Can't get an interception with Duna

[SoldierHair]

Long story short.I made an awfully powerfull rocket that was supposed to go to Mun.Nothing special , but i promised Katyusha (the ship ) we are going to Mun and back to Kerbin safe.After a lot of burn and getting into a stabble orbit i realised i had lots of fuel left and decided to go as far as possible (I am sorry , Katyusha.Maybe you will see Mun in the next mission).So i got in a perfect orbit around Sun to intercept Duna , theoretically.But i can't get an intercept.What should i do?I still have some fuel , i still have the part that was supposed to burn to Mun's orbit and then detach and i have a good amount of fuel on the lander as well , but i can't afford to make long burns.

I don't want to get stuck in space like the "Interplanetary Joe Mk1" did (the ship near Eve)

[Scotius]

Uh oh. On the first look your orbit is too perfect. You might be in resonance with Duna - which mean you will never get rendezvous despite your orbit crossing Duna's. Try to do small correction burn to change your AP or PA.

[bbwonder]

As Scotius says.. you're orbit is too similar to Dunas.

Try making it more elliptical, and that your inclination (flat plane) is lined up with Dunas orbit.

Good luck & report back!

[Epthelyn]

You should really be trying to achieve a predicted Duna intercept (or something close to one) whilst still at the altitude of Kerbin's orbital path. What you've done would theoretically work, but you're a half-orbit behind Duna and travelling at roughly the same speed as it.

So:

1) Warp for long enough to catch up

or

2) Change your orbit so that you move slower/faster than Duna

[Vanamonde]

Yes, you are in just about the worst position to try for the planet. The easiest (NOT most sophisticated) thing to do would be to make your orbit a matching circle at either a slightly higher or slightly lower altitude, then fast-forward until the planet is parallel with your ship. (This could take MANY orbits.) Then play with the maneuver node system and try to get an intercept with a small nudge. This is how I used to fly my interplanetary missions before we had the maneuver node system and Olex's intercept calculator: http://ksp.olex.biz/

[Jason Patterson]

The good news is that you have more than enough fuel left to get to Duna, the bad news is that it's likely going to take a while to actually get there.

I don't know whether you are proficient at docking or not, but here you're in a similar situation. When you dock (or try to make an encounter with a planet) your goal is to wind up in the same place at the same time. What you have produced is a situation where you'll be in roughly the same place as Duna but always trailing behind it a bit. Just eyeballing it, it looks like Duna will eventually catch up to you, but it might take hundreds of game years before that happens.

Your periapsis looks like it is touching Duna's orbit, more or less. Try putting a maneuver node there with a prograde burn. You should be able to add enough velocity to the burn to eventually get an encounter. I don't know how your ship is put together, so this might wind up being more delta-v than you've got to spend.

A less costly way to do it would be to make a small prograde burn at your periapsis (maybe 100-500 m/s) and then make an orbit of the sun. Duna should have changed position with respect to you by a noticeable amount in that time. Do laps of the sun and let Duna catch up to you. On the last lap (when it looks like Duna is going to pass you by on the next orbit) plan a retrograde burn at periapsis that is just large enough to get an encounter.

As Vanamonde said, this is going to take some time, but you get the old school experience.

[SoldierHair]

And now the sad news:

I was planning to change the orbit , which i did.After a while i was like "Wait , lets try to build a spaceplane again!*Presses the Space Center button* Wait , what the *press again* why am i not going back to space center.Ok , i can do the mission again , End Flight .I SAID END FLIGHT.Oh for ... *alt-f4*"

That's pretty much it.When i went back into game the flight was no longer there.The ship's files are still there , i can try again , but still.

The thing is : now after every flight i must exit the game and reenter to get back to the Space Center.This happened after i installed the Soviet Parts mod.It's pretty much annoying.

[SoldierHair]

Fixed it after i reinstalled KSP.Tommorow Katyusha is going either to Duna or Eve.

[brians200]

You are running out of memory. If you press alt + f2, you will see all kinds of errors being thrown. Your computer cannot handle all the mods you have.

[InfidelSpaceProgram]

For the easiest intercept of Duna, on the launchpad before launch you should zoom out in map mode... pretend the solar system is a big clock.

Stick Kerbin at 6 O'Clock on the map (so Kerbin is directly south of the sun) then you want to timewarp until Duna is around 4PM to 5PM while you are at 6PM (just means rotating the camera to keep you at 6PM with relation to the camera angle and Sun).

Get into orbit and then burn dark side and you'll meet Duna around 11/12 O'Clock-ish or very close enough to just do a tiny adjustment.

That's my idiot proof dummy's guide without using any scientific terms.

Hope that helps anyone struggling

[SoldierHair]

But i had only the Soviet Parts and the better aerodynamics mod ._.