Manned return to Eve with Deadly Re-entry

[Fingal]

I've set myself this challenge, and despite trying a number of designs, I can't get anything through the atmosphere with the required Delta-V even for an unmanned ship. Has anyone actually managed this?

[KerbMav]

Hm - enter more shallow and high up in the atmosphere, let the ship slow down as much as possible (very low orbit) and use drogue chutes really early?

[mckamx]

I've set myself this challenge, and despite trying a number of designs, I can't get anything through the atmosphere with the required Delta-V even for an unmanned ship. Has anyone actually managed this?

I've done it (in 0.23.5), but it is VERY challenging. In my case, my first attempt left Jeb stranded on Eve. About 30 years, and 6 generations of vehicles later, I managed to get Jeb home again. Things I learned:

1. Getting down to Eve surface w/Deadly Reentry is nearly as difficult as getting back to orbit.

2. Heatshields are your friends - use them liberally, but make sure you can jettison them before re-assent because you can't afford the mass going back up

3. You need parachutes going down, but not going back up. I used sepratrons to jettison the lander can/parachute module after landing

4. Running out of electricity going down is BAD - you loose attitude control, so your heat shields point in the wrong direction. Make sure you have enough batteries.

5. Include RCS on the lander, because you may need RCS to keep it from falling over immediately after touchdown. Jettison RSC after landing.

6. For ascent, you need ~12000 dV to make it to orbit. To keep drag from slowing you too much, you need the TMR to be >= 1.7 until you get into the upper atmosphere

7. Struts are good. Without struts, things fall apart in heavy gravity.

I am currently working on a lander in 0.24.2, where I hope to get some mystery goo home.