My adventures to Eve

[espenrik]

A while back I sent a research team to Eve.

I designed a pretty nice lander.

It is certified for two crew members and capable to take off from as low as approx 3000m AMSL.

I picked a landing site on a crater ridge at about 4500m.

Since they were going to stay and research for a while I sent two landers, two rovers and a research station.

The research station was placed on a peninsula at sea level, a short drive from the landing site.

All was well and the crew began to settle in when disaster struck.

A software update caused the landing legs of all crafts to suddenly retract. The research station was undamaged as it had a flat bottom, but the landers tumbled into rubble...... I was in need of a rescue plan.

This time I decided to go big. The goal was a sea level capable ship with room for 3 crew members.

I was hoping it could go SSTO from Kerbin, but I had to put on some extra drop tanks.

"Banana Peel" staging.

It had to be refuelled in both Kerbin and Eve orbit. Requiring a massive amout of fuel and work. It's so boring I forgot to take pictures. It's OK the pictures would be boring anyway.

From Eve orbit I did F5/F9 based "Simulations". It turned out to not achieve it's goal.

Landing was easy, but it required a very flat surface. They are hard to find even at sea level and failing the sea level capability as well made the ship unusable.

I did however find a nice flat surface at about 2500m.

A flag was planted and takeoff was rushed to prevent it from wobbling to pieces.

The crew is now in orbit and waiting for a return window.

As a backup I fortunately sent a modified 2 man lander, and it works. Just need to send one more.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

...wow. My computer would be brought to it's knees if it tried to endure THAT.