A Flight of Eagles - Mission To Eve

[Logan.Darklighter]

Hello all. First actual post here in Mission Reports that isn't a response to someone else's mission report. (Usually Brotero and his awesome Laythe adventures. )

As some of you may know, one of my interests (some might say obsession) is with the Space 1999 Eagle. It's such a logical, cool-looking near future design and it seems to fit in quite well with the KSP aesthetic. I loved Redspar's Eagle for the accuracy of the model, but you couldn't really DO much with it aside from just fly it around (still a lot of fun!).

Redspars Eagle:

Devo's Wayland Space Eagle isn't quite as spot-on accurate in the proportions compared to the source material as Redspar's. But he's done something much more impressive. It came without a pod and you can make mission pods or other payloads fit under the truss so that it actually has real utility!

Wayland Space Eagle:

When I discovered that Lackluster parts made for a perfect way to construct mission pods for Wayland's Eagle I was ecstatic!

Eagle with standard Passenger Pod:

I've made several designs for the Eagle including a Kethane Prospector Rig that can allow the Eagle to go pretty much anywhere in the Kerbol system.

I've also made updates for the Mk 3 Eagle so that it will be stable in KSP .23. It's not set up for career mode (yet). But works just fine in sandbox. (You can download those fixes, and craft files for all my Eagle variants in my .Sig below)

So what's this mission report about?

Well - I've gone to many worlds in the Kerbol system with the Mk 3 Eagle. But there's one I haven't attempted yet - Eve.

Now I tested the ability of the Mk 2 Eagle to get off the surface of Eve and back to orbit. But that version of the Eagle was a STUPIDLY over-powered ship with a ridiculous amount of fuel on board - it was using the old fuel system as Devo hadn't yet cracked how to make the Eagle work with the new fuel and oxidizer system and keep the Eagle balanced. The engines were also enormously powerful to the point of feeling "cheaty".

Mk 3 Eagle is much more of a balanced design in terms of power. It also uses normal fuel. So its range is limited without being refueled. That's GOOD, because it provides the proper level of challenge.

Okay - so someone might ask - why not just hyperedit an Eagle to Eve and then just see if you can lift off?

And I say - where's the fun in that?

So I developed a mission plan.

A Flight of Eagles - Mission to Eve: Part 1 - The Staging

First - I surveyed the Mun and Minmus for Kethane deposits. And while I was surveying Minmus I noticed that a couple of the deposits were conveniently under the Ice Flats (in my save). So that would make setting up a mining station there more convenient. I also realized Minmus was a better "stepping off" point for Eve than Kerbin or even the Mun, due to it's much lighter gravity. I could save a lot of fuel by leaving for Eve from Minmus.

Here's the base under construction:

The completed base:

The base sits on a Kethane node. KAS allows you to hook up any Eagle or other ship that needs extra fuel to top them off.

Okay - now I'm not sending ONE Eagle to Eve. I'm sending three!

They each have a different job and potential.

Eagle 1 carries a Kethane Prospecting pod. It has a long range Kethane sensor, a Kethane storage tank, a Kethane Fuel cracking unit, extra Fuel, Oxidizer and Mono-propellent tanks, a probe AI, a pair of RTGs, batteries, and solar panels to deploy. (If you wanted to, you could drop one of these on a Kethane deposit and it could drill and store Kethane and fuel on its own to supply passing ships).

Eagle 1 is the scout. I've got to make sure basic resources are available for the other two Eagles. It'll leave with not only a full fuel load, but extra Kethane in it's tanks, just in case.

Eagle 2 carries a mapping probe pallet. The probes carry short range Kethane Sensors and SCANSAT mapping sensors for a full survey.

Eagle 2 is the Survey Unit.

Eagle 3 has a Heavy Lift Passenger Pod capable of carrying the entire crew complement of Kerbals from all three Eagles as well as providing bunk-space and more roomy living accomodations. It also has extra VTOL engines so it's capable of more power on lift-off.

Eagle 3 is Support.

Why is Eagle 3 support, rather than the designated Eagle for testing Eve escape? Because I think it's important to test the standard VTOL engine configuration of 4 engines first. IF that doesn't work, I can try the heavy lift pod with it's 6 VTOL thruster pairs. Plus - if the other Eagle can't escape, but Eagle 3 can, then Eagle 3 has room in the pod to rescue any Kerbals from the first Eagle.

All of my Eagles have Probe support built into them as well. So I'm also debating whether I could simply send either Eagle 1 or 2 down via remote control and not risk stranding any Kerbals down there at all.

Next: A Flight of Eagles - Mission to Eve, Part 2 - The Departure

Edited February 2, 2014 by Logan.Darklighter

[Speeding Mullet]

The LLL parts make for awesome bases. Following this with interest!

[Logan.Darklighter]

A Flight of Eagles: Part 2 - the Departure: Scouting Ahead

Once all three Eagles were topped off with fuel and supplies, they lifted off into parking orbit around Minmus to await a good transfer. As the mission plan dictated, Eagle 1 left first and alone to scout for Kethane at Gilly.

