Mission to Duna and back

[box_brain]

Hello everyone! I would like to share my Ares 4 journey to Duna! After two successful missions, Ares 4 will be my last manned mission to Duna as I would like to set my sights elsewhere.

Here is Ares 4 in Orbit, prepping to start interplanetary burn.

Arriving at Duna!

Dunbo on a spacewalk before landing

Will post more soon...

Edited June 5, 2013 by box_brain

[box_brain]

After choosing a landing spot, time to land on Duna.

Deploying a ridiculous amount of parachutes...

Touchdown! But it looks like I missed my landing spot...

Detaching ATV.

Ridmy and Dunbo are going to drive to the top of the crater while Doodney stays behind with the ship.

Awesome view of Ike!

Meanwhile...(Thats Doodney)

Dunbo planting the flag.

Time to get back to the ship.

Underestimating the steepness of the slope, the ATV loses control and crashes, killing Commander Ridmy...

After this sad event, it's time to head home...

Edited June 5, 2013 by box_brain

[Wayfare]

Poor Ridmy Pretty awesome rover though!

[box_brain]

Post card from Duna.

Dunbo assumes command of the mission and they're off!

Arriving back at Kerbin.

Entering the Atmosphere. (I got pretty close to landing at KSC:kiss:)

Mission Partial Success! Ridmy Kerman will be remembered.

[box_brain]

I didn't expect the rover to lose control, I'll have to tweak the design a bit. Once thats done I'd like to share my rover on the spacecraft exchange:)

[DMagic]

Wow, I really like that rover. I wouldn't expect it to tip over either. Maybe make the wheel base a little bit wider.

[jwenting]

Very nice report, and great looking equipment. Who says you need mods to get good looking rockets

[box_brain]

Thanks guys! I did a lot of work on my rover after this, few cosmetic changes, but it drives a lot smoother now:D

Anyways do you guys know what I should do next? I've done manned/probe missions to the Mun, Minmus, and recently Duna.

Im thinking about putting a base on the Mun, heres what it looks like so far:

I think thats it for screenshots, seems like i put to much on this thread...

[Specialist290]

Nicely done! (Aside from the untimely loss of Commander Ridmy Kerman. He shall be missed, but let the stars know that he did not die in vain.)

Hope to see your future exploits with the Mun base

[Jacob01]

That was a good piece of work! I enjoyed it!

Do you think you could put a download up for the first ship?

Thanks,

Jacob

[jwenting]

What about a network on probes/comsats, one or two around each planet?

I'm playing with that idea myself, now that I have a launcher that can reliably lift at least 25 tons to interplanetary trajectories.

[box_brain]

Jacob, not gonna upload the ship yet because of problems with the lower stage, but I'll fix it:D

[box_brain]

jwenting thats actually a good idea:) Im intrested in this launcher of yours, could you show me a screenshot?

[Jacob01]

Jacob, not gonna upload the ship yet because of problems with the lower stage, but I'll fix it:D

Oh, okay! What sort of problem is it?

[box_brain]

The lower stage had the struts ripping off making it veeeeeery wobbly. Had to decouple the stage prematurely, forcing me to use my reserves. I have to make a more stable launch stage at the moment.

[box_brain]

Some of the images are gone because I deleted some...

[Jacob01]

I have similar problem with one of my launchers, its a similar design to yours. At the moment, the only solution is to go straight for a solar orbiter instead of one around Kerbin first. It doesn't seem to make any major differences to how much fuel is used though.

[box_brain]

Im making no progress with my launch stage at the moment, it keeps exploding...

[jwenting]

night shot, sorry, that got me into orbit around Duna (using a slightly modified orbiter that carries 2 comsats in addition to the main orbiter).

http://www.hornet.demon.nl/KSP/Jebjob%205h.craft

due to an error in my initial orbital insertion I may not have enough fuel to make it home, so I sent up an even bigger rocket to get my Kerbanaut back.

It's in parking orbit around Kerbin now awaiting its launch window

That's almost 73 tons to LKO in a single launch.

http://www.hornet.demon.nl/KSP/Duna%202.craft

I had trouble with the stages collapsing into each other, the answer of course was more struts, lots of struts.

I now have several struts stiffening each and every link, both the interstage links and the intrastage links. The boosters are connected to the core by not just the decouplers but 6-8 struts each to prevent them tearing off.

Edited June 8, 2013 by jwenting