Sending Kerbals to Duna?

[Pawelk198604]

i just wonder which way to send kerbal into mars are the best way?

 

I wonder what would be if i send one refuelling station in low Kerbin orbit and the second  station to DUNA Orbit???  but never tried it though  

 

Or maybe send Kerbals there and than figure somehow how get them back

BTW i wonder does we can try this IRL in MARS  

 

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

Do it Apollo Style, use a transfer stage with 5 LV-Ns and a large 1st stage to carry all that stuff up into orbit. That is how I did it and it took about 3 kerbal years. Then, I went to Eeloo next. Also, first try sending probes. Also, I can try to make a craft for this purpose myself.

[blooder14]

Are you using stock or modded? Stock is quite easy, Delta-V requirements are not that hard (about 2000 m/s to go from surface to orbit of Duna), with maybe a refuel craft in orbit around duna you should be golden quite easly. Also remeber Duna has an atmosphere, so you can both aerobrake and try a parachute landing, just remeber the atmosphere is VERY thin and quite low. 
Modded it's a whole lot more complicated if you have things such as life support or FAR, but you have also tools like mechjeb to help.

[Pawelk198604]

2 minutes ago, blooder14 said:

Are you using stock or modded? Stock is quite easy, Delta-V requirements are not that hard (about 2000 m/s to go from surface to orbit of Duna), with maybe a refuel craft in orbit around duna you should be golden quite easly. Also remeber Duna has an atmosphere, so you can both aerobrake and try a parachute landing, just remeber the atmosphere is VERY thin and quite low. 
Modded it's a whole lot more complicated if you have things such as life support or FAR, but you have also tools like mechjeb to help.

no only mode i use are mechjeb, Kerbal Engineer, and some Tantares Rocket with Russian parts.

[septemberWaves]

Before going to Duna, I'd suggest becoming experienced in orbital docking. If you can dock spacecraft in orbit already then you're ready to go to other planets. If you can't, practice rendezvous maneuvers around Minmus (because it's cheap on fuel so mistakes won't be too serious) and keep practicing until you can reliably and easily dock around Kerbin when the orbits of the two spacecraft are no more than 10km apart. The reason I say you need to be able to dock is because a direct ascent Duna mission is significantly more difficult than a direct ascent Mun mission.

Once you're able to dock in orbit, use the usual method of designing the spacecraft payload-first. Your most important payload is the ascent module of the lander (I'm assuming a two-stage lander but you could do a single-stage lander for Duna). This should have a delta-v of about 1500m/s once you get experienced, but you should start with about 1750m/s so you have a good margin for error (I'm assuming you'll be landing near the equator and using prograde orbits, otherwise the delta-v costs are more).

The descent module of the lander is next. If you use a parachute-assisted landing (which is what I would recommend) add enough parachutes that you'd be able to land safely on Kerbin, as well as landing gear, science equipment, and a reasonably-powerful propulsion system with a delta-v of about 600m/s because the parachutes aren't enough on Duna.

Next, you want to design the transfer vehicle. Assuming no aerobraking, the transfer vehicle alone needs about 1900m/s (so you have a reasonable error margin) to get from Duna to Kerbin, as well as another 1900m/s with the lander attached to get from Kerbin to Duna. Remember that designing an overpowered vehicle is safer than trying to optimize before you're experienced, so I'd suggest just designing a vehicle with 3800m/s when the payload is attached. You'll probably also want landing systems for when you return to Kerbin, unless you plan on sending up a new rocket to recover the crew once they're back in Kerbin orbit.

Finally, design launch vehicles. I would generally launch the transfer vehicle separately from the lander, and dock them in Kerbin orbit (and usually my transfer vehicle would itself consist of several modules to be assembled in orbit), but you can launch the entire assembly in a single launch if it's not too massive.

 

This method of planning works for any destination, not just Duna. You just have to know what to prepare for.

Edited September 3, 2017 by eloquentJane

[Pawelk198604]

I'm just wondering does in KSP  we can extract fuel from the planet? I heard that some time ago SQUAD added possibility to mapping planet for the fuel? 

[Curveball Anders]

15 minutes ago, Pawelk198604 said:

I'm just wondering does in KSP  we can extract fuel from the planet? I heard that some time ago SQUAD added possibility to mapping planet for the fuel? 

The wiki has some explanations.

