Lightest Eve Lander I could make

[Fidelacchius]

This is my super small ship (only 740 tons!!!) ksp version 0.21

Beating Scott Manley by 523 tons!! And at a lower landing point! (10500m less) of course i have 0.21 he didn't

You should check out his channel on YouTube. He is a genius and taught me everything.

That doesn't sound like much but the only other ships i have seen do this have been 1200-2200 tons plus so this is an improvement

If someone could build a lighter lander as well that would be cool. One that is capable of lifting off from 1-3k on eve

I challenge anyone to come up with a better design to make this lighter. (seriously i would like a better one )

Mods used:

MechJeb 2 (I wanted to do it without but i don't have patience to quick save that much )

Flight Engineer

Stats:

Total Weight: 740.65 tons

Lander Weight: 63 tons

Total Delta V: 23300 m/s (approximately)

-Kerbin Orbit stage: 4500 m/s

-Transfer Stage: 1600 m/s (This could be less)

-Eve Lander: 11700 m/s (This could be less if you can get your landing just right at the highest altitude about 6k. My landing was almost sea level)

-Eve Return: 5500 m/s (this could be smaller. It is so high because it has to rendezvous with the lander once it is orbit)

Total Kerbals: 1

Scroll down to see more about the mission/craft file

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Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6gdn1a52qqlqfbl/Smallest%20Eve%20Ship%203.craft

Mission:

To Orbit

You want to aim for an orbit of around 75k around kerbin

Before launching you have to change the point of control to the unmanned prob (under the kerbal seat)

Flying this into orbit surprisingly is pretty stable. Just start your turn at around 10km.

Don't miss any staging even a few seconds carrying extra weight and this will not get to orbit.

You may have to use a few seconds of the atomic rockets to circularize.

Transfer Stage

You should have close to enough fuel to make your transfer to Eve. If you run out (like i did) you can transfer a bit of fuel from the extra tanks attached to the

decoupler (NOT YOUR RETURN SHIP)

The reason there is not a fuel line running to the main tank from these is because the ship would be unbalanced and you would have to use

a lot of RCS to keep it straight.

Once you are on you way to eve you will have to transfer all auxiliary fuel to the main tank and jettison the empty tanks

Now you can make course correction burns.

You want to aim for a Periapsis of around 72k (Eve)

AeroBreaking Stage

You now should have a Periapsis of around 72k.

The eve atmosphere starts at around 97k I think.

We are going in lower so that we dont have to burn fuel to slow down.

Once you Exit the atmosphere you should be in a very long oval orbit.

When you get to the Apoapsis you will want to do a very small burn to bring your Periapsis to around 110k

Return Stage

Once you are in a relatively safe orbit, you can decouple your rescue ship.

You can either do this before you land on eve or after (I did it after)

(Return Ship NOT main ship) You want to circularize your orbit to about 110 Apoapsis and Periapsis.

Landing Stage

With the amount of fuel we have brought along it will be impossible to get a good orbit to land where we want to.

Therefore what i did was about 3/4 the way back from our Apoapsis i did a retro burn to get the landing as close to

the equator as i could and still landing on land. (Cant plant a flag on water )

As soon as you get your target decouple the transfer stage.

Lander Stage

Now you are speeding into the planet.

You want to activate your engines for the lander stage but DO NOT USE THEM.

You need every drop of fuel to get back to orbit.

The atmosphere will slow you down to almost 100m/s so don't worry

Once you get to about 4k from surface (NOT ALTITUDE!! THE SURFACE!!!) This is where mechjeb is very useful.

You can deploy your high-altitude parachutes.

When you get to about 1k you can deploy your low-altitude chutes.

When you get to about 40m you should do your landing burn. The lower the better or you will use to much fuel. (EVERY DROP!!!!)

Now you can extend your latter's and plant the flag

Eve Assent

Once you get your kerbal back in his seat. You need to switch control from the seat to the computer under the seat.

Liftoff!

I start my gravity turn at 20km and aim to stop my turn at 90km

Aim for a near 0 degree orbit (unless your rescue ship is in a 180 degree orbit. then do 180)

Note: If your fancy matching the rescue ships orbit would be most efficient but we have plenty of fuel in that thing.

When i did this i was short about 2.5 m/s which was no big deal.

If you are short more you will have to use your kerbals RCS (can get you 600 m/s if needed)

don't use it all or you will not be able to board your return ship (we don't have any fancy docking ports).

Rendezvous Stage

Once your kerbal is in orbit you want to switch to the return ship.

