Game:

Kerbal Space Program (2015)

Duration: 1:39

1,708 views

61

This is the lightest ever Eve ascent vehicle. Without magic wings, EVA construction, or other aero exploits, it's smaller than any others that do use these.

My low mass Eve mission and the later grand tour feature a 2105 kg Eve lander. At the time, this was the lightest Eve ascent vehicle, barring Stratzenblitz's 1427 kg magic wing craft. However, I recently saw a forum post from Ultimate Steve mentioning a 1.4 ton Eve lander. He realized that a fairing isn't necessary here, as the propeller stage gets above most drag anyway. After some iteration on a fairing-less lander, I got this 1.1 ton design; it can take one kerbal from the ocean to a 90x100 km Eve orbit.

The first stage is a propeller with angled fins, which provide better lift per mass, and go up to 43.5 km. It can go slightly higher than this, but that wasn't necessary.

The rocket has two Twitch engines and one Spider engine. The Twitch is great - it's much lighter than the Spark, and has better atmospheric efficiency and TWR. The Spider is worse for both but it's very light and provides gimbal control. I arranged the engines so they all fire at once and decouple cleanly, which involved careful part clipping and offsetting. This maximizes thrust while not compromising efficiency. Note that this doesn't reduce drag at all, since there's no fairing.

After the pair of Dumpling tanks is drained, they are dropped along with a Twitch engine. This reduces the drag of the rocket early while maintaining good TWR, which is important on Eve.

When the Oscar tank is emptied, it's dropped with the second Twitch. The Spider and the remaining tank get to just over 2400 m/s at 110 km. I need the extra altitude to buy time for the low thrust jetpack, which finishes orbital insertion.

There's a bit of EVA fuel left, which is useful for rendezvous with a mothership. Unless I improve the drag of the rocket and/or my ascent profile, it's not worth dipping into this to further reduce mass.

Music: Corbyn Kites - Overdrive

Other Statistics