Eve

Eve/Data

Eve is the second planet from Kerbol and is the second largest body orbiting it. It is purple in appearance. It has one small moon, a captured asteroid called Gilly.

Eve is the closest planet to Kerbin and the easiest to reach, requiring the least delta-v of any planet. Having a similar size to Kerbin gives it a large gravity well. The result is that it requires the most delta-v of any celestial body with a solid surface to escape from it. Its thick atmosphere (much thicker than Kerbin) makes aerocaptures and landings easy, but makes a start from sea level even harder because most fuel will be wasted on overcoming atmospheric friction.

The combination of high gravity and thick atmosphere makes return missions from the sea level of Eve very difficult. It requires about 11,500 m/s of delta-v to get into orbit from sea level.

Topography

Eve has several oceans and large, flat continents with a few mountain peaks. The composition of the liquid which fills the oceans and lakes is unknown, but it is unlikely to be water because the boiling point of water is slightly below the surface temperature, even when taking the high atmospheric pressure into account. According to the devs during a livestream, it was joked that the lakes were made of rocket fuel. The land masses look like purple sand dunes. Its tallest point is 6450 m above sea level and is just south of the equator, at 1.90° W, 11.86° S.

Atmosphere

A comparison of the atmospheres of Eve and Kerbin

Eve's atmosphere begins at 96,708.6 m and is extremely dense: at 11,250 m, it's as thick as Kerbin's atmosphere at sea level (1 atm), and at Eve sea level the atmospheric pressure is 5 atm. Its atmospheric pressure fades exponentially, with a scale height of 7000 m. The atmosphere should be superheated due to the thick atmosphere trapping in heat, much like Venus.

In general, the atmospheric pressure on Eve at an altitude expressed in meters is:

$p_{e}=5\ e^{-altitude/7000}$

From within Eve's atmosphere, the sky appears indigo during nighttime. During dawn and dusk, the sky is green. The atmosphere is possibly composed of iodine, given its purple coloration.

Jet engines do not function in Eve's atmosphere, since it contains no oxygen — they make noise and consume fuel, but they produce no thrust. Planes with other propulsion methods do however work very well in Eves atmosphere and are a great way to explore the planet. Try to stay on a height between 35 km and 25 km where the atmosphere generates enough lift to glide and steer, but not so much drag that it slows you down too much.

As with version 0.17.1, an aerobraking maneuver arriving from Kerbin and resulting in to orbit around Eve - without using fuel for braking - can be done aiming for at periapsis at approximately 72,500 m.

The following table gives terminal velocities at different Eve altitudes. These are also the velocities at which a ship should travel for a fuel-optimal ascent from Eve, given the game's model of atmospheric drag.

Altitude (m)	Velocity (m/s)
0	58.4
1000	62.5
5000	82.0
10000	115
15000	162
20000	228
30000	450
40000	888
50000	1.76×103
60000	3.47×103

Natural Satellites

Eve's only natural satellite is the tiny captured asteroid Gilly in a highly eccentric and inclined orbit. Gilly is currently the smallest celestial body in the Kerbol system.

Orbital Statistics

A synchronous orbit of Eve requires an altitude of 10373.195 km and a velocity of 858.95 m/s. For a semisynchronous orbit of ½ Eve day (11.25 hours or 40500 seconds) an orbit of 6275.676 km above Eve is needed with a velocity of 1082.2 m/s.

Gallery

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  Orbiting Eve.

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  Eve (mid-left) and Gilly.

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  Eve landscape shot.

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  Another Eve landscape shot.

• Screenshot91.png

  A Kerbal dropped from space

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  Sunrises and sunsets on Eve can be really beautiful with colors ranging from green to yellow to pink.

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  An unmanned plane in Eve's atmosphere

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  A manned rover landing on the surface of Eve.

Bugs

• Eve has higher gravity than Kerbin, restricting Kerbals jump to only half a meter and making EVA Jets useless. This being said, if a Kerbal falls from more than 4 m, they will hit the ground much harder than on Kerbin, which may cause the Kerbal to clip the ground and accelerate away from Eve at phenomenal speed, usually sending the unlucky Kerbal on escape trajectory from Kerbol if they are not killed by the fall. They may bring something into interstellar space with them if they hit the object instead of the ground
• Solar Panels tend to break on the surface of Eve even when retracted. This may be due to Eve's high gravity.
• Landing legs on Eve usually will break because of Eve's high gravity.
• When landing fast your ship/pod will sometimes sink into the surface of Eve.This can be easily fixed by using landing legs to lift the ship up.

Changes

0.18

• Art pass.
• Terrain tweaks — the tallest points are now about 6 km in altitude, compared to 11 km before.

0.17

• Initial Release