Help And Tips for a Mission to Duna

[SomeDudePlayingKsp]

Alright so im not exactly a new Player, But after aproximately 402 play hours (according to steam) i still cant figure out how to get to Duna, Help And Tips Appreciated.

EDIT 1:I should mention i have no problem getting to Minmus and the Mun, I've also played RSS with RO and after some time Had no problem doing a manned mission to the Moon.

Edited September 22, 2019 by SomeDudePlayingKsp

[Signo]

Hi there, you could use this link to calculate your transfer window:

https://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/

The first good window in any game starts about day 220 and lasts till day 250.

Good luck.

[Vanamonde]

Since you're okay with flying to the moons, try flying from Mun orbit to Minmus. It's the same problem as getting from Kerbin to Duna on a smaller scale. 

Anyway, when Duna is about 45 degrees ahead of Kerbin, put your ship in orbit, set Duna as target, and start playing with maneuver nodes. When you get a path that looks like this, 

you will be going to Duna today.

(That's a very old screenshot but it's the first one I could find that shows the path. I think nothing about it is obsolete.) 

[SomeDudePlayingKsp]

9 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Since you're okay with flying to the moons, try flying from Mun orbit to Minmus. It's the same problem as getting from Kerbin to Duna on a smaller scale. 

Anyway, when Duna is about 45 degrees ahead of Kerbin, put your ship in orbit, set Duna as target, and start playing with maneuver nodes. When you get a path that looks like this, 

you will be going to Duna today.

(That's a very old screenshot but it's the first one I could find that shows the path. I think nothing about it is obsolete.) 

Thank you very much!

[fulgur]

Check out a dV map when playing KSP - there's a mod which adds one to the KSPedia. Also, use Transfer Window Planner and Kerbal Alarm Clock (both by TriggerAu) to find out when you need the least dV to get to a planet. Timewarp to the window and launch all your ships, then create maneuver nodes and fiddle until you get a low Periapsis. It should take somewhere in the region of 950 + 130 + 250 + 360 = about 1700m/s to get to Duna orbit. You will need more than that to get home of course and you can use Ike flybys to decrease insertion dV.

[AHHans]

My $0.05:

I guess the biggest hurdle is to figure out when there is a transfer window from one planet to another. In addition to the URL that @Signo posted, there is: https://ksp.olex.biz/. Or you use a mod in the game. I personally use Kerbal Alarm Clock (use the "Calc by Model" option, not the "Calc by Formula"), but there are others around.

Duna is the planet with the lowest orbital inclination (except Kerbin, which you can consider the reference), so going to the other planets usually requires a mid-course plane change maneuver. (But I believe you'll figure that out. If not then you know where to ask. )

It is also possible to "force" an encounter when not starting from a transfer window. (By fiddling around with the maneuver node(s).) But those require more dV, sometimes ridiculous large amounts of dV.

11 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

(That's a very old screenshot but it's the first one I could find that shows the path. I think nothing about it is obsolete.) 

The GUI got more busy (and IMHO informative), but nothing that's important here changed.