To Duna and back, with one ship, 3-man pod.

[Wild Card]

Well, I managed to get a 3-man lander to and from Duna, although it was a little tight with the fuel budget. The craft's name is IntraSolar 3. IntraSolar 1, well...her pieces are in a polar-solar, highly eccentric orbit. IntraSolar 2 couldn't escape atmosphere without breaking up. IntraSolar 3 is my first successful interplanetary design. She lags quite badly on take off, which is why I use MechJeb to help with that, as there is no possible way that I can ascend it properly with all of the lag. After the second stage, ALL of the struts on the third stage will automagically become decoupled (I thought it would be a huge problem, but, if you take your gravity turn and orbital maneuvers nice and light, the big fuel tanks will stay together just fine. I also thought I'd like to do some surface mapping, and try to find some anomalies, so I brought along the ISA mapping dish, as well. Never know when it might come in handy.

Now, I'm uploading IntraSolar 4, it has a couple of small tweaks, a little bit reduced mass, and a slightly improved fuel-flow in the later stages.

[ATTACH]33457[/ATTACH]

So, the ONLY two mods you need to run this are MechJeb and ISA Satmap thingy. And, if you don't want the ISA thing, I'll upload a version without it.

It's a PITA to launch and ascend, but once you ascend and break atmosphere, then circularize, you will switch to your NERVA's and use them to raise your orbit to about 605 km or so (so the high-speed warp can kick in, aiding with planetary alignment).

Once you are ready to launch, I recommend doing your Dunar-Injection-Burn about 6 degrees BEFORE your predicted ejection angle, as those NERVA's are still pushing a fair amount of mass around at that point.

Here's the secret: Get your Dunar Pe to the smallest amount possible. I was able to hit about 20km from Kerbin orbit. As I got closer to Duna, I would keep making small corrections, about 4 total in the entire trip to Duna. The closer you are, the more precise you can make your Pe. I planned on saving a crapload of fuel and using an extreme aerobraking maneuver. I got my Pe to around 3km when I hit atmosphere, so even that tiny little thin atmosphere completely slowed down my craft and killed my lateral velocity. I then deployed chutes, and did a rocket assisted landing.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33460[/ATTACH]

Unfortunately, at this point, I had landed very close to the South Pole, which later killed my fuel budget. Before you ascend, decouple the landing parachutes. They'll hang on a little while, due to their placement, but they'll leave eventually. When I ascended (heading 270), I circularized my orbit to about 800 km (for maximum warp and less Delta-V wasted on an inclination change), and then I burned a fair amount of fuel changing my orbit to an equatorial one. I was getting worried at this point about having enough fuel to make it back to Kerbin.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33459[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]33461[/ATTACH]

I accelerated time until the planets, and then my ejection angle matched what I needed, and I started a VERY CAREFUL burn to Kerbin. Well, I had JUST enough fuel to make it. I set my Pe to be an extreme aerocapture (about 4.5km Pe), and the reason was very simple. After all was said and done, I entered the Kerbin SOI with about 8.0L of fuel left, and no RCS. So, even if I wanted to, I couldn't make any drastic course corrections.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33458[/ATTACH]

After that, it's a cakewalk. Use what little fuel you have to slow down your descent and keep your Pe very close to the ground, then seperate, let the atmosphere do the work, and deploy your last parachute.

[Wild Card]

Kerbin reentry speed and Pe. Things were going a little fast right here, due to a direct insertion from Duna.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33462[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]33463[/ATTACH]

The G-forces were rather high, high enough to light up the warning light!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33464[/ATTACH]

Coming in for a soft landing

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33465[/ATTACH]

The IntraSolar 4, ready to launch

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33467[/ATTACH]

[Wild Card]

The boys are home! My first there-and-back interplanetary mission is a success!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]33468[/ATTACH]

Here is an updated Intrasolar 4, I had placed some of the landing-stage struts wrong, which will NOT enable your Kerbal to use the ladders to get up and down the lander. On Duna, it's not a big problem, as they can jump and RCS up the landing stage, but if you want to use this anywhere else, like Eve, you need those ladders functional.

[ATTACH]33469[/ATTACH]

Edited September 24, 2012 by Wild Card

[zombiphylax]

This is wonderful! I've been trying to make the smallest craft to land on Duna and return that I can, so far I can get an orbital vehicle that can get to Duna orbit and return to Kerbin with 6 of the long 2m tanks, and 1 short 2m tank. I can't quite squeeze out enough fuel to land on Duna and return to Dunan orbit yet though.