Eve misson tips

[rockbloodystar]

I have the rare opportunity to get ten consecutive hours on KSP and I plan to do the last thing I need to tick off, land and return a kerbal from the surface of Eve.

Does anyone have any advice?

My current plan is:

Build a craft with chutes and ladder capable of taking off from the surface of eve up to LEO. I think asparagused aerospikes are best, but may be mistaken.

I'll lift this to LKO.

I'll bring up a tug to take this lander to eve and back. I'll put all the rcs on the tug and not the lander to save on lander weight.

I'll fetch the kerbals from lko in a shuttle.

Thoughts?

Edited March 31, 2015 by rockbloodystar
Answered!

[Starhawk]

Sounds like a plan. If you want to take a look at some other successful missions, check out this thread.

Every kilogram counts. You don't need a lot of chutes because the atmo is so dense.

Land at as high an altitude as possible.

Happy landings!

[Red Iron Crown]

You'll need more landing gear than usual, Eve's gravity is punishing. It's also somewhat difficult to find a level place to land, so tall/tippy landers will add some challenge of their own.

Take nothing back up to orbit that you don't absolutely need. Set up your landing gear and chutes so that they can be staged away immediately before or after liftoff. Your return vessel should be separate from the lander itself and left in orbit. I don't even bother with a docking port, I just EVA the kerbals from the ascender to the return vessel. You can save a lot of mass if you're willing to use a command chair rather than a pod for ascent.

The ascent profile for Eve is a bit different from Kerbin, you want to ascend straight up until 30km altitude or so before beginning to turn (assuming stock aero). This is a long slow trudge out of the thickest part of the atmosphere.

[rockbloodystar]

EVA instead of docking is not an idea I'd considered.

Brilliant, thanks.

[rockbloodystar]

The Eve Rocks Challenge has been informative, Norcalplanner's craft look achievable.

[rockbloodystar]

Success, quicker that I thought.

Thanks folks!

Highlights:

Damn crawlerway!

All pictures here:

http://s1284.photobucket.com/user/rockbloodystar/library/Mission%20Eve

Edited March 30, 2015 by rockbloodystar
Image link fix.

[Red Iron Crown]

Congrats, rockbloodystar, getting back from Eve is one of the game's Big Challenges.

[peadar1987]

I play with FAR, and have never managed it. Got a lander with the necessary delta-V to the surface, but whereas it was completely stable in flight when I tested it at Kerbin, it was a tumbling nightmare on Eve. Kudos mate!

[Starhawk]

Congratulations, rockbloodystar! That was fast! As Red Iron Crown said, Eve return is one of the game's big challenges.

@Red Iron Crown - In my mission, I designed the ascent vehicle as the return vehicle as well. My IP stage to Eve just acted as a fuel dump for the return vehicle, so that meant the ascender had RCS as well as a docking port. Of course, that just made it harder on me engineering-wise, but since I decided to make the challenge harder by bringing the Mk1-2 pod down and back up, that's par for the course.

Happy landings!

[Norcalplanner]

Glad I could help! :-)

[Der Anfang]

How heavy was that lander? o-o Looks to be well over 100 t.

[Laie]

IIRC the most lightweight landers that returned from sea level were on the order of 170t per 1-man pod. Definitely below 200 and over 150.

But I'm not gonna look that up or anything. I shouldn't even be reading this thread.

Edit to add: as to the OP, I'm really surprised at the small number of legs; one leg can barely hold ~8t on Eve; half as much if you want them to dampen a slightly rough landing. If the vessel is really resting on the engines (as I suspect), it's impressive that none have been sheared off. Joint stock reinforcements?

Edited March 31, 2015 by Laie

[Norcalplanner]

His design has 24 legs. Mine had 30, but was a bit of overkill. Looks like the overall design is similar, so he's probably around 175 tons. Works out to 7.3 tons per lander leg, so it seems reasonable to me.

[NASAHireMe]

Curious, what was the empty weight of the lander that you ferried to Eve?

Presumably, you launched the lander empty, then fueled it in Kerbin or Eve orbit before landing on Eve, right?

I've got my standard lifter that can take up 30t. Is that enough?

[FlyingPete]

All my Eve missions have been one-way. I first sent a couple of probes, followed by a permanent colony. I gave them planes and rovers to go exploring with so it's not like I abandoned the guys there