(For some reason I don't have screenshots of Eagle 1 leaving Minmus. Sorry about that.)

Eagle 1 on approach to Eve for aerobraking:

Incidentally, I use the City Lights/Clouds mod, which pretty thoroughly obscures the surface of Eve. (Now you know why I am sending Eagle 2 with SCANSAT probes!)

One of the mods I've made to the Eagle Command Pod is to use the FASA Gemini IVA. Devo hasn't yet made a dedicated Eagle Pod IVA, though he says he's working on it. In the meantime, the Gemini IVA is a good stand-in.

Okay. Here we go... (One of the things you can't see in static images is just how FAST the clouds on Eve are moving!)

Technically I didn't NEED to retract the gear, but I thought - Even if the Eagle overall can handle atmospheric entry heating, I'd still want to retract that gear to protect the inner workings!

Aerobraking and bending the trajectory into an orbit around Eve:

And safely out of the soup!

Although it wasn't Eagle 1's job to do a Kethane Survey of Eve, I figured it couldn't hurt to activate the sensor on my way out. You never know - you might get lucky! Sadly I didn't get THAT lucky:

Setting up a plane change to Gilly's Orbit:

And now a short burn to set up an interception (I happened to catch Gilly at it's closest approach to Eve - lucky!):

Transmitting progress report back to KSC control:

Braking into Gilly SOI:

You can see here how ridiculously easy it is to change inclination in Gilly's orbit. That's almost a 90 degree turn there!

Aha! Kethane confirmed! Now we send the other two Eagles!

Next: A Flight of Eagles - Part 3 - Probe Survey and setting up the Staging Base on Gilly

[Geschosskopf]

Bravo!

I loved Space 1999 and the Eagle (even if I realized at the time the underlying concept of the Moon visiting other planets was bogus). It was still a good show and had wicked special effects. IMHO, it had the best explosions ever, what with the big chunks of wreckage tumbling out of the fireballs . I even built a model kit of the Eagle back then and was really proud of it.

The 2nd season of the show introduced a modified Eagle that had another set of engines mounted on its back, with nozzles angled like on the Space Shuttle. IIRC, they called that the Combat Eagle or something. If such a thing exists in mod form, it might provide the extra oomph needed to get off Eve.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Thanks! The package of thrusters you're talking about was mounted on the top of the Eagle's truss and the Eagle pod was a new type of passenger pod with extra VTOL thrusters on the bottom called a "Booster Pod". Honestly? I have no clue how that set of top boosters was supposed to work without just flipping the Eagle end-for-end! LOL Perhaps the thrusters were a disposable unit that pushed the Eagle at an odd angle to speed and then discarded to let the regular engines take over? Who knows? I just know I'll never attempt any such thing even in KSP! (You'll notice that Eagle 3 in my report above is using the "Booster Pod" arrangement sans top thrusters.)

[Logan.Darklighter]

Part 3: Probe Survey and setting up the Staging Base on Gilly

Once confirmed that there is Kethane accessible at Gilly and that Eagle 1 could refuel them, it's time for Eagles 2 and 3 to depart. Eagle 2 (SCANSAT Probe pallet) was able to launch at the tail end of the same window that Eagle 1 used.

However Eagle 3 with the booster pod was delayed because I spent a little too much time setting up Eagle 2's escape trajectory and transfer. I could still plot a course for encounter, but it would be at a much more acute angle than Eagle 1 and 2 and the encounter wound up being much later (by about 40 days give or take!) after a slingshot around Kerbol that crossed Moho's orbit and delivered Eagle 3 to Eve with a lot more Delta-V. As you'll see later.

Eagle 2's first clear view of Eve from the cockpit pod:

I felt confident in setting up the aerobrake pass just a bit lower than for Eagle 1:

Check out the relative speed - by the time Eagle 2 hits Eve's upper atmosphere it'll be traveling at over 4000 MPS. That's a lot of Delta-V to dump in the form of heat...

Look at the differing textures of the clouds as we approach. Beautiful!

Gear retracted:

And the first licks of flame appear:

And the trajectory gets pulled down to a capture:

After circulerizing the orbit just under the 250 Km mark...

It's time to release the probes -

Both Kethane and SCANSAT Mapping of Eve begins:

And inclination change...

And another Satellite gets launched:

Plane change again...

...and one more package delivered...

Inclination change again, and... hey... is it getting crowded up here already?

Why yes... yes it is. (Don't worry, nothing has collided... yet...)

Meanwhile, Eagle 1 has found a good Kethane deposit near Gilly's equator so it's time to land. I have an AIES laser pointer on the back of one of the landing gear pods to help in judging distances.

Gilly has such light gravity you literally have to PUSH yourself down for solid contact.

