At wich tech lvl can launch a probe to Duna? (stock carrer)

[BjM]

Hi! Good morning everyone.

I'm playing stock carrer and yesterday tryied my first unmanned Duna launch.

A simple rocket, the same I was using to build a minmus station but with a lot less cargo. (for the station like 4.5t per launch on this less than 1t).

Aparently it will do pretty good. Enought fuel to go and take the measurements I need to fullfill a contract. I didn't do calcs, playing on the try and error. I'm an achitect, not a rocket cientist aahuahuahau.

Have every building on level 2 and every tech to the lvl 5 by the wiki tiers. So I have only the basic antennas.

The point is, very little out of Kerbin SOI I lost signal. With this tech I will have to make a manned mission or a complex satelite net? I couldn't launch a simple probe direct to Duna? Will need to open more techs or at least upgrade the tracking station? Researching a little It's sounding me I will cannot do without at least the DTS-M1 or RA-2 antennas. Had a HG-5 deployed on the probe. More antennas got more strenght? So I need to make my probe a hedgeohg of HG-5s? (and maybe a sat on Kerbin SOI that's a hedgehog too).

It's bugging me because I like to go slow on tech, and buildings. Not that I can do caveman (some da will do) but I try to not hurry and open everything and ending do playing like sandbox. Have my firsts mun fly by with only lvl 4 techs, so no solar panels, only battery pack 1, and stayputnik, and every building on lvl 1, so no manueverig nodes and little pieces count. I didn't want to reserch more techs now.

PS: Maybe I need to share with you my Minmus station. It's for a contract, needs to hold 5 kerbals, 4000 liquid fuel and land. Doing with only the dock port jr. First parcial landing test was almost a success.

Edited July 19, 2017 by BjM
added more question

[Human Person]

You could do a manned mission. what else is a pilot good for anyways?

[Tex_NL]

From low Kerbin orbit it only takes about 150m/s more dV to get a Duna encounter than it does for Minmus.
And a parachute landing on Duna followed by an ascent back to orbit is less than 200m/s more expensive than a powered Mun landing plus ascent.

If you have the tech (and abilities) to get to Mun or Minmus you can also go to Duna.

Edited July 19, 2017 by Tex_NL

[bewing]

Under normal circumstances, you do not lose complete control of the ship when you go outside signal range. You go into "reduced control" mode, unless you changed the default settings.

It is still completely possible to do satellite contracts or to land in reduced control mode. You may need RCS or some other low-power thrusters for doing careful orbit adjustments.

So you do not need to do the mission manned, or to make a comm network. Just use the reduced control mode you already have.

 

[Spricigo]

1 hour ago, bewing said:

 You may need RCS or some other low-power thrusters for doing careful orbit adjustments.

I was under the assumption that one cannot use RCS under limited control.

@BjM Duna will be around 3Gm away from kerbin at closest approach, for the sake of analysis lets suppose it will not much farther away at the time of your mission. Lets see your options:

1.Going for a kerbaled mission with a pilot will give you full control of the craft regardless of commnet coverage, the drawback is the added mass to support the crew. A orbit Duna and return mission requires less deltaV (but a bit more precision) than Land on Mun and return.  In any case you should consider bringing more fuel so you can explore a bit, visit Ike and so on.

2.Upgrading the tracking station to lv3 and piling up15x HG-5 will provide a max range over 3Gm 20x will give 3,43Gm.

3.Unlocking the DTS-M1 (or RA-2, in the same tech node) will allow a range of 10Gm between the craft and a lvl2 craft station. Requires 160 science and unlock a few other parts (personally I find the HECS probecore  and the TR-2V decoupler very handy)

4.Just send the craft, you don't need commnet control for a flyby, and if Duna don’t disturb the trajectory too much the craft will eventually come back near Kerbin to transmit the science. If you set a maneuver node and point the craft in the required direction with antecedence you will have no problem following it even with limited control.

[BjM]

Thanks everyone.

Made some tests yesterday after reading your answers and narrowed my choices to either make a manned mission or get the tech.

Unfortunately the contract I'm doing needs to make more than one pass around Duna, it's the one's that you need to take temp from x points above x altitude, and I can't do this with the limited control. This tyoe of orbit I can't fine tune without the mannuever nodes. Have almost 1k science to spent so think I will go with the tech.

Two question that grow and I couldn't find a satisfatory answer;

If I have a craft with pilot and a porb within range of this craft but both isn't connected to Kerbin, can I control the probe? Like if I go to Duna with a manned ship that lost signal to Kerbin, and this ship drops a unmmaned rover on the surface, could it be remote controled by the ship crew? 

Without signal can I toggle hibernation on and off? Almost sure I couldn't when try, but reading looks like it isn't a problem.

[Snark]

40 minutes ago, BjM said:

If I have a craft with pilot and a porb within range of this craft but both isn't connected to Kerbin, can I control the probe? Like if I go to Duna with a manned ship that lost signal to Kerbin, and this ship drops a unmmaned rover on the surface, could it be remote controled by the ship crew?

Yes, but only if the ship with your kerbal is equipped with a high-tech-level probe core itself.  If it has the 1.25m probe core, it can remote-control a probe that's within direct LOS (i.e. just one hop, can't go through a relay).  If it has the 2.5m probe core, it can remote-control a probe even if it's going through a relay.

But anything less than the 1.25m probe core does not have that ability, and since that probe core's near the top end of the tech tree and you're trying to do a low-tech Duna mission, I expect that option is not available to you.

 

[BjM]

Thanks everyone!