Class Trip to Eve – go Big and go Home

[627]

So here it is, my recent class trip I made.

 Some words about me and my KSP history: I play since 0.23 and visited every planet and moon before 1.0 hit.

I even landed and returned from Tylo which I think is my greatest achievement so far, I did it without any mods; just trying and guessing and it eventually worked.

Only returning from Eve was always such a big mission I never even tried it.

So everything done, what now? One day, I decided I don’t go somewhere with only a couple of kerbals anymore.

If I visit a moon or planet, everyone is allowed to come with us and everyone will come with us.

My first trip was to Dres:

 

 

For more Pics:

 

My second trip was to Duna, with two ships because we are many kerbals (I rescue everyone I can). Sadly no pictures from that mission survived.

For my third trip I wanted to visit Eeloo because I wasn’t there since… well I can’t even remember. But that takes ages so I pushed myself out of the comfort zone and planned my Class Trip to Eve. Here we go

 

 

Planning for Invasion

My plan was to send one lander to eve that can return from the surface no matter where I land. It had to carry 33 Kerbals (That was the amount of kerbals  we had at that time) and a little drone with all the science.

 

Here's the Beast for only 821,531.00 funds! Nearly 1,500 tons on the pad; this is definitely the heaviest thing I ever build (that will stay in one piece for a while).

“Boss? Boss, how will we get out of that? That door is quite… high in the air” – well my chief engineer here had a point. First idea was to attach a little capsule on the side and drop it once we start. But without shielding it wouldn’t survive reentry.

“ Boss, we could build a movable Air lock! ” – See this is why you take all of your kerbals with you, so you get all the ideas, even the idiotic ones. Ok, build one and we’ll see.

 

 

That's it? - "Yes, Boss. 325,116.00 Funds" - Ok, fine. So this is our air lock or Eve mini Rover. Good, we drop it on the landing site and drive it to the lander. That can work.

Next on the plan is refueling because the lander will go to eve on its own without an interplanetary stage. I have developed this for the mun so we’ll use it on Gilly and Eve.

 

Well this is expensive! With the Lifter on the pad it is 1,050,639.00 funds and we need two of them.

“Boss? Boss, how will we get ou-“ There, there’s a ladder! Don’t interrupt me all the time! I didn’t forget it!

 

See? You can even walk to the cockpit on that catwalk..ish thingy.

As stated, we need two Miners as I plan to refuel the fleet at Gilly.

“Boss? Boss, how do we refuel? Land everything at Gilly?” - Of course not, we make a fuel shuttle!

 

 

This is the Fuel Ferry MkII for 612,643.40 Funds. MkII because it can Carry two big tanks of fuel with 1400ish m/s Delta-V.

This should do it. Now all we need is something to get everyone to Eve orbit and back to Kerbin. Let’s build some interplanetary transfer ship:

 

Exactly 971,281.00 Funds on the pad. This is getting expensive... However 33 Kerbals fit in and on top is the Experimental Science Probe that will go down to Eve, too.

So we have a lander, a transfer shuttle, miner for eve and gilly, a mini rover as air lock… is that enough Chief? – “looks good boss.”

“Ahem…”  - Doctor? – “Well, we could use some… science equipment to actually do something beside collecting rocks. Sir.” - Yeah, sure, why not.

Even if the tech tree is maxed out we can at least do some stuff there. Based on my previous rover designs, I made this heavy rover for long term exploration:

 

This thing costs 553,761.70 Funds (The Science Lab on top is only there because we had a contract for an Eve Station with it).

“Quite sophisticated design, If I may say so, Sir.” – Yes you may . And we will send two of those. If possible I always take 2 rovers because my Pilots tend to waste thos- “Hey! I heard that!” – ok because some planets and moons have a harsh environment.

 

Here are all ground vehicles before the start, without the fairings

The Science Rovers have two speed modes, Low and High. Low is electrical only and High is rocket propelled on aircraft wheels. You can speed those up to nearly 100m/s more or less safely! - "Yeah, on Duna. No way this will work on Eve..."

Thanks Captain... it has room for 6 Kerbals, two full sets of science instruments and a lightweight ISRU with two small Drills for long term exploring. Two external seats for maintaining experiments and taking pictures.This will work. Hopefully.

 

Ok, everything is ready, we have the funds let’s get the toys into orbit. The plan is to send everything but the lander directly to eve. The lander itself will be refueled at Minmus and then follow the fleet to Eve, if possible in the same transfer window.

“Boss?”

…

“Boss, we don’t have a miner at minmus…”

Well, planning is everything so let’s build another one...

Edited August 10, 2016 by 627

[627]

Launch

Getting everything into Orbit was quite easy as it should be when you overbuild everything. I bet at least with one ship I’ll arrive with my ascend  stage still going. “Moar booste-“ -  Ah shut up.