[Scarecrow]

I made an Apollo style ship to go to the Mun, and by adding a couple of boosters to the first stage, and parachutes to the lander, the same ship was able to go to Duna and back.  Landing on Duna can be done with very little fuel due to being able to use the parachutes, so a lander that is capable of landing on Mun and returning to orbit should be able to do the same at Duna.  All you need then is a ship to get the lander to Duna, and that is capable of returning the pilots to Kerbin.

[mk1980]

getting to duna in the stock game doesn't require all that much. if you pack some extra chutes to save fuel during the duna landing, you barely need more than what it takes to land on the mun. a while back, i tried to do a duna mission with the "Kerbal X" stock rocket. that rocket is designed for mun landing, so it only has 1 big chute. had to spend too much fuel for a semi-powered landing on duna, so i only had about 200m/s left when i got back to duna orbit. about 400 more would have been enough to return to kerbin (assuming a fully unpowered aerocapture).

so i'd say it depends a lot on what you want to do there. a simple mission that gets there, lands, plants a flag and then waits for the transfer window back doesn't have to be much bigger than your usual mun lander. works perfectly fine with low-ish tech if you play career. no need for nukes or other high end stuff, really.

i tend to overengineer duna missions, though. feels like a huge waste to spend like 3 years of ingame time for a simple flags & footprints moment of glory, so i send a lot more stuff which then pretty much requires nuke engines and/or ISRU to make it viable.

[Curveball Anders]

I'm just about to launch manned expedition to Duna (in this career save).

This time around I did it in quite a complex way, mainly because I could and wanted to

I started with 'Duna Express' who''s main component is a big relay antenna and science gathering package that's supposed to stay in Duna orbit. Stacked on top of this is a small science return vehicle (it's an Experiment Storage unit with just enough additional gadgetery to get it back to Kerbin).

The second phase is a (initially) unmanned station with a lab and a (hopefully reusable) lander.

The third phase (launched almost simultaneous with phase two) is a 'Space Bus Mk2' which is a vehicle that can shuttle 4 kerbals from LKO Station to Duna Station and back.

All units (except the science return hack) is dockable and can be left in any stable orbit to be saved, refuelled, fixed or expanded if plans fail or get changed during the mission(s).

[Angelo Kerman]

@eloquentJane I haven't flown to Duna is a very long time. This is great advice, thanks.

[TheKSPBeginner]

Easy rendezvous: Launch into a backwards orbit equal to that of the target, except it's going backwards.

[purpleivan]

You only need a small vehicle to do a Duna trip

In my career game I took this vehicle from Kerbin orbit.

The large tank with the Poodle engine at the back end was actually intended to finish the burn into Kerbin orbit, but a lot of fuel was in it when I made it to orbit, enough for the burn to Duna and for some of the braking into orbit.

 

The lander was pretty small, with the Science Jr module plus the little tank of fuel on top, being jettisoned just after liftoff. The fuel was used for the descent burn bu had enough in it for about the first 20 seconds or so of the ascent.

 

The trip back to Kerbin was courtesy of a small single nuke vehicle that was rendezvoused with in Duna orbit. This actually had enough Delta-v to make the trip to Duna and back.

 

 

[septemberWaves]

1 hour ago, purpleivan said:

You only need a small vehicle to do a Duna trip

But where's the fun in that? And in any case, the required delta-v never changes regardless of the physical size of the vehicle.

[agrasyuk]

preparing for Duna mission right now with 65Days before the transfer window as I collected a nice string of Contracts. as much as I hate locked technology I'm really enjoying the Career aspect of the game in that it tells you what needs to happen and you need to figure out how to do it with least expenditure. Contracts stipulate visit and return from Duna, station with laboratory in orbit, outpost with lab and Personnel on surface of Ike with various equipment and data return. ISRU module launched as part of Kerbin orbital station Contract will join the trip and used with Ore lifter craft will provide ample fuel for all maneuver and return needs. scientists, pilot and engineer will stay behind, while main crew heads home ("just-in-case" emergency return vehicle will stay with station). crew will operate biome science lander-hopper craft to gather science (hopefully contracts come up for that too). I'm not yet sure if both laboratories will be manned and operating as hiring crew became very expensive, hope to rescue some more scientists from orbit before departure.

First unmanned craft loaded with 8 satellites was launched 5 days ago: 2 scanners with all the radar , ore and biome stuff, 6 RA-15 relay Sats . since its left early took about 500dv more then ideal. fulfills 0 contracts but by the time the main expedition gets there both Duna and ike will be scanned and relay network established. 

so to answer your question - send them as Contract stipulates. or here is an idea for you if you don' play Career.