Kerbin to Duna & back ?

[Lohan2008]

How big does my craft have to be to get a mrk 1 capsule back from Duna ? Post pictures of launcher at KSC plz.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Lohan2008

[Wanderfound]

Not large at all if you've got nukes and don't load it up with tons of junk. Duna is only about 1,000m/s ÃŽâ€V to get to, you can aerobrake and parachute so capture and landing is free, and getting back up and home again is only a couple of thousand. A couple of FL-T800's will do it with a single nuke to push them.

Without nukes, whatever it takes you to have 3,500+m/s ÃŽâ€V in LKO. Still not a huge rocket if you build efficiently.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Wanderfound

[Alshain]

The left hand side of this craft (i.e. dump the lander) will get back from Duna with a full tank. I'm pretty sure it got back without a full tank actually.

[Eric S]

I've got an imgur album that documents an old super hard challenge mode I did a long time ago. Pictures 8-10 are probably the best pictures to give you an idea of the return craft. The delta-v budget was rather tight, but getting rid of the heat shield would probably fix that and let you get away with a lighter launch stage as well. Be aware that the fuel tank was full as it was sitting on Duna.

[Superfluous J]

I made a pretty compact ship that took a glider to Duna and had the beef to get back home in my Kerpollo series. You can see the ship on the launch pad within the first 60 seconds of the below video.

[Scarecrow88]

Mine wasn't much bigger than a rocket designed to go to Mun. In fact it was a slightly modified Mun ship.

This is the ship, and it doesn't use nukes, so no excessively long burn times. It doesn't use the MkI cockpit though.

I posted a thread in the exchange forum, where there are a lot more pictures of a mission to Duna, as well as a link to the craft download file if you are interested.

Duna and back without docking

[Hcube]

Mine wasn't much bigger than a rocket designed to go to Mun. In fact it was a slightly modified Mun ship.

This is the ship, and it doesn't use nukes, so no excessively long burn times. It doesn't use the MkI cockpit though.

http://www.88qv.com/KSP/DN01.jpg

hey, that's a very nice looking ship !