So I took an asparagus lander to EVE.

[Majorjim!]

I blasted off with high hopes of a return Eve mission with my new super DV asparagus lander.

Well, its turns out I MASSIVELY underestimated Eve's gravity and atmosphere...

Anyone made a successful manned return?

I had to burn off 80% of my fuel before she would even twitch.....

Back to the drawing board.

[SRV Ron]

Most definitely not enough engine for launch. If the lander can get off Kerban with, say 25% fuel to spare, you have a chance of reaching Eve orbit. In addition, that lander should be a separate part of the mother ship as you have to also do a Kerban intercept and aim for a 30,000 meter reentry window.

[Sof]

11km/s of delta V is needed from sea level.

Some of the mountains are quite high on Eve, but either way it is the hardest place to take off from.

[nimbim]

You need about 11-12km delta v to get into orbit from the surface, depending on your launch profile. Eve's gravity is higher than Kerbin's (16,7m/s²), so make sure every stage gets more thrust than that. You don't want to start turning before ~35km, since Eve's atmosphere is so thick.

To make things easier, there is a plateau with 6,5km elevation, that will save you ~2km delta v.

Edited July 29, 2013 by nimbim

[Sof]

You need about 11-12km delta v to get into orbit from the surface, depending on your launch profile. Eve's gravity is higher than Kerbin's (16,7m/s²), so make sure every stage gets more thrust than that. You don't want to start turning before ~35km, since Eve's atmosphere is so thick.

To make things easier, there is a plateau with ~10km elevation, that will save you ~2km delta v.

Highest point on Eve is 6450m.

[Paul Kingtiger]

The Engineer Redux mod can help with this. In the VAB you can set which body the Delta V calculations are for, allowing you to set it for Eve. Then you need to strap on engines until you get a thrust to weight ratio of around 2 and enough fuel for the 11km DV

[Majorjim!]

Most definitely not enough engine for launch. If the lander can get off Kerban with, say 25% fuel to spare, you have a chance of reaching Eve orbit. In addition, that lander should be a separate part of the mother ship as you have to also do a Kerban intercept and aim for a 30,000 meter reentry window.

Not sure I follow you. The lander is seperate. It sheds tanks as it ascends, but yeah that motor only has 215 thrust. Clearly not enough.

Anyone got picks of their return ships?

[brians200]

If you want to do some testing, make sure it can take off of Kerbin without dropping any empty tanks.

If you want to make your life easier, you can try using http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/23774-0-20-2-Hooligan-Labs-New-Heavy-Lift-Airship-with-Improved-Controls

They can float you up to about 30km

Edited July 29, 2013 by brians200

[sal_vager]

Surely you'd need the absolute lightest orbital craft you could make, little more than an engine, a seat and the rest being fuel, oh and launching from a mountaintop might help too.

[Majorjim!]

If you want to do some testing, make sure it can take off of Kerbin without dropping any empty tanks.

If you want to make your life easier, you can try using http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/23774-0-20-2-Hooligan-Labs-New-Heavy-Lift-Airship-with-Improved-Controls

They can float you up to about 30km

Well that lander can take off from kerbin and nearly (very close indeed) reach a stable orbit. So I assumed it would be good for EVE..

As you can see in the pics i had to drop off all but two tanks to take off.. Its gunna be a tough nut to crack, but thats why I love KSP!

Edited July 29, 2013 by Majorjim

[automcdonough]

it's tough. i made a lander with enough fuel to get back but by the time i could launch it from kerbin i was looking at 1100 tons, the physics engine just broke randomly at that point.

I think a successful mission will involve at least 2 craft and orbital docking refuel..

[Sandermatt]

A number of things are a big help to do eve return (with 1 craft).

1. Landing on a mountain (big gain)

2. Place the return stage in orbit and only land with the lander, pick up the kerbal with the return stage after ascent.

3. No command pod on lander, use a seat or a ladder (reducing the last stages weight by a factor of 5 means the whole lander can be 5 times lighter)

4. Finish the ascent by using your jetpack.

Using all of that it is probably possible to do an eve return below 100 tons single craft.

[magnemoe]

Well that lander can take off from kerbin and nearly (very close indeed) reach a stable orbit. So I assumed it would be good for EVE..

As you can see in the pics i had to drop off all but two tanks to take off.. Its gunna be a tough nut to crack, but thats why I love KSP!

This lander uses balloons, its also an airship probe used for sample return so it carries higher payload than an kerbal on an seat.

Two huge balloons, airship stuff below who is dropped during accent, two boosters with one long 1.25m tank and one medium, one long 1.25m tank for first stage and one medium for upper. Uses T45 engines and two 909 for upper stage. The Lander below is for Gilly and return. the stuff on top of the Eve lander is decent fuel and rcs for lander, it would be dropped before entering atmosphere.

[Majorjim!]

This lander uses balloons, its also an airship probe used for sample return so it carries higher payload than an kerbal on an seat.

Stock only craft please. You can do anything with a mod so it doesn,t count.

