One way eve trip worth the loss?

[Mastikator]

A kerbalnaut is worth more than a probe on the surface on Even, at least in terms of funds. If you think a kerbalnaut is worth sacrificing for science then funds-wise he's even more worth bringing home. The cost of a return vessel is probably at least tipple the cost, but the science is easily more than tripled.

When I did a mission to send 3 kerbals to the surface of Duna and Ike using TAC I got something like 4k science back, that would have been significantly lower if I had sent a probe or just one scientist. A pilot (as some have suggested) would not have been able to reset the experiments.

[Mister Dilsby]

No.

[FlyingPete]

I would aim to make it a long-term mission with provision to be a permanent colony. You can set up a science lab on the surface and transmit the research back to Kerbin. Choose your location well and you may be in reach of several biome areas- use rovers or aircraft to explore the planet. I did this back in 0.25, but at that point there were no biomes apart from "Eve's surface" and "Eve's Oceans" and so the potential for exploration was less.

So your colonists support themselves on Eve and keep themselves busy doing science. Later, once you have lots of tech and funds on hand, you can think about retrieving them.

I'm not familiar with the life support mods- is it compatible with ISRU? If so, you could support the colony indefinitely with surface mining. If not, you'll need to weigh up the cost of supply drops vs crew retrieval.

[DankPepeDealer]

I can't recall if TACLS runs it's resources in background. If it doesn't, then Life Support is no problem if you aren't actually controlling the vessel. I may be entirely wrong though.

[Andem]

No. If it is within your power you do it. Even if it isn't you must try. Using USILS with death enabled, I had to escape a broken lander. First, I tried to send another lander. While it was en-route, I launched a rover and a permanent base in case of failure. The lander exploded. The rover lost a seat. The base landed beautifully, albeit 70km away. The rover spent three days to get there. Both kerbals were coming close to death. I was able to refresh both kerbals auit time, but I could only take one. They both died on the Mun.

[Mastikator]

1 hour ago, DankPepeDealer said:

I can't recall if TACLS runs it's resources in background. If it doesn't, then Life Support is no problem if you aren't actually controlling the vessel. I may be entirely wrong though.

It does. A one way trip to Eve should have at least 1 years worth of food if not more. A trip there and back again should have more than 3 years worth of food.