Here's my single launch trip to Eve sea level and back. I made it, just! On the launch pad, we have the following: 311 parts, 931 tonne in total 94 tonne lander and descent stage, 82 tonnes will leave the surface 50 tonne nuclear transfer stage 787 tonne LKO heavy lifter Ditching the second lifter stage high over Kerbin 75 x 71 orbit attained with 585 m/s left to start the transfer burn We are going for an ejection and mid course plane change to make sure we get a reasonably equatorial entry to Eve's SOI, setting up both manoeuvre nodes in LKO Fine tuning for a 63k periapsis from 150 days out Aerobraking at Eve 194 x 43 orbit after aerobraking at 5.5 degrees inclination, pretty good we will circularize at 100 and correct the inclination EVA'd to the lander and detached it, Jeb had to get out and push the transfer stage and this strut away, could do with some work this part. There is already a SCAN sat in orbit. We are going to aim for the SW corner of the circular lake, it looks low and flat with some interesting scenery. Setting up our descent burn, as soon as you hit the thick atmosphere you will lose most of your horizontal speed so aim well ahead. We arrive just in time for dawn. Coming in hot! Landing site is looking good, descent stage ditched and chutes deployed. We could fire up the ascent engines and abort if things didn't look good. Good morning Eve Touchdown at 150m Jeb has negotiated the ladders, Bill close behind There is a lake not too far away, lets take a walk at 4x speed What a view, Kerbin has risen just above the horizon Grabbing the ocean sample Jeb and the landing site from orbit (transfer stage and Kerbin also in shot) Nearly back Pulling up the ladders Blast off, leaving the parachutes and landing legs behind Last aerospike stage Bill and Jeb feeling rather exposed At this point, I needed my first reload, and my second, third, fourth etc.... I am realising two things: i) This is a tricky ascent to get perfect. The last stage is a ***** to fly and you need to make a sharp but smooth turn starting at 40-45k as the atmosphere thins. This, the staging and feathering the throttle all need to be optimal if you want to escape! ii) I just don't think I have crammed enough dV in this jalopey. I have miscalculated the mass of Bill and Jeb and am probably less than 100 short About 5th attempt I nail the ascent and get a 100 x 12 orbit. Our intrepid Kerbonauts are left contemplating a sticky situation Don't think I will do any better, it's EVA time! Bill waiting his turn, just about hit Apoapsis I foolishly changed to the pilotless lander, I can't change back so lets watch it burn! Boom! Both in orbit now, Bill is almost a perfect 100x100, Jeb got a bit giddy and is more elliptical At this point I realised a MAJOR design flaw. There is no probe core on the transfer stage so it will have to be an EVA rendezvous. Ouch Jeb doing a normal burn 0.3km closest approach, surely good enough Amazingly difficult to see even from 300m, but here she is (just SE of Jeb) Rendezvous with Bill Phew, fire it up and lets get back to Kerbin Penty of dV left but we ditch the last two transfer stages and head for a splash down Most of this mission seems to have been done in the dark The all important ocean and surface samples back in the lab