 

The Eve Miner with the Heatshields. This will get tricky...

The Transfer Ship. Of course in Orbit with not only one but two ascend stages

 

The lander had nearly no fuel left after making orbit, enough to get to minmus but not enough to land. So we send another fuel ferry to minmus, I hope one or two fuel runs will be enough for landing.

“Sir, by the way, you just launched your first successful rocket based SSTO into Orbit. Congratulations!” – Yay

 

 

Edited August 10, 2016 by 627

[627]

Minmus Refueling Operation

So here are some pictures from Minmus. I refueled twice in orbit (1 big tank worth of fuel each) which was enough for the landing.

First fuel run with the Fuel Ferry MkI.

 

Closing in on Minmus. I only used the Aerospikes for this, takes forever but the better Isp helps with the fuel.

Second fuel run at Minmus. Hope that is enough. Down it goes!

Biggest Issue is that the KER readout is nonsense because I didn't stage anything yet. Will it be enough?

Ok it was quite close but however. Everything went without a problem down there.

“Everything? How about that surface scanner? We had to fly it all the way from kerbin because you forgot it in the design. On a Mining vehicle!”  - Yeah about that… ok, I built that miner and started building things onto it that where not necessary like the external cockpit with instruments and all and was so pleased with it that I totally forgot to add a surface scanner. What I didn’t forget was a senior docking port on the rear for multipurpose. And that was the rescue! Long story short, the miner has now a shiny new tail with a scanner and some more solar panels. 1 million saved for another Miner... At least I the other Miners where launched after this one so they have the scanner from the start.

 

“We call it the scorpion, boss!” – I voted for Stegosaurus though, but I won’t fight with 30 Kerbals over a nickname.

The lander got back into orbit and was refueled once more and after that got to its parking position.  The transfer window was in a 100 days so we did some contracts till then.

We even had one last stranded kerbal at the moon so one trip later we had our 33^rd and final kerbal who would join the mission. Good thing I build a single lander can on top of the eve lander so all seats where filled.

And look how excited Graphie was when we rescued and told her where she’ll go!

 

“I wasn’t. If I’d knew what will happen, I’d never have activated that distress signal.” – Ah whatever.

We flew her to minmus for the XP and after that she joined the Crew.

Time to go to Eve!

Edited August 10, 2016 by 627

[627]

Arrival at Eve

The transfer to eve was without incidents but one minor oddity. I did send one of the heavy rovers in advance to scout the area before the main fleet arrives. I started way ahead of the transfer window because- “Moar boosters!” – Shht! Because we planned the transfer stage with enough fuel reserves. “Totally.”

However that rover was like 50 days late to the party so maybe my science officer will look a bit closer on those maneuver nodes next time. “… yes sir. Sorry.” – Thought so.

 

The fleet came into Eve SOI within 10 days from a really bad angle so it took some time to bring them all into an acceptable orbit. The Gilly miner and the fuel ferry where send to Gilly directly and the rovers where parked on an equatorial orbit.

That was not that easy as there was no indication where that orbit is. I have an old station at Eve that is aligned with Gilly but I have no equator normal. So I dropped one of the transfer stages at nearly zero inclination and renamed it a station. “We should do that on every planet and Moon, Sir.” – Yes we should. I thought about landing from the “Gilly inclined” orbit but I had doubts I can hit my landing zone with enough precision from there.  And don’t you dare to comment that! – “Yes, Sir.”

 

So how about the lander? After putting it in an eccentric orbit we had half the fuel left. I need at least half the fuel for the powered descent or the entry heat will blow us up. So the options where to either refuel the whole ship or get enough fuel with the ferry from Gilly.

I decided to refuel the whole lander. – “Not your brightest moment, Sir” – No, for sure it was not, Doctor. Maybe I felt I wasn’t ready for the Eve landing yet.

Landing on Gilly wasn’t a problem. But driving was. We had tons of Monoprop but not a single RCS block to maneuver. Wheels are useless on that rock as the miner lifts itself up and down all the time. So after a tedious miner jumping we finally refueled the lander. Those 300meters and attaching the miner took like an hour or so.

However getting back from Gilly to Eve and into the final orbit left us with only half the fuel left in the tank. Not only was the whole trip for nothing, we wasted like 250 days or so refueling.

“Told you so, Sir.”

[627]

Landing on Eve

While refueling on Gilly was ongoing, I landed the Rovers and Miner on Eve. “You mean you tried?” – Yes Captain, thanks. I tried to land the Rovers. – “See, this is why you don’t use probes for everything they can’t react like a good pilot.” – So you could have saved it, yes? Maybe we should send another one, just to see if you were right? – “Maybe it was the Kraken that ate it. And not your fault.”

