I returned form Duna!

[Dfthu]

I have playing this game for a very long time, maybe over 1000 hours. I tried returning to duna before I never could do it. I always had to cheat to get back home. I can make huge Space stations and make a lot of rockets but I could never Return form duna(or another planet)I know it sounds weird that I have playing this long but I could never do it. I barely make SSTOs too with over 1000 hours. Anyways I made a huge rocket that I hoped that could make it to duna. I have some pic for it to.

 

Edited December 30, 2015 by Dfthu

[ForsakenVoyager]

Congrats buddy! That's a awesome feat and glad you finally did it. 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Fantastic! I've been playing for a while too and never ventured further then the Mun or Minmus. I guess I spend a lot of time building silly contraptions and screwing around more than making actual progress lol. I'm very inspired by your success to try and get out to some other planets!

Keep it up! 

Edited December 30, 2015 by Rocket In My Pocket

[cantab]

Congrats! I too have been playing KSP for a long time but never got a Kerbal to Duna and back. It's something of my nemesis planet - I've returned Kerbals from most bodies including Tylo, Laythe, and Moho, but stuff has only ever gone wrong at Duna.

[MagicFireCaster]

Congrats! I'm going to try my first duna landing and return without cheating, i've already made it from ike but not from duna, also i'm going to mine , so  wish me luck!

also pretty craft you made

[regex]

Great job!  Now set your sights further.

[Der Anfang]

That's a very legit looking rocket. Appropriate enough for a Duna mission.

[maceemiller]

I remember my first return from Duna. Such a great feeling! Congratulations pilot

[Rdivine]

That's an amazing achievement! I've been playing for 3 years and still leave kerbals to die on duna can't return kerbals to kerbin  

[Mikki]

Great task, Duna is quite close and some might think it is not that difficult, but returning all Kerbals or returning stuff at all from surface is a challenge itself in career, congrats!
I have discovered that Duna is a very nice place to be, amazing views when Ike is in sight above the horizon.
"I like Ike".
A picture from my actual Duna mission in career:



I wish all a happy new 2016, wherever your Kerbals are stranded !

Edited December 30, 2015 by Mikki
spell:D, typo 8D

[pandaman]

Congratulations.  'Space is hard' going to and returning safely from anywhere, especially the first time, is always a great achievement, and that's what makes this game so special.  Even the supposedly 'easy' places like Mun and Minmus, or even the island airstrip can bite you badly.

My first Duna return mission was an over ambitious multi ship visit to plant flags at all the anomalies.  I managed to return all crews safely (apart from 4 who were lost due to old game glitch kraken attacks), but it was hair raisingly close.

 

[322997am]

Great job! I remember when I went to the mun and landed on the lasts of my fuel saving jeb.

[Xavven]

Congrats! Looks like you went with a "direct ascent" mission profile and it worked handily!

With your experience building space stations, you're probably good with orbital rendezvous and docking. Have you tried an orbital rendezvous mission profile for landing on, say, Mun? I find that it reduces my total rocket size when I do that. Here's an article on the concept that helped me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_orbit_rendezvous

[Fearless Son]

Grats!  Returning from the surface of Duna is still an achievement I have yet to reach.  Done crewed flybys and probe landings, sure, but never anything I could quite bring up back from the surface.  Heck, even my crewed landings ran out of fuel after getting into high Kerbin orbit and required fuel drone rendezvous to make it back.

[radonek]

3 hours ago, Xavven said:

With your experience building space stations, you're probably good with orbital rendezvous and docking. Have you tried an orbital rendezvous mission profile for landing on, say, Mun? I find that it reduces my total rocket size when I do that. Here's an article on the concept that helped me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_orbit_rendezvous

Another advantage is it splits expedition hardware to specialized pieces. If you run out of fuel, you can send tanker. You make mistake in lander or pusher, you send in corrected version. Direct ascent design with single ship put too much eggs into a basket. That said, OPs design is nice.

[Zoidos]

Congrats! Ah yes, that sense of accomplishment after a successful Duna mission

You can also try using a smaller lander with just enough dV to land and return and then rendezvous with an interplanetary ship that takes you back home. Something I have been experimenting with lately (after watching some of Cupcake's videos...). All the rendezvous-ing and docking can get a bit tedious with time though.

 

 

[Wallygator]

Well done. Congrats!

I was expecting the last pic to have a caption of "Not burning."

[cubinator]

Good job! 

One thing I noticed about your orbital maneuvers (don't worry I remember doing this too back in the day) is you left the planet's Sphere of Influence, then planned out your maneuver nodes for interplanetary transfers. 

It saves a lot of deltaV for your ships if you do your transfer burn while as close to the current body as possible. This is better explained in pictures than words, so here:

I just threw this together in MSPaint, hope it helps! It's also good to know when the transfer windows are, that is, what angle the planets should be at when you do your transfer so that you meet up with the target planet. Back before I discovered KER, which tells you when it's time for a transfer, I used this image as a reference for phase angles, and then literally held up a protractor to the screen to see when the proper angle was reached. 

Anyway, congrats on your first return from Duna, hope my tips help with future missions, and happy flying! 

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Nice work!  I have returned from Duna a total of... one time.  I didn't use any nuclear engines though!  Just a couple ions to return the capsule to Kerbin.

Edited December 31, 2015 by Mad Rocket Scientist

[Vanamonde]

Congratulations.
 

Also, moved to Mission Reports. 

[Fearless Son]

3 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

Nice work!  I have returned from Duna a total of... one time.  I didn't use any nuclear engines though!  Just a couple ions to return the capsule to Kerbin.

That must have been a long "burn".

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

5 minutes ago, Fearless Son said:

That must have been a long "burn".

Actually, since it was just one mk1-2 it wasn't that bad.

[Dfthu]

6 hours ago, cubinator said:

Good job! 

One thing I noticed about your orbital maneuvers (don't worry I remember doing this too back in the day) is you left the planet's Sphere of Influence, then planned out your maneuver nodes for interplanetary transfers. 

It saves a lot of deltaV for your ships if you do your transfer burn while as close to the current body as possible. This is better explained in pictures than words, so here:

I just threw this together in MSPaint, hope it helps! It's also good to know when the transfer windows are, that is, what angle the planets should be at when you do your transfer so that you meet up with the target planet. Back before I discovered KER, which tells you when it's time for a transfer, I used this image as a reference for phase angles, and then literally held up a protractor to the screen to see when the proper angle was reached. 

Anyway, congrats on your first return from Duna, hope my tips help with future missions, and happy flying! 

 I dont bother with Transfer windows. I just really dont care about it.