Jool and return?

[The Thyroid Man]

So, I've been playing KSP for a while now, and I've put a flag on Duna, Ike, Dres, and Gilly, and put a bunch of probes and stuff on Eve, and now I'm shooting for Jool. I've landed a probe on Laythe that was nearly vaporized, but managed to land. (BTW, I'm in sandbox but I still bring along things like a thermometer because it's just fun to see) but anything else is basically impossible. I tried to make a bigger probe to land on Tylo or something, but my transfer ships just don't have enough Delta-V. Even when I do my burns from Kerbin orbit, where they are the most efficient, it still doesn't work. Forget about coming back. My transfer ships have plenty of fuel, and they use efficient engines, like nukes or LVNs. I have Kerbal Engineer,(The mod) but I can't get my ships' Delta-V above 5000.

So here is my real question: can anyone show me some examples of their Jool ships, or at least tell me what I'm doing wrong? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Snark]

Welcome to the forums!

The Jool system is tons of fun to explore, but it can be a challenge.  A couple of things that can really make a difference:

First, use a reverse gravity assist to capture to the system.  Set up your approach right, and you can use Tylo's gravity field to capture to Jool orbit for free.  It saves a lot of dV.  Here's an example.

Second, ISRU is your friend.  Have a mining ship as part of your mission, and land on Val, Bop, or Pol to fill up your tanks.  Then you're all set to explore wherever you want.  This can be especially handy if you do a "big mission" style of exploration, where you send a large "mothership" that never lands anywhere, and it has various small probes and landers docked to it to do the exploration missions.

Vall, Bop, and Pol are pretty easy to explore with a single-stage lander that can land and take off back to orbit.  Tylo is a bigger challenge, since it needs a lot more dV-- you'll likely need a dedicated Tylo lander with 2-3 stages, and it's likely to be pretty massive unless you can avoid the payload mass of a crewed pod.  If you want to keep the Tylo lander small, you can make it uncrewed, or else have what's basically an uncrewed ship with a command chair attached.

[Pecan]

You should be aware that Tylo is particularly hard to land on, because of the relatively high gravity and lack of atmosphere for braking/parachutes.  Jool's other moons are fairly easy though.

[Warzouz]

Welcome to the Jool puzzle !