Anyone else finally able to make to to Eve and back in 23.5?

[MarvinKitFox]

godemperorzack, your images remind me of something... hmm, maybe this?

9Especially the landing-on-EVE scene, under a cloud of parachutes)

[magnemoe]

My Kerbals treat space exploration in very much the same way the Japanese kamikaze pilots treat warfare. Dying in a gigantic explosion is an honorable way to perish, and will surely earn them a high standing in the afterlife. There were 18 Kerbals aboard this ship when this happened. The first 5 attempts also ended in disaster, but they were SO sure it'd be okay this time.

http://i.imgur.com/VwvqI0T.png

LOL so an launch fail with one of whackjobs launches is an honorable however with an small rover is not something you want on your tombstone.

[EdFred]

I have not seen anyone using the new engines to leave Eve - does that mean they are no good for this due to weight and ISP?

I actually accomplished that this weekend, after much failure prior to 23.5. It took lots of docking, and refueling, and dragging tanks to Eve but it's doable. I used the new KR1x2 rockets as my first stage - 8 of them, so 16 engines burning. Bonus with those engines: No need for landing gear, they withstand 20m/s impact. The craft file is on my home computer, but I went horizontal rather than vertical with my design. I onion staged 8 of the KR1x2 units, followed by 8 Skippers, followed by 4 (or maybe it was 8) LV-30s on the 800 tanks, followed by 4 aero spikes, then a single aerospike, then the final stage was a 90 unit fuel tank with the 2 radial Rockomax engines lifting Jeb in a 1 man lander can.

I launched into Kerbal orbit on Saturday night, by lifting all of that with 12 or 16 of the new Quad pack rockets. I had the Clampotron Srs decoupled to the bottom of the Skipper engines, and then spent Sunday attaching 8 of the the 3240 unit fuel tanks to those. After doing my ejection burn, I redistributed fuel, and jettisoned the empty 3240 tanks. Upon reaching Eve, I left a fuel tank (with probe core, small docking port, battery, solar panels and rcs) in 105x105 orbit. I did a short de-orbit burn, and left the landing location to chance. (After a quicksave of course). After 3 splashdowns in the ocean, I finally landed safely at a whopping 92meters at a shade over 6m/s. Kerbal Engineer said I had just under 12,000dV remaining.

I dragged along a Science Jr with Goo and sensors attached and after dropping that to the surface after landing Jeb collected the data and made it back to Eve orbit with about 500dV remaining which was plenty to rendezvous with the fuel tank, top off (about 2000dV after topping off), and get back to Kerbin. Oh yeah, to save weight, no chutes on the lander can, so it was a powered landing on Kerbin.

I can post the craft file later if anyone is interested.

Oh, I noticed that MechJeb does not work very well with the new engines. All the burns are way off compared to the Rockomax and smaller rockets.

[NecroBones]

Oh, I noticed that MechJeb does not work very well with the new engines. All the burns are way off compared to the Rockomax and smaller rockets.

I also noticed that if you use MJ to launch back up from Eve, it wants to start the gravity turn as if you're on Kerbin. It seems to me that you want to run your vertical ascent a bit longer on Eve, due to the much thicker atmosphere. I started the launch with MJ on my recent Eve mission, but quickly turned it off and went manual when I wasn't happy with what it was doing.

[Red Iron Crown]

I also noticed that if you use MJ to launch back up from Eve, it wants to start the gravity turn as if you're on Kerbin. It seems to me that you want to run your vertical ascent a bit longer on Eve, due to the much thicker atmosphere. I started the launch with MJ on my recent Eve mission, but quickly turned it off and went manual when I wasn't happy with what it was doing.

I found the same, you have to edit the ascent path to start the turn at ~30km and finish it at ~95-100km.

[EdFred]

I also noticed that if you use MJ to launch back up from Eve, it wants to start the gravity turn as if you're on Kerbin. It seems to me that you want to run your vertical ascent a bit longer on Eve, due to the much thicker atmosphere. I started the launch with MJ on my recent Eve mission, but quickly turned it off and went manual when I wasn't happy with what it was doing.

I found the same, you have to edit the ascent path to start the turn at ~30km and finish it at ~95-100km.

That is exactly what I did. 30km/100km with a 70% flight curve. I learned that lesson on previous failures.

[Epthelyn]

I'm working on it

Well, I hope I am; I never attempted Eve-and-back prior to 0.23.5 so it's all new and exciting.

Lander is almost finished, the Kerbin to Eve transfer stage has more than enough dV (3.2km/s, burn time of just over 30 minutes) and the launcher for it can get it all into orbit.

