How to Get to Eve and Back?

[Spektyr]

Just a little friendly ribbing here, but honestly - does no one ever stop and think about the problems they present by naming things with a three-letter word?

I'd like to see what other people have done to get a Kerbal to the surface of Eve and back, see if I can incorporate or improve on proven successful designs. But can I search the forum for "Eve return"? No. Of course not. Because the forum won't search for any word less than 4 letters long. If I try searching "eve return" I simply get the results for "return" which, as you can well imagine, aren't nearly as helpful.

I know that the general consensus is that if you're planning to put Kerbals on Eve and bring them back, you land at higher altitudes. But the word is that Eve's oceans will be rich in resources so sooner or later I'm going to want to put boots on the beach. I could land the return craft at higher elevations and drive down and back in a rover, but I'd much rather tackle the greater challenge of a sea-level to orbit launch. Since I can't really put the search engine to any productive use on the subject, I'm wondering if anyone else has done anything similar or knows of a post or video from someone who has. I'm looking for any and all Eve return missions, even the ones that involve high elevation landings/launches.

[Panichio]

There was a challenge thread for a orbit-capable Eve lander, which had tonnes of entries, and a lot of really good information and tips on how to make them. It was lost in the server crash, unfortunately. This thread, although no entries as of yet, is challenging people to land in the ocean, just like you want, and return to orbit. You might want to follow that thread for when some entries come in.

[foamyesque]

Well, there's this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26365-Is-it-Possible-to-have-an-SSTO-landed-and-come-back-to-a-100km-orbit-from-EVE

(Answer: No)

[EndlessWaves]

Eve ascent is so difficult there's little room for design choices, you simply go for maximum fuel efficiency.