Wing to mass ratio on Eve?

[xendelaar]

hi everybody,

quick question:

What is an appropriate wing surface to mass ratio in order to glide towards a proper landing zone on Eve with a space plane?

 

 

[OHara]

A wide range is reasonable.  0.1 -- 0.4 'relative wing area' units per tonne, a little more if you are using the wing to aero-brake.

The density at sea level is 5× that on Kerbin, at the highest peaks still 2.5× Kerbin's sea-level density, so you could take a craft that glides on Kerbin and scale down wing-area by that factor and have the same touchdown speed, but drag also increases with density, so to keep the same glide angle you would need the same wing area as on Kerbin. The game (and the wiki) show you the pressure, but for this we care more about density, which you can find in the  alt-12 aero display once you have a probe on Eve.

[foamyesque]

Honestly the bigger challenge is getting through re-entry. If you can manage that, you're probably going to just float in to a landing. Fire up the aero GUI and aim for a ballistic coefficient of under 400 kg/m^2 (preferably below 350, to give you some margin). Putting a little bit of built-in angle on your wings will also help a very great deal, both in the glide and on the ascent. In terms of KSP 'wing area' units, my current machine has 80 for a landing mass of 135t, and works fine, with touchdown speeds of <30m/s. If anything, it's over-winged for the mass, but I need to cover the takeoff weight as well, which is around 400t.

Edited January 28, 2018 by foamyesque