Mission to Duna {pic heavy}

[Iren]

Just wanted to share with you my return-capable ship and landers bound to Duna. Now that this technology has been tested with success, I'll be setting an outpost on the Red planet surface

This is the Duna Transfer Station (Mk.2), a remote-controlled space station powered by 2 NERVA engines, allows to be refueled and and hold spare tanks (delivered by a tanker ship, not shown on this set of pics).

2 full spare tanks are sent to the station to have plenty of fuel for the full trip (I still got about half main tank after getting back to Kerbin). Also, the first Duna Lander can be seen on the back of the ship, carrying the first 2 of 4 kerbals to travel to Duna on the maiden flight of DTS.

The second Duna Lander is launched to the station, here it can be seen rendezvousing with the DTS...

...and now about to dock, after jettisoning the orbital stage engine.

Our ship is now set to start the interplanetary orbital burn, all kerbals are now comfy on the inside of the station, after turning off all systems on the landers.

And off we go!

The ship approaches Duna, preparing for a correction burn in order to dip on the planet's atmosphere for some aerobraking (sorry, forgot to take pics of that one )

Duna orbit achieved! The orbit is further adjusted and circularized to an average of 60km above Duna's surface to ease the lander returns (still a pain in the ass to fast-forward when rendezvouzing hehe).

The first heroes EVA to the Duna Lander and undock the ship, braking with the lander main engine. Next stop: surface!

The main engine helps with killing off as much speed as it's able to, since the lander will split in half if the parachutes open all of a sudden (oh, kerbal engineering, what could we do without you?)

Finally, we are there. The first half of the mission is a success!

Our heroes pose for a nighttime picture on Duna's surface. Also, we notice that our engineers forgot to put up some ladders, so we have to jetpack back to the hatch.

After some time on Duna's surface, our heroes launch back to Duna's orbit.

Once the main tank is depleted, it is discarded to shed off weight and the small octo-radial engines are turned on.

The Lander rendezvous with the DTS. The other half of the crew is already there, waiting for their mates (you can see that the fuel tanks have been disposed).

Everyone EVAs back to the station...

...and after dropping our periapsis low enough to ensure the lander's disposal, we undock them and let them crash on Duna's surface.

The DTS is now bound to go back to Kerbin, prior to a gravity assist with Ike.

Our heroes bid farewell to the Duna-Ike system.

After some orbital adjustments, we are set for a Kerbin encounter.

Approaching home...

...and aerobraking to LKO (now I remembered to take a picture )

Afterwards a taxi ship will bring back our heroes from LKO, and probably refuel the ship for future missions (still TBD, I'll let them hang on the station for a while )

Hope you liked it! Sorry if this doesn't belongs to this forum, but the old "Mission Reports" forum is gone.

[Dictator Dan]

I like your station/transport design.

[erkha343]

thanks for showing a new way to use part clipping, the twin nervas looked great!

[miketheveeg]

nicely done

also nice design

[Specialist290]

Always nice to see new mission reports.

[Iren]

Thanks for the kind comments!

thanks for showing a new way to use part clipping, the twin nervas looked great!

To be honest, I saw that somewhere on the forums prior to the Great DDoS Purge, so now I don't remember who did it first to credit him/her. I loved the design for an interplanetary mission, the burn times are still high but it helps a lot.

[MickG]

Also, we notice that our engineers forgot to put up some ladders, so we have to jetpack back to the hatch.

That was obviously intentional to save weight Cool mission report.

[Scotius]

Very nice, efficient mission. I like your idea of dropping main engines along with empty tanks on landers. It complicates the design, but allows for weight savings.

[Lortto]

I like your transfer station design a lot. Gave me a few ideas.