Cubfan

The way I've seen it is, your Claw is on the nose of your command pod. Your shield would be on the bottom. So as long as you re-entered facing retrograde (with a proper shield) Jeb should be protected from the heat. Of course, I would save beforehand. If he doesn't make it, you can always just take to him to Mun. Either your base, or the rescue craft itself can land and drop a ladder. Then release Jeb and let him fall. He'll be fine. Just don't let him hit your solar panels. They won't be.

I don't know if you're still trying to rescue Jeb, but I wanted to mention that you can grab a floating Kerbal with an AGU. Unless they've removed the ability in one of the recent updates, it would be the easiest way to get him.

Nice work, but get used to seeing Minmus. I have refueling operations on Mun, Ike, Gilly, Pol, and even a little refueling rover on Tylo (mostly meant to refuel it's own braking engines, but can refuel a lander if I need it to). With all that, I don't really need them much. However, I feel like I spend half my life on or around Minmus.

I removed one of the refueling steps too, but I did it by building a mining rover. It has 2 large drills, a converter, and a 4 star engineer to speed things along. I land my fuel shuttle, drive over to it, dock, drop my drills and start refueling. The shuttle itself holds 40,000 units of LF (plus the oxidizer, of course). On time warp it takes less than a minute. Minus what it needs for takeoff and landing, I'm able to transfer about 35,000 units of fuel to my ship in Minmus orbit. From there I drop back into the gravity well for some Oberth (usually about 75k) and shoot out into space. I don't use mods, so I don't know if what I'm doing is right (I eyeball transfer windows and guess at delta v), but I can tell you it works extremely well.

I still prefer power to get me where I wanna go, but I'm a huge fan of the Spark/Oscar B combo. Together, they can get you surprisingly far. You'd probably still wanna combine it with the lander can if you're trying to take ad vantage of its light-weight ability.

Agreed. I'd go this way, as well. In fact I went that direction pretty much throughout the tech tree. I've found that most problems can be solved with more power and more fuel. And the lander can is extremely useful.

As a quick "p.s.", I took you up on your earlier suggestion of using the Alt-F12 menu for Eve testing. It's been a Godsend. I use it to put my Eve ascent vehicle on the surface and see what works and what doesn't. I work 12 hours per day (and have 4 kids as well), so my free-time is short and precious. Each night I have to ask myself "get some sleep or play some Kerbal?). I don't get much sleep.

I know exactly what you mean. KSP, and Eve in particular, makes me so angry sometimes that I've come very close to smashing my laptop (an MSI that cost more than my car). On the flip-side, when I accomplish even the most minor missions, it fills me with a tremendous sense of satisfaction. Unlike any game I've ever played, really. The first time I (sucessfuly) landed on the moon I literally jumped off my couch. I try to explain it to people who don't play, but they just see the goofy-looking Kerbals and think it's a kids' game. They don't know what they're missing.

I think you're right-on here. A great engine doesn't help much with a crappy design. I think AeroGav make great points and that you're actually both right. You need power to get your speed an altitude up in a hurry (I love Cunjo Carl's idea about using the Twin Boar for liftoff), but you have to get small in a hurry if you wanna make orbit. The design is what I need to work on. I've got 2 Kerbals to pick up, so my payload will be larger than I'd like. I think if I get the right parts in the right sequence I'll get it done. Or I'll just drop a rover and drive to the mountain tops like Zeiss Ikon said.

Couldn't agree more. I love that they have great power and a large built-in fuel tank. The lack of an underside attachment point presents a challenge, but from experience I think you have to get creative with shielding to survive Eve anyway. You have to be really small or really slow or you just burn up. At about 2300 m/s regular heat shields usually overheat and explode spectacularly. Inflatable shields work even at about 3500 m/s, which is perfect, but you can't get rid of them without blowing up half your ship. I'm not worried about shielding, though (I'll bring enough fuel to slow down to a crawl if I have to), and I think the Twin Boar will provide the power I need. It's the aerodynamics on Eve that are killing me. I haven't used fins or winglets in so long, my attempt at using them was disastrous. I've gotta work on it. I like your idea of draining tanks backwards, as well. I think it'll help. No matter what, I will slay the purple dragon.

Are you kidding? Pretty much everything you just said was useful. I'm a big fan of the Twin Boar, but I hadn't thought to use one on Eve. I like the Terrier in vacuum for sure, though lately I've fallen in love with Sparks and Oscar B fuel tanks for my return journeys. I had heard SRB's were terrible on Eve, but I think that may be because people were using them for liftoff. I haven't heard of anyone using them second-stage like that. My takeoff angle is something I definitely have to work on. I haven't worried about aerodynamics since I unlocked mammoths. All great suggestions. I'm gonna go back to the drawing board. Building rockets is half the fun anyway. Thanks for the tips. Much appreciated.

