Where should I go next?

[Kromey]

I'm still a ways out from my first interplanetary forays into space. I have a rough plan that goes roughly like this:

1. Probe rover on Mun
   
2. Probe rover on Minmus
   
3. Refueling space station
   
4. Permanent manned base on Minmus (it's just prettier than Mun)
   

I've already had successful probe landings on Mun (although I tried to hop it toward an arch and blew it up), although so far "successful landing" has been quite elusive on Minmus. I currently have the V'ger MkII mission in progress, to deliver a pair of satellite/lander combination probes each to Mun (it's currently in parking orbit here with the two satellite/landers already detached but not yet deployed) and Minmus before returning to LKO, so with any luck I should have 4 more successful probe landings soon.

Anyway, I'm beginning to think about and start planning for my first interplanetary missions. My plan is to first send a probe satellite/lander combination (maybe the V'ger MkII re-stocked and re-fueled), and follow that up with manned missions to establish a base and explore the surface.

My first thought was Eve, because PURPLE! But since one of my space program's requirements is to never send one-way manned missions, the dV requirements to launch from Eve make it a later-stage target, when I have more experience designing and launching interplanetary missions.

Then I thought Duna, because it's the next closest. But then there's Laythe, which seems to be a popular destination.

And then I read about the "Moholes" and "pixies" on Moho. That sounds really fascinating!

Eventually I'll go everywhere. I'm just trying to decide where my first destination beyond Kerbin's local system should be. And I'd like to hear what others would suggest.

If it matters to your suggestion, I play stock, with the addition of Subassembly Saver/Loader and (soon) Kerbal Engineer Redux.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Kromey

[Pursuedtank]

I would probably go to Duna, It doesn't take as much Delta-V as any other place to get to, land and return. Plus it's the first place I went to outside of Kerbin orbit. You could, however always send a probe to Eve though.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah, Duna is pretty easy to get to, interesting landscape once you're there. I've never tried to get back from it though. The inner planets just seem a lot harder to get to, though Eve is pretty, Moho not so much. Once you're at Jool, you have essentially another system to get around in, needing even more fuel. Dres and Eeloo aren't very exciting, IMO.

[-RanZ-]

Duna, it is easy

[Sol_Rokks_Teddy]

Jool - pol or bop

Avoid Tylo, it's kerbin with no atmosphere to slow you down and looks like the mun. Pol and bop are nice and small with low gravity. Or you try Laythe, it has an atmosphere and from what i am told it's quite pretty:)

[TheDarkStar]

Moho has low (Mun-like) gravity, but it takes a huge amount of dV to get to and back.

[GOOMH]

I said Dres mainly because no one goes to it. Duna is a good step if you're not used to get intercepts but if you can Dres is a satisfying Dwarf planet to visit though can be a major PITA to get their. Landing is fairly easy though like the Mun again.

[astropapi1]

I'm waiting for 0.20.

It'll be awesome to land and plant a flag on my first landing spot!

[Giggleplex777]

I said Dres mainly because no one goes to it. Duna is a good step if you're not used to get intercepts but if you can Dres is a satisfying Dwarf planet to visit though can be a major PITA to get their. Landing is fairly easy though like the Mun again.

I think Eeloo is a much better dwarf planet than Dres to visit. It has a greater variation in colour and is (IMO) easier to get to. Eeloo's also more fun to drive rover on.

Here are some pics (from 0.18) for comparison:

Eeloo

Dres (canyon)

In the end, Duna's the best.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Giggleplex777

[EndOfTheEarth]

If you're looking for an easy landing after an interplanetary flight, your best bet is probably Ike.

Ike has roughly the same surface gravity as the moon, and sits in a conveniently circular orbit about Duna. In short, landing on Ike is merely a matter of picking your favorite Mun lander and hauling it there.

Granted, the downside to this is that the terrain is identical to the Mun, and the only distinguishing feature is Duna in the sky instead of Kerbin, but a landing's a landing, right?

[Temstar]

If you want to have a practice at interplanetary transfer the best place to cut your teeth is actually the transfer between Mun and Minmus. It's the exact same idea as transfer between planets, only at much smaller scale, the transfer window happens much more often, the delta-V is a lot lower and the trip is a lot faster. From Mun to Minmus is a lot like from Kerbin to the superior planets, going from Minmus is to Mun is similiar to going to the inferior planets.

Now then, once you got your feet wet let's have a look at our options:

1. Atmosphere - going to other planets is a matter of time and delta-V. In a lot of ways to settle into an orbit around another planet is very similar to docking, you basically have to match its speed around Kerbol if you want to go into orbit. Now out in space there's only three things that can slow you down:

• rockets
  
• surface of the planet - lithobraking
  
• the atmosphere of the planet, if present
  

Since the lower the delta-V requirement the easier it is to design the ship I would recommend first trip to be a low delta-V one. And since it's not really practical to design a craft that can survive slamming into a rocky surface at interplanetary speeds and survive that means you want to target a world with atmosphere. That narrows the range down to Duna, Ike and Jool.

