as a rover which is how I reach the high points (I'm not so good at precision landings yet) and the whole thing that actually lands on eve, icluding the detatchable rover extras, weighs 39.4 tonnes. Can someone tell me whether thst is any good? I don't know the actual weights of other landers I've seen.

If anyone is interested, I will post some screenshots of my lander but I will end up doing so anyway later for my mission attempt when I go through with the whole thing.

If anyone is iterested I will post some images although I will show it anyway later for my mission attempt when I go through with the whole thing.

[Red Iron Crown]

hazard-ish, a 39 ton Eve ascent vehicle based around a lander can is a very lightweight design, can't wait to see it.

For that matter, any Eve ascent vehicle that works is a good design. Eve return is one of the game's big challenges, it is an accomplishment even if it takes hundreds of tons. (The design I'm cooking up is definitely in the heavyweight category. )

[Norcalplanner]

Can someone tell me whether thst is any good? I don't know the actual weights of other landers I've seen.

hazard-ish, 39.4 tons is great. My most recent one was 175, and lightest I've ever done with a can was 70. I look forward to seeing what you've come up with!

[Signo]

Hi all, my beta mission is finally over. I think I reached lvl 2 this time, with a small plus for visiting Gilly too.

Ship data:

881 parts - 2459.020t - 1.541.345 funds (rover still operational on Eve's surface - mothership still in Eve's orbit with a lot of fuel left - small satellite in Gilly's orbit - 3 kerbs onboard - 1 landed @Eve)

As usual this is just a sample of the pics, I have a whole set of all the steps if there is anything u need to have a closer look at.

Laie asked me some more hints about the asymmetric mothership. Well, the concept comes from the souposphere itself. It behaves like a dense fluid so why not exploiting it with a "boat"? A sailing ship is the best example of unbiased asimmetry I can recall. So here I have a kind of "keel" (the reentry module - that I CAN redesign if you can not really stand that lonely clipped nuke) that needs a ballast on the other side. A slightly lighter and longer one (leverage ftw). So here you are with your beautiful command bridge. You just need to remember you must keep your ship with the correct attitude. It behaves like a kind of foil ship during aerobrakes. The lift provided by the crew cabin on the tail, even if really small compared to the total overall mass, keeps it en route w/o tailspinning. Moreover you can always count on the 200+ available torque force. Obviously it does not work properly if you snap on it really unbalanced loads, but I managed affordable configs with differences in the order of +/- 5t. I have tons of footage on it, just ask for anything you could be curious about. I designed a small 7t ion SSTO that can fit in the cargoes too cause I'll go to bother Ziv with my Jool 5 soon.

[Edit] Now I just miss a good recon of the landing site before the main landing. Next time I will add some small recon rovers to fill in the gap, I have both the room and the boom. I will not bother you with that mission report too cause I do not think I will redesign the lander to reach Lvl 3 or higher. So that's it. Thank you for reading and enjoy the pics. [/Edit]

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Ascent (SAME LANDER AS FIRST MISSION)

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Edited November 15, 2014 by Signo
Post scriptum

[Signo]

@hazard-ish That should work for sure, I've seen one before.

http://i.imgur.com/egcMilM.jpg

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/49425-The-Eve-return-mission-is-too-tedious/page3

Edited November 14, 2014 by Signo

[hazard-ish]

Cool, this seems to be a pretty good design then, it makes the horrifyingly long time I've been working on this thing worth it! I've gone through so many redesigns of this thing (looking at all of the names in the VAB, I'd say about 37), the first weighing just over 100 tonnes and not even working as a rover or a rocket.

With any luck I will be able to go through with my mission and submit everything very soon.

[Trollsama]

it makes the horrifyingly long time I've been working on this thing worth it! I've gone through so many redesigns of this thing

The feels tho.... I have invested faaaar too long into this mission, and started over like a dozen times now.... To be fair tho i am kinda making things harder than they need to be for myself (Going right for "Jeb" difficulty mission first go, With the added challenge of restricting myself to a single launch) To be completely honest, The biggest issue i am having right now is with my ship flipping over in Eves atmosphere.... Im not sure if its actually from stock, or if its being caused by Addon Controller not shutting down N.E.A.R. Properly.... because its acting a lot like what i would expect from NEAR/ FAR.

