Interplanetary economy OR "Can you wait for the phase angles?"

[Bolche]

My space program is close to finish developing a lively economy in the Kerbin System with orbital and land bases, shipping resources and regular crew rotation (the Kerbin Workers Association demands paid vacations for every Kerbonaut every year, at least ), all done with my fleet of fully reusable Shuttles and SSTOs.

It is past time to go interplanetary, but I admit that I'm a little afraid and not really sure how to make it viable. I have assembled expeditions to Duna and Eve but maintaining bases and shipping resources seems really difficult. Getting the right phase angles for efficient transfers can take years, the transfers themselves are really long (and it gets boring to wait when you can't time wrap because of other things going on the Kerbin System), life support (I'm using RoverDude's life support mod) becomes a greater concern. Not to mention rescue missions when things go wrong: on a past mission, after I accidentally blew up half my rocket, including all the life support, I was able to get a rescue ship in less than an hour (by wasting fuel and being super aggressive in the transfer/rendezvous). If something like that happened on Jool, I could kiss my brave kerbonauts good bye...

So how do you guys do to have a working economy and crew rotation on a interplanetary scale? Do you just accept longer delays and compensate with large volumes? Do you waste extra Delta-V doing inefficient transfers? Is doing a bi-elliptic transfer, with a first stop on a low Kerbol orbit, a good compromise between time and Delta-V? Or the only solution relies on technology not yet discovered (i.e. should I use a FTL mod)?

All help is appreciated!

Edited July 13, 2015 by Bolche

[Kuansenhama]

For traveling interplanetary, I would say for the most part, you're going to be waiting for transfer windows. If you don't transfer at a window, it's going to take you much longer to get to your destination. Unless you're playing with some overpowered mods that have engines with absurd ISPs and warp drives, that is.

If you're worried about things going wrong and losing your brave little kerbals, then use a buddy system. Send two of everything and have extra space for crew. Send two motherships, multiple landers,etc. If something goes wrong on one of your ships, you can transfer crew and resources to help with the situation. You could even make automated supply ships and bases dedicated to holding extra fuel or life support resources. In other words, just compensate with larger volumes and planning.

[Yasmy]

First stop in low Kerbol orbit is almost never a good idea, unless you plan on going interstellar. Getting to Kerbol is harder than getting anywhere else.

[Tatonf]

I don't know if there's a mod which support that, but having parts capable of creating water/food/oxygen would be the best way to go I think.

This is what they plan to do for Mars One I think.

[Bolche]

This buddy system looks like a great idea! Definitely will use it.

I installed MKS/OKS to try to create life support resources, but it is very hard to make a closed system.

Anyway, thanks for the answers. It looks like there is no easy way. They'll have to be (relatively) alone out there...

[Grumman]

If you want a closed loop system with MKS, I'd recommend testing it out on Minmus first. It's close enough for a rescue mission if it goes wrong, but it will let you see if you missed anything, as well as being a good staging point to top up on fuel, machinery and other consumables just before you leave.

Also, bring fertiliser. Even in an open loop system, you'll be able to make your mass go a lot further with a combination of lossy Mulch -> Organics conversion and Mulch + Fertiliser -> Organics conversion: one unit of fertiliser is effectively worth six units of mulch, or nine units if you're using MK-V converters.