Manned mission to Duna and back! (PIC HEAVY)

[Specula]

After many months of playing this game, goofing off and only putting satellites in orbit, I decided it was time to get serious. It was time to get two lucky victims (my legal representative reminds me I'm supposed to call them Kerbinauts...) Take then to Duna and then bring them back to Kerbin safely.

And so, brave sirs Rodgun Kermin and Joewell Kermin boarded the next flight to Duna, unsure if they would ever return.

So, here's the Wildcat IX Rocket they took:

Half way through the trans-orbital burn above Kerbin:

Careful maneuver node fishing:

There she blows!

Aerobreaking the rest of the way in (Kerbworks were too cheap to stock extra fuel):

'chutes deployed, a quick tap of the engine...:

Touchdown!

First Kerbal on another world and he's happy about it!

Obligatory "Wish you were here" postcard shot of Ike almost hidden in the glare of Kerbol:

Heading home:

Saying goodbye to Duna: (All the controls and the navball indicators after separating and flipping over are reversed! This will make getting home interesting...)

6,200m Kerbin Periapse at 9,000m/s and speeding up? Prepare your rear ends, gentlemen. The ride's about to get real...

A real sight for sore eyes!

Extreme aerobreaking. From 11,000m/s to 200m/s in 45 seconds:

Parachutes deployed:

Made it! Two and three quarter years round trip! Now, just have to wait for their friends to come and pick them up:

Sorry for the long post and many pictures. I hope you enjoyed it all anyway! I've also included the Wildcat IX rocket in a dropbox file if anyone wants to play with it.

Find the craft file here

Edited July 2, 2013 by Specula

[Odo]

Nice mission! One thing I couldnt help notice is that you didnt use a single nuclear engine! A nuclear engine and about 800 units of fuel can get you anywhere in the solar system. Their efficiency is ridiculous! You really should have used one or 2 instead of all those areospikes!

[Scotius]

It got the job done, isn't it? Good work Specula. And very ingenious project of return stage. I wouldn't use it, because of control flipping - but still good work.

[Specula]

Thanks for the comments guys. Odo, I've thought about using nuclear engines and for missions that don't involve landing, I do. But for missions where I have to land safely, they're a total nightmare, hence why I didn't use them here. I'm not creative enough to find simple and effective workarounds for using landing struts with LV-Ns and still use my own rocket designs.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Specula

[Odo]

Thanks for the comments guys. Odo, I've thought about using nuclear engines and for missions that don't involve landing, I do. But for missions where I have to land safely, they're a total nightmare, hence why I didn't use them here. I'm not creative enough to find simple and effective workarounds for using landing struts with LV-Ns and still use my own rocket designs.

Ive got my own original really simple lander with lv-ns that I pretty much use standard now. Its not too hard if you just put the engines up on the side of the craft using a radial attachment point.

[LePenguino]

Wow, I never thought of using aerospikes in the atmosphere

Genius.

[Specula]

They're not bad really, especially if you're trying to push something with a lot of mass. LVN's have limits for heavy/bulky loads. Aerospikes are the next best thing. Less fuel efficient. More powerful. It's a tradeoff.

[Umlüx]

nice work

you could attach a flipped probe body to your return stage and use "control from here". so your navcontrols would be normal again.

[Epic DaVinci]

Nice Work, My last trip to Duna ended with me running out of fuel on approach to Duna and forgetting to put chutes on. Needless to say, they died.

[Specula]

Nice Work, My last trip to Duna ended with me running out of fuel on approach to Duna and forgetting to put chutes on. Needless to say, they died.

lol that sucks. I'm not afraid to admit that my parachute placement wasn't that crash hot the first attempt of this mission I made. They parachutes deployed and ripped off about 700 meters up. So yeah, they crashed and burned too.

And Umlüx... Genius idea.