If the quicksave is your best friend (and it is), then the strut connector is your 2nd best friend. Once I learned to use them, rocket flipping became a thing of the past. And a docking port on every vessel. Jr and Sr if you can. Complete as many contracts as possible with a single vessel, especially if you can use existing equipment. Bang for your buck is the key. I really love mining ore contracts. They pay big and I can use my existing infrastructure to complete them. Doesn't cost a dime. Aside from that? Never give up. I've had dozens of missions that seemed completely un-salvageable. I kept trying and ended up with rescues worthy of an Apollo 13-style movie. I'm sure you guys have done the same. There's always a way.

BentRim, For a quick eva tip, hit the [ ] keys to switch focus back to your ship and use the q and e keys to spin your craft until the hatch is in the light (or spin it before you eva if you don't have any other way to control your vessel). Also, zoom in really close on your Kerbal. It makes it a lot easier to see and control your movement.

Amen, brother. Rinse and repeat. And never give up.

I would scrap it and rebuild. I would ditch the passenger compartment, too, unless you have tourist. MK-1 or lander can early on. Science Jr is transmit or recover only. If you build it in-line behind your cockpit, with a heat-shield underneath you can bring it home. Go for a water landing for the softer impact. P.S. With reusable equipment, transmit first, then record the data again and bring it home. That way you get all the science you can.

Absolutely. I need one that'll work no matter what. A vector can get you just about anywhere if it has the fuel. The thicker atmosphere is killing me, though. I can only cut through it by slowing down. Whereby I quickly run out of fuel before getting anywhere near high enough. I've gotta streamline.

Jeb's latest rescue was an utter disaster. I used 16 Vectors for the bottom stage. Asparagus'd to 8, 4, and 2. Didn't get to stage it once. Had insane power but flipped violently a couple of klicks up. Gotta go smaller. I neglected to mention Jonier Kerman is with Jeb. I needed an engineer for the original mission. Land, refuel, dump the mining equipment and go. Worked everywhere else (and in 1.1), but Eve's a different animal. I'm on the shore, near sea-level. I've gotta drop a rover. I've got 20 million in the bank, and I'll spend every bit of it if need be. I'll try 'til I solve it smash my laptop, whichever comes first.

Hey, Mattie. I read the bug report (and have experienced a couple of those problems here and there), but I can't see the lower-right corner of your screen, so I was wondering if you have an engineer on board. A four-star engineer and 1 thermal control per drill usually does the trick for me. A year-long refuel drops down to a week.

Excellent points all. I appreciate the input. I call my current lander "light", but it's a couple hundred tons. To paraphrase Burnham, I "make no small rockets". I've yet to find a problem that couldn't be solved by more power. Except Eve, of course. This time I put wings and fins (which I haven't used in forever), because my last lander kept getting knocked sideways at about 11K. A layer of Jell-O I couldn't get past. Trying 16 Vectors for the bottom stage this time. I use Aerospikes for 2nd stage. If it doesn't work, I'll try going smaller.

You hit the nail on the head. Time is the problem. I don't have much free time, and KSP eats up every bit of it. It's the most rewarding game I've ever played. I like your simulation idea, though. I fly every tough mission twice anyway, so that could work. Thanks. Jeb's rescue mission is already on its way, but I like this idea. If the mission flames out I'll use it to test the next one. And then I'm never going back to Eve again. Wait. Who am I kidding? Of course I'll go back. I love this game.

Let me start by saying I don't use mods. KAC is the exception that proves the rule as it's essential to my style of play; which is this: Save game, build rocket, see if it works, reload. Tedious, as I have a dozen missions to several planets/moons that take years, but I like it. I've gotten pretty good at it. Even my first Tylo ship worked (2ND landing, though. First landing was at about 80 m/s). Eve, however, is evil. My lander worked and made orbit, so I reloaded and sent Jeb on his way. About a year later (game time), I came back to him. Meantime, 1.2 had come out. Landing went fine, but I cannot make orbit. Tweaked the fuel flow to normal, so that's not the problem. I do my own flying, so I'm obviously in a different spot. Fine. I will send a rescue ship, and rover to reach it. Money means nothing at this point. I want Jeb home. My method is this: Launch behemoth, refuel at Minmus, see if it works. So, finally, to my question: How do you test an Eve ascent vehicle without going all the way to Eve? I just set my engines to about 20% and see if I can make LKO. Any other suggestions? But please don't say hyper edit. It's an unholy abomination.