Eve landing site - kethane + mountains?

[mellojoe]

I've currently got 4 rovers on Eve looking for a spot that has both Kethane for mining as well as a tall mountain in order to put a return vehicle. I'm spending hours driving all over this planet, but I'm not finding anything. Am I missing a site? I did not have mapsat, so I don't have a topography map handy. Anyone know of a site that has both kethane plus suitable elevation?

Thanks!!

[Mr.Rocket]

kethane generates randomly for every file so i can't help you on that, but for elevation, heres a nice website: http://www.kerbalmaps.com/

[mellojoe]

Thanks!

Actually, I looked at my Delta-V from a fully fueled lander, and I have over 10,400 delta-V availible, which means I only need a small hill. As long as I am 2km or so above sea level I should be ok. SHOULD. Hopefully. Maybe.

[magnemoe]

Problem is that landing on Eve is trivial even with an heavy craft, reaching orbit with anything more than a kerbal on a seat is hard.

The Ketane turbine will help you a lot, however you can benefit a lot of mining on Gilly, even Minmus before dropping into the deep hole.

[Captain Sierra]

Hold on, let me get this straight. You are mining, so you'll undoubtedly want to get some of your profit back to orbit. Now, a good mining operation uses an SSTO refuelable tanker to make the trip over and over.

You want to build a tanker that can carry PAYLOAD . . . on the hellhole we call Eve . . .

Are you out of your mind!?

An SSTO on Eve is about the closest thing to impossible the stock game has, and you want to do that with payload?

You are either daring, or just plain insane. Not even Whackjob dares to attempt such a feat. I bid you whatever luck has the courage to follow you to the surface of Eve sir.

[mellojoe]

Its not about bringing fuel from Eve to orbit. I've got mining stations in Minmus.

Its really just about actually doing it. Landing on Eve, then returning. Never done it before. Landed some guys, stranded some guys, but never actually brought one home. This time I'm doing it. With an enclosed command pod, too. Not just a seat. I hope.

[mellojoe]

Landed!!!

Used nearly all the fuel in my return craft just to de-orbit and land on Eve. Then I had to drive it about 2.2km slowly across the surface of Eve to meet up with the Kethane mining rig.

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Edited February 19, 2014 by mellojoe

[Pds314]

Hold on, let me get this straight. You are mining, so you'll undoubtedly want to get some of your profit back to orbit. Now, a good mining operation uses an SSTO refuelable tanker to make the trip over and over.

You want to build a tanker that can carry PAYLOAD . . . on the hellhole we call Eve . . .

Are you out of your mind!?

An SSTO on Eve is about the closest thing to impossible the stock game has, and you want to do that with payload?

You are either daring, or just plain insane. Not even Whackjob dares to attempt such a feat. I bid you whatever luck has the courage to follow you to the surface of Eve sir.

With a conventional rocket and one set of engines, it IS impossible. Consider the fact that an Aerospike engine gets 390 Isp, provides 175 kN, and weighs 1.5 tonnes, that means in order to get an Eve TWR of 1.0, you need an Aerospike for every 9 tonnes of fuel tanks. This leaves a maximum delta-V of 5.5 km/s, 8.0 are required for escape.

What about using ions or nukes? Well, I have a hard time imagining that your gonna get either into space where it becomes useful as a conventional rocket, and even so, you won't be in space long enough for it to do a burn unless you burn even more from your lifter engines.

What about a plane?

With jets: no O2, no thrust.

With RAPIERS: This isn't saving you anything.

With high-thrust rockets of some sort: you now need to go through more atmosphere, sure, you may have more delta-v, up to 8.4 km/s or so, but you will need even more because of the atmosphere you have to push through.

With nukes: takeoff is nearly impossible and highly inefficient, no fuel left to burn efficiently.

With ions: this might work. The trouble is getting a plane with an Eve-TWR probably in the neighborhood of 0.05-0.1 to fly with stock aerodynamics.

With SAS-powered or wheel-powered flight (heliopters, true ornithopters): plausible if and only if you can get a high enough fuel fraction up high enough to burn to orbit with the lifter stuck to it.

With Infiniglide: Easy. You'll do it by accident.

With a K-drive: you must find a way to reach 750 m/s orbital speed first, doable. That or you can let it creep up to a suitable altitude and then use normal rockets, or drop it and let it fall to at least 750 m/s before activating propulsion mode.

With a Kerbal on a ladder that propels a plane: ... And lots of patience, yes, it is definitely doable, however payload is limited to a few hundred kg at most and actually reaching orbit could take several hours. On the plus side, you spend literally no energy getting there.