WANTED: Eve 3-person Sea Level Lander

[Wcmille]

I'm looking for a lightweight 3-kerbal lander for Eve with the following properties:

• Carries 3+ kerbals.
• Weighs 50 tons or less when empty.
• Has a docking port inline with its center of mass. (Nose port preferred)
• Doesn't flagrantly abuse clipping.
• Made of stock parts.
• Seismic, temperature, gravity, pressure, atmo sensors.
• Can achieve low Eve orbit from approximately sea level.

Bonuses:

• Easy entrance and exit to surface. Long ladder is OK, crew transfer "elevator" preferred.
• Science Module & Mystery Goo containers. These don't have to return to orbit.
• Attached, disposable, rover
• Lighter is better. Cost doesn't matter.

 

I'm aware of this thread, but challenges like these don't necessarily include decent packages, and most only handle 1 kerbal. Can assume starting at something like 120km orbit, not on surface.

 

[The Optimist]

Have you tried building your own? It's part of the game, and asking somebody else to make you one is robbing yourself of the experience.

[qzgy]

He could, as pointed out in some other posts, just not enjoy building landers. Or, he doesn't want to devote time and effort into doing so. Its his way of playing the game.

[foamyesque]

I've got one that meets or exceeds all of these requirements except the weight one. Carries 4 Kerbs, integral ISRU, two rovers (one with full science, one with everything except the materials bay). Fully fuelled, 420t; dry, 120t; on orbit after ascent, 8.5t.

 

Interested?

Edited August 16, 2016 by foamyesque

[TheGuyNamedAlan]

is it even possible?? cause i think no stock SSTO has done it before.

[Wcmille]

3 minutes ago, foamyesque said:

I've got one that meets or exceeds all of these requirements except the weight one. Carries 4 Kerbs, integral ISRU, two rovers (one with full science, one with everything except the materials bay). Fully fuelled, 420t; dry, 120t; on orbit after ascent, 8.5.

 

Interested?

Sure; thanks.

1 minute ago, TheGuyNamedAlan said:

is it even possible?? cause i think no stock SSTO has done it before.

Not SSTO. One-shot lander.

[TheGuyNamedAlan]

does it requires to get back in orbit??

 

[foamyesque]

Just now, TheGuyNamedAlan said:

is it even possible?? cause i think no stock SSTO has done it before.

 

He didn't ask for a SSTO.

 

@Wcmille: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qgl2i13gc4wrrb4/Eve Lander.craft?dl=0

 

You'll want to leave some gas on-orbit for the return, but that shouldn't be especially complex to arrange; that's why the ship has the nose port, after all.

[Wcmille]

14 minutes ago, foamyesque said:

 

He didn't ask for a SSTO.

 

@Wcmille: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qgl2i13gc4wrrb4/Eve Lander.craft?dl=0

 

You'll want to leave some gas on-orbit for the return, but that shouldn't be especially complex to arrange; that's why the ship has the nose port, after all.

So the idea of this craft is to fly to orbit, refuel, fly to Eve, land, drill to refuel, take off, land the nose section on Kerbin? Very cool.

[foamyesque]

1 minute ago, Wcmille said:

So the idea of this craft is to fly to orbit, refuel, fly to Eve, land, drill to refuel, take off, land the nose section on Kerbin? Very cool.

 

Basically. I have a pair of winged boosters that put it into orbit with enough just enough fuel to get it to Minmus (consistently hit the landing with <5m/s left :v) carrying two extra bits of kit, a ion-powered scanning satellite and a refuel drone that gets left in a parking orbit when the lander heads down to Eve. It's a giant mess of a machine, though.

 

Oh, also: You'll want to pay attention to the action groups. There's a couple of very important ones for jettisoning the ISRU after you take off from Eve, and another to enable the RCS ports on the nose section for the docking manouver after ascent (the rest of the ship uses the vernor thrusters).

[Wcmille]

3 minutes ago, foamyesque said:

 

Basically. I have a pair of winged boosters that put it into orbit with enough just enough fuel to get it to Minmus (consistently hit the landing with <5m/s left :v) carrying two extra bits of kit, a ion-powered scanning satellite and a refuel drone that gets left in a parking orbit when the lander heads down to Eve. It's a giant mess of a machine, though.

 

Oh, also: You'll want to pay attention to the action groups. There's a couple of very important ones for jettisoning the ISRU after you take off from Eve, and another to enable the RCS ports on the nose section for the docking manouver after ascent (the rest of the ship uses the vernor thrusters).

What's re-entry and landing on Eve like? I'm loving the microship return.

[foamyesque]

19 minutes ago, Wcmille said:

What's re-entry and landing on Eve like? I'm loving the microship return.

It's a lot easier if you're lightly loaded. Don't bother with aerocapture; do a burn to insert yourself into a low orbit, then do a descent from there. I've found a 60-70km periapsis orbit works pretty well if you're starting from 100-120km out.

You'll want some fuel to power the vernor RCS systems, but you won't need a lot. Keep it locked to a high AoA -- I use the radial-out SAS setting -- until you drop below danger temps. It may also -- depending on exactly how much fuel you've got when you arrive -- need to have the fuel pumped around. If your nose is trying to lock prograde, move some backwards; if it wants to flip, move it forwards. Watch what the SAS controls are doing to figure out which is which.

Once you're through the dangerzone temperature-wise, around 1km/s, swap to stability assist and put the nose down to about a 15-20degree descent. It's pretty much a simple glide from there until you flare for landing. Keep the motions smooth, though. Eve likes to tear wings off if you get aggressive. Landing, especially light, is just a matter of flaring and floating in; the wheels are overbuilt and there's enough wing, since it's meant to support the full fuel on takeoff, that you can land at 60m/s or under. You can deploy flaps to get some additional lift and drag for the landing, too.

 

Be careful in choosing your landing zone, though. If you touch down in the Explodium Seas biome, there's no ore, which means you're in trouble unless you've got enough fuel to cruise somewhere else.

Edited August 16, 2016 by foamyesque