After setting up the 4 probes in Eve orbit, Eagle 2 comes over to land at Gilly, rendezvousing with Eagle 1 on the surface.

(BTW - I call those probes V.I.N.CENT (Vital Information Necessary Centrallized) 1-4 And they are totally not floating cute robots! >.>;;; )

Alan Kerman steps out to plant a flag, marking the site:

Then he floats over on his EVA pack and hooks up the refuelling lines:

Drills deployed, Kethane extraction commences. With the extra electrical power supplied from Eagle 2's power plant, the Fuel Cracking is expedited more quickly.

Fueling completed, the 4 Kerbals settle down in their hibernation pods to wait for Eagle 3 to arrive.

About 40 days later, Eagle 3 finishes its slingshot to Eve.

Coming in MUCH faster than Eagle 1 and Eagle 2...

Whoops! A little TOO fast! That's not a capture!

Fortunately there's plenty of Delta-V and fuel to spare:

After a circulerization, inclination match, and a Hohmann transfer, Eagle 3 brakes into orbit around Gilly:

I admit, I got a little impatient with the GLACIAL pace of dropping from orbit at Gilly. Too damn slow! I almost did a dive-bomb and pull-out manuever here! LOL

Fortunately, Gilly's micro-gravity allows you to get away with stunts like that -

All 6 crew meet up briefly to compare notes after the fuel lines are hooked up. They all agreed to partake in some snacks aboard Eagle 3's more spacious accomodations.

Almost had a major mishap! Jorrick was the last one to enter the Pod, but he slipped and twisted and somehow got sent off caroming across Gilly's landscape out of control!

I was beginning to think he was going to shoot right out into orbit and we'd have to mount a rescue!

But he finally managed to straighten himself out and grab his EVA pack controls. WHEW!!

Scooting back to the Eagles:

Eagle 1 tops off Eagle 2 and Eagle 3 with full fuel loads.

Wilhel retrieves the fuel lines after the refueling is done and... oh! Hello!

All 6 Kerbalnauts bed down for a rest after dinner, their ultimate target rising in the sky overhead.

Next - decision time: Which Eagle to send down. And will it be manned or sent down via remote?

Got an opinion on that?

[Deathsoul097]

1) I vote sending it unmanned, and to use the Eagle 2, as if it fails then you lose the least. (You would still have the capability to refuel and return from gilly using the other two.)

2) This is really cool Logan. I am impressed.

3) I believe that if the first eagle that you send in works well, and can land, then send down the kethane one next, and then the crew.

[Geschosskopf]

Nice job and way to keep us in suspense .

On the Eagle's backpack engines, I suppose the steep angle is because the whole assembly had to be mounted over the CoM and the nozzles aimed to fire through the CoM. But yeah, it looks pretty silly. I've also always been amazed at the Isp they could get out of those engines, flying between the wandering moon and various planets without refueling on just those little tanks at the rear .

[Logan.Darklighter]

Part 4: Transfer back to Eve and Final Set Up

After a short debate and confirmation with KSC Main Mission, the crews have decided that the safest way to test the Eagles at Eve is to send one down first under remote piloting. It's decided that Eagle 2 will be the first Eagle to land on Eve.

Having already shed most of it's payload mass (the survey probes) while keeping its pallet and extra VTOL rockets attached, Eagle 2 is currently the lightest of the three Eagles by mass even with full fuel load.

Bill Kerman does a final "walk around" check of the systems to make sure there are no hidden problems that could come back to haunt the mission later. Since no one will be aboard Eagle 2 to correct any problems, it's important to make sure everything is in top working order before starting.

Bill, as a mission specialist with pilot training, will give Eagle 2 it's commands from his remote station aboard Eagle 3.

The engines aren't actually necessary for initial lift-off from Gilly. A gentle push with the RCS thrusters is all that's necessary. From there the main engines on low power can boost the Eagle in a low trajectory off of Gilly and into orbit.

Eagle 1 and 3 shortly follow on similar orbital trajectories.

All three Eagles aerobrake capture and then circularize their orbits on the same plane at 110 miles above the surface of Eve. The V.I.N.CENT survey sat network helps Bill keep in touch with Eagle 2 even when out of direct line of sight.

After all maneuvers are completed, each Eagle still has about 90% fuel reserves remaining. This is why the set up from Gilly was important. Getting down to Eve is not difficult. But getting back up again? That could take most of the fuel on board. (assuming there's enough power to get back to orbit at all!) I wanted as WIDE a margin as possible.

Next - Eagle 2 takes the plunge into Eve's purplish soup of an atmosphere and heavy gravity. Can it return?

Edited February 6, 2014 by Logan.Darklighter

[Logan.Darklighter]

Part 5: Struggling out of the Gravity Well

In Eagle 3, Bill is ready at the remote piloting station to guide Eagle 2 down to the surface of Eve. Bill's actually a pretty good pilot but he's admittedly not the bad-ass that Jebediah is. And he's a lot calmer about it when he doesn't have to worry about being front and center in the middle of a crash...

