Operation Big Purple: UPDATED--MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

[Mister Dilsby]

Ok, just one more--I have never completed ther Eve Rocks challenge and it's time to do it.

Jeb is still in solar orbit trying to intercept Moho, as he has been for at least a year now. The other orange suits and all the *** pilots are still waiting for a window to come back from Duna. So it's up to Kerbfleet's bench to pull this one off.

The ships:

EVORAMA 180t lander/ascent vehicle:

~10500 surface dV

crew of one

Kerbin SSTO capable

parachute landing, Eve ascent on 6xaerospikes and one KS-25x4

KSS WASABI MARU:

150t interplanetary cruiser

4x LV-N main engines with 2x aerospike auxiliary

towing boom, cargo bay, sweet running lights

The plan is to launch both ships, dock in orbit, refuel, and catch the next window to Eve. Then Wasabi Maru will drop a rover to the surface to scout a good landing site. Evorama will follow, then hopefully return one Kerbonaut to the Wasabi for the trip back home.

At this writing the mission is still in progress and I do not know if it will succeed. Here's an album featuring the two main ships. Enjoy!

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Next installment will give an idea of the service missions to refuel the ships, and to fix a couple of Kraken-related problems.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Kuzzter

[Mister Dilsby]

And now the service missions are complete. I used both spaceplane and conventional tankers, and brought up a new rover and mission crew in a second type spaceplane.

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These postings are now up to date with the actual mission. Next step is to boost the Wasabi Maru into a higher orbit for departure, so that we can get a reasonably short ejection burn on the high efficiency but low thrust LV-N main engines.

[Mister Dilsby]

Here's the outbound interplanetary part of the voyage, with one major fail, recovery, and a nice shot of Eve with EVE at the end (which is now my .sig background)

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Really I should have known better about the exhaust impingement, I've certainly towed enough asteroids. I know, rather than going to auxiliary engines I could also have separated the ships and at least gotten the cruiser to Eve on LV-Ns. I just didn't want to bother with multiple aerocaptures, docking etc.

Next phase is landing, and recovery from the surface! Was very hard to go to bed last night and work this morning knowing I am this close.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Mister Dilsby

[Rolanvorxariat]

That is the first aesthetically pleasing eve lander I have seen.

kuzzter +rep

[Mister Dilsby]

That is the first aesthetically pleasing eve lander I have seen.

Thank you! Here's hoping it proves to be more than just a pretty face...

[Commander Zoom]

Neat design! And I'm with Chiken1880 on how nice your lander looks. I dunno if I'd have dared use such a narrow connection as your towing boom, though.

Sympathies on the LV-N placement; that's why I stick mine on outriggers these days. At least you were able to salvage the mission.

[Mister Dilsby]

Thanks Commander! Yeah, the boom was clearly chosen for looks over function. In operation it tends to twist as well as pitch/yaw. I disabled all the gyros on the lander to avoid excessive bounce when maneuvering, and as noted in the images ended up firing two lander aerospikes along with the Wasabi's two outriggers to prevent a "pogo-ing" oscillation mode.

Really, I SHOULD have known better on those LV-Ns. I've towed class-E asteroids, and on those ships I make the boom twice as long for just this reason. Somehow, I thought the exhaust would pass between the parts of the lander...oh well, lesson learned, and it's always a good feeling to pull off a workaround.

Another error I made is overlap of action groups. The Wasabi Maru's solar panels are '8', the cargo bay door/interior light combo is '9', and the science package is '0'. If I pressed those keys in sequence right now it would also trigger the XL parachutes on the lander, followed by the radial clusters, and finally fire the separatrons and blow the descent fuel tanks/parachute stacks into space. So I'm doing everything with right-click as long as the ships are docked.

Edited April 10, 2015 by Mister Dilsby

[Commander Zoom]

Something I do that may help (you and others) is maintain a consistent set of keys for my action groups, on all craft.

1 - Solar Panels

2 - Ladders

5 - Camera/Telescope (VDM Hullcam mod)

9 - Science

0 - Antennae

(and then anything else I need is done on a craft by craft basis, or just right-clicked as necessary)

[Mister Dilsby]

That's a very good practice. Problem for me is I ran out of room on the chart:

1,2,3-jet engine sets (I fly a lot of big multiengine spaceplanes and shut off groups to conserve air at high altitude w/o throttling)

4-air intakes

5-main rockets

6-auxiliary rockets

7,8,9,0--everything else

Edited April 10, 2015 by Mister Dilsby

[Mister Dilsby]

Two landings, some night driving for Tedgee, and this mission is all done except for the hard part.

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Next up, ascent!

[Mister Dilsby]

WHOOOOO!!! We made it! Here's the album showing ascent, Eve orbital rendezvous, Kerbin arrival and landing at KSC.

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Now over to the Eve Rocks Challenge thread to submit my entry, and I suppose I'll have to update my sig with the Eve Challenge Wreath!