What the Captain here is trying to explain is this:

 

All went well but all of a sudden the whole thing exploded midair when the fairing dropped.

"Well, technically that is still a functioning Science Base, Sir."

I did land the second heavy rover, though. Talk about always send two .

 

 

 

Landing the Miner and the Mini Rover worked… kinda worked. The Kraken again tried to fox this up when I reloaded so I had to start the whole descent again. This time the inflatable heatshields destroyed the whole miner so I had to release those by hand when it already landed. I landed the Miner and the Mini Rover at nearly the same spot, only 500m apart.

 

 

“Don’t forget the bad news, Sir. Both the Miner and the Mini Rover popped all their wheels. And the Heavy Miner is 70km away.” – Yeah that is a minor setback.

So here we stand. Driving 70 klicks is not really fun but doable. At least if the wheels would work as they should.

“What they don’t, Boss. We tried every possible setup with them but it either slides over the surface or the back tries to overtake the front while driving.”  - What? What about the cruise mode? – “Not working either. The landing wheels show the same weird behavior. We can turn on the engine and cruise for 500m then the rover flips and goes backwards. This will take ages. And without an engineer who can repair the tires this won’t work for long.”

Well, Eve I start to hate you even before we are there.

“We could fly home, Sir.” – No we can’t. Initiate Crew Transfer. Get that lander down. It is time.

 

Transfering Crew

 

Going down

Down there is the Miner; looks good

"Just a strut!"

Good news everyone, we made it! We are on Eve! - “yaaay…wohoo… Can we go now?”

I landed nearly empty and the ship was about to melt but we made it down. Now we can make our group picture and do some science!

Edited August 10, 2016 by 627

[627]

“Boss? Boss? I don’t want to disturb but… you know the mini rover, that was the Airlock and all Wheels are broken… we can’t get out.”

Hah! Fear not, I have a plan.

I need a volunteer! It has to be an engineer! – “…thank god…phew” – Silence! That Engineer will be the first Kerbal on this planet! And he or she has the honor to fly down from the top of the rocket with the experimental Science drone- “…everything here is experimental…” – and then walk 5 kilometers, fix the wheels and drive the Rover and Miner to us.

<chirp>

Ok Chief, you earned that honor. “What? Boss, really? In that thing on top? No, please no!”

I have to mention, all 33 seats where used and on top there was Graphie. So we had to draw straws who will hang himself out of the airlock while Graphie can switch seats. But at least The Doctor got a nice view from there, what was it 50 meters, 56? – “62 Meters and please don’t mention it again, Sir.”

Getting down was not as easy as I thought. In fact, I really start to doubt if that will work the other way at all. But we got the chief down and after a good walk he could fix the tires and drive the Miner and Rover to the Lander.

 

“Boss? The Rover. It… it is too small.” What do you mean to small? – “The claw… I mean the universal docking port is too low to connect to the main engines.”

Uhrgh, everything you have to do yourself.  The Ship landed on a slope so I had to try 4 different engines until I found one that connected.

 

So with that out of the way and the Miner making fuel it is time! Everyone out let’s make that damn picture.

“Boss, the Ship. It is moving!” – What? How? – “It slides down the slope!” Wait, that thing here weighs like 1.000 tons and all wheels are broken again! How can it slide? –

  “Sir, I think this place… is not made for us. We shouldn’t be here.

We could fly home, Sir.”

Yes we could… if we had fuel… How’s that going Chief? – “3/4 full, Boss.” That is not enough.

 

Ok, everyone out now and don’t waste time or we can go for a long walk to catch our ride.

And smile if we make the picture! That’s an order!

 

Edited August 10, 2016 by 627

[Mister Dilsby]

Great stuff, really enjoy reading this. Especially the one who talks back to you  

[627]

Eve... leave Eve...

Ok, everyone get back in the ship. Let’s see what we can make something out of this no-

“Boss? Boss, we  can’t get in again.” – WHAT?!

Eeeeeve I hate you…

What now? - “When we try to take the ladder to the airlock we get a little bump on the head so we fell over and land at the surface again. No way we can take the ladder.”

Wait you can’t get up the ladder because you bump your head on the air and fell over? Is this for real? Try the other ladder on the other side! - “Same boss.”

…*sigh*...

Ok, did you try to climb up the side? - “No, there’s this ladder so we thought-” - Stop thinking and listen, climb between the wheels where there is no ladder! - “Hey, that worked, I get up! Thanks Boss! Oh and on a side note, the ship doesn’t slide anymore!” - Ok, now... just get in.

 

 

Eve is so frustrating…  Captain, how is the science probe going? Did you make it? Can we at least save the experiments from the Miner and some rocks?

