Eve GDBAA Mission - Good idea?

[MedwedianPresident]

GDBAA - Gliding Descent, Balloon Assisted Ascent

My plan is to do a small one-launch Eve landing mission. It will be actually the first time I will make it to a planet other than Kerbin, Mun or Minmus without cheating.

Plan:

- Apollo-style (part of crew stays in orbit)

- Landing module glides down to eve slowly, precise horizontal landing

- EVA walk, photography, setting up flag, 5 o'clock tea, etc...

- Back to LM

- Inflation of balloon

- Separation of landing gear to save weight

- Separation of balloon when it does not give any more lift

- Ascent to Orbit

- Docking with Orbital Module

Is this a good idea for a first time eve mission? Can this mission profile be used for larger missions involving rovers and bases too? Should I try it small and unmanned first?

[Glaran K'erman]

Balloon? From what mod?

[Yukon0009]

Hooligan Labs I guess?

[CalculusWarrior]

That's a very interesting idea, and one which could work very well to save you fuel. I suggest doing some uncrewed test missions beforehand to figure out exactly how much delta-v the lift-off vehicle will need to make orbit, determine how high the balloon takes a craft in Eve's atmosphere, etc.

[xtoro]

Tried it before, didn't work well, but that was back in 0.23-ish times. The problem is that you don't have enough velocity at high altitude, and turning on rockets before you reach max balloon altitude and while it's still inflated causes too much drag. But, starting at zero velocity when you deflate is kind of like being on a really tall mountain, however you still need a good sized rocket which means you need the larger heavier balloon =even larger rocket. But, the largest balloons also don't deflate so that's a problem too.

[Specialist290]

Sounds like a very ambitious flight profile. I'd love to see how it works out

As others have noted, your main concern is likely going to be the need for a fairly large and powerful rocket, even with the balloon-assisted ascent. Eve is a little more massive than Kerbin, so you'll probably need a pretty potent "kick" to get up to orbital velocity, even from higher in the atmosphere.