The Eve Rocks Challenge (v0.90 only)

[Mister Dilsby]

Thanks Starhawk for stepping up. I hope I was not too bold in making a list of missions pending review. The last two to be awarded were Zoom and Norup, leaving:

sephirotic-- 20 March REVIEWED

lou-- 24 March REVIEWED

tiaga-- 03 April REVIEWED

perry apsis-- 06 April REVIEWED

kuzzter-- 13 April REVIEWED

Please let me know if I missed anyone and I'll edit the post.

...and ETA, I am spending so much time reviewing a completely silly ROUND-8 challenge, scanning for illegal use of non-toroidal tankage and handing out unique category titles to each entrant, that I understand even more how damn hard running a REAL challenge like this is.

Edited April 20, 2015 by Kuzzter

[Norcalplanner]

Let's go with oldest first. I'll take a look at sephirotic's entry tonight. If anyone else is already looking at that one, please post to that effect and I'll move on to Lou's entry.

[Starhawk]

OK. I'll look at Lou's entry tonight unless I read anything different here.

Happy landings!

[Mister Dilsby]

Not as a reviewer (yet?) but as an interested party on the thread, I looked at Sephirotic's videos. No reason to believe anything was not 100% genuine but I do wish we'd seen the resource window or KER readout both after Eve de-orbit and right before ascent. Also note that he's runnign v21! I didn't fully realize this myself until I was looking in the KER window on circularization and saw that his little Rockomax motor was only making 20kN.

Qualitative comments--I liked the orbital assembly very much, it's much more (here's that word again) elegant IMO to build a "hat rack" style ship in orbit than to abuse the drag model by launching everything in one go with huge ring of Kerbodynes. Also props for carrying monopropellant to do all the maneuvers, rather than abuse gyros the way we v0.90 players tend to do!

[Norcalplanner]

Congratulations, sephirotic! You have completed the Eve Rocks challenge with a level 1 entry!

Thanks for making the three videos documenting your journey. There were a few minor niggles (such as no confirmation that you actually scored some dirt from Eve and brought it back to Kerbin) but overall, you definitely met the spirit of the challenge. Well done for doing this in stock back in 2013. I only came on board when 23.5 hit steam, so I never got to enjoy the old jittery SAS except in the demo. Kudos for doing all the docking manually - I've done it a few times, but now I'm just too lazy and let MechJeb do it. Definitely some F5/F9 usage going on, but nothing to be ashamed of for a manually piloted entry.

And thanks for the great music! I detected a bit of a Russian theme - Meadowlands, Mussorgsky, and did I hear some Stravinsky? Took me back to my high school and college band days.

Feel free to add the badge to your sig. And if you enjoyed the challenge, spread some rep around to Laie and the volunteer judging staff!

[Norcalplanner]

Congratulations, Tiaga! You have completed the Eve Rocks challenge with a Jebediah's level entry!

That's one massive ship, bigger than anything I ever did for this challenge or either of my Jool-5 missions. A little chaotic on the launcher, but that tends to happen to large launchers subject to an iterative design process. Good mass optimization with the use of asparagus staging, KW tanks (which are slightly better than stock) and scores of 48-7S engines. 637 tons for a three-person pod Eve lander sounds about right. The only thing missing that would really seal the deal for me is a picture of the propulsive landing, somewhere between 60 km and touchdown, to really drive it home that this is a Jebediah's level entry. However, I can still see a bit of engine glow from the KR-2Ls in the photo of landing, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Feel free to add the badge to your sig. And if you enjoyed the challenge, spread around some rep!

[Laie]

Thanks Norcalplanner, Starhawk, Kuzzter, and everyone else who puts in work to keep this going. This unfinished business has been a burden on my conscience; knowing that the entrants will be taken care of really is a great relief. I feel sorry that I have nothing to give but some rep.

[Mister Dilsby]

Congrats Norcalplanner and Tiaga, and thanks Norcalplanner for a great start to the peer reviews!

I just clicked through Lou's mission and WOW--he got ALL! THE! SCIENCE! Two Kerbals, three biomes, a perfect landing location and a very intricate ship to pull it off. His mission report is very easy to follow, with the resource window always open. I found myself in suspense wondering "what's he gonna do with that xenon?" until the end Amazingly, he pulls the whole thing off without a single orbital rendezvous. One ship leaves, same ship comes back with the science--just WOW.