[Sof]

This lander uses balloons, its also an airship probe used for sample return so it carries higher payload than an kerbal on an seat.

Two huge balloons, airship stuff below who is dropped during accent, two boosters with one long 1.25m tank and one medium, one long 1.25m tank for first stage and one medium for upper. Uses T45 engines and two 909 for upper stage. The Lander below is for Gilly and return. the stuff on top of the Eve lander is decent fuel and rcs for lander, it would be dropped before entering atmosphere.

Balloon mods and mechjeb. Its a wonder you can even call KSP a game at all if you're just going to take all the challenge out of it.

[Tw1]

Balloon mods and mechjeb. Its a wonder you can even call KSP a game at all if you're just going to take all the challenge out of it.

To be fair, you can't just do anything with those mods.

Balloons aren't the simplest to use, I went through many balloon based designs before one would work well.

Sure, it's a lot less of a challenge than using pure rocket based launchers.

But no need to put anyone down.

If the balloons were strong enough to operate in Eveian conditions, it would be a realistic way to save some delta V.

That said, I don't know what Hooligan Labs based their lift and weight figures of, so it's hard to say whether they are truly balanced with the other parts in the game.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Tw1

[-RanZ-]

Ignore Sof.. he intentionally searches the form for the word mechjeb and posts derogatorily comments about it.

You will definitely need a bigger lander though, Eve is the hardest planet to get back to orbit from. There are some threads in mission reports about people doing it.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26296 - this guy has a lot of cool mission reports

[magnemoe]

To be fair, you can't just do anything with those mods.

Balloons aren't the simplest to use, I went through many balloon based designs before one would work well.

Sure, it's a lot less of a challenge than using pure rocket based launchers.

But no need to put anyone down.

If the balloons were strong enough to operate in Eveian conditions, it would be a realistic way to save some delta V.

That said, I don't know what Hooligan Labs based their lift and weight figures of, so it's hard to say whether they are truly balanced with the other parts in the game.

Hooliganlabs balloons are serious overpowered simply enough. on the other hand an balloon launch makes lots of sense in the thick soup of an atmosphere on Eve and an airship is an fast way of exploring.

Anyway, the sample return mission I was doing required me to collect both rock and liquid an payload of .7 ton.

Replied to the other post about balloons before the specification about stock only.

Now using the new inline version of the 909 someone managed to make an stock eve accent craft weighting less than 10 ton. Outside of this I think the record is around 30 ton.

[Alfondoo]

I know we're not talking mods here but after taking a kethane bypass turbine jet to Eve I've always been interested in trying to do it space plane style (albeit dropping everything that would make it a plane by the time you exit the atmosphere). Multiple stages, all balanced in flight.

Just for my amusement and maybe some inspiration for others of here -

Currently I can get to 150km Kerbin orbit without using the keth jets. If I use the jets on Kerbin I can get to orbit with 2km delta/v in the final command pod/winglet stage.

Totally sure it's doable (maybe not this design but I'm getting there). Anybody else tried?

ignore the file name this was kinda what the "SSTO" turned into after extensive, frustrating testing

Edited July 29, 2013 by Alfondoo

[allockse]

[tavert]

Now using the new inline version of the 909 someone managed to make an stock eve accent craft weighting less than 10 ton. Outside of this I think the record is around 30 ton.

I think you may be referring to me? It was the inline version of the 24-77, actually, see http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/41584-Tiny-Eve-ascent-vehicle-6-23-tons-KSPX-MechJeb

When 0.20 first came out I went for the lightest Eve ascent using the 1-man lander can, and got just under 40 tons:

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Both of these can be made slightly lighter now if you land at the new highest point on Eve, which is now 7500 meters instead of 6450. And the Rockomax 48-7S engine is probably also a better choice with the pod craft, I just didn't want to use KSPX at the time. MechJeb is flying these ascents for testing purposes, but with practice and skill (and more patience than I have) they should work fine flying manually.

[Amphiprion]

This zero bypass made it back up.. only just.. was very challenging..

[automcdonough]

gonna try this.. working on a launcher now.

FYI this thing was 12k. I stuck the lander leg in the seat to simulate weight of a kerbal and lost a lot because of how light it is. 572dv in the final stage. And the TWR hit.

kerbal in chair adds 0.1 weight!

My idea is there will be a return ship waiting in orbit, kerbal can jump out of chair and jetpack to the ship.

[RocketBlam]

Highest point on Eve is 6450m.

This one is over 6800, and I'm sure there are others that are higher. However, you do need to land in as flat an area as possible. Any tilt to your craft on Eve is dangerous, as the gravity tends to send any top-heavy craft crashing down.

[RocketBlam]

This is the latest version I'm working on. It is designed to blow all the chutes and landing gear at takeoff so you're not hauling all that weight back up. With all that blown, it has 8787 DV and weights 114 tons. Two of the stages have 1.88 TWR, which is a little low, but all the rest have good TWRs.

I'm concerned its too tall and wobbly to survive an Eve landing, though.

Edited April 9, 2014 by RocketBlam