50 ton Eve Ascent Vehicle. With accessories

Starlionblue · February 2, 2018

My obsession with Eve continues. This is a reliable 50-ish ton ascent vehicle from Eve sea level, complete with everything you need to get from Kerbin to the surface of Eve, and then up to Low Eve Orbit. It even includes a rover! (Obviously with the rover and Eve descent hardware it is more like 86 tons, but the bit that takes off from Eve is 51.32 tons.)

Stock with the exception of MechJeb. The whole thing is 340 parts, 2173 tons on the pad at the KSP, and has a total 14415 vacuum dV.

During Eve aerobraking, inflate the heatshield, set SAS to retrograde and turn RCS on. Once you've done that, it is very stable on entry.
Once safe to do so, stage the parachutes.
Once the parachutes have deployed, stage the heat shield and its support structure, and also deploy the fairing around the lander.
The vehicle sets down on Eve using a six-pronged "landing pad". When it is time to leave, staging ignites the engines and separates from the "pad" simultaneously.
Disembark by transferring your Kerbonaut from the pod to the can, then EVA to the rover. Don't forget to transfer him/her back up to the pod!
Before taking off from Eve, stage the "pylons" to get those rudders and chutes out of the way.
Ascent profile from Eve should be start of turn around 250m/s. Be careful with heating, especially stage 3, with the Vector engine pushing only the center bits.
Sometimes a fin breaks off during staging of the side boosters. The vehicle is still stable (enough) with two fins.
You'll need to send another ship to Eve orbit to pick up your intrepid explorer. Craft file included below but anything with a Jr. docking port, thrusters and enough dV works.