Kerbin > Duna > Landinding> Kerbin

[Gunhed]

Hi,

I'm able to reach Duna and land, with a 3 men rocket.

I'm not able to get back from Duna to Kerbin due to the lack of fuel. (I fail to get into orbit around Duna)

I experimented a bit with parachutes, but I landed on my side, due to the side drift.

Does anyone have a working rocket (picture) who can do what I am hoping to achieve? I need some ideas on what I may be doing wrong.

Cheers,

[Ghery88]

What parts do you use? How was the interplanetary insertion? Maybe your vessel is capable for the return.

[mr.frech]

Well i think it´s kinda impossibel to land on a other planet and get back with vanilla parts caus imagine you have to get the whole rocket, with wich you are getting to duna,

on duna and land it.Only in this way you could get back freom duna to kerbin (well ok, maybe the rocket hasn´t to be that big like from kerbin cause of lower gravity on duna).

sorry for bad english

[elmarko]

Did you aerobrake at Duna to save fuel?

[elmarko]

Aerocapturing at Duna is a must to safe fuel.

[Ghery88]

The first and foremost must is getting the right trajectory, imho.

[Moach]

a return trip would be more likely to achieve if you send out two vessels, one to land, and another to return aboard... there are a few addons you'd want for this - specially the "crewtank" so you have something on the return craft you can put your landed kerbals aboard, plus you wanna have mechjeb and one of the interplanetary calculators with you

the idea is simple - the first vessel carries a crew to Duna and lands there - it should be able to relaunch into low Duna orbit afterwards - this is not that hard, Duna is just a little more than twice the Mun, so gravity is roughly 3 times less than on Kerbin (a nice analogy of the relation between earth, the moon and mars)

but going back across planets is tough - and landing a nuclear engine, albeit less heavy on Duna, is a major waste of precious delta-V... so you launch a second craft (you can do this just after putting the first on course, since it takes at least 60~70 days for it to get there, and the launch windows do have a certain "tolerance" of a few days)

this second vessel is not meant to land on Duna, it's going there to bring the lander crew back home - when their surface mission is complete (and/or they get bored down there) - the lander launches itself back into a low Duna orbit, and waits for rendezvous with the second craft

since docking is not really an option, the crew will have to EVA to reach their ride home - having them climb aboard the crew tank, they can safely fly back to Kerbin (there's probably some waiting to do first, there's another launch window needed to get back and find a planet there when you arrive)

if this ship has the heatshield mounted below both the pod and the crewtank (or you don't care about exploiting the absence of reentry-related problems for the time being), then reentry is pretty straightforward, apart from the extra-heavy parachute haul....

well, i have yet to try it for myself, but in theory this seems like it'd work (or get closer to working before everyone involved dies)

good luck, then!

may the Kraken not meet you along your voyage!

cheers!

[Monkthespy]

There is a way to return: NERVA. These engines still have 700 impulse (I think) on the surface, making them effiecent. And the slightly lower gravity also means you can get orbit pretty easy with these suckers. Now, it's the problem of how MUCH fuel to bring with a NERVA. I honestly don't know, 2 tanks is enough for a small lander in the interplanatary stage, so maybe 3 for safety?

Assuming you're using one meter, haha.