godemperorzack

Yup, I feel your pain (or is it the reentry heat?)! That is pretty interesting how we had somewhat convergent designs!

I did this single launch Eve return mission a while ago: It was the most difficult mission I've done... Eve entry was by far the hardest part for me.

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Hey guys, I've been working on a new Eve mission off and on after version 1.0 was released with the new aerodynamics (I know, Eve is all I do ). Compared to my prior experience on Eve, atmospheric entry heating ending up being the huge challenge this time around. The goal of the mission was to send a 3 man pod to Eve sea level and return it back to Kerbin in a single launch with no docking or refueling. It was a fun couple months working on the project. If your interested, check it out: I'd like to hear other people's experiences on Eve and see pictures of other large scale missions (particularly reentry solutions). Thanks to everyone for making these forums a great source of info and entertainment!

Exactly, I was aerobraking on Jool okay at 195K periapsis, but 190K would cause me to explode. Was going about 8 Km/s. No heat shield, but atmosphere starts at 200k! Such a low angle was catastrophic. People need to remember space travel is often incredibly high velocity. The game needs to be balanced at these high speeds as well.

This. Exactly this. Thanks for being a voice of reason.

Oh yes, this is very nice! I love the huge eve missions! What in interesting launcher design, with the engines so high up! Kudos on the 3 man landing, as even getting 1 man up in a capsule takes a lot of work.

I recently completed my own Eve mission, and I love everyone's large style landers! Here is my own that I designed it to take off from sea level without aerospikes or nucs, so it weighs in a little north of 300 tons. The scariest thing about taking off from Eve is just how quickly the pieces start vanishing during your ascension. For instance, I have only 3 stacks left at only 15 thousand feet! It seems incredible that it still makes it to a 100k orbit like that, but I guess that's the rocket equation for you. <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/pzUBP/embed"></iframe>

That sounds like a sweet lander, I'd like to see some pics. I'm horrible at actually landing at predetermined sites. Usually I have to reload multiple times. With my mission, I didn't even have the delta-v to use the lander's engines for the deorbit burn. I just burned the transfer stage at apoapsis to get the lander suborbital, detached the lander, then burned the transfer stage back to orbit. I had to play with the parachute timings just to not land in the water. I really wish the map could take atmospheric effects into account when showing the estimated landing location. It would make things a bit easier for a "decouple and pray" player like me. That's a nice, huge design right there! Shouldn't have any problems taking off anywhere on Eve's surface. I think Kerbal engineer calculated around the same for my lander design. Since your using the new engines, have you had any problems with "missing oxidizer?" I'm beginning to think it has something to do with the new parts.

Yeah, a mobile launch platform makes sense and sounds like a pretty cool build actually. I just feel that command chairs are more appropriate for low speed, suborbital vehicles and landers. Even worse were the Kerbols hanging on to ladders. Better install a Gripflex 5000 in your ship if you want those boys coming home!

Completely agree. Those Eve return threads using command chairs and other exploits to get to orbit always seemed fake to me. I mean, if I was ascending from the surface to orbit, you sure as hell better believe that I'm doing it in a hardened capsule. I have to hand it to you for completing a sea level Eve mission before 23.5, that is quite an accomplishment and a very nice and efficient lander you have there.

Thank you for the welcome! I've been a long time lurker, since .18. Yeah, you never can escape the game for long. I've definitely taken my breaks, but I always come back

Well, I have docked twice, once in kerbol orbit and once during a munar orbit rendezvous mission, but I usually just spend my time in ksp designing launch vehicles. As far as visiting planets, after I landed on the mun, figured I could just skip minmus and try an interplanetary mission. I picked Eve cause it was hard to take off from (I really like building launch vehicles!), but I didn't realize how difficult getting a 300 ton lander to Eve would be. Like I said, I couldn't do it before 23.5. Before then, all I had done was land a one-way rover Eve suicide mission. After the patch, its actually quite easy to launch huge payloads to LKO. For example, the rocket above gets 1200+ tons into orbit. Stuff is just SO much stabler now, plus the new engines are pretty... strong. Lol, I wouldn't say I'm an expert by a long shot! My trip to Eve and back was horribly inefficient, I bet the pros on this board could do it with half the fuel. Designing the Eve lander was kinda tough, cause it needs so much delta-v, TWR, and stability in that thick atmosphere. Pretty much had to use a multi-asparagus design. Building a launcher capable of doing a single launch Eve mission used to be the hardest (nearly impossible) part, but with the improved stability its actually pretty easy. Just look at how many struts you see on the launcher (designed post 23.5) vs. my payload (designed pre 23.5). Its an order of magnitude difference. The patch was so nice for stopping things from falling apart on the pad, I think it might even be a bit overboard. I'm still curious if anyone knows the reason for that missing oxidizer? Has anyone ever come across a situation where oxidizer, but not an equivalent amount of fuel, was missing from your tanks?

I've been trying this for a while, but with the launch of the new larger parts and improved joint stability, I was finally able to get my lander to Eve and back. Before the patch, I built a launcher made of tons of mainsails and big orange, but it just kept falling apart on the pad (no matter how many struts). After the patch, my launcher was actually stable through launch and ascension, but unfortunately it lacked the delta-v required for orbit. Instead of redesigning it, I constructed a new launcher with the new parts, and was finally able to get my lander to Eve. I know its a big lander, but when I built it, I didn't want to use aerospikes, just traditional bell rockets. I also wanted it to be capable of taking off at sea level and getting a mark 1 capsule to orbit. That being said, I'm happy I can cross this one off the list and move on to some new planets (I've only been to the mun!). Here are some pics taken over a couple attempts: Sadly, I wasn't able to dock the lander back to my service module (only done docking twice before, so relatively inexperienced). I ran into power problems on the dark side of Eve, plus I designed the docking port locations poorly and solar panels kept getting in the way, so I just EVA it out of frustration. Other than that, the only other issue I noticed was this weird problem where my Eve lander had some missing oxidizer (but not fuel) after I landed. One of the Rockomax 32 tanks was almost entirely depleted, but luckily I was able to rebalance the remain oxidizer, and since I happened to land at 500 meters, it was not an issue. But I'd be interested in knowing if this was a bug, or if someone knows why this happened. Regardless, I'd like to know if anyone else has been able to get their massive landers to Eve, and if so, what challenges did you face?