Alarik

I've just finished my single launch, no ISRU Grand Tour Ship - the "Zoidberg". Even though I haven't had the time to actually do The Grand Tour (landing on all bodies except for Jool and Kerbol, that is), I've tested the parts individually repeated times. This kind of endeavor has made me use up every little bit of knowledge I have ever collected in this game: from asparagus staging to inverted nosecones. The result is a craft that I will probably never be able to surpass in terms of complexity. Here it is: Some hard stuff the mission requires: Putting the thing on LKO. Landing on Eve and returning to space using a 20 ton lander. Using <2 ton ion lander for all bodies except for: Eve, Duna, Vall, Laythe (except final ascent) and Tylo. All dockings are RCS-less

I believe they don't, Sequinox. I think they only generate drag on the jettisoned part, and the remaining part is just for visuals.

Well, now that we know the theoretical limit of ~1751 m/s, the only thing we can do is get as close as possible to that number. Of course, that will mean taking advantage of certain exploits. Here is what I've thought about: Not using wings Inverting frontal nosecone to minimize drag Using as few control surfaces as possible (ideally just one) Placing an Elevon 4 on the tip of the craft for thermal protection Placing Shock cone intakes at the back of the Rapiers > turning them 180 degrees > clipping them inside the rapiers. This way the free nodes won't add drag. Maximizing the number of Rapiers used Jettisoning landing gear to reduce drag Carrying as little fuel as possible By doing this I managed to get 1748.2 m/s, but it might be possible to get a bit more.

I've checked his mission. It sure is spectacular (as always), but definitely lacks efficiency. This is all about minimizing resources, and most of the crafts here have an order of magnitude less mass than his. Edit: Oh, and I forgot to mention that my lander now disintegrates doing water landings. Had to change the design.

Hey, just leaving this info here. You guys will probably know it already, but some of the few changes involving physics are buoyancy and Eve's upper atmosphere. If any craft has been affected by the update, it must be an Eve lander/plane (specially if a water landing is performed). From my limited testing it appears that heat is much more manageable now and overheating isn't as "aggressive".

I just finished the evolution of my previous ship and I think this might be my ideal eve lander. It weights about 2t more than the previous one (35t total, including deorbit stage) but that also means most of its flaws are solved. And of course, it can still land on the ocean: Now it can deorbit from up to 120km and is way less likely to burn up in the atmosphere thanks to 3 hidden airbrakes and 6 small reaction wheels feeded by 3 RTGs. Upon landing, the heat shield can be detached along with other unnecessary parts. The only compromise I can see is perhaps the overly aggressive ascent path (although the added fuel on the extended version of the craft kind of solves this issue). In the end though, I'm pretty happy with its low weight and apparent reliability. It's uploaded on my crafts folder.

Thanks for the insight! Some of those points you make are really good and, in fact, i'm continuing to evolve the design to solve those flaws. That said, i wouldn't consider all of them too problematic. I'll analyse your observations in order: I tried tenths of ascent paths and for some reason that one gave me the best results. It really does work, but you risk overheating and really have to be careful. Proof it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-MMMswoYCU The engines can generate electric charge on the ascent, and I don't think power is too important during descent. The heat shield can be detached consistently by turning on the engines for an instant. It uses about 3 fuel units but saves the weight of a decoupler. This craft was meant to meet the requirements for this challenge and weight the least possible. That means stuff like the above and being able to orbit wasn't a priority. That said, I'm working on a much more usable version right now. True, and this is specially a problem at higher speeds/lower altitudes. It worked for me being extremely gentle and even then it wobbled. Part of the reason that is a thing is that I'm kind of obsessed with elegant designs and didn't want to move the radial decouplers inside the main tank. Again, the new design is more utilitarian. I don't get the parachute thing . The non-water-landing version I had planned worked with two parachutes (albeit at low altitudes), and this one craft was able to land on those 7500m mountains that Eve has where the terminal velocity is about 15m/s with the parachutes deployed. Again, thanks for the observations!

Thank you! It took me quite a bit of trial and error. Yeah, that Delta-v reading on the first screenshots is lower than the real thing. There is no decoupler for the heat shield so the game assumes it's still there on the ascent. It could actually get to orbit from sea level more efficiently if a FL-T100 Fuel Tank was added to the first stage and then some fuel was removed from the first stages, along with a single parachute (saving about a metric ton of weight total). But then the center of mass would be too high to do a water landing. I think it's a good compromise; even if you don't plan to do a water landing it's an overall more elegant design. Here is the .craft file anyway: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-BWbT_6FSq1eGFMVENBd0VxSGs&usp=sharing I mean, it should work unless I've messed up some drag settings. That would be embarrassing.

So I had never gone to Eve before the 1.0.5 and I was having a little trouble coming back. Searching good designs on the internet I came up with this thread and I thought it would make an excellent challenge. Well, I've managed to make this craft, and I'm pretty happy with it. I thought I should share: http://imgur.com/a/CPZyC It's a 33.265 ton lander that can do water landings if needed, and then go back to stable orbit. I'll upload the .craft file when I learn the best way to do so (this is my first post).