Skycrosser/Skystrider Duna Trip - Stock parts, no mods (12 pictures)

[Margaul]

I've been playing for a couple months now, so I thought I'd show off my mod-free, stock parts, Duna Trip. I took way more fuel than I needed, but seeing as I was basically putting my college math/physics skills to the test, it seemed like a good idea. Plus, it allowed me to make a bonus pit stop, so I was rather pleased.

My Skycrosser is the command module, and is a pretty basic design using Aerospikes and a Poodle. I found this to be the most stable configuration. I've since used the Skycrosser to make Mun and Minmus trips with big landers that carry rovers, and an Orbital Trip to Eve with a lander probe. However, I originally designed it for this trip. My Skystrider is the lander, and the engine configuration is the same. The fuel capacity is half that of the Skycrosser. My idea was an Earth Orbit rendezvous, Trans-Duna injection, parachute assisted landing, Duna Orbit rendezvous, and then the trip home. However, for weight considerations on the return trip, I transferred the remaining fuel from Skycrosser, separated the command pod, and went home using the Skystrider. I actually got the idea from Apollo 13, and it has worked brilliantly. I attached a probe core to each vessel that allows the vessels to be operated independently. I took only two Kerbals for the first trip.

Obviously, Jebidiah was first down the ladder.

Each part of the ship went up independently and docked with my Olympus Fueling Station. Pictured below are the ships awaiting departure from the station with my handy-dandy Laurel II fueling/rescue ship docked up top awaiting any "Uh-Oh" moments that occasionally occur on my missions.

A quick un-docking, a roll to correct for photo ops, and we are ready for the initial rendezvous with two fully fueled ships.

After a nice, long burn, the solar panels were deployed and Jeb and Bill had a few weeks to swap stories about the Kraken and Daring EVA's.

After I entered Duna's SOI, I narrowly avoided Ike's SOI, but I managed to get what I think is a rather epic screenshot that I currently use as my desktop.

After that, I retracted the solar panels and performed my only picture perfect aerobrake into a circular orbit. Ever. Seriously, I've never ever had another perfect aerobrake.

Skystrider seperated at that point and began it's descent to the Dunar surface. I only took one screenshot of the descent. Mostly because I was too busy trying to manage the descent and worrying about the parachutes ripping my craft to shreds and worrying about the final touchdown since I had absolutely no idea (other than the appearance of the shadow) of how high/low the surface was.

Everything worked out nicely, I made a smooth touchdown just shy of a rather large canyon and Jeb and Bill took a walk outside.

After I got bored jumping around and using the EVA packs to splat-n-slide my Kerbals in the dirt, I launched Skystrider and maneuvered for a Duna Orbit Rendezvous.

I refueled, separated the Skycrosser command pod, and got ready to make the long wait for Kerbin to be in the right place to get home. At this point, I realized I had a ton of fuel and time, and Ike was just sitting there teasing me, so I figured, why wait in orbit for Kerbin to be in the right place when I can wait on the surface of a crazy shaped moon? A few quick maneuvers later, Jeb and Bill were dancing on Ike's face. This still ranks as one of my proudest KSP moments.

Finally, Kerbin was in the right place, so I launched Skystrider and made my shot home. The pit stop at Ike and the shot home drained all of my fuel, and I had to make so pretty clever use of my RCS in order to get into Kerbin's atmosphere.

Finally though, the home fires started to burn

I had two good chutes, and after fluttering down to safety, Jeb and Bill made their final EVA of the trip

If anyone has any feedback, or suggestions on the design of my crafts, I'm curious to read what people have to say. Also, my Skycrosser program is pretty successful, but I think it's reached it's limits without mods, unless I can come up with creative ideas.

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Margaul the Magnificent, Slayer of the Elevator Boss, AKA Prince Ali, and the guy who always has his finger on the "talk" button.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Margaul

[DMagic]

I really like that lander design. I imagine it could be used to land and take off from most of the planets and moons, probably everything except Tylo and Eve. If you repack the parachutes you could probably even land back at KSC.

My one suggestion, though, would be to lose that big RCS tank. You have more than enough torque from the command pod and lander can, so all you really need it for is docking. I think 1 or 2 of the 100 unit tanks would be plenty for that. Otherwise you're just pushing around excess mass.

[Wayfare]

Using the lander as the return craft is an interesting mission profile. Most people use a dedicated nuclear-powered interplanetary craft for both the outbound and the inbound trip. You could give that a shot if you have't tried it yet. That said, you made it to Duna and back with a stop over at Ike so your design obviously works very well

[Margaul]

I'll need to play around with the nuclear engine. I haven't had a great deal of luck with it, but I'm also not nearly as patient as I probably should be when it comes to design. I will take the suggestion and lower the amount of RCS I am taking. Now that I am a little more experienced with the game, I realize I don't need nearly as much. The only other thing I use it for other than docking is to make minor adjustments early in an interplanetary transfer to save rocket fuel I'd otherwise need for braking or last minute maneuvers.

The lander is incredibly versatile, and I've used it in a variety of situations. My wife laughs at me (she's a Kerbal-head too), but I removed the poodle engine and the parachutes and added a simple Skyroller rover (0.19 so no nifty seats) that looks like a truck you'd expect to see in movie about a third world country. I actually took this weird looking craft to the Mun and Minmus (but really who needs a Minmus rover when you can have flying kerbals). I drop the rover like a bomb a few meters above the landing zone and then set the lander down next to it. I have to say the whole thing is incredibly silly.