My Duna landing

[Ghery88]

It happend around 06:00 GMT+1 on the 20th of September.

Screenshots in the album (not sorted)

http://imageshack.us/g/1/9770292/

Took less than 130 days to do so with presumeably enough fuel left for the trip home. Which is awesome, because I totally lack the proper knowledge and tricks for interplanetary flights. And guess how it ended! I managed to kill Jeb during EVA...

Notes:

Attached Hermes craft which took me there.

Get rid of the landing parachutes, they had little to no use during descent.

[Rommel]

Nice, well done.

But no return trip?

Not trying hard enough haha.

Here is a picture of my lander (on entry):

<removed>

Edited February 4, 2014 by Rommel

[Znath]

I couldn't get the orbits to sync up so it took me hundreds of days to get there!

Nice on being able to return though.

I just barely was able to make it TO Duna. It'll be a long time until I can make it there and back, my computer's too slow to have a huge launch.

My lander's made of 1 nuclear engine, 4 fuel tanks, 1rcs. It has enough fuel to make it there, but not back. So I might modify it a bit and see if that works. I found that 3 parachutes was enough to land me on the surface. I also went for a low angle of entry so that I could skim the atmosphere to slow down more to save fuel. Otherwise you have to burn the rockets longer and waste energy. My parachutes didn't really help until under 10000m anyway, but they're really helpful even in Duna's thin air.

But set your trajectory so that your orbit bottoms at like 10-20km so you'll gradually slow down using the atmosphere rather than engines. With a large ship you might go for the big parachutes too not those small ones. I think if you used the big parachutes, you could save a ton of fuel.

[eljaydub]

Wow, our Duna landers look about identical. Great minds think alike, I guess. I went with the 2-ship solution so mine only had to make it back to Duna orbit to rendezvous.

Edited September 22, 2012 by eljaydub

[ForumHelper]

Mine looks a little simpler, yet still works pretty well(and it's a big pod)

Aerospikes were replaced with the new engine.

Nuclear engines are dropped before landing, just after parachutes deploy(they slow my craft to ~20m/s which is really good). Two small engines that are left easily take the craft into a 50x50 orbit around Duna.

This landing was a total success.

@Rommel:

This is after liftoff from Duna, I decided to land on Ike

Edited September 22, 2012 by ForumHelper

[Ghery88]

Nice designs and shots guys!

[Freddman]

Nice! I started off by sending an un-manned probe, followed by a two-launch mission, one lander and one rendezvous and return.

http://imgur.com/a/MuNup - Probe

http://imgur.com/a/QH5JH - Lander (Managed to land < 80km from the probe!)

http://imgur.com/a/Y3Frv - Rendezvous and return

Edited September 22, 2012 by Freddman

[HungryWalrus]

Nice! I started off by sending an un-manned probe, followed by a two-launch mission, one lander and one rendezvous and return.

http://imgur.com/a/MuNup - Probe

http://imgur.com/a/QH5JH - Lander (Managed to land < 80km from the probe!)

http://imgur.com/a/Y3Frv - Rendezvous and return

That looks really cool, would you mind sharing where you got your probe parts?

[Freddman]

That looks really cool, would you mind sharing where you got your probe parts?

The probe parts are from Mechanical Mouse's Satellite Pack. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/13692-Mechanical-Mouse-Industries-Kethane-Payload-Packs-Released%21%21%21

[hubbazoot]

The small engines work SUPER well for this sort of thing. I made a 5-tank lander. I actually almost gave up on doing Duna stock. Some of the rocket parts are...floppy.

[Ghery88]

The small engines work SUPER well for this sort of thing. I made a 5-tank lander. I actually almost gave up on doing Duna stock. Some of the rocket parts are...floppy.

What carried it to Duna?

[ash73]

Here's me on final approach to my first landing on another planet!