At Bill's command, Eagle 2 starts it's de-orbit burn. Just a gentle nudge from the main engines at 1/3 power is all it takes. Bill's going to let Eve's thick atmosphere do most of the hard work.

Still almost at the edge of space, the atmosphere is starting to slow Eagle 2 down.

The first real heat starts. Landing gear pods tucked in safely.

Coming down just past the shore of one of Eve's oceans.

Almost out of ionization.

Finally below the upper cloud layer.

Falling like a rock now, but Bill's staying cool and not touching that throttle yet.

Looks like we're headed down to some gently rolling terrain.

First glimpse of a shadow. Bill's still not touched that throttle yet. Jorrick's looking at him expectantly.

Closer... Jorrick clears his throat... "Ah... Bill?"

Bill says quietly, "Not yet... not yet..."

Less than 150 meters off the deck, Jorrick's sure Eagle 2 is going to go splat!

Bill mutters... "Annnd.... Now!"

The next few moments are a little hectic. But when all the smoke clears...

Touchdown!!

Jorrick is slumped in his chair, "You seriously had me worried there!"

Bill quietly but triumphantly points to Eagle 2's fuel indicators.

Jorrick's eyes go wide! "DUDE!! You are one Steely Eyed Missile Kerbal!"

"Congratulate me if we get Eagle 2 back UP again. That was the easy part we just did."

There's no one in Eagle 2 to plant a flag, so Bill and Jorrick just take a few readings of air pressure. Noting the extra pressure the gravity is exerting on the undercarriage at it's slight tilt, they hurry to take a few pictures from the onboard cameras and keep the engines on standby.

Without much ceremony other than a perfunctory 5 second countdown, Bill reactivates Eagle 2's VTOL thrusters, initially leaping off the ground at maximum thrust and quickly leveling the Eagle.

Putting a slight 10 degree tilt in the ascent.

Once he's confident of the VTOL thruster power, Bill backs off to 2/3 throttle in order to not waste fuel too much fighting air drag.

What's scary is that we've already used that much fuel and we're only up to 15000 meters!

20,000 Meters...

Above the clouds now and almost past the first atmospheric "band" on the indicator.

Checking the apoapsis... HEY! Not bad! Hope we've got enough fuel to circulerize...

You know that moment in the movie "Red October" where the Dallas vents tanks in an emergency blow to avoid a torpedo and the acting Skipper of the boat says... "C'mon Big D! FLY!!!"

Yeah - it was like that for me - "Come on Eagle! GO GO GO!"

And - YES! We have a Periapsis!!

After getting Eagle 2 into a stable circular orbit, Bill finally relaxes and accepts another "steely eyed" compliment from Jorrick. even Jeb congratulates him!

So now we know - Eagles - with a bit of planning - can indeed make it out of Eve's gravity well - and it doesn't even feel like cheating to do so!

Next: Let's see if we can plant a flag!

[Scotius]

Very cool I barely remember Eagle from my childhood, but your mission reminded me how versatile this ship is (and great looking in space ).

[Commander Zoom]

Some great flying on Bill's your part, there!

(I just found this thread - which on the one hand is too bad, but on the other, I got to read all so far in one go. Very nice. And I'll give you three guesses what theme music I was listening to by the time I got to the Gilly landings...)

[Geschosskopf]

Glad you can get the Eagle off Eve. Be a same to leave such a pretty ship stranded there

[Deathsoul097]

Awesome. I have never watched Space: 1999, so I don't really know much about this stuff. (That's what I get for being 15, I guess.) Either way though, this is very impressive, it would have been quite sad to see the Eagle get down and not have the TWR to land, or even worse, land and take off, but not have the DV to get back to orbit. Also, this means the Eagle can go absolutely anywhere in the entire kerbol system, as to get into LE(Eve)O you need in excess of 11Km/s of DV, Almost all of which is gravity and drag losses.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Yeah - it really can go anywhere. Obviously it's got enough DV to land and take off from Tylo and break orbit.

And it doesn't even feel cheaty doing so either. It has just the right amount of power and fuel balance. You can get into orbit from Eve's surface, but as you see - you want to have near a full load of full to burn on the way up. Which seems more than fair.

If you want to regularly get back and forth from orbit to Eve's surface, I think you'd need to establish a fuel depot on the surface and space station with fuel reserves in orbit. If you've got the Kethane Mod, it makes it a lot easier to do in place, of course. But I could see doing it even with imported fuel from Kerbin. But that of course would get complicated.

Devo did a fine job modeling this ship! (Go over to his Wayland Corp thread and give him some kudos if you're impressed. )

Incidentally, he's working on a new version of the Eagle and some other things - like the Serenity from Firefly.

This is the main image he posted showing what he's doing. Notice that it will have a real door and attachment points for the frame that match what the Eagle had in the original show. Impressive!

