Got any THREE-KERBAL Eve landing AND RETURN vehicles?

[-ty-]

Hey all

I'm having a hard time designing a lander that can bring three kerbals to and from Eve low orbit. I'd love to see some successful designs form the community!

Looking for stock ships that can deliver three kerbals and science gear to the surface, then bring them back. I'm having a hard time designing with the DeltaV and TWR readouts in the VAB, as the readouts dont seem at all accurate when testing the craft. 

Any and all uploads are welcome! Thank you!

[MR L A]

18 hours ago, -ty- said:

as the readouts dont seem at all accurate when testing the craft. 

have you told the readout that you will be launching on EVE?

[Gargamel]

Moved to gameplay questions. 

[Foxster]

I'll see if I can find a craft later to post but one thing to consider up front is the choice of capsule. 

Drag is the king of Eve and so you want the lightest and slimmest crew accommodation. A mk1 capsule plus a mk1 crew cabin is good. Or you could even consider three command seats in a mk1 fairing. 

Don't take anything to orbit that is non-essential. So dump experiments, chutes, solar panels, ladders, etc before lifting off. Don't plan on a docking in orbit because that requires extra stuff. Have a mothership rendezvous with your craft and EVA over the crew for the return journey to Kerbin.  

Edited December 27, 2019 by Foxster

[bigcalm]

I tend to use either MechJeb or Kerbal Engineer to do the readouts for Eve - the critical numbers you look for are 'SLT' or 'Surface Level Thrust', as that must be higher than 1 for all portions of the ascent, and you'll need about 8k delta-v to be safe.

I do have a 3-seater, but it has non stock parts (the non-stock parts make it heavier or fiddlier though - I have life support, mechjeb, and I have alternative landing legs) All other parts are stock, and there's no cheaty hiding a command seat in a service bay type thing, so I think it should load and discard the life support parts and landing legs - grab RoverDude's mods if you want it to load fully) - I'll link to a couple of versions - Eve 3-3-4 (Eve 3-seater, 4th version) (needs a tweak to ensure the kerbals can get out as I found on my last mission).  Eve 3-3-3 (Eve 3-seater, 3rd version) (worked well, 3 times).  I did build a 20 seater once with a few more modded parts as well.  

Eve is the hors-categorie of Kerbal Space Program.  It is not easy, and nor is it meant to be.  I think stock could do with a couple of tweaks with regards to Eve - sturdier landing legs in particular, but possibly some stuff to stop the need for Rube Goldberg devices to get a ladder to the ground.

If you want to build your own 3-seater, concentrate on reducing the mass of what you get back into orbit of Eve - you want the lowest weight possible where still being aerodynamic - even taking monoprop out of a command pod is worthwhile.  The second thing to consider about an Eve lander is it *must* be extremely aerodynamic and slippery - this is the critical factor in ascending from Eve - you can pack 12k delta v into an Eve ascender, but if it isn't slippery as a fish, you will not go to space today.

 

 

[Foxster]

1 minute ago, bigcalm said:

...the need for Rube Goldberg devices to get a ladder to the ground.

One way around that is to put a capsule of some kind on the bottom of the craft. Transfer the crew in and out of that to the main capsule at the top of the craft. Dump it before lifting off. 

[bigcalm]

3 minutes ago, Foxster said:

One way around that is to put a capsule of some kind on the bottom of the craft. Transfer the crew in and out of that to the main capsule at the top of the craft. Dump it before lifting off. 

Yeah, but you can't easily transfer the science experiments upwards to the bits that go into orbit.  You can in theory stick a science experiment collector on top, jump out, collect the science, stick it in the capsule ready for lift-off.  But it all feels a bit cheaty that way - I've just stuck to daft ejectable ladder contraptions and it's worked though it's not exactly "clean".

[jost]

Hello,

I had the same problem:

Key was to reduce drag by getting rid of of draggy parts (e.G replacing decouplers with hard points) and using GravityTurn Continued since my piloting skills suck
Also important: Use Vector and/or airospike engines and use a higher biome for liftoff e.g. midlands or highlads

Regards, jost

Edited December 27, 2019 by jost