 

“Sorry, but it is impossible. There was no way to land it on top of the ship. I was lucky not to destroy the whole rocket but that plan didn’t work at all. At least I could land it in one piece. Ok nearly one piece, the landing gear exploded…”

 

 

“Sir? We could fly home, Sir.” – Yes. Home sounds good.

Everyone in? Decouple the Rover and Miner, on my mark, 3…2…1… GO!

"Wait, what? Boss, did you just launch?"

Hold on something chief, this will get bumpy! Captain, Status!

 

"She's a beast, can't even hold her steady...  get ready for staging!"

 

"That stage lasted only for 400 meters... Sir, can this ship even make Orbit?" - Not now, Doctor, not now!

"Dropping next pair! We're at 3600 meters, only 5 engines left!"

"Passing 10 klicks, staging in 3...2...1...."

Getting hot up there... - "Last booster stage seperated, one to go! we're at 47km, almost there!"

"Apoapsis nearly 100km, height is 62km, cutting off main engines."

Gravity turn? What's that?

"Main engines to full throttle, prepare for final seperation!"

"Circularizing...final Orbit will be 120km x 120km"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. I welcome you to stable Eve Orbit. If you look to your left now, you can see this purple hell we just left. Good riddance Eve."

Nice work, Captain. And more than 2.500 m/s Delta-V left, even with that ascent profile, we could even go home in this ship; just landing on Kerbin would be a problem but whatever. We made it! Plot intercept course to the Transfer ship!

“Sir, I…when I said we could go home... I didn’t mean immediately. I mean… at least we could have taken a crew report and an EVA…at least something science-related...”

Wait we have nothing? Not a single science report? Not even a crew report? Fantastic…

Ok, after docking, transfer all liquid fuel left into the transfer ship and then let us go home. We are done here.

“Sir, one last thing. We could go home with the fuel. But we could also go to Gilly. The Transfer ship is made for landing, we could refuel and at least bring some science back from Gilly.”

Hmm...when is the transfer window to Kerbin, Doctor? - “120 Days, Sir."

Anyone got objections? Ok, to Gilly then. Fuel, A picture, some Science. Nothing more, ok? Let’s go.

Edited August 11, 2016 by 627

[627]

Quick side trip to Gilly and Going Home

Docking was trouble-free. It was kinda unnecessary but I transferred all liquid fuel anyway. 

When we left Eve, we had 3.200 m/s Delta-V left. We took a 5-6 million orbit, aligned us with Gilly and burned for it. Getting to Gilly is expensive but with so much fuel to spare I didn't bother finding out the cheapest way to get there. We'll refuel anyway.

Farewell Eve.

 

Landing at Gilly. I like that you can totally forget everything about orbital mechanics and gravity there. It was easier to do it like docking in space.

So we burned straight to the miner once we were there.

 

Landing on Gilly. "Landing"

 

Gilly itself was routine. Ok not totally because we couldn’t move the miner to the transfer ship without breaking it. So we moved the transfer ship on its back tail to the miner only on reaction wheels and RCS. Lowgrav for the win!

 

 

"Ok, tank stop! Everyone out but don't run off, we leave in 30 minutes!"

After Gilly was done, we moved to an 10 million km Orbit, waited for our transfer and left.

 

 

 

 

The journey to Kerbin was 200 days, fuel was plenty so we made 100km orbit and aimed for the Space Center. 

Instead of circularizing and planning our descent we just eyeballed the landing on the second orbit.

“You nearly did it, Boss!”  - Yes, nearly.

The Captain overshot only 34km “Hey, you controlled-“ - Shut up! As I said, *the Captain* overshot but at least the ship was intact and was even floating.

Graphie was the first to step out and totally not destroyed the radiator on top with that ridiculous jumping.

“Yeah, sorry but we don’t need it anymore anyway. Now can I get back to my mun capsule?”

It was a fine ship, though and I really thought about sending a shuttle and keep it in Orbit. But in the end all wanted to go home and I wanted to finish this mission but I'll keep the design.

 

 

We made merely 800 Science points from Gilly and Eve Orbit but at least I now have a space center full of level 5 Kerbals so there’s that.

 

 

 

So that's it, Eve is checked. Not sure I'll return soon, too much didn't work as it should have. But it was a hell of a fun ride 

 

Oh, and about that eve rock challenge badge… I’ll take 33, please.

Edited August 11, 2016 by 627

[Ultimate Steve]

Now, that is an EVE MISSION. I've yet to do Eve. Hats off to you!

[627]

On 12.8.2016 at 1:25 AM, Ultimate Steve said:

Now, that is an EVE MISSION. I've yet to do Eve. Hats off to you!

Thanks

To be true, I'm not sure I could do a small mission with only one or two kerbals, that seem way more difficult. On the other hand I'm planning such a mission right now to farm the science from eve. Not sure I'll do it, given that nearly everything went wrong with the class trip. But that's what you get from unknown planets