If i can get past that issue, I think i am just about ready to fly the mission. If i was less stubborn i could defiantly do tier 1, and tier 2, probably tier 3 as well with what i have right now.

But go big or go home

Edited November 14, 2014 by Trollsama

[Ziv]

Hi all, my beta mission is finally over. I think I reached lvl 2 this time, with a small plus for visiting Gilly too.

As usual this is just a sample of the pics, I have a whole set of all the steps if there is anything u need to have a closer look at.

[Edit] Now I just miss a good recon of the landing site before the main landing. Next time I will add some small recon rovers to fill in the gap, I have both the room and the boom. I will not bother you with that mission report too cause I do not think I will redesign the lander to reach Lvl 3 or higher. So that's it. Thank you for reading and enjoy the pics. [/Edit]

http://imgur.com/a/YX2tF

Hi, what kind of engine do you use for the return ship? I'm afraid that's a nuke heavily clipping through the fuel tanks. If yes, I don't think that's within the rules...

[hazard-ish]

I have invested faaaar too long into this mission, and started over like a dozen times now...

I've lost count of the number of times I've retried this mission. I've gone through several complete redesigns and countless other tweaks to each one in between.

I've reached a point where I now think I can record my attempt today although I wont be uploading it just yet. Still, I think it's not time to show you what I've been working on and give you a quick run-through of the evolution of my designs. Please note: there may be some changes in my design when the time comes to go through with the whole thing but this is what I have at the moment and it's very unlikely to change too much.

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Edited November 14, 2014 by hazard-ish
Didn't link the images properly

[Kulebron]

^^ impressive BTW, parachutes on radial decouplers tend to tear them apart. Need a drogue chute.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Kulebron

[Red Iron Crown]

Lol at a ship named "Another another eve lander 3 - Version 2". I know that feeling.

[hazard-ish]

^^ impressive BTW, parachutes on radial decouplers tend to tear them apart. Need a drogue chute.

Haha, don't worry; I've found that out for myself! The final version will be a little more refined, don't you worry

[Laie]

Lol at a ship named "Another another eve lander 3 - Version 2". I know that feeling.

The big SSTO I like to show around was first named "Tanker IXf3". I know that feeling, too.

@hazard-ish: if you're going for the lowest weight, this is pretty good. Otherwise, using FLT-200 tanks would would save a lot of parts and money. From the look of it, about 30-40% of your vessel cost should be decouplers.

Hi, what kind of engine do you use for the return ship? I'm afraid that's a nuke heavily clipping through the fuel tanks. If yes, I don't think that's within the rules...

Uh-oh. And the tank's filled to the brim -- that isn't merely aesthetics.

[Signo]

Hi, what kind of engine do you use for the return ship? I'm afraid that's a nuke heavily clipping through the fuel tanks. If yes, I don't think that's within the rules...

It is. I did it for aestetichs cause I did not like the look of the first re entry module I used that you can see in my first mission pictures.

If you want I can just put it on the "outside" like the nukes I put on the core. It does not affect performances and I've got the room to do it cause it fits in the same place the first one fitted before.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Signo

[hazard-ish]

@hazard-ish: if you're going for the lowest weight, this is pretty good. Otherwise, using FLT-200 tanks would would save a lot of parts and money. From the look of it, about 30-40% of your vessel cost should be decouplers.

I'm not really going for the lowest weight, actually, I don't know what the lowest weight is! I just wanted it to be as light as I could get it for my own satisfaction. I don't care about the cost of my mission, I have plenty of funds saved up on my career play-trough and I've planted flags on everywhere but Gilly and Eve. Also, this version isn't too laggy so the part count is not too much of a concern.

I do have one question though. I am about to start recording the mission and I'd rather find out now rather than later. I also plan on visiting Gilly with a small ion probe as part of the mission to complete my career mode series on youtube, but it uses an external command seat to make the ion propulsion feasible. Is that okay? My actual Eve lander, as you saw, now includes a command capsule and the additional challenge of Gilly isn't mentioned on this forum so would my attempt still be accepted even if I visit Gilly with a command seat then Eve with a capsule?