Eve - with DRE

[technion]

Hey guys,

Before I seriously embark on this - is it even possible?

I've done several Eve ascents before and I'm familiar with what's required. I've now been playing for Deadly Reentry for a bit and I'm familiar with landing a small probe on Eve. However, the two goals seem counteractive, anything big enough to make the ascent, is going to going to take something like 100T of shielding to bring down, which is going to make the aerobrake less and less gentle, which is going to be a circular problem to solve.

I've contemplated an idea of building a massive shield out of several 3.5M shields, but it will take all day and I don't want to start unless I know it'll work.

[Mr.Rocket]

Just an idea. Try getting into a low orbit, just above the atmosphere. Then lower your periapsis to about 10 km below the atmosphere. Even that 10 km will slow you down, lowering your Ap, which in turn will lower your Pe, and so on. You'll never experience extreme deceleration (i think). Hope this is usefull and good luck

[MaverickSawyer]

I have been tinkering with the older Icarus shields... They should now be DRE compatible.

Here, try them out: http://download2047./5a8lc9a4yxng/c90at23js8otvvg/GoblinEnterprises.zip

I'd suggest the 16.5 meter shield for a start. You'll need to dock it to the ship, though, as it's pretty dang hard to keep it attached during a launch, even with Kerbal Joint Reinforcement.

[Kasuha]

Just an idea. Try getting into a low orbit, just above the atmosphere. Then lower your periapsis to about 10 km below the atmosphere. Even that 10 km will slow you down, lowering your Ap, which in turn will lower your Pe, and so on. You'll never experience extreme deceleration (i think). Hope this is usefull and good luck

This is possible on Kerbin but I am not sure at all it can be done on Eve. At the time when your periapsis drops below reasonable atmospheric height you still have about 3 km/s to bleed and there's nothing that will hold your altitude (except perhaps your engines).

Last time I was landing on Eve I had reentry effects all the way down to 20 km altitude.

So I think it is still about bringing enough shields and perhaps some dv to burn retrograde to make the entry less fierce.

Edited March 20, 2014 by Kasuha

[Hodo]

My last attempt to land on Eve was with a probe, using RT2+DRE+FAR. After the 1000 attempts to program the probe autopilot correctly I found the best decent profile is a VERY shallow one. Get your AP down to around 110km orbit, then bring your PE down to 60-70km orbit. This will be a VERY shallow re-entry profile, but you will slow down a GREAT deal before you get to the lower atmosphere where it gets really thick. As soon as you get below the fireball stage deploy a drogue chute to slow down for main chute.

[Kasuha]

FAR makes the atmosphere less thick so it IMO makes the thing easier. At 60 km periapsis without FAR you're already one big fireball.

[Jasmir]

Starting from a 125km Orbit, a periapsis of 55km makes it for me. (With FAR and DRE)

For huge landing payloads, you can use the inflatable heatshield as some kind of drouge-chute.

[Lukaszenko]

I've done it, but with FAR also. I used the large inflatable shield, but I saw nothing stopping me from using the other shields. At least weight wasn't as much a concern as making it all fit without part clipping.

I should also note that I used the reinforced joints mod, but it was not for structural reasons, but more for computer performance and part count. The above design is pretty much the same as the original design I had, minus x00s of struts.

[Hodo]

FAR makes the atmosphere less thick so it IMO makes the thing easier. At 60 km periapsis without FAR you're already one big fireball.

FAR doesn't change the thickness of the atmosphere, it changes how the atmosphere interacts with craft and their parts.

[technion]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Looks like this'll be the next thing on the horizon.

[The Silent Majority]

FAR doesn't change the thickness of the atmosphere, it changes how the atmosphere interacts with craft and their parts.

This is incorrect, at least on Kerbin.

I would not be surprised if it also re-balanced Eve. (I don't play with it, however so I may be wrong, though I have looked at the mod quite a bit)