[Starhawk]

Congratulations Lou! You have completed the Eve Rocks challenge with the first ever entry 'For Science!'

This was a very ambitious mission and a lot of fun to review. Love the gravity assist from the Mun on the way out. I also like that you did it all stock. Those are nice looking rovers, although I was confused by the lander legs. It took a lot of patience on your part (and a lot of guts on Sidcott and Lenory's part - no roll bar!) to drive that far on Eve.

That is one heck of a lot of science. I haven't seen anything like that since some of the entries in the Biome Hopper challenge.

I liked your return solution. I hadn't even realized you had ions on there until I saw the shots of the return to Kerbin.

All in all, a beautifully engineered and executed entry.

Once again, congratulations. And a tip of the hat to you because you did it For Science. Take your badge and some well-earned praise.

Happy landings!

- - - Updated - - -

I'll review Perry's entry today.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Starhawk

[Norcalplanner]

I'll take a look at Kuzzter's tonight.

[Norcalplanner]

Congratulations, Kuzzter! You have completed the Eve Rocks challenge with a level 2 entry!

Very good looking mission. At first I thought there were some big gaps in your documentation, then I realized that imgur was only loading up the first 10 images in each album for some reason. Good solution for the descent tanks/parachute problem, and you avoided having to stage the landing gear by using the massless aircraft gear. Also good use of the newer spaceplane tanks, which have a better empty tank mass fraction in exchange for costing more. I liked the rover - somehow landing 20+ kilometers away just added to the authentic non-MechJebian nature of the mission. Nice recovery after discovering that your nuke engines were in the wrong spot in relation to the lander - you got into a bit of a pickle in part due to the use of two different size docking ports on the front and rear of the Wasabi Maru. Good use of the KS-25-4 motor - I'm not sure I've seen one of those before on an Eve lander. Because of that engine, TWR per stage kept going up on the ascent, instead of staying flat or going down slightly as some other designs tend to. My only suggestion (other than checking the size of the capsule vs the size of the cargo bay and making sure the docked configuration allows the LV-Ns to work ) would be to watch the atmospheric efficiency number in KER and throttle back a bit during the ascent - there were a couple of screenshots where the atmospheric efficiency was well over 100%, which means you're losing a lot to atmospheric drag.

Feel free to add the badge to your sig, and please spread some rep around if you enjoyed the challenge!

[Mister Dilsby]

Thanks so much, really appreciate the review, the kind words, and the sound advice! Yeah, at one point in the ascent I recall seeing shockwaves forming around the big Kerbodyne, looked over at KER and saw that my TMR was over 7 and throttled WAY back--sorry should have snapped a picture there, but the tank was running dry and I was more concerned at that moment with staging. I think I have a quicksave right before ascent, I may run that again and throttle down earlier to see how much more dV I can save.

Am applying these lessons learned towards my next big cruiser the KSS Gojira Maru, bound for the moons of Jool sometime after V1 hits!

[Lou]

Congratulations Lou! You have completed the Eve Rocks challenge with the first ever entry 'For Science!'

Thank you Starhawk! Also, thank you Laie for running this great challenge, and additional thanks to Kuzzter and Norcalplanner for helping Laie. I appreciate the complements from Starhawk and Kuzzter, too. This was the third or fourth time I tried to do this mission, lots of hours and explosions to finally get it right, which makes success all the sweeter! FYI, the landing gear on the rovers was to help protect the wheels when the rovers disconnect and fall from the lander, and they also keep the rover from rolling away while the Kerbals plant flags and such. I planned for the return pod to use Xenon starting from a low-Eve orbit, but the high altitude landing spot (6 km) and my paranoia from previous failures resulted in the launcher reaching not just orbit, but very nearly escape velocity! If I'd seen that coming, I would have brought a few more Kerbals! Again, thank you to everyone who makes this such a great challenge!

Edited April 18, 2015 by Lou

[Starhawk]

Congratulations Perry Apsis! You have completed the Eve Rocks challenge at Level 3.

I understand when you talk about persistence, but I thought your craft was very well designed and I think anybody that completes this challenge should be very proud of their design.

