Full stock mission to Eve AND BACK!

[sephirotic]

So i decided to stop postponing to do a full non-suicidal manned mission to the hardest planet to return from and the only one left personally for me to do in stock: Eve

I don´t usually post much on the forums, but since it seems that after the aerospike nerf no one had actually made a full mission of returning from eve without mods, (at least not in video, dunno about logs from the mission-log subforum) I decided it was worthy to do one film it, edit it and share it.

Let me give you guys some extra background info first:

I decided to do it 100% stock, including manual flight. I like mods a lot and use lot's of then, but i also like to do stock missions since they are more easily related to and more difficult. I'm not a particularly mechjeb hater, in fact I even use it sometimes when i am a little lazy, but since this one was so audacious and i decided to share it, i did it WITHOUT mj to even increase it's "merit". (Only actual mod i ended up using was KE to design the ascent vehicle and keep track of d/v, angle phases, TWR, fuel, etc. However the KE broke down on me on calculation of Delta/v in later stages of the design, unfortunately I had to try 3 times landing on eve and ascending till i got enough fuel with without KE to guide me).

The whole mission took 2 days to plan and build, most time were used to build the ascent vehicle and later a LIFTER to it that didn´t lag. The rest of the mission where then quickly planned afterwards, the decision to use two large 2.5 meters docking ports for the interplanetary boosters were used in the middle of the ascent design to make a not so absurd large vehicle and avoid wobbling in the large interplanetary burns from a single standard docking port booster. Another two days were needed to actually do the mission entirely.

I ended with nearly 5 hours of raw video footage, with I at first wanted to do a single very resumed video with less than 10 minutes. People usually don´t like to watch videos longer than 6~8 minutes on youtube, but since that proved to be impossible later, due to the complexity of the mission, I, then, decided to do 3 videos, with the mid one, the 2nd, focused on what most people actually wanted to see: The landing and the ascent back into orbit in less than 10 minutos. It is this video now that i'm posting here in the first post of this new thread, the climax of the mission from eve, landing and returning from it!

Please rate and comment!

The other two parts should be ready at the end of next week, but i already did the first cut on all the material.

First part should be around 12~15 minutes and will describe all launch rockets used to put the vehicle in orbit, transit to eve and aerobraking, the last part should be docking in eve's orbit with the return vehicle, returning and landing in KSC. I'll post the remaining videos after feedback from this video.

Lots of quick saves and quick loads in the DESCENT phase during the mission were needed since I had to save all fuel for returning to orbit (I decided not to try and refuel it on site) and thus, couldn´t manoeuvre properly to a landing site, so lots of trial and errors on the entry of atmosphere till i finally managed to land on a good plain near to the rover not so close to sea level, the rest of the mission, even landing at KSC i managed to do in the first try.

In total, 6 launches were needed: First the RETURN interplanetary nerva booster vehicle, with also sent an rover to scout for a good landing site and drive around eve, 2 large double Interplanetary nerva booster docked in orbit with the manned landing and ascent vehicle and sent it to eve, and two refuelling vehicles after the two booster docked in kerbin's orbit were used. The ascent vehicle itself weighted 176 tons at the moment it started it's descent to eve. I'll post later pictures with more details of the mission if anyone gets interested. For now you can watch the first finished part of the movie!

I hope you all enjoy!

(Sorry about english mistakes, not my first language)

Edited September 15, 2013 by sephirotic

[The Jedi Master]

Certificate Of KSP Grandmastership

This Certificate shows that sephirotic is a KSP grandmaster, allowed to have a picture in the KSP Museum and play in the same ranks as Scott Manley. Congratulations, you can do anything!

Approved By:

The Jedi Master

[sephirotic]

Part 1 of the video is up!

As I mentioned before, I initially wanted to make the whole video less than 8~10 minutes because most people doesn´t have patience to watch such long videos in youtube. However, even with my experience as an (semi)professional videographer(but with not much experience for youtube videos), I realized there was just too much information to resume it that much in a single 10 minutes video. Still I think it has a nice summarized view of the main parts of the mission without feeling too rushed out, or boring like so many "youtube-gamers" videos with half an hour recorded video with added narration and virtually no edition whatsoever with whole minute loading-screens and failure attempts uncuted.

I hope you guys can enjoy it:

http://youtu.be/QCoq468-nvY

Part 3 will be the shortest and should be up by the next weekend.

Also, I realized I should have posted this in Mission log, I think I'll do a new thread there when the videos are complete specially for a log of this mission and use this thread for eventually new videos I release. When I do i'll add some text info and Screenshots of the mission and post the .craft files too. Meanwhile if you are curious about the videos, you can pause and check the comments I added on youtube, they give in-depth information about details of the construction and progress of the mission. However, I recommend watching the videos twice, first without the comments to have more "immersion" with the build-up climax of the mission, and later if interested in the mission itself, watch again pausing and reading the comments!.

Certificate Of KSP Grandmastership

This Certificate shows that sephirotic is a KSP grandmaster, allowed to have a picture in the KSP Museum and play in the same ranks as Scott Manley. Congratulations, you can do anything!

Approved By:

The Jedi Master

Grandmastership? Well maybe an advanced level, yeah, but thank you for the compliment! Don´t forget to watch the part 1!

Cheers.

Edited August 31, 2013 by sephirotic
corrections

[sephirotic]

Just passing to tell you guys that the last part of the video and the mission is finally up concluding this epic mission!

I'll prepare a "mission log" version with pictures of the mission to post on the forums for those who doesn´t wan´t to watch all the videos.

Edited September 15, 2013 by sephirotic

[Nahim]

That's apotheotic Man!

You simply boldly go where no one kerman ever goes before!

Congrats!

^^