landing a probe on Eve

[kerbonaut101]

Due to Eve's thick atmosphere is it necessary to use engines for a powered descent for a small probe or can you just use parachutes?

[thepielord]

for a small probe you can just use parachutes

[Skorpychan]

Chutes will work fine. Just be prepared for a 'water' landing; most of the surface is ocean.

Might want to include wings as well, so you can pick a landing spot.

[Johnno]

Just be prepared for a 'water' landing; most of the surface is ocean.

It's not that hard hitting land on Eve. If you want 'mostly water' go to Laythe, and even there if you know what you're doing/a bit of practice hitting the islands isn't a huge deal.

[kerbonaut101]

It's not that hard hitting land on Eve. If you want 'mostly water' go to Laythe, and even there if you know what you're doing/a bit of practice hitting the islands isn't a huge deal.

Go to laythe .... lol ive only just landed my third mission on Minmus (it was my first rover )

edit: I tried to go to Eve, I got into a orbit but... I ran out of fuel

[Tiron]

Go to laythe .... lol ive only just landed my third mission on Minmus (it was my first rover )

edit: I tried to go to Eve, I got into a orbit but... I ran out of fuel

If you don't care where you land, it's easier to just aerocapture, especially on thick-atmo Eve. I landed an SSTO on Duna that way. It didn't have enough fuel to actually pull into a Duna orbit, but more than enough to change it to the point where the first pass aerobraking lowers the AP enough that it never gets out of the atmosphere. Especially if you do it when you first enter the SOI, where it takes almost no Delta-V.

[Captain Sierra]

I've broken 2 rovers so far trying to go to Eve. I am gonna try again at next transfer window (or Duna, whichever opens up first). Either way, I won't be sending it to somewhere like Tylo. It does use a skycrane but due to low fuel in it, I use parachute descent for most of the decell.

EDIT: answering the OP, you can land a small base on Eve with parachutes. The thick atmosphere means if it is landing at 10m/s on Kerbin, it will be landing at 6-7m/s on Eve.

[Tiron]

answering the OP, you can land a small base on Eve with parachutes. The thick atmosphere means if it is landing at 10m/s on Kerbin, it will be landing at 6-7m/s on Eve.

Eve has 170% of Kerbin's gravity, but the Atmosphere...

It's FIVE TIMES thicker. Despite the higher gravity, parachutes actually work BETTER than on Kerbin, because the atmosphere's so absurdly thick. The exact Opposite of Duna, in other words.

Just watch the opening shock. Drogue might be a good idea.

[SRV Ron]

Eve is mostly 50% liquid. Think lakes of sulfuric acid and other nasty stuff. With careful planning, you can place your probe on solid land. Parachutes work best due to Eve's high gravity and dense atmosphere.

Eve is much harder to find an efficient transfer window often taking more fuel to reach it then to reach the Jool system.

Landing on Duna requires more parachutes and a retro burn just before touching down. Thrusters are usually enough for the last second slowdown.

Probes will float upright on Laythe is properly design. Landing on the small islands is tricky as they are often high slope dunes or rocky peaks.

Edited August 11, 2013 by SRV Ron

[annallia]

Eve has 170% of Kerbin's gravity, but the Atmosphere...

*snip*

It's FIVE TIMES thicker. Despite the higher gravity, parachutes actually work BETTER than on Kerbin, because the atmosphere's so absurdly thick. The exact Opposite of Duna, in other words.

Just watch the opening shock. Drogue might be a good idea.

A quick burn before the chutes fully deploy also helps minimize the shock.

[Captain Sierra]

My rovers actually use a drogue because that slows them enough by itself. no standard chutes. I'd like to do an Eve lander but there is just no way that I could build one capable of takeoff and orbital insertion. Maybe I could pull it off with a non-powered descent with one section (possibly asparagus staged) for the ascent and insertion and another stage for the circularization and the rendezvous.

[Skorpychan]

A quick burn before the chutes fully deploy also helps minimize the shock.

I would be very careful about that; I've had landers on kerbin burn clean through the chutes, or killing the throttle ripped the bits the chutes were attached to clean off the lander.

[SRV Ron]

A quick burn before the chutes fully deploy also helps minimize the shock.

Necessary when landing on Duna, both to slow horizontal speed down so the main can open at 500 meters and just before touchdown to reduce speed even more. Not needed for Laythe or Eve if you have included sufficient parachutes for the weight of the lander. Do use drogues so they don't get ripped off and deploy when your speed drops below 550 meters a second.

[numerobis]

Tie your parachutes on with a couple of struts and you can open them whenever.

If you're taking off again, it is somewhat more mass-efficient to use a mix of parachutes and rockets. But if you're just landing, likely the best is to decouple the engine and fuel, and use only parachutes.

This script can help you figure out how fast you'll land given a certain number of parachutes, or on the flip side, how many parachutes you'll need to land at a given speed.