1.0.4 stock+MJ Eve sea level lander/orbiter

[snepel]

Hi all,

Just wanted to share my progress on redoing the single launch Eve return mission in 1.0.4

Before you all start getting disappointed, I do use MechJeb for piloting, mainly because the design aspect of the game is most important to me. Also I like craft that deliver reproducible results, so flukes and genius piloting are no factor in my gameplay. And I use MJ for keeping track of delta-V and measuring transfer windows, which also comes in very handy.

Yesterday I was able to build a lander that has enough delta-V and TWR to take-off from Eve near sea level (400 meters or so) and reach a circularized orbit of 100km. I tried this using HyperEdit, so by no means near a complete mission, I'm just testing the lander for now. Today, I added a new landing gear, parachutes and figured out how to fix the heat shields so my lander is now able to drop freely from a circularized 80km orbit (just enough for the atmosphere to take hold and slowly drag it in), land safely, do EVA and board the craft to launch it back up to a 100km orbit again.

Here's the some pics, hopefully they can be helpful/inspiring to you:

http://imgur.com/a/FWLHp

Main problems in 1.0.4 I've encountered compared to previous version are:

- overheating in Eve's atmosphere when coming down

- engines at lower altitudes have lost a lot of power/efficiency

- stability of the craft when launching to orbit

- part count drags down game performance (had to simplify my craft enormously to even get it running)

Next steps are to build an interplanetary stage around this lander and somehow get everything to launch in a single go from Kerbin.

[HoloYolo]

Goodluck! I've never launched from Eve successfully, but this might convince me to do so.

[Vanamonde]

This report of a (partial) mission has been moved to Mission Reports.