[Logan.Darklighter]

Part 6: Finding the Way Down

So now it's time for the manned landing. Eagle 1 is going to land on one of the Kethane nodes that have been mapped. Since Alan and Wilhal will be able to extract Kethane and crack it to give them a full fuel load, I'm not as concerned with doing a "suicide burn" landing to conserve fuel as I was with Eagle 2. They can afford to loiter above the ground for a short time making sure they've got a good flat spot before committing to setting down. Plus - Eagle 1 has extra fuel in the Kethane cracking pod which I actually want to use up before I get down anyway. I want to be fairly light on touchdown. (I've noticed with Eagle 2 that if you're not perfectly level, that the landing gear pods get torqued a bit. I want to be on as level ground as I can possibly get for Eagle 1.)

There's just one little problem.

In planning this mission, I didn't equip any of the Eagles with their own native scansat map sensors. Oops. Correlating the Kethane node information from map mode with the terrain mapping that the V.I.N.CENT probes can't be done directly.

Why is this an issue? Because remember - I have the City Lights and Clouds mod. I can't directly SEE the surface. Eve's cloud cover only lets you get glimpses of the surface at odd angles. Not very useful for planning a landing.

So... what to do? Well, those probes are still in orbit. Eagle 1 can rendezvous and dock with one of them. That way I can directly access the scansat map while I'm still with the Eagle.

So let's see. Looks like V.I.N.CENT 3 is closest to orbital plane I'm on with Eagle 1. So it looks like that's the target.

Ah there you are.

Getting close now. Alan and Wilhel seem pleased.

Okay. Zeroed out the veliocity and parked next to the probe.

Wilhel instructs V.I.N.CENT 3 to reel in all it's solar panels and sensors. Don't want to damage anything if the docking goes awry. And also to orient itself with the docking port facing the Eagle in the right direction.

Just slide up underneath and...

Bingo! Right on target and smooth as silk. Alan's steady and cool as ice.

Now for some housekeeping. While the probe is attached, Wilhel re-deployed all the equipment and solar panels. Eagle 1 also unfurled it's own solar panels as well. Incidentally? This close to the sun, the power you get from solar panels is noticeably better. With all solar panels unfurled, Eagle 1 was able to crack all the remaining Kethane in the pod and fill up the fuel and oxidizer completely in the regular and pod tanks.

Next was re-orienting Eagle 1 to a flat equatorial plane.

By the way - I don't know how clear it is in this pic, but if you look at Eve near the horizon, you may notice that you CAN peek through the clouds at certain angles, as I mentioned above. You should be able to see a shoreline for one of the oceans.

Now it's time to figure out where to land.

Oh good. Conveniently enough, there's a Kethane node right on the equator. According to the map and kethane node data below, the far west hex, indicated in the picture, should be roughly dead center between two of Eve's large seas. And if the land there is between two seas, then I expect it to be pretty flat.

Here - if you look carefully, you can actually see the outline of the round sea through the clouds. But I couldn't spot the other sea.

I tried pointing the nose of the Eagle straight down and getting a zoomed in view from the cockpit pod. But nope, that didn't work. Still can't discern any land or sea through the clouds looking straight down.

Well, I'll just have to trust that my hunch is correct about the node and the flat terrain.

Time to let the probe go and get set up for landing.

Alan starts the burn to put Eagle 1's periapsis at 110 Km. He'll circulerize the orbit before retro-burning. So long V.I.N.CENT 3! Thanks for the assist!

The view out the front windows just above Eve's thick atmosphere.

Landing site marked on the map. I did use Mechjeb to set up the deceleration burn and get lined up. But after that I switched to manual control. I don't trust Mechjeb to do landings for me. Particularly when piloting the Eagle.

And here we go!

On final approach. And it IS flat! Awesome! OKay now - gently, gently. Plenty of fuel to burn, even in this gravity.

Okay - there's a LITTLE tilt to the land. But nothing serious.

And down and thrusters off!

It's almost dusk here, so we won't have time to drill for long with the solar panels out. But a test drill just to confirm Kethane is in order.

And confirmed! Not sure if this is visible in the pic at all. But we have a kethane bloom at the drill puncture. It's behaving a bit oddly though. Most of the time, you'll get a little cloud of Kethane mist hovering around the point of drilling. But here it's shooting straight up. More on this below.

Alan climbs down to set foot on Eve.

Alan: "Oof! Gravity is a harsh mistress!"

Definitely need a flag here. Need to be able to FIND this place again!

After transmitting a long range update to mission control, Alan and Wilhel bunk down for the night.

When the landing site comes into direct sunlight again, the solar panels are unfurled and the real mining can begin.

Remember I said the kethane plume was acting oddly? Well I pulled the camera waay back and... WOW...

It's almost as if the contents of the Kethane node are under higher pressure here than they have been anywhere else we've mined them. The plume doesn't just "waft" around the ship. It GEYSERS upward several hundred feet!

