3 Men went to Eve. (Very Pic Heavy!)

[Redshift OTF]

So I decided to re-visit Eve with the new SLS parts to see if I could make something more efficient than I had done in the past. This time, however, I wanted a real challenge:

• I wanted to take 3 Kerbals instead of just 1
  
• I wanted the Kerbals to travel in style. Capsules only, no seats allowed
  
• The lander had to land and reach orbit from near sea level altitudes
  
• I wanted to take a decent rover with me
  
• I wanted the entire ship to be launched from Kerbin in one go. No orbital re-fuelling or assembly
  
• I wanted something that wasn't too complicated, something that only experienced reasonable physics slowdown, not 1 frame a minute
  
• I didn't want to use loads of LV-N's to get the lander to Eve. Long burns are boring. The return trip is fine as weight is not a problem
  
• No rescue ships allowed. The Kerbals had to get back with whatever they left Kerbin with
  
• It had to be all stock apart from MechJeb
  

So this is what I came up with:

The Lander Stage. I used the 3 x Mk1 lander cans as this is the lightest way to take 3 Kerbals without resorting to seats. This design also allows me to place the capsules centrally allowing easy ladder access while the lander cans also have rungs on them making it even easier.

The transfer stage. Uses 1 x KR-2L to get the lander to Eve and de-orbit it.

The return stage. This is left in orbit around Eve and docks with the remnants of the lander to take the Kerbals home.

A decent rover slapped on the side of the ship.

I would show you the Lifter but most of it is under the floor of the VAB! It is basically The Peacemaker lifter with no modifications. It is lifting a load of 1065 tons which is slightly over it's rated limit but it made it to orbit with a negligible amount of fuel left over.

Total weight on pad = 7595.3 tons

Part count = 1080

And now for the Mission pics. I recalled Kerbals finest for this special mission, Bill, Bob & Jeb!

Taking off! She's pretty sturdy with barely any wobble at launch and none later on.

"Go easy on those engines Jeb!"

First stage drops before gravity turn.

Gravity turn.

Second stage drops during orbital injection burn.

Final burn from lifter.

Dumping lifter engines.

The transfer stage burning for Eve.

Aerobraking around Eve.

The return stage is left in orbit.

The transfer stage was used to de-orbit the lander and then jettisoned.

Information shot. Jeb looks happy. Bob looks sick.

Parachutes semi-deploy. Yes, the entire 427 ton lander is going to land on 8 wheels at 12 m/s. I cannot spare any fuel to assist the landing. You'll see why later...

Parachutes fully deployed. Deploy height is slightly staggered to cushion the force.

Bang! Touchdown is hard but nothing breaks.

Ladder system is deployed.

Rover is decoupled.

Jeb is the first one out as usual.

Obligatory crew shot.

I bet Top Gear never did this challenge.

Pre-launch information shot.

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Lift off! I put all the staging as an album here. Some stages exploded as they were hit by engine wash but no damage was done.

Yes, that is 3 m/s of DeltaV left! No margin for error at all.

Return stage docks with the capsules.

The return to Kerbin.

Almost there...

The lads pose for the world media. 3 Kerbals made it back from Eve? That's incredible.

The margins on this mission were extremely tight. The lifter only just got into orbit. The transfer stage only just got to Eve and de-orbited the lander. The lander almost needed Jeb to get out and push! The return stage only had 500 DeltaV when I jettisoned it. But then getting 3 Kerbals to Eve and back in capsules is not supposed to be easy.

Sorry for the length of this post. I had to cut a lot of pictures out otherwise it would have been too long. I'll probably post the craft file tomorrow if any other brave souls are willing to re-live this adventure. While this mission was not easy by any stretch of the imagination I couldn't have done it without SLS parts so perhaps that adds to the debate on whether 0.23.5 has made things too easy. Personally I like the fact I don't have to make 5000 part monsters to do stuff like this.

[LethalDose]

/Applause.