I won't recommend Jool for a first trip, mainly due to delta-V and the fact that you generally don't go to Jool because you want to visit Jool, you go there to visit one or more of its moons. The mission complexity involved in visiting one or more moons make the Jool trip more suitable for a later mission once you have a good grasp of interplanetary travel and gravity assist.

So that leaves Eve and Duna, both make good targets for a first trip. It comes down to what you want to do:

If it's a manned landing and return mission, go to Duna. Returning from the surface of Eve is probably the most difficult thing to do in the game and require a total mastery of rocket design. Duna on the other hand is very easy to get back from owning to it's low gravity and thin atmosphere. In fact even at Duna's sea level LV-N nuke engine has higher Isp than chemical rockets so you can simply use your interplanetary engine for landing and take off.

If it's a probe landing mission then consider going to Eve. Eve's dense atmosphere means parachutes are super effective and landing is often a simple matter of opening the parachutes and twiddle your thumb waiting for the touch down. In contrast Duna's thin atmosphere requires powered landing, though it's still fairly easy compared to airless landings. Eve is also excellent rover driving country due to improved solar panel output during the day and much better wheel traction due to high gravity.

If you're visiting the moons then it's a toss up. Gilly is very hard to reach due to its tiny SOI and require something like 1800m/s of delta-V from LEO. However once you're in Gilly orbit the fun begins. Being the world with lowest gravity in the game you can do all sorts of trippy things at Gilly like EVA only landing and take off, balancing your landed spacecraft at all kinds of bizarre angles like on one landing legs or on the nose and use ASAS to overpower Gilly's feeble gravity and keep it in that unstable position.

Ike on the other hand is very easy to reach. In fact Ike has the largest SOI to semi-major axis ratio in the whole game, it's SOI is so huge that Ike act as an "orbital bulldozer" and perturbs a very wide region around Duna slinging satellites in all directions, you actually have to go to pretty low or very high orbit around Duna to dodge Ike. On the other hand aside from its tiny moonlet known as "Magic Boulder" Ike is very Mun like in surface feature and not a very interesting place to visit.

[Giggleplex777]

If you're looking for an easy landing after an interplanetary flight, your best bet is probably Ike.

Ike has roughly the same surface gravity as the moon, and sits in a conveniently circular orbit about Duna. In short, landing on Ike is merely a matter of picking your favorite Mun lander and hauling it there.

Granted, the downside to this is that the terrain is identical to the Mun, and the only distinguishing feature is Duna in the sky instead of Kerbin, but a landing's a landing, right?

Eve would be better in your case then. You can land with parachute and it's easy to get to. It also doesn't look that plain either.

[redmario14]

Why not try and land on the magic boulder? That sounds pretty easy to me.

[CalculusWarrior]

Duna's your best place to go IMO, as it benefits from being close to Kerbin, has an atmosphere to make landing easier, and you can take off again without requiring insane amounts of delta-v. Ike is also a great place to visit, you can get beautiful shots of Duna over the horizon. (Yes, that's one of the main reasons I go places, to take pretty pictures)

If you choose Eve, you can experience a really easy descent on parachutes, but accept that your kerbals are going to stay there until you decide to invest a lot of time and energy into making a rocket that can return from Eve. I suppose you could visit Gilly, which benefits from being the easiest body to take off from in the game

Moho would probably take a bit too much delta-v, as you have to cancel out a lot of Kerbin's orbital velocity in order to reach it. The Moholes and these ghosts you mentioned sound interesting, but you probably want to build up skill before you want to visit there.

Jool is a fair destination, but unless you have a single one of its moons in mind and want to forget about the others, you'll require quite the mission to document them all. Unless you'd rather go Jool diving? I hear it's quite nice at this time of year

Eeloo is extraordinarily far out (except when it's closer than Jool), and a fairly interesting place to explore, but the delta-v requirements are quite large to travel all the way out there.

TL;DR: For a low amount of delta-v, and a feasible return mission, consider Duna and its moon, Ike!

[Kromey]

Thanks for the input all! Sounds like the general consensus is that Duna should be my target for first interplanetary mission due to low dV requirements and aerobraking opportunities.

Someone mentioned they're waiting for 0.20 so they can plant flags. While I wasn't planning on waiting, the way my last Mun landing attempt went I need a lot more lander practice before I try anything as grand as an interplanetary landing! (Still have no idea what went wrong on that landing attempt, I had my thrusters on low to slow my descent and SAS on and suddenly the whole craft rolled to the side and was skimming over the terrain at insane speeds! I recovered just in time to run out of fuel.) So it may be 0.20 before I feel I'm ready for the big leap!

Someone else mentioned that Mun-Minmus transfers are like interplanetary burns in miniature. Funny you should say that, since my last two missions (V'ger and V'ger I-A, each dropping off satellite/lander probe combinations at the two moons) were Kerbin-Mun-Minmus. The first one I happened to hit Mun at an almost ideal time for the transfer to Minmus, the second time I didn't even bother waiting for the transfer window, but was using a craft that probably has plenty of dV for Duna and back so despite long burn times and a minor error in my fuel lines causing the central LV-N to go dry mid-burn it worked out!