Altaïr's crazy stuff

[Altaïr]

Being fairly light I was able to use asparagus staging:

I noticed that I had missed setting up the fuel transfer when I paused the game to take the screenshot for the launch and staging events. Which is why the upper stage was not quite at 100%.

Ah, I should have thought about that, nice trick.

Yes, however I did not have enough fuel left to fill it up and depended on the safety margin to get back:

That's what safety margin are for, I also ate mine at some point

 

[Marmilo]

I realised that I have never attempted a Venus return in Realistic without using custom parts so I tried it. Wasn't able to go below 4 launches so it was rather similar to your run. Rather than using a specialised transporter I simply left the lander attached to the third stage of its launcher and refueled the third stage.

The third stage had two engine types, a Titan and a 2 Valiants. I switched off the Titan once it had reached orbit. I also experimented with the launcher rather than using one I had already designed.

The lander plus launcher:
View attachment 132968 View attachment 132969

The legs and parachutes to be attached in orbit, plus some fuel:
View attachment 132970 View attachment 132971

The tanker use for the remaining fuel (needed two of these):
View attachment 132972

Venus Aerobreaking:
View attachment 132973

Venus landing:
View attachment 132974

Earth return (fuel was a bit tight)
View attachment 132975

Mission Log:
View attachment 132976

I took 90 screenshots in total. Let me know if you are curious about any details.

Interesting, I must try this someday

 

[Mooncrasher]

It's been long I haven't done something significant in SFS... What about a Venus return mission in realistic? That sounds reasonably easy to start playing again after a few months of inactivity.

In serious, that will be an ambitious mission. I'll use a few mods for this one, which notably include:
- VanillaUpgrades
- ANAIS
- Delta-V calculator
- SmartSAS
- Aero trajectory
- Gliding heat shields
- InfoOverload

This will be the ship I'll use for this mission:
View attachment 132913

As is, it's way too heavy to be launched in a single launch, so I'll have to send it in 4 launches, and assemble it in LEO.

Here is the first part of the assembly:
View attachment 132914

This part is the transfer module. Yes, I'll have to burn all that fuel just to transfer to Venus. Now it's time to launch the lander itself. Which is a whole rocket in itself since it has to reach Venus orbit after landing.
I'll use my favourite launcher of course...
View attachment 132915
Which officially qualifies it as a launcher launcher in realistic

Then time to assemble the "umbrella", that will be charged to make the lander slow down enough during reentry:
View attachment 132916

Then finally, I dock it to the transfer module:
View attachment 132917

Now it's time for the transfer itself:
View attachment 132918
This is terribly long, but finally...
View attachment 132919

The two annex tanks are now empty, so they are thrown into the venusian atmosphere. Then the ship is reassembled for aerobraking, because I wouldn't have enough fuel to reach low Venus orbit...
View attachment 132920 View attachment 132921

It's now time to attempt the very risky aerobraking maneuver. Fortunately, Gliding heat shields and aero trajectory are especially useful for this...
View attachment 132922

Then the transfer module finishes the satellization in low orbit before being thrown into Venus aswell. Only a small refuelling unit is left in Venus orbit. It's the small part with the probe attached. It doesn't even have an engine, only a pair of RCS.
Then, time for the deadly reentry!
View attachment 132923

The design is efficient and does its job. the gliding heat shields helped to aim for a relatively flat landing zone. Then the landing itself combines the use of parachutes and the main engine after the heat shield has been jettisoned:
View attachment 132924
Finally, we are there!

But we've made only half of the trip, we have to return! Who would like to stay in such a hellish place anyway...
So, lift-off...
View attachment 132925

The ship finally reaches Venus orbit where there's a little refueller to refill it.
View attachment 132926

The transfer for the return is quite simple at that stage.
View attachment 132927 View attachment 132928

And finally, I'm back!
View attachment 132929
A difficult one to get, especially in realistic. The "extreme" rating is largely deserved

Nice planning and I like the gifs Great mission.