I truly enjoyed your mission album the first time I looked at it and it was a pleasure to go over it again.

On the pad, it almost reminds me of my entry. That shot of the Mun framed in the 'Pipe Organ' really is epic.

I'm not sure whether any other entries landed in the ocean, but that was one of the most impressive aspects and you deserve special kudos for that!

The swim was the epitome of persistence. I saw your coffee-scoop on the keyboard comment on another thread and got a good chuckle. Also the comment in the album during the swim was hilarious.

Another beautiful mission in both design and execution. Also a great mission album.

Congratulations again. Take your badge and wear it with pride!

Happy landings!

[luizopiloto]

dunno if my regular missions to eve can enter the challange... but I made a video last year...

[Mister Dilsby]

At first glance Luizo this may not qualify allthough it is a really good video. Unfortunately the rules state that you must use an enclosed capsule or lander--no "seat only" lifters. Also while the mission is certainly 100% genuine with no cheats, the judging procedure requires the resource window to be visible so we can see how much fuel you are using.

That aside, I really enjoyed watching the video, your craft is very well made and congratulations on getting two Kerbals home from Eve!

[John FX]

I think I will give this a go. It's the only thing I have not done yet in the game.

[Norcalplanner]

I think I will give this a go. It's the only thing I have not done yet in the game.

Do it quickly - Eve is about to change a lot with new aero and Isp scaling.

[Perry Apsis]

Congratulations Perry Apsis! You have completed the Eve Rocks challenge at Level 3.

I understand when you talk about persistence, but I thought your craft was very well designed and I think anybody that completes this challenge should be very proud of their design.

I truly enjoyed your mission album the first time I looked at it and it was a pleasure to go over it again.

On the pad, it almost reminds me of my entry. That shot of the Mun framed in the 'Pipe Organ' really is epic.

I'm not sure whether any other entries landed in the ocean, but that was one of the most impressive aspects and you deserve special kudos for that!

The swim was the epitome of persistence. I saw your coffee-scoop on the keyboard comment on another thread and got a good chuckle. Also the comment in the album during the swim was hilarious.

Another beautiful mission in both design and execution. Also a great mission album.

Congratulations again. Take your badge and wear it with pride!

Happy landings!

I shall. I found myself very gratified by your comments, and I thank you for the time you spent going through my "great" (50+ pics in an undifferentiated stream--seriously?) album. I salute all those who completed this challenge, and I hope to see you all back here after 1.0.

Laie, I hope you're taking a few days off before then. I think that your positive attitude and supportive energy contributed to the success of this challenge, so my thanks and a salute to you, too.

[iLikeRovers]

Here's my last minute submission before 1.0 comes out!

Two bunches o'sparagus pointed to the sky,

then one bunch o'sparagus perched up high.

(6867 m high)

I think this is the highest reasonably sized plateau on Eve,

I name it Pinks Peak!

Coordinates of Pinks Peak: -15.0513, -31.4648

At Kerbin Launch: 702 parts, 4636.8t, 2 210 621 Koins

At Eve Launch: 200 parts, 355.6t, 227 533 Koins

Eve Orbiter: 30 parts, 16.2t, 34 516 Koins

There is some rule bending which may cause problems.

-1 The craft is almost all in the VAB white circle. I realised a bit

late and I suppose I could tuck it all in, there's plenty of space

between the tanks!

(Looks)

(Sighs)

By all means, go ahead.

-2 Those rovers I flew over separately when I was scouting for a high

plateau. They are only 1.5 tonnes. If its bad then just ignore the

epic glide to the sea sample. I lost two great Kerbals there!

-3 I use no mods, no hyperedit, no MechJeb. So I use f5 and f9 ALOT

to get such a precise landing. This is my 2nd successful eve launch

(1st without Kerbals)

-4 Two of my Kerbals glitched out of existence. I don't know why, four

Kerbals were meant to return home, I will always remember you

Lodbles and Kengun Kerman!

Let me know if you need .craft files or more detailed movies. Hope the judges

and everyone else enjoys it!

Imgur albums are still not working for me so have these links.

Kerbin launch to ELO

Video of landing, this was hard!

Exploring Pinks Peak

Video of epic glide to Explodium sea.

Paddling in the sea and the drive back.