Wilhel decides to take a stroll and check out that big boulder they landed near.

Trudging back under the heavy gravity, Wilhel is tuckered out already by the time he gets back to the ship. It's tought to deal with this level of gravity after being in low or zero-g so much for the last few months.

The view looking out the front viewports. It is strikingly PURPLE.

Next: Eagle 3 lands and all the Kerbals on this mission get to experience heavy-g load! Oof!

[ZedNova]

I like your eagle addons you made, however it seems that the eagle uses the old SAS system. Kinda hard to fly it with that.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Check out the package of mods in my signature. It includes fixes for that stuff.

[ZedNova]

Check out the package of mods in my signature. It includes fixes for that stuff.

Oh, i should've read the Readme thoroughly, thanks!

[Logan.Darklighter]

Part 7: 6 Landed, 6 returned

Eagle 3 aerobrakes on the same trajectory as Eagle 1.

As it turns out, we overshot the landing site by over a kilometer.

Not to worry, that's correctable with some main thruster boosting.

On final approach, getting it lined up.

I should mention - precision flying with VTOL thrusters in a heavy-g environment this close to the ground leaves a lot less room for error. One bad slip-up and that's it! No time to correct for it. You HAVE to get it right the first time, every time!

Touchdown! Now that was a good bit of parallel parking if I do say so myself!

Alan and Wilhel step out to meet their fellow Kerbalnauts.

Naturally, Jeb is the first one out. (He's slightly miffed that he wasn't the first one to set foot on Eve, but that's the luck of the draw.)

Salutes all around. Cheers!

Everyone pose by the flag! All 3 Eagle crews.

Eagle 1:

Alan Carter Kerbal

Wilhel Kerbal

Eagle 2:

Jebediah Kerbal

Chadwick Kerbal

Eagle 3:

Bill Kerbal

Jorrick Kerbal

After the short ceremony and some science measurements and samples are taken and stored, everyone gets back in the Eagles except for Wilhel, who does the usual mission specialist chores of hooking up the fuel lines.

The big Kethane bloom as Eagle 1 drills and then cracks the Kethane into fuel to top off both Eagles reserves.

Fueling complete.

After stowing all the equipment and fuel lines, Wilhel gets back in the cockpit with Alan and they do their final checks. Then lift-off!

Eagle 1 is heavier than planned with about 2/3 a tank of Kethane from the refueling. But Wilhel has a plan to help with that.

What Wilhel does is restart the Kethane cracking unit while they are still boosting on the way up! This puts extra fuel in the main tanks while removing the dead weight of the estra Kethane as they go. Without the ability to use the solar panels through the atmosphere, there is a noticable drain on the reactors and batteries, but Wilhel calculates they've got more than enough power to finish cracking all the kethane not only before they circularize the orbit, but well before the power reserves get too low.

A great view of one of the two oceans that they landed between.

It isn't until you get to about 20,000 meters that your Apoapsis even begins to propagate away from your current position. Eve's gravity well is a tough *****!

Still refilling the fuel tanks as we go. Fuel levels looking very good. Power is still good.

Almost done with the extra Kethane. About to turn off the conversion unit. The power levels in the batteries will again rise after this.

Almost there...

Orbit achieved with fuel and power to spare. Just a quick circulerization burn and we're done.

And here's the only real glitch of the mission so far: When I switched back to Eagle 3, the dreaded "landing gear bug" occured. And it's MUCH more pronounced in heavy g. I reacted quickly enough to retract the gear. But I had to do each one of the outer gear bays one at a time. Because I was not about to hit the general gear switch. That would lower ALL the gear and crush the VTOL bells.

In short - I was able to save Eagle 3 from the warping bug. But in the process, the two B9 Spotlights I attached to the lower truss just behind the cockpit pod popped off. You see one there lying on the ground. The other one wound up on TOP of the Eagle somehow!

Oh well. If that's the worst that happens all through this mission, I'll call it a win and be thankful.

Lift-off of Eagle 3. You've seen this before, so I'm going to not spam the pics so much this time.

I should note - with 6 VTOL thruster units instead of the usual 4, Eagle 3 doesn't even have to use full throttle to get up.

As soon as my apoapsis was far enough out front, I cut the VTOLs in preparation for igniting the main rear engines. The spotlight that had been sitting on top of the truss at this point floated away to become debris that would de-orbit back to Eve.

Eagle 3 makes orbit as easily as the other two did.

Back over to Eagle 1. The plan from here is to go back to Gilly with Eagle 1 and land back on the Kethane node there. Eagle 3 and Eagle 2 will go back as well. Eagle 2's crew will reboard at Gilly and all 3 Eagles will be fully refueled for the trip back to Kerbin.

Okay. I admit it. I got bored and annoyed with Gilly's tiny gravity and insanely long landing times (you can't time-warp so close).

So I had a Jeremy Clarkson moment. "To hell with all this orbital nonsense and planning a landing trajectory. POWEEEEEEEER!!"

