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As far as I can remember "topgunning your way out" was forbidden.

Mine is pretty maneuverable too. I will improve. The video works now.

I was very proud of my 5.18 in stock aero, now I'll try to improve :/ However here's the video: 1.07 start - 6.25 finish - total race time 5.18 - top speed 315 m/s

That's depending on altitude; at sea level I've got a few stranded rovers. It is not the most reliable power supply for a Eve landing mission. I will never send again a solar powered rover there.

Going for a polar insertion instead of a "classical/equatorial" will save you a few drag. Leaving Kerbin SOI at the right time makes a huge difference now (in a Moho's way), if you choose the best transfer window you will approach Eve at around 4000m/s; combined with the polar approach you should be able to dig deep to 70000m for your aerocapture. Then I usually go for 5 or more aerobrakings to attain a "useful" orbit. Your ship needs obviously to be "shaped" the right way, fairings and heatshields will be very useful. To be honest, Mammoth engines are the best heatshield I found around, their skin temperature rarely rises above 1000° while common 3.75m heatshields get fried in the same situation. The "too fast too low" turbulent convection barrier is the main issue you will face while landing, you need a lot of airbrakes and a continuous control of your descent speed by burning. Radiators can stay home: bring some extra fuel, speed is your biggest enemy. On Eve the Kerbals are pretty fragile: they can die for a simple 1.5m fall and when in a EVA they are constantly experiencing a skin temperature around 800°. On Eve surface solar panels do not work.

I am an IT sales guy, I started playing videogames more or less 35 years ago with the coin ops (M-79 Ambush anyone?). I've been attracted by many different kind of games (I gave my best to qrg fighting games like Tekken - I won my PS2 in a T5 tournament), ranging from the classical sportslike (NBA 2k, PES, GT), to JRPG (FF series, Zeldas). I love TBS and I like RTS too. I almost played 'em all from the very first beginning but I never found a solo game like this. Fascinating concept, freedom, the excitement of the first Munar landing or even the first orbit is something difficult to replicate in any other solo game. "Larry, you only told me one lie. You said there will be another Larry Bird. Larry, there will never, ever be another Larry Bird." â€â€Magic Johnson, as quoted at Bird's retirement party

In my experience I had to combine fairings with airbrakes and "rocket-braking". I doubled the airbrakes in the designs I use lately to obtain a better stability. Beware the "too fast too low" borders - depending on the drag and shape of the craft the limit speed you will experience may vary. EDIT: I always try to go for a common almost circular orbit before the descent. The best way I found is to make the atmo do the most of the job slowly braking from a 95x80 orbit or similar. I constantly burn a little bit to control my speed and there are a few "gateways" I try to keep as a standard (I try to brake as much as needed to approach 90000m @roughly 2800m/s, then depending on the craft, approaching 45000m @roughly 2000m/s; below 45000m I try to "rocket-brake" as much as I can, saving a few of the fuel for the touchdown). Mammoth engines are the best heatshield available IMO, their skin temperature will be as low as 750° while a 3.75m heatshield in a comparable place will have around 1750°. However they will not avoid the turbulent convection overheating.

NVM, sorry EDIT: useless post

As far as I know the 500 data storage limit is about a single lab. I never tried a double config tough.

You will not go fast enough to generate enough heat to need radiators, you will explode a lot earlier due to turbulence generating the heat spike that the radiators can not absorb.

You shoud try with the best available transfer window and with a polar insertion. The transfer window will get you there at an approaching speed of less than 4000m/s and with a polar insertion you should encounter less atmospheric drag (not so much, but everything goes there). I never found a way to land without engines burning almost full throttle to avoid "too low too fast" turbulent convection.

This is surely a "too low too fast" issue. I had the same problems with Eve in 1.0.4. The only way I found to overcome this is to simply use engines to burn and slow down. Unluckily I can not provide you with a "scale" on this because I had different results based on the drag&shape of the different tries. There is unluckily no way to avoid turbulent convection as far as I know apart from slowing down. (we should install a wind tunnel @KSC...) It might seem weird but on Eve heat is easy to avoid, turbulent convection is not.

Well then, I've got my share of cans. However there are easier way to do it . Indeed less cumbersome, not as "effective". (you might want to experiment with a RCS mono connector/tug that could pull/push modules in place. You could then avoid adding mono to your modules, the main storage you might want if needed will be in your space station's core and into the "connectors/tugs").

Indeed a few stock actuators would be appreciated by the community in my opinion too. I am sure that a "smart" stock solution is not so far away (combining pivoting claws and "gearbearings" might soon lead us, stock kerbalkind, to a working raw prototype).

I see. That's a cool way to do it. The more claws the more Krakens though. I am the kind of "VAB engineer" player, so I try to have everything set up without any required post-assembly (space stations and weird contraptions excluded), that's why this is not exactly my cup of tea. Sharpy, you are a little bit "hideous" about your project. Could you please clarify us what do you need to design? It seems to me that you are thinking about a way to fullfill the kerbal + wreckage pack recover contract. Using a folding arm would be brilliant but there are easier ways. If that's not the case feel free to throw empty cans at me.

Sure, but I feel that launching a STS and its separate arm could be seen as not as efficient.

As far as I know it is impossible to "claw" things in the VAB.

If you are going for an arm and not for a propeller you could go for a semispherical bearing using the old aero nose cones. It should then be able to move in an up to 120° spherical sector. You can have a look at this thread for a flexing ramp made by landing legs and a look at this for a very cool rail system.

Well, the idea came from a few experiments I made working with bell shaped fairings to divert the aero flux from the back of the pods where I usually put stuff like chutes and airbrakes. Both the chutes here are supposed to be outside the plasma flux if you keep an attitude between +5°/-5° related to the retrograde mark.

Last time I had to design a 2 kerb pod I went "vertical". It was intended as a return ship and it was supposed to reenter atmosphere too. Back in 1.0.2 it did work, I did not try in 1.0.4.

You might want to check Azimech's turboshafts topic to see a few bearings examples. AFAIK they are usually and basically made with landing gears and docking ports but there are a few different solutions.

I did not try it personally yet but as far as I understand the telescope must be orbiting Eve and must be pointed away from Kerbol. The mod description did not mention anything about a polar or specific orbital set up.

The Centauro is a little bit more "aggressive" than the Tarantula, same agility but heavier punch. (sending my resume to Oto Melara for a job now)

Love it, way better than the first iteration that had a long turret indeed, but was a wonderful effort - I am a Leopard fan too. Does it weight 70t like the IRL one? Since we do not have proper caterpillar tractors (any skilled modder available?) did you consider modeling some kind of Amcar like the italian made "Centauro"?

If you are willing to add some mods you could try MechJeb too (apart from KAC that is actually everything you need, Chaos_Klaus reply is the best you could get around). Mechjeb can provide the same graphs you could get from the Alexmoon calculator directly ingame.