I realised that I have never attempted a Venus return in Realistic without using custom parts so I tried it. Wasn't able to go below 4 launches so it was rather similar to your run. Rather than using a specialised transporter I simply left the lander attached to the third stage of its launcher and refueled the third stage.

The third stage had two engine types, a Titan and a 2 Valiants. I switched off the Titan once it had reached orbit. I also experimented with the launcher rather than using one I had already designed.

The lander plus launcher:
View attachment 132968 View attachment 132969

The legs and parachutes to be attached in orbit, plus some fuel:
View attachment 132970 View attachment 132971

The tanker use for the remaining fuel (needed two of these):
View attachment 132972

Venus Aerobreaking:
View attachment 132973

Venus landing:
View attachment 132974

Earth return (fuel was a bit tight)
View attachment 132975

Mission Log:
View attachment 132976

I took 90 screenshots in total. Let me know if you are curious about any details.

It's crazy how much atmosphere Maxwell Montes allows you to avoid. The people suggesting putting a launchpad on top of Mount Everest would have a good point with SFS Venus...

 

[Darthan]

It's crazy how much atmosphere Maxwell Montes allows you to avoid. The people suggesting putting a launchpad on top of Mount Everest would have a good point with SFS Venus...

Attempting to land at a high point may make getting back to orbit a bit easier, but it also makes landing more difficult. You need more parachutes, maybe a larger heat shield for initial aerobraking and maybe a powered landing. All of which increases the fuel requirements.

 

[Marmilo]

Attempting to land at a high point may make getting back to orbit a bit easier, but it also makes landing more difficult. You need more parachutes, maybe a larger heat shield for initial aerobraking and maybe a powered landing. All of which increases the fuel requirements.

It is still massively beneficial, also parachutes are entirely optional and are discarded upon landing. There's no reason why you'd need a bigger heat shield either, and powered landings can sometimes be more efficient than chutes

 

[Altaïr]

Nice planning and I like the gifs Great mission.

Thanks! That was quite some work, but I think it's cooler to show the main steps of the flight that way.

It's crazy how much atmosphere Maxwell Montes allows you to avoid. The people suggesting putting a launchpad on top of Mount Everest would have a good point with SFS Venus...

Attempting to land at a high point may make getting back to orbit a bit easier, but it also makes landing more difficult. You need more parachutes, maybe a larger heat shield for initial aerobraking and maybe a powered landing. All of which increases the fuel requirements.

It is still massively beneficial, also parachutes are entirely optional and are discarded upon landing. There's no reason why you'd need a bigger heat shield either, and powered landings can sometimes be more efficient than chutes

I made a small calculation, the atmosphere at 35.9 km of altitude on Venus (the top altitude) is the same as on Earth at 30 kilometers, or barely 1.4×10e(-4) times density at ground level. The terminal velocity would be multiplied by something like 80 (a capsule with parachute usually lands at 6 m/s on Earth, so it would be around 480 m/s on top of Maxwell Montes).
That would make the parachutes practically useless. Actually the ship is still in its hot reentry phase at that stage, so it wouldn't be a great idea...
It would probably be better to aim for a smaller peak to better take advantage of the atmosphere on landing.

 

[Astro826]

I made a small calculation, the atmosphere at 35.9 km of altitude on Venus (the top altitude)

It's that ridiculously tall in realistic mode? I didn't think the heights were really stretched from normal mode

 

[Marmilo]

35.9 km

oh, I had no clue it's that massive in RM

 

[Altaïr]

It's that ridiculously tall in realistic mode? I didn't think the heights were really stretched from normal mode

Yeah, I didn't realize myself... Until I notice the max terrain height mentionned on Darthan's screenshots (on the info overload window...).
It even dwarves the Olympus Mons which is supposed to be the tallest peak in the whole solar system...

 

[Astro826]

Yeah, I didn't realize myself... Until I notice the max terrain height mentionned on Darthan's screenshots (on the info overload window...).
It even dwarves the Olympus Mons which is supposed to be the tallest peak in the whole solar system...

Sounds like stef did an oopsie when transferring Venus over (or info overload just doesn't like realistic scale modifier)