I didn't get a screenshot of it unfortunately, but at one point I was bombing the landing site at about 100+ Meters per second. Before sanity returned and I pulled up to apply the VTOL thrusters.

And here we are, mining the sweet green again, as Eagles 2 and 3 come to join us for the final leg of the journey home.

Is anyone interested in seeing that? Or can we take it as read that the mission is a success at this point?

Edited April 1, 2014 by Logan.Darklighter

[The Error]

Pretty much a success, but never a complete success 'til you get home

[CommanderJohnKoenig]

Logan, Great thread and mission. I posted before about this but, I had one of the big plastic Eagle One toys as a kid. The one that had figures and the whole deal. I've been looking for an Eagle mod from space 1999 and your post helped me find it. Thanks much for the info and mission post. Great job. Lets just hope the Space 1999 mod is kept up. I love it.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Nice! Used to have that as well! I think I still have a couple of the Dinky die-cast toys in storage somewhere.

[Logan.Darklighter]

Part 8: The Return Home - Or - Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

And now for the final part - getting everyone home safe.

So Eagle 1 is waiting on Gilly with a load of Kethane for refueling the other two Eagles. Eagle 2 is still being commanded remotely from Eagle 3. So Bill gets to work establishing comms with Eagle 2 to set up for a burn for Gilly and notices something amiss.

Bill: "Huh... that's odd..."

Jeb: "What's up?"

Bill: "Eagle 2 isn't station-keeping properly. I'm having trouble establishing a comm-lock. It's like she's tumbling.

Jorrick offers to help by boosting the comm signal and Bill gets some telemetry readings.

Bill: "Damn... Eagle 2 was tumbling. I've got her stabilized, but the auto-pilot can't maintain a lock on a heading or manuever node without a manual assist. Getting some weird command signals from the RCS controller. It's like the RCS controller and the Auto-pilot aren't talking to each other properly. I can control it manually to a degree to assist in maintaining a heading, but I'm worried that the problem may persist even when it's fully manned from the command pod.

Jeb mulls it over, then orders Bill to go ahead and set Eagle 2 up for a burn to Gilly and do what he can to steady it during the burn. They'll link up in Gilly orbit instead of risking a landing and Bill can go EVA aboard Eagle 2 to run a systems check from there.

Bill sets up the burn, and struggles with Eagle 2 to keep it straight. A course correction at the plane-change is needed and Eagle 2 still proves hard to control via remote.

Bill: "Ugh... Like fighting a big crosswind on landing! Steady... Steady!"

Jeb: "Just do your best."

Bill manages to get Eagle 2 on a trajectory to Gilly but fuel is not optimal as more monopropellent was wasted on manuevering manually than normal.

After Eagle 2 is confirmed on course for Gilly, it's Eagle 3's turn:

As Eagle 2 approaches Gilly, Bill prepares to fight with the auto-pilot and RCS again.

Bill: "Still... fighting me. C'mon, steady!"

Bill: "Damn. Overcooked the braking manuever. Gotta circulerize again."

After Bill confirms a circular orbit, he releases all controls including the auto-pilot and lets Eagle 2 drift -

Eagle 3 entering Gilly's SOI.

Jeb: "Whoops..."

Bill: "What do you mean, whoops?"

Jeb: "We wound up retrograde to Eagle 2. Going to have to burn opposite to get on the right track."

Jorrick: "Uhm... we're running kinda low on fuel for that."

Jeb: "Don't worry. Done this plenty of times. Besides, if all else fails we can use the RCS for manuevering and landing both here at Gilly."

After a significant burn, Jeb puts them on the right side of Gilly for rendezvous. But it's a close thing. Skimming less than 5000 meters from Gilly's surface.

The pass on the opposite side of Gilly from the landing site (just shows how tiny Gilly is - that's not directly below them - the marker is on the other side of Gilly from Eagle 3! )

Jeb sets Eagle 3 up for a plane change and then an orbital rendezvous - all with RCS thrusters as promised, leaving a little reserve in the main fuel tanks just in case.

On close approach, Eagle 2 appears out of the sun.

Jeb parks Eagle 1 next to Eagle 2

"Okay Bill, I guess it's time for you to jet on over and see what you can make of things."

"Roger that."

Bill boards Eagle 2 and after about half an hour of tests and short bursts with the RCS and some muttered cursing at the Kraken, radioes back to Jeb:

Bill: "Jeb? Something is seriously wrong with the gyros and the RCS controls. It's nothing physical. It seems to be a software glitch. And I can't track it down. The gyros keep re-setting to lowest power levels and the RCS just won't power up to full and connect properly to the auto-pilot or to the manual controls. This is not only a remote piloting issue. It's going to make even manual piloting dangerous."

Jeb: "That's not good. Got any suggestions?"

