Eve sea level trip, single launch (37 pics)

[gabba]

Here's my single launch trip to Eve sea level and back. I made it, just!

On the launch pad, we have the following:

311 parts, 931 tonne in total

94 tonne lander and descent stage, 82 tonnes will leave the surface

50 tonne nuclear transfer stage

787 tonne LKO heavy lifter

Ditching the second lifter stage high over Kerbin

75 x 71 orbit attained with 585 m/s left to start the transfer burn

We are going for an ejection and mid course plane change to make sure we get a reasonably equatorial entry to Eve's SOI, setting up both manoeuvre nodes in LKO

Fine tuning for a 63k periapsis from 150 days out

Aerobraking at Eve

194 x 43 orbit after aerobraking at 5.5 degrees inclination, pretty good we will circularize at 100 and correct the inclination

EVA'd to the lander and detached it, Jeb had to get out and push the transfer stage and this strut away, could do with some work this part.

There is already a SCAN sat in orbit. We are going to aim for the SW corner of the circular lake, it looks low and flat with some interesting scenery.

Setting up our descent burn, as soon as you hit the thick atmosphere you will lose most of your horizontal speed so aim well ahead. We arrive just in time for dawn.

Coming in hot!

Landing site is looking good, descent stage ditched and chutes deployed. We could fire up the ascent engines and abort if things didn't look good.

Good morning Eve

Touchdown at 150m Jeb has negotiated the ladders, Bill close behind

There is a lake not too far away, lets take a walk at 4x speed

What a view, Kerbin has risen just above the horizon

Grabbing the ocean sample

Jeb and the landing site from orbit (transfer stage and Kerbin also in shot)

Nearly back

Pulling up the ladders

Blast off, leaving the parachutes and landing legs behind

Last aerospike stage

Bill and Jeb feeling rather exposed

At this point, I needed my first reload, and my second, third, fourth etc.... I am realising two things:

i) This is a tricky ascent to get perfect. The last stage is a ***** to fly and you need to make a sharp but smooth turn starting at 40-45k as the atmosphere thins. This, the staging and feathering the throttle all need to be optimal if you want to escape!

ii) I just don't think I have crammed enough dV in this jalopey. I have miscalculated the mass of Bill and Jeb and am probably less than 100 short

About 5th attempt I nail the ascent and get a 100 x 12 orbit. Our intrepid Kerbonauts are left contemplating a sticky situation

Don't think I will do any better, it's EVA time!

Bill waiting his turn, just about hit Apoapsis

I foolishly changed to the pilotless lander, I can't change back so lets watch it burn!

Boom!

Both in orbit now, Bill is almost a perfect 100x100, Jeb got a bit giddy and is more elliptical

At this point I realised a MAJOR design flaw. There is no probe core on the transfer stage so it will have to be an EVA rendezvous. Ouch

Jeb doing a normal burn

0.3km closest approach, surely good enough

Amazingly difficult to see even from 300m, but here she is (just SE of Jeb)

Rendezvous with Bill

Phew, fire it up and lets get back to Kerbin

Penty of dV left but we ditch the last two transfer stages and head for a splash down

Most of this mission seems to have been done in the dark

The all important ocean and surface samples back in the lab

[Naten]

Woah, good job! That's a fair amount of Science to go crazy with, you deserved more than 1378 science IMO...

[Rocko]

Wow How on earth did you return to orbit from Eve (sea level) with such a small rocket? I used 48 boosters (similar to yours, 4,5t FL tank + aerospike, jettisoned in six groups of eight in quasi-asparagus style), to lift a small probe, and even then I rendezvoused with my return ship only after accelerating using RCS of the final probe stage that was meant for fine docking maneuvers. And I landed at some 2000 m altitude, not sea level.

I'm building a manned return vehicle, and currently my Eve ascent rocked weighs in at some 700 t. Add to it some 500 t interplanetary tug to usher the contraption into Eve orbit... 1 200 t payload launched to Kerbin escape. Luckily, that at least is not a problem I will probably have to send another IP stage for return though, I don't expect the initial tug will have it in her to return to Kerbin.

[gabba]

Woah, good job! That's a fair amount of Science to go crazy with, you deserved more than 1378 science IMO...

Thanks, I had completed the tech tree already so wasn't too fussed about science, just wanted the ocean sample really. This was my last return mission in stock career mode after Mun, Minmus, Laythe and Eloo. I've restarted now with FAR, Deadly Reentry, TAC, Remote Tech etc... so feeling like a total noob again!

Wow How on earth did you return to orbit from Eve (sea level) with such a small rocket? I used 48 boosters (similar to yours, 4,5t FL tank + aerospike, jettisoned in six groups of eight in quasi-asparagus style), to lift a small probe, and even then I rendezvoused with my return ship only after accelerating using RCS of the final probe stage that was meant for fine docking maneuvers. And I landed at some 2000 m altitude, not sea level.

I'm building a manned return vehicle, and currently my Eve ascent rocked weighs in at some 700 t. Add to it some 500 t interplanetary tug to usher the contraption into Eve orbit... 1 200 t payload launched to Kerbin escape. Luckily, that at least is not a problem I will probably have to send another IP stage for return though, I don't expect the initial tug will have it in her to return to Kerbin.

It's all about the top stage really, every kilo you shave off that makes a huge difference. Honestly if you take a crew can rather than the chairs it needs a much bigger rocket. Also I imagine jettisoning everything in twos rather than eights makes a reasonable difference, TWR on this thing is about the minimum needed all the way through, basically full throttle minus a couple of notches at points just to keep it below terminal velocity. There is no RCS or SAS on the last stage, it relies on the gimballing of the 48-7S so as soon as it ran out I started tumbling and it is ridiculously twitchy even before then. The lander stages are:

Stage 7: 2 x FL-800 2 x Aerospike

Stage 6: 2 x FL-800 2 x Aerospike

Stage 5: 2 x FL-800 2 x Aerospike

Stage 4: 2 x FL-800 no engines

Stage 3: 2 x FL-800 2 x Aerospike

Stage 2: 2 x FL-800 2 x Aerospike

Stage 1: 2 x FL-800 2 x Aerospike + Inline Advanced Stabiliser

Stage 0: 1 x FL-200 1 x 48-7s + 2 command chairs + 2 Kerbals

With TR-2V stack decoupler (tiny ones) used throughout. That's it for parts with mass I think. Stage 0 should have had an extra FL-200 for a fair bit extra dV. I was only going to take one kerbal originally so it was built with that in mind but I got fed up trying to balance the top stage with only the one command chair.

[colin_in_space]

Great pics, nice mission. I am trying to land on eve not only with a can but also science containers! I bet even if I manage to land on a mountain I might never get back into orbit. I guess we will have to wait and see!!!!

[Oafman]

I really liked the parachutes on detachable tricouplers