Oceanic launch stations for Eve

[700NitroXpress]

When building escape vehicles for Eve, I always find it hard to land on level ground. Even when I do land on level ground, the parts on the bottom of the craft start shaking violently, or it tips over from the landing gear doing this. This leads me the question. Has anyone tried building a floating launch platform for Eve? I've seen something like this used for Laythe, in which an escape craft is floating on pontoons in the ocean. The craft is then able to launch from the water and get into orbit. Part of the floatation device stays behind. Do you think that this method would be equally effective for Eve?

If you do think that this could work, please post any design ideas as screenshots below.

[DaveofDefeat]

Good luck getting to orbit from sea level. Thats 11,500 m/s of delta V, which is more than even the 9k/ms delta v needed for EARTH.

Edited November 24, 2013 by DaveofDefeat

[700NitroXpress]

Good luck getting to orbit from sea level. Thats 11,500 m/s of delta V, which is more than even the 9k/ms delta v needed for EARTH.

I'm optimistic about it still. I've seen some really small surface landers for Eve, so putting one on the water seems like it would work.

[allmhuran]

You're better off landing on rover wheels and driving to the top of the biggest hill you can find before launching.

[Motokid600]

If your talking about just landing something in its oceans then yea its possible. But a lander that can go back to EVE orbit from sea level? HELLLL no. You'd need a rocket several times larger then it'd take to get off Kerbin. And that's not going to float lol.

[LethalDose]

I had a similar idea when I recommended pontoons in the suggestion forum. Febin recommended I use structural fuselage or panel parts for buoyancy. I haven't tried it yet, but I haven't learned anything about the game that wouldn't make it feasible.

As far as returning to orbit, I haven't done the math to figure out how much delta-v is required to make orbit given any elevation on Eve. Landing a probe there is one of my next projects. BUT in a practicality/reality sense, this is a reasonable question and is similar to launching ballistic missiles from submarines.

[allmhuran]

If you do go with a floating base, air intakes are particularly good as floatation devices.

[hawkinator]

I would recommend Hooligan Labs' submarines mod, those parts have a lot of bouyancy which will help. Your biggest problem (besides figuring out how to make a vehicle that can reach Eve orbit from sea level) is figuring out how to make it stable in the "water" (or whatever Eve's oceans are made of). Rocket shaped things, (i.e. tall and skinny), tend to fall over in the water (this is also true of real life). This is something that you will need to think about when designing your vehicle. The solution that readily presents itself is to make something wide and flat, which is kind of a good idea anyway, since an eve lifter will probably need lots of asparagus staging. As for the lifter, one tip is to make the payload as light as possible (use seats if your aim is to launch kerbals). Also, that little orange Rockomax 24-77 has a really good thrust to weight ratio. Boosters aren't a bad idea either.

[nhnifong]

May I suggest this design

[Sirine]

I've already did that... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/48503-Eve?p=629098&viewfull=1#post629098

You should check out. "which something make you "nervous".

[nhnifong]

I've been investigating this more, and found a different design that I think is superior. it keeps the vessel high enough that it never touches the water, so you don't risk breaking things on the initial sink.

The big problem though is that when you launch from the water, KSP will still think you are slashed down even when you are in orbit. You can't save, so you can't edit the file to fix it. So far I have not discovered a way around the bug.

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[DrMonte]

The big problem though is that when you launch from the water, KSP will still think you are slashed down even when you are in orbit.

What is that? I didn't experience anything unusual hitting water with the rover.

[700NitroXpress]

You're better off landing on rover wheels and driving to the top of the biggest hill you can find before launching.

I won't argue that this is the best starting method, but it's not an option for me as this mission is for a challenge that takes place on an island.

May I suggest this design

Very cool, this gives me good ideas, thanks for this.

[700NitroXpress]

nhnifong: These are really helpful design ideas, I'm going to start some experiments with this. I'm going to leave this post open until I have something that succeeds and then share the design. If you make something that works on Eve then post that as well. I'll move the designs over to the space craft exchange once it's complete.

[Grover]

Perhaps making a small landing platform out of structural panels (and suitable buoyancy aids) then landing a standard craft upon that? Much simpler if you can get a good deorbit and reentry trajectory

[nhnifong]

I have a workaround for the "stuck in splashed down" state. If you Eva your kerbal you can quicksave with him, then you can edit the save file to fix the ship. Find your ship, replace "SPLASHED" with "ORBITING" and set splashed = false as well. This is assuming you have made orbit already.