Bill: "Just one. We can try a computer re-set with a dump of the OS and a re-load of the software from Eagle 3. But we need to be physically linked up for that. I'll put Eagle 2 into position. Can you move Eagle 3 over and dock with the truss docking ports?"

Jeb: "I'm on it. Just hold what you've got and I'll do all the work."

Bill: "Roger that."

After a deft series of manuvers, Jeb gently docks Eagle 3 to Eagle 2 spine to spine.

After about another couple of hours or so attempting to re-set the systems and talking back and forth with the other mission specialists and a brief uplink to KSC Mission Control, Bill gives the bad news to everyone.

Bill: "It's not working. It may be that a circuit somewhere got fried by cosmic rays or even hit by a micrometeor in just the wrong place. But I can't get Eagle 2's systems to stabilize. In theory you COULD try and pilot it manually. But it would be difficult. And I sure wouldn't try landing it anywhere."

Jeb: "Damn. I hate to lose a bird after all the success we've had."

Bill: "Well it's not like we all won't get home. Plenty of room aboard #3 for that. And even on #1 in a pinch. Mission Control says to leave Eagle 2 in orbit after siphoning off whatever fuel we can. Maybe someday someone can come out and fix it. But for now, we leave it and come home."

Jeb: "Okay then. EVA back over and we'll release her."

(You might be wondering what happened in my real play-through. Well it was pretty much as written, without the in-universe techno-babble. Something glitched on Eagle 2 and It wouldn't stay stable. I don't know what it was. And it didn't affect the other two Eagles. It's a complete mystery to me.)

After Bill gets back aboard Eagle 3. Jeb releases Eagle 2 and there's one last surprise, it tumbles immediately on release and even scrapes slightly along Eagle 3's truss before tumbling away.

Jeb: "What the..." He boosts slightly with RCS to avoid any other tumbling hits.

Then he points Eagle 3 at Eagle 2 to watch it tumble away to make sure no debris is going to give them any more surprises. Bill gets up in the cockpit with him.

Jeb: "Well so long Eagle 2."

Bill: "Yeah, she sure did a good job. Maybe someday we can recover her. First Eagle on Eve after all. One for the history books."

After burning with RCS to de-orbit, Jeb smoothly heads down to the Kethane node, where Alan, Wilhal and Eagle 1 await to refuel them.

Alan: "Wilhal, stop messing around and refuel Eagle 3, please."

Wilhel: "Okay okay."

After fully refueling both Eagles, Wilhel gets all the equipment stowed. It's time to go home for real. Eagle 3 is first off:

With Eagle 1 close behind:

Alan cuts it a little close to the mountain as they move up to orbit. Less than 100 meters clearance. But he was moving slowly enough to correct if needed.

Eagle 3 with Eagle 1 close on her heels:

After circulerizing at around 200,000 meters, Alan and Jeb wait in orbit for a few days waiting for their window. Then they head out of Gilly's SOI and into orbit around Eve proper. Then from there out beyond Eve's SOI to solar orbit.

Just outside Eve's SOI.

Plane changes to get in line with Kerbin's orbit -

Last look at Eve -

From here, the Eagles do burns to get on course for the Kerbin system:

After a few weeks travel time, they get first glimpse of home out the front ports:

Eagle 1 is first in line and does some minor course corrections for periapsis aerobraking.

Bill: "Good to see some familiar territory again!"

Alan: "Can't argue with that view!"

Time to tuck the gear up for aero-braking:

Aerobraking in to bring down the apoapsis:

As it turns out, Alan overcooked the aerobrake just a bit and had to use the boosters to keep the apoapsis from dropping down too far:

No worries though - plenty of fuel for that!

Circularizing the orbit (KSC is still on the night side and I wanted to wait to land the Eagles until it passed into daylight)

Eagle 3 with Jeb piloting comes in on a similar course. Aiming for a little higher periapsis:

(Beauty shot)

And we undercooked the aerobrake enough on this one to have to retrofire to circularize. Ah well. Good to have fuel to burn for correct for screw-ups.

Eagle 3 is first to land and Jeb opts for the minimum entry heating profile. Using VTOL engines to keep his speed down through the atmosphere so as not to even encounter visible heating effects.

Using a powered descent as we came down a little short. Between KSC and the mountains. No worries, plenty of fuel.

And down!

Next it's Eagle 1's turn to de-orbit and come in. Alan decides to come in hot and drop straight down on the final approach.

Down and parked properly!

All six crew pose with the two remaining Eagles on top of the VAB Landing pads.

Eagle 1 spent the longest "On Mission" with 291 days.

Eagle 3 had 112 days on it's mission clock at the end.

And that's that! Mission successful! Proving that the Eagles - with some forethought and support - can get down and back up Eve's gravity well. We lost Eagle 2 to a mysterious glitch along the way but all the Kerbals made it back, so I'll call that one an unqualified success!

Thus wraps up the Flight of the Eagles to Eve and back!

[NecroBones]

Nice landing at the end! That's a great way to wrap up a mission.