What should my next mission be? Asking as a low-skill player

[Wizard Kerbal]

     So, I have a science mode. I'm wrapping up the last 2 nodes with a munar space station. I've gone to Gilly and Duna, and crave adventure! I want to go to Vall, Laythe or Moho, and as a kinda new player i'm wondering if some of them are out of my skill level. I THINK I can do gravity assists, and know I can aerobrake/aerocapture. If I can have input from more experienced people on what missions I need more experience for, or how to carry out one of my planned missions that would be wonderful!

Just to think 2 months ago, I saw an achievement for doing a mission to Bop and thought, how could ANYONE return? You'd have to be mad!

[18Watt]

I’d skip Moho, it’s actually one of the harder bodies to reach because the DV requirement is so high.

Jool is easier to reach than you’d think, if you can get to Eve and Duna, why not send something to Jool?   The inclination difference between Jool and Kerbin is minimal.   If you want to try using gravity assists, Jool is a fantastic place to practice that.   It’s pretty easy to get Tylo encounters on arrival at Jool, which can be adjusted to basically eliminate the need for aero-braking or capture burns.

 

[Zhetaan]

9 hours ago, Wizard Kerbal said:

If I can have input from more experienced people on what missions I need more experience for, or how to carry out one of my planned missions that would be wonderful!

On the one hand, there are a few missions that require more experience.  On the other hand, doing them is how you acquire experience.  On the gripping hand, frustrating yourself unnecessarily makes things less fun.

Along with @18Watt, I agree that Moho is probably a bad choice if you are, as your post title suggests, a 'low-skill player'.  Putting aside the issues of simply getting to Moho in the first place, landed equipment on Moho generally needs alternative power arrangements and such because of the length of night.

Vall and Laythe are both good choices and have different requirements.  Laythe's main attraction is the fact that it has an oxygen atmosphere, but if you're not interested (or simply not yet ready) to try flying interplanetary aeroplanes, then remember that Laythe is still interesting for those who insist on visiting it with normal rockets.  Vall is more challenging than the Mun and also has some interesting features.

Don't forget that you can challenge yourself in a different way by taking a multiple-lander to try both of them--you don't need to go from nothing to a full Jool-5.  In fact, Jool-2 and Jool-3 missions (either Vall/Laythe/Pol for the ease of getting there, or Vall/Bop/Pol for the similarity of environment) are great ways to train for more complicated missions such as grand tours.

There are other things to do, too, that may interest you.  Asteroid capture and mining is a completely different game, and Dres is worth a look, as well.  Dres suffers from the fact that it is far away from everything and lacks a collection of moons like Jool's, but it's still worth the trip.

Have fun!

[Wizard Kerbal]

5 hours ago, Zhetaan said:

Vall and Laythe are both good choices and have different requirements.  Laythe's main attraction is the fact that it has an oxygen atmosphere, but if you're not interested (or simply not yet ready) to try flying interplanetary aeroplanes, then remember that Laythe is still interesting for those who insist on visiting it with normal rockets.  Vall is more challenging than the Mun and also has some interesting features.

Don't forget that you can challenge yourself in a different way by taking a multiple-lander to try both of them--you don't need to go from nothing to a full Jool-5.  In fact, Jool-2 and Jool-3 missions (either Vall/Laythe/Pol for the ease of getting there, or Vall/Bop/Pol for the similarity of environment) are great ways to train for more complicated missions such as grand tours.

Have fun!

A Jool-2 sounds fun, or even just 1 lander that can be refueled, Like how I did it when I landed at Duna and Ike.

Edited March 16, 2021 by Wizard Kerbal
I’ll send a Jool-6 probe mission first, including a “science bomb”

[Vanamonde]

Send probes to the moons of Jool. Jool is a bigger target than Dres and Eeloo, it's easier to match velocities than Moho, and it has an atmosphere to help with aerobraking. 

[Cavscout74]

12 hours ago, 18Watt said:

It’s pretty easy to get Tylo encounters on arrival at Jool, which can be adjusted to basically eliminate the need for aero-braking or capture burns.

This ^   Once you leave Kerbin's SoI on the way to Jool, find a spot to do a course correction to try to set your Pe around Jool to ~60,000km.  Once you are just inside Jool's SoI, set up a maneuver to get a Tylo intercept and it will handle a big chunk of your orbital insertion dV for free.  If you're timing is really good, you might even leave Tylo's straight into a Vall or Laythe intercept.  Like others have said, its a great place to get experience with gravity assists. 

[theAstrogoth]

Seconding Jool's moons as a good choice. One nice thing about Jool is that it has a huge sphere of influence compared to any of the other planets, due to its large mass and the fact that it's rather far out from the sun. The other nice thing is that its velocity is lower than the inner planets, so altogether you have a large, slow target, which gives it a forgiving transfer window.

Also echoing the other suggestions here, Moho is a bad choice for the same reasons, since it ends up being a small, fast-moving target.

[king of nowhere]

and yet another thing in favor of jool is the gorgeous scenery

I strongly recommend bringing modules with a good view, like the cupola and the Mk2 landing pod