Most impressive, sir. I especially like the tanks-above-the-pods style for your ascent vehicle. Made me think of a chariot. Chariots of FIRE!!!

[Redshift OTF]

/Applause.

Most impressive, sir. I especially like the tanks-above-the-pods style for your ascent vehicle. Made me think of a chariot. Chariots of FIRE!!!

Thank you! I quite like the lander design as it has a lot of advantages over other types especially the sky-crane style of the final stages.

[theend3r]

+rep This is incredible. Congratulations! Btw your lifter is incredible too, I use it sometimes as I dont have the time to build and debug a kiloton lifter right now

[manatee321]

Awesome mission, that launcher is so large to get off of kerbin!, nice use of part clipping too (it opens an entire new realm of the game)

[Redshift OTF]

Here's the entire mission album. I didn't want to hot link it as there would be too many pics especially for mobile users.

[Voculus]

Now that's cool! I've never attempted to return from Eve, but now I want to.

[godemperorzack]

Oh yes, this is very nice! I love the huge eve missions! What in interesting launcher design, with the engines so high up! Kudos on the 3 man landing, as even getting 1 man up in a capsule takes a lot of work.

[timsfitz]

Wow. I was proud of getting 1 guy back from eve. Excellent design.

[Sirine]

Congratulation on your Eve successful mission.

Now, Do it without MechJeb.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/60331-Eve-Misison-Report-Live-update-with-persistent-file-along-the-way

[Red Iron Crown]

Very impressive! How many engines are used in the LKO booster?

[r4pt0r]

Congratulation on your Eve successful mission.

Now, Do it without MechJeb.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/60331-Eve-Misison-Report-Live-update-with-persistent-file-along-the-way

and how about without part cliping like that. asthetics fine, but that all those engines/fuel cannot occupy that volume of space. nice making it to eve and back, but as i see it, you didnt "really" make it to eve and back.

[Jodo42]

Regardless of the clipping and Mechjeb, this is still rather impressive. Bravo.

Now, if you had done something like this without Mechjeb or clipping, that would be even more amazing. But considering I haven't even attempted an Eve return yet, I think I'm not really in a position to judge or criticize too much.

[Xavven]

Well done, sir!

And I have to disagree with the critics. The OP returned 3 Kerbals instead of 1, and used landing cans instead of command seats. Clearly the OP could easily do an Eve return with no clipping or mechjeb.

[LtHeckard]

That was an astonishingly good job. It's very difficult going to Eve and back.

[Vanamonde]

This report of a mission has been moved to Mission Reports.

[Redshift OTF]

Very impressive! How many engines are used in the LKO booster?

54 engines.

and how about without part cliping like that. asthetics fine, but that all those engines/fuel cannot occupy that volume of space. nice making it to eve and back, but as i see it, you didnt "really" make it to eve and back.

Lol, a tough audience! I only used that lifter out of convenience as it was a sub-assembly I had already made. I don't think making a kilo-ton lifter without clipping would be difficult, it would just be less efficient, use more parts and slow the physics engine down more. I could probably modify the lander as well as I used clipping for the base engines, (only used 3 engines though), and it would be more efficient but it would complicate the landing a bit. I use MechJeb more for convenience but I understand the concerns that the lander wouldn't reach orbit without it given the zero tollerance for error. Still, if I had landed at 1000 m instead there would have been a better margin of error.

Btw, no fuel tanks were clipped together.

Edited April 29, 2014 by Redshift OTF

[Redshift OTF]

Here's the craft file, without MechJeb, if anyone wants to study it.

[-RanZ-]

Very nice, not a fan of part clipping but good mission

[gilflo]

Excellent job!

How many parachutes did you use to land such a weight without using fuel?

[Redshift OTF]

I think 40 parachutes where used. Perhaps I should have used a parachute ejection system to shed their weight on launch but the lander base was so heavy that anything I added to the bottom only made an insignificant change to the total DeltaV. It's only the top half that needed weight savings.