Eve - In-Orbit Booster Reattachment

[NASAHireMe]

As you may know, ascending from Eve's surface pretty much requires a staged rocket. The math of SSTO from Eve isn't absolute, but it's pretty clear that it's damn near impossible.

So if I want a reusable Eve spacecraft that can land and takeoff from Eve multiple times, what's the best way to make a spacecraft that can re-attach boosters in Eve orbit? WITHOUT Kerbal Attachment System, if possible. Given the complexity of such a system, this is more of a challenge than a practical exercise.

I am imagining a core rocket powered by LV-T30 "Reliant" or LV-T45 "Swivels", with boosters powered by Mainsails or Skippers. The boosters are attached to the central stack through docking ports, then action-key'd to detach as staging.

Then when I get to orbit, I can attach new boosters from my orbiting "booster module supply station", refuel the central rocket, repack the chutes, and land on Eve again.

Are the docking ports strong enough to do this sort of thing? Would claws be better? Is this possible?

[Snark]

Wow, you just used "Eve lander" and "reusable" in the same sentence. Now there's ambition.

Seriously though, that's a pretty tall order. Even a non-reusable Eve land-and-return vehicle is a big challenge. It's worth considering why you want this, or what benefit you expect-- seems to me that such a benefit would be minimal, because:

1. the core rocket is going to have to be something pretty tiny (so not a lot of benefit to re-using it)

2. the vast majority of your mass, fuel, expense, etc. is going to be in the boosters, which are going to get thrown away without any way of recovering them

...so while it may not be impossible, it really doesn't seem worth the effort. (Though I'd love to hear if someone has found a way to make me wrong about this.)

If you do try it, I'd say avoid the claw at all costs. Not only is it kraken-bait, but you'd have real trouble getting precise alignment, which would make it very hard to get something that will fly straight. Plus you'd need to have multiple claws, which would result in a horrible ungainly draggy contraption that would be a miracle if it didn't destroy the universe within a few minutes.

The only practical alternative without KAS would be to use docking ports (specifically, multiple docking ports). Bear in mind that landing on Eve poses real structural challenges to landers; the g-shock of landing something really massive on the surface is a big engineering challenge. Even when a craft is held together strongly by struts, and even if you're landing at a speed that would be considered no problem just about anywhere else (say, 6 m/s), big Eve landers have a tendency to spontaneously disassemble when they touch down. Docking ports are going to be less strong. So if you do go that route, try to arrange your craft so that the pieces attached by docking ports are under the minimum strain possible. For example, have them attached radially, and don't have any landing struts attached to them (i.e. they don't support the craft's weight at all), so that the only stress they need to withstand on landing is their own inertia.

That said, the most practical alternative would likely be to bite the bullet and go for KAS. It has deployable struts, which you can use to strengthen your craft.

Good luck with your endeavor! Would love to hear how it turns out.

[Foxster]

Not worth the effort. All you will be able to re-use is a capsule, a small tank and a small engine. Compared to all you will throw away, it's nothing.