So I have this here rocket..

[G'th]

Now, I've created this very-obviously-a-saturn-v rocket for one purpose. To finally go interplanetary in a completely legitimate manner (It will have enough delta v to go anywhere. Even now with as big as the rocket is, the three main stages are still reading at over 2.0 TWR). And naturally, my first destination is Duna.

So I ask the community for any good tips for the task. Having never really gone interplanetary (or even landed on anything farther out than Minmus) I don't quite know what to expect.

[Vanamonde]

Here's a good tip: look around the Gameplay Questions and Tutorials sub-forums, which this thread now occupies.

[doggie015]

should help

[Pecan]

Tips:

1) Go back to the VAB and rebuild it with a lower TWR. While it's good to have 'around' 2 averaged over the stage's lifetime a start TWR of 2 likely means 4 or 5 by the time it burns out - possibly enough to tear the ship apart and certainly enough to give you trouble with 'fine' manoeuvres.

2) Make landers - if you have them - as light as possible and, for Duna, use parachutes on the descent. Duna's atmosphere is low and thin so set the parachutes to deploy high, giving them more time to slow you down. You will probably still need to use some engine-power, but much less than without.

3) A Kerbal on EVA can repack parachutes once near them (right-click on a previously-deployed parachute). Staging does not re-deploy such chutes, so set an action group to do it.

4) Even more deltaV is always better, but means you need to burn more fuel just lugging it around. Use a deltaV map to verify that you really can go where you intend (and back, if you care about your Kerbals).

5) Make use of aerobraking if you want to conserve deltaV. It may take several orbits, dipping into the atmosphere each time, to bring your apoapsis down where you want it.

6) If you're going far out in the system, such as Eeloo, consider that solar panels are less effective that far from the sun. Conversely, for the inner system, you may not need so many.

7) Moons have a habit of getting in the way of an encounter with their primary. Ike is particularly infamous for this.

8) Apart from the extra time it takes interplanetary is no harder to control than going to Mun or, particularly, Minmus. It's all about matching planes, matching apoapsis (or periapsis) and circularising to orbit.

9) I use action groups to toggle engines on/off. Turning them off during the l-o-n-g cruise periods means I can't screw everything up by pressing shift at the wrong time.

...which is all I can think of off the top of my head.

[RW-1]

Knowing #1, cannot one just throttle down in the later stages of atmospheric escape?

Must ... Stop ... trying to rotate picture of rocket above ....

[G'th]

Well I don't have issues flying the rocket, and its actually a pain to maneuver until about halfway through the second stage, which is fine because by then I've already had the time to do my gravity turn. (what I call a gravity turn anyway)

[cantab]

Know what a transfer window is, a way to determine when one is, and a way to determine the correct transfer burn once you're in one.

[Yasmy]

Knowing #1, cannot one just throttle down in the later stages of atmospheric escape?

Must ... Stop ... trying to rotate picture of rocket above ....

Hehe. I get caught trying to rotate images or videos too...

Of course you can throttle down to keep your TWR where every you like, but it is less efficient.

If you don't care about efficiency, don't sweat it. Some people care about such things. Some don't.

As always, play the way you want to play.

[Dkmdlb]

Knowing #1, cannot one just throttle down in the later stages of atmospheric escape?

You could do that, but why would you carry up a heavier and more powerful engine if you're not going to use its power? Why bother with the extra weight?

[Redshift OTF]

Try it. If it fails you'll know what to fix next time. Most interplanetary expeditions fail due to either not having enough DeltaV, making a mistake with the manouver nodes or critical component failure, (or lack of a critical component). If you are landing on a body then too low a TWR can cause failure as well. Good luck!