Getting into an Eve-Orbit with 4800 m/s delta budget: a chopper story

[xendelaar]

TLDR

I built a sealevel worthy helicopter lifter for Eve. It’s able to lift a 15 tonnes craft up to 22km without breaking a sweat.

Because the craft is out of the soup, I can get it into orbit for a relatively small delta v budget: ~4800 m/s.

If you like, you can check my video (3:55): 

 

 

Long story

Ever since I got KSP since version 0.90 I’ve thought prop vessels would be a perfect way to move through the dense atmosphere! I tried building many stock propellers but I never got one to work properly on Eve.

With the new expansion, I finally got the ability to make a proper prop vessel and this time! To make things a bit more interesting I attached a rocket so that I could get the craft in to orbit.

I made 5 tonnes helicopter ( with help from this tutorial)that’s able to lift a 15 tonnes payload up to 22km. From here, I can launch a vessel with a vacuum rocket engine and get to space with less than 4800 m/s delta v.

I actually deliberately didn’t check if there are any other designs already posted on the internet, because I really wanted to design something myself. I’m convinced that this is not the most efficient design out there...but man, I had lots of fun designing and testing everything!

Maybe I can turn this into a challenge If there are any people up to it? Maybe in the order of, getting into orbit with a chopper-rocket combination? Scoring on weight and delta v required to get into a 100x100 km orbit?

Edited July 23, 2019 by xendelaar