First you will want to match inclinations. Mine was off around 10-15 degrees

You will have to use it to come close enough to your kerbal that he can

jetpack his way to the ship. Mechjeb 2 makes this much easier. Mechjeb 1 will not do this for you.

Once you are in range switch back to your kerbal leave the seat and RCS you way over to the return ship.

Return to Kerbal Stage

Now you can line up a return burn to kerbal.

You may have to change your inclination. I made the mistake of going with a 0 inclination

Kerbin is not in a perfect orbit with eve so you actually want to match that.

I had to burn more fuel later on to hit kerbin(luck i added extra fuel to the return ship for human error)

Make sure to jettison the empty fuel tanks on the side once they run out.

You may have enough fuel to do more aerobreaking and actually land at KSP headquarters.

I am okay with making my kerbal walk across the planet so i just landed wherever.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Fidelacchius

[Sirine]

Just download your craft. Thanks for sharing.

After note: could you please include a [stock Craft] version? (Just to load and check the detail, for learning purposes.)

The error message was:missing parts: mumech.MJ2.AR202, Engineer7500. Thanks.

Edited August 7, 2013 by Sirine
Error loading the craft file.

[Fidelacchius]

Here is it STOCK with out mechjeb or flight engineer https://www.dropbox.com/s/gslsjrd7nb7d6gs/Smallest%20Eve%20ship%20STOCK.craft

Here is without orbit main stage (if your running an older computer for lag) https://www.dropbox.com/s/lsfykzjzbjshxn8/Smallest%20Eve%20ship%20STOCK%20without%20main%20stage.craft

and here is the mechjeb from my game folder that i used. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajl4whri22bs5cu/MechJeb2.zip

You probable know this already but i am using KSP .21 as stated above, this will not work on older versions

Edited August 7, 2013 by Fidelacchius

[Sirine]

Thanks!...

As you might notice. this is my 6th post...I'm fresh newbie here.

I've try my best craft..and with 1440 fuel and 4 Lv-N engine, I'm only able to meet Eve orbit. (Not even able to enter the standard orbit yet).

Once again thanks for your effort of making the upload. Very much appreciated. I will land on Eve soon. (hopefully).

[Sirine]

Modified version (without orbit main stage). <download here>

Hope to give you some inspiration!

Note: The stages are not sorted!!!!

Edited August 7, 2013 by Sirine
update

[Sirine]

I've landed on Eve...with my own design craft...

And

1) Success on standard Eve orbit...but run out of fuel.

2) Enter Eve using the RCS thruster and...successfully landed on Eve, but no fuel left.

3) Surprisingly...Eve have NO oxygen!!!!!! so my TurboJet Engine x4 is useless there! WTF

4) Found out the Eve atmosphere is so thick, you don't have to get too much parachute to land in 1 piece.

5) Rover-mobile around Eve and found nothing.

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Edited August 8, 2013 by Sirine
add in few detail. Add in Imgur-album

[Sirine]

Fidelacchius, is there any reason why your "main sail" engine (Center main) won't get overheat?

Figure it out already...thanks, learn something again today.

Is this bug???

Edited August 9, 2013 by Sirine
bug?

[Fidelacchius]

Wow. I guess this is a bit late. I don't know how i never saw this forum post update >_< sorry

I like your mission to eve I made the same mistake trying to take a jet-rocket there >_< . From what i read its atmosphere/lakes are made of rocket fuel. So you think we could just bring oxygen instead of liquid fuel and get out that way :/ ahh well.

Yeah i'm not sure why the Mainsail's overheat on the orange tank's but you can stack the smaller ones to the moon and it has no problem.

Weird :/

Edited January 3, 2014 by Fidelacchius

[Jamie Logan]

Amazing!!!! Love the design.

[Sirine]

Wow. I guess this is a bit late. I don't know how i never saw this forum post update >_< sorry

I like your mission to eve I made the same mistake trying to take a jet-rocket there >_< . From what i read its atmosphere/lakes are made of rocket fuel. So you think we could just bring oxygen instead of liquid fuel and get out that way :/ ahh well.

Yeah i'm not sure why they Mainsail's overheat on the orange tank's but you can stack the smaller ones to the moon and it has no problem.

Weird :/

So, I wonder who will bring up this old thread...ah...the OP. It been some times man.

I've learn pretty much about KSP nowaday. I can send/precision land, and retrieve 4 men crews back to Eve orbit.

Check my sign...so far...I think I don't see other did that yet.