Yup, that's 1000 tons to orbit

Lander has ~10.9km/s dV in-atmosphere, so enough to leave Eve but not from sea level; I don't need to worry too much about finding a mountain. Getting back to Kerbin again will be a little tight, but I can easily rescue a Kerbal from Eve when it's free of the atmosphere.

[godemperorzack]

I actually accomplished that this weekend, after much failure prior to 23.5. It took lots of docking, and refueling, and dragging tanks to Eve but it's doable. I used the new KR1x2 rockets as my first stage - 8 of them, so 16 engines burning. Bonus with those engines: No need for landing gear, they withstand 20m/s impact. The craft file is on my home computer, but I went horizontal rather than vertical with my design. I onion staged 8 of the KR1x2 units, followed by 8 Skippers, followed by 4 (or maybe it was 8) LV-30s on the 800 tanks, followed by 4 aero spikes, then a single aerospike, then the final stage was a 90 unit fuel tank with the 2 radial Rockomax engines lifting Jeb in a 1 man lander can.

I launched into Kerbal orbit on Saturday night, by lifting all of that with 12 or 16 of the new Quad pack rockets. I had the Clampotron Srs decoupled to the bottom of the Skipper engines, and then spent Sunday attaching 8 of the the 3240 unit fuel tanks to those. After doing my ejection burn, I redistributed fuel, and jettisoned the empty 3240 tanks. Upon reaching Eve, I left a fuel tank (with probe core, small docking port, battery, solar panels and rcs) in 105x105 orbit. I did a short de-orbit burn, and left the landing location to chance. (After a quicksave of course). After 3 splashdowns in the ocean, I finally landed safely at a whopping 92meters at a shade over 6m/s. Kerbal Engineer said I had just under 12,000dV remaining.

I dragged along a Science Jr with Goo and sensors attached and after dropping that to the surface after landing Jeb collected the data and made it back to Eve orbit with about 500dV remaining which was plenty to rendezvous with the fuel tank, top off (about 2000dV after topping off), and get back to Kerbin. Oh yeah, to save weight, no chutes on the lander can, so it was a powered landing on Kerbin.

I can post the craft file later if anyone is interested.

Oh, I noticed that MechJeb does not work very well with the new engines. All the burns are way off compared to the Rockomax and smaller rockets.

That sounds like a sweet lander, I'd like to see some pics. I'm horrible at actually landing at predetermined sites. Usually I have to reload multiple times. With my mission, I didn't even have the delta-v to use the lander's engines for the deorbit burn. I just burned the transfer stage at apoapsis to get the lander suborbital, detached the lander, then burned the transfer stage back to orbit. I had to play with the parachute timings just to not land in the water. I really wish the map could take atmospheric effects into account when showing the estimated landing location. It would make things a bit easier for a "decouple and pray" player like me.

I'm working on it

Well, I hope I am; I never attempted Eve-and-back prior to 0.23.5 so it's all new and exciting.

Lander is almost finished, the Kerbin to Eve transfer stage has more than enough dV (3.2km/s, burn time of just over 30 minutes) and the launcher for it can get it all into orbit.

Yup, that's 1000 tons to orbit

Lander has ~10.9km/s dV in-atmosphere, so enough to leave Eve but not from sea level; I don't need to worry too much about finding a mountain. Getting back to Kerbin again will be a little tight, but I can easily rescue a Kerbal from Eve when it's free of the atmosphere.

That's a nice, huge design right there! Shouldn't have any problems taking off anywhere on Eve's surface. I think Kerbal engineer calculated around the same for my lander design. Since your using the new engines, have you had any problems with "missing oxidizer?" I'm beginning to think it has something to do with the new parts.

[EdFred]

That sounds like a sweet lander, I'd like to see some pics. I'm horrible at actually landing at predetermined sites. Usually I have to reload multiple times. With my mission, I didn't even have the delta-v to use the lander's engines for the deorbit burn. I just burned the transfer stage at apoapsis to get the lander suborbital, detached the lander, then burned the transfer stage back to orbit. I had to play with the parachute timings just to not land in the water. I really wish the map could take atmospheric effects into account when showing the estimated landing location. It would make things a bit easier for a "decouple and pray" player like me.

My first couple attempts - which resulted in splashdown - I did the deorbit burn before detaching the final tank, but I used so little, I figured I had a safety factor, and also because I got tired of topping off only 20 units of fuel in 8 tanks. I also went with the random landing spot, which is why I ended up at 92m - and still almost in the drink.

Here's a directory of the screen shots of the lander, with and without the lifter, as well as my refueler. They were taken post-mission.

http://webpages.charter.net/edfred/EveTwo/

The 00010.jpg shows the stats for Eve.

Edited April 15, 2014 by EdFred