Finally leaving kerbin SOI after 400+ hours playing...

[jedensuscg]

So after playing since .24, with several hundred hours logged according to Steam, I have yet to leave the Kerbin SOI, disregarding the occasional probe heading towards the sun, but since I use remote tech, I have no control over these yet. Not sure why I have not left the Kerbin SOI, always tried to focus on doing a Mun base (not suceeded) or focusing on aircraft (marginal) and I usually restart a Career after major patches. Anywho...

I have a contract to do some high and low orbit stuff over Duna, I have a launch window planned for three kerbin days from now, I have a lifter that can put out about 7500 dV with a 8-10 ton payload. I can probably fudge it bit more but that is the limit of my tech right now. (Just unlocked the first R&D upgrade). I do have an orbital refuel station that can top me off, so fuel is not a problem.

But I have never done a burn for another planet. I will probably be using Mech Jeb to assist, it will be manned because I do not have the sat network to risk an unmanned flight(remote tech) of that range yet, but I would like to leave a comsat in polar orbit around Duna. 

Does anyone have any suggestion of what else I should do when I get there (the contract minimum is an RPWS and Grav detector thing).  Any lessons learned. I also have USI life support, so will also be bringing food.  No Science bay unlocked yet either.

 

I will keep everyone updated. Big event for me. Been playing since .24 and this will be the first time out past Minmus.

Edited July 9, 2016 by jedensuscg

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

[Aegolius13]

If you're not planning a manned landing, not sure there's a lot to "do" other than take what science measurements you have from orbit.  But a few ideas:

-Drop a one-way unmanned probe to the surface of Duna to score a little more science.  It can be pretty simple and light - small engine to deborbit and do the final brake at landing, parachute, maybe drogue chute, maybe landing gear, and science instruments.  (Plus the usual stuff - probe core, batteries, antenna).  You need very little delta-v to land thanks to the atmosphere.

-If you have the tech, put a surface scanner on the probe you're sending to polar orbit.  

-Swing by Ike.  It's really easy to intercept on the way in or out, and good for a LOT of science.  You might be able to pull a gravity assist to save some delta v on the entry or exit.  And if you want to get really fancy, you can have the aforementioned scansat probe get into a polar orbit here too and scan.  Ike is an easier mining option than Duna so it's probably the more important place to scan.  

 

Other random thoughts:

-It's a pretty good planet to aerobrake on.  To get to low Duna orbit arriving from Kerbin (assuming no Ike gravity assist), set your peri for maybe 15km  -- but this will require some trial and error.  Don't be afraid to make multiple passes.  

-Remember solar panels are a bit weaker out this far from the Sun.  

 

Good luck!

[Hodo]

Having played a career mode with Remote Tech and all sorts of realism mods minus RO.   I can say sending anything to any other planet is a challenge and very rewarding when done.  

 

I have sent a ship to Eve and had it drop a probe down to the Eve surface, but the ship suffered damage on the SOI slow down through Eves atmosphere.  I had a 7min signal delay.  Loads of fun on that one..... managed to get the probe down it had a minor problem on the landing site and rolled down hill and took some minor damage, losing its solar panels and secondary antennas but its primary worked so it finished its mission. 

 

Now in the past 1000hrs since that time I have spent most of my time in the Kerbin SOI.   I rarely leave and head out into the solar system any more.  

[Snark]

Here's another recent (and ongoing) thread about going to Duna-- lots of good advice there, including a really nice breakdown of dV numbers by @OhioBob.

 

[Geschosskopf]

9 hours ago, jedensuscg said:

Does anyone have any suggestion of what else I should do when I get there (the contract minimum is an RPWS and Grav detector thing).  Any lessons learned. I also have USI life support, so will also be bringing food.  No Science bay unlocked yet either.

Well, it all really depends on your lifter capability as limited by available rocket parts and your bank account.  The more of both you have, the more you can accomplish.  In general, if you're going to the trouble of making a trip to another planet, you should try to accomplish as much as possible so you get your money's worth and also make the best use of all the time the trip with take.  This means taking every science instrument you have unlocked so far and using them in every possible situation you can.  To save on weight, you only want to take 1 of each instrument, which means you have to send a Scientist to reload the Goo and Materials after each use.

On a trip to Duna, you have a lot of different situations.  You've got high solar orbit during the trip there and back, plus high and low orbit at both Duna and Ike, plus the atmosphere on Duna and then all the surface biomes of both.  Hitting all of these in 1 trip generally requires a fairly complex mission with either a big mothership or a flotilla of 4-6 smaller ships, plus refueling while you're there.  If this is too much for your tech and/or budget, then cut out landing on 1 both bodies and just orbit both of them.  It really doesn't take much of a ship to do just that.

Just an orbiter for Duna/Ike is small because the transfer burn and midcourse tweaks to Duna is in the range of 1200m/s, barely more than going to Minmus, and it only costs (IIRC--haven't done it in a while) about 500-800m/s to transfer back home.  Thanks to Duna's benign atmosphere, you can aerocapture, set up an Ike flyby, and then circularize into a circular parking orbit at Duna for next to nothing, and you can aerocapture back at Kerbin for free, too.  This will get you 5 sets of data for all your instruments, which is a good haul, and the ship is small and cheap.  It's when you want to land on 1 or both bodies that the mission gets expensive and complex.  Ike's gravity is about 2/3 of Mun's so you need a fairly substantial lander for it, and a Duna lander is even bigger, and you have to get it out there and move it around between Duna and Ike.

As to life support, a round trip to Duna usually takes about about 250-270 days out, 600-700 days waiting there, and another 250-300 coming home, so somewhere about 1200-1500 days total.  Out of all this time, actually doing the mission once you get there will take only a couple of days (if you're just orbiting) to a couple of weeks (if you're landing).  This trip time, of course, can be shortened by spending more money on a bigger rocket to get there less efficiently.  If you weren't using RT, I'd say only pack food for the trip out and set USI-LS so that Kerbals hibernate when out of food.  Then you can bring the ship home with a probe core

But either way, the time involved means that a trip to Duna takes a long time to give you the science payoff.  I often find that I've completed the tech tree pillaging Minmus and Mun long before my 1st Duna expedition even gets there, let alone comes back.  I can only avoid this by NOT doing science at home during the trip.

 

9 hours ago, jedensuscg said:

I will keep everyone updated. Big event for me. Been playing since .24 and this will be the first time out past Minmus.

I look forward to it.  Put up a whole story in the Mission Reports topic.