Video of launch!

The journey back home.

[Meithan]

Is it too late? I'm planning on submitting my entry tonight! I had to redo the whole mission because my old 0.2x save doesn't play well with 0.90 (and the footage from my first succesful attempt does not meet all the requirements of the challenge). I got the ship in low Eve orbit ready for the landing.

Sneak peek:

[ShadowZone]

I would like to submit my attempt. Unfortunately I believe there are some problems with it

1) My transfer craft uses some part clipping (where the 2.5>1.25 cone tanks of the "arms" meet the center of the Craft, also the cockpit clips into it. It's purely for aesthetical reasons. The lander on the other hand has no part clipping except for cubic octagonal struts being used as attachment points.)

2) My lander design was faulted. I forgot to add ladders so I hyperedited the original lander back home, added ladders in the VAB, hyperedited it back to the exact same spot, but did the parachute descent again (including the correction burn), so it should have had the same amount of dV and weight as the original craft. Still... you could count this as a violation of the rules. As you can see in the video the design in principle works, regardless of the ladders.

3) This is a big one. And I am very ashamed of it. I did not quicksave from Eve ascent till Kerbin landing. Why? I wanted to keep that quicksave to return to a point in the mission where I could try out something different. But I forgot to turn off the monoprop engines. And when the main engines fired they fired as well and ... well there was no more fuel left in the lander can. I could have quickloaded again, do all the ascent with the lander again and all of the tedious transfer burns. But I was pressed for time and I resorted to infinite fuel to get the now empty tanks working again. The final lander stage would have had about 2000m/s of dV after resupplying (the Mothership had monopropellant reserves), enough to slow down the descent right before splachdown. Technically and in theory it would have worked. But I don't have any proof of it. So yeah... big elephant in the room here

So I totally understand if you fail me. Time (and the impending 1.0) were too constraining for me to do it as thorough as I would have liked.

Nevertheless... here's my Eve mission report in video form. Hope you enjoy it!

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Meithan]

Hi! Here's, finally, my really-very-last-minute entry for the challenge, posted mere hours before 1.0 was out:

My Eve Rocks Challenge mission report

I hope it's still admissible! I would love to be in the official club of those who beat this challenge when it was still very difficult. Here's a very quick summary of the mission:

Eve Lander:

• 83.7 tonnes, 155 parts Eve Lander with capacity for one pilot (Jeb, of course)
  
• 8-stage asparagus design based on aerospike engine
  
• 10706 m/s total vacuum delta-v
  
• Designed for Eve ascent from 2000 m ASL
  
• Aimed for a 18 km-wide flat area west of the main impact crater
  
• Parachute landing with brief engine assist
  
• Mass-optimized design: cutting corners wherever possible
  
• Launched to LKO separately, before transfer vehicle
  
• On launch vehicle: 538 tonnes, 280 parts at launch
  

Eve Transfer Vehicle

• 53.1 tonnes, 76 parts tug to transfer lander to Eve
  
• 2094 m/s when mated to the Eve Lander
  
• Puller design based on high-efficiency LV-N engine
  
• Launched separately and rendezvous with lander in LKO
  
• Launch vehicle: 312 tonnes, 172 parts at launch
  
• Discarded in Eve atmosphere after deorbit burn
  
• Combined lander + tug specs (in LKO parking orbit): 136.7 tonnes, 242 parts
  
• Includes return capsule
  

Return Capsule:

• One-man return capsule with 2000 m/s delta-v
  
• Separates from ship before landing and remains in Eve orbit
  
• Final ascent stage rendezvous with return capsule, Kerbal EVAs.
  
• Capsule aerocaptures at Kerbin and lands on single parachute
  

Thanks a lot for your reviewing effort!

Edited April 27, 2015 by Meithan

[HelmutK]

Hm, i finished my video yesterday and today 1.0 is ready. Bad timing.

However, maybe someone like it nevertheless.

The facts:

Kerbin startweight 2776,8t

parts 1105 many struts, i hate wobbeling crafts

funds 1.617.452

Evelander weight 352,4t

parts 622

funds 382.656

Edited April 28, 2015 by HelmutK

[lirg03]

I'm quite curious about how to complete level 3 in 1.0, since at that low altitude, almost all engines have crappy TWR...