Best Duna Ship

[Nabiscovinco]

So I'm planning on going to Duna, and am trying to decide between two different methods of transport (for a rover, initially).

1- Go for a single launch rocket thing, and just go to Duna.

2- Go for an ship constructed in orbit.

And I guess I can add this: best way to land on Duna? Just a bunch of parachutes, or is it more on the engines, or a mixture? <--- only asking this because my last attempt... we don't speak of it.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Nabiscovinco

[Synapse]

My ship to Duna was just a large fuel tank and a nuclear engine. 5 mainsails to get it on its way, and land via parachutes. I used a mk2 lander pod.

The attempt to land went disastrously wrong when I decoupled the engine at a Periapsis of 25k expecting the atmosphere to slow me down. It didn’t. and I was trapped in orbit forever. But the concept was fine...

[EmissionGeneration]

I would vote for using the Orbital Construction method, purely because I would gain more enjoyment out of it. As for landing, it all depends on what you are sending down, if you are just sending the Rover down, then a bunch of Parachute will get the job done, anything larger will just get torn apart when the Parachutes open, so you'd want to use Engines to bleed of the speed before the Chutes open.

[Nabiscovinco]

Synapse- Decoupling the engines is never REALLY a good idea.

I was thinking the orbital method, mostly because it could be reusable. And I am just planning on using a simple rover, for now. I tried to send a manned mission before... he is now orbiting the sun. Forever.

[Xenonclave]

When I flew my first successful Duna mission I did it with with a single Apollo-style launch. I used a bunch of parachutes to land, although I think I used my engines to slow down a little first.

Here's the ship I used to get to Duna:

And here's my lander on the surface, along with one of the two landers I brought along:

I could've been a lot more efficient here seeing as I did no delta v calculations and just kinda winged it, but whatever, it worked.

You could always make a ship in orbit, but that seems like a bit much for a trip to Duna.

[SuperWeegee4000]

When I flew my first successful Duna mission I did it with with a single Apollo-style launch. I used a bunch of parachutes to land, although I think I used my engines to slow down a little first.

Here's the ship I used to get to Duna:

And here's my lander on the surface, along with one of the two landers I brought along:

I could've been a lot more efficient here seeing as I did no delta v calculations and just kinda winged it, but whatever, it worked.

You could always make a ship in orbit, but that seems like a bit much for a trip to Duna.

Did your Kerbal have to repair any wheels, or did the rovers stay intact upon deployment? That looks a bit high for the small wheels, but this is Duna we're discussing.

[Landge]

Here's my latest DUNA EXPLORER craft file.

Just refuel the ship in LKO before leaving Kerbin.

Shut down the Mainsail and use the LV-N's to make the trip to Duna.

Once at Duna, the Transfer Stage will have plenty of fuel left so just leave it in orbit.

It has a 3 seat rover that attaches to the side. It's light enough so it doesn't throw the ship's CoM off.

With 2 LV-N's the lander just barely has enough power to lift off. It's slow going at first

but it's capable of reentering Duna orbit and dock with the Transfer Stage.

After docking and refueling the Lander / Transfer Stage can even go to Ike and land there as well.

Just like on Duna, leave the Transfer Stage in orbit for refueling later.

After refueling one last time the Lander can return to Kerbin on it's own. I left the Transfer Stage in orbit over Ike.

You did remember to repack the parachutes when you were on Duna right?

Safe at Home! Great job guys!

Edited July 12, 2013 by Landge

[Rivvern]

I left a nuclear rocket with a fueltank and a dockingport in orbit around Duna when i landed with my 2 stage lander.

[capi3101]

It takes somewhere between 8,500 and 10,000 m/s of delta-V to do a round trip Duna mission. Considering 4500 of that (about half) is just getting into Kerbin's orbit, I'd suggest the orbital construction route. You could be sure you had more than what you needed that way, which is dandy when you screw one damn thing or another up. Got Bill and Bob sitting up in orbit now waiting to go; their lander's sitting with a fuel module and a 5 LV-N tug attached.

If you're awesome (or if you're a heavy mod user), you can get there with a slightly modded Mun design and the single launch becomes a lot easier. Me, I'm not that great at piloting. Having a low-end box on which to play the game doesn't help matters any either.

[Teirusu]

So I'm planning on going to Duna, and am trying to decide between two different methods of transport (for a rover, initially).

1- Go for a single launch rocket thing, and just go to Duna.

2- Go for an ship constructed in orbit.

And I guess I can add this: best way to land on Duna? Just a bunch of parachutes, or is it more on the engines, or a mixture? <--- only asking this because my last attempt... we don't speak of it.

Really this question comes down to A) The payload tonnage for the mission and How high a part-count can your computer handle. But either method is quite logical depending on what your aiming for your mission. If all your doing is a small 1-man landing on Duna and return, you can easily build a single rocket for that. But, if your planning on bringing a heavy lander, perhaps a rover, and maybe even visiting/landing on Ike as well, then the construction method is probably better.

As for parachutes, a good rule of thumb for Duna is to have 50% more parachutes then what you'd need to land safely on Kerbin, however I'd say the hybrid method is the best (safest) idea. Duna's atmosphere is soo thin that even at moderate altitudes above its 'sea level' its entirely possible that parachutes won't have enough time to slow you down before hitting the ground. This is why the skycrane method is typically employed here. Just like with Mars, the atmosphere is thick enough that a parachute or two is typically enough to kill a large amount of your horizontal velocity.. but too thin to safely land even if you tripled (or more) the number of chutes.

[Cartz]

I have to agree with Teirusu, you really do want to ensure that you have an engine active for the final seconds of your descent to Duna. What I will say though, is that drogue chutes are much more useful on Duna than normal chutes. They fully deploy higher, and one or two of those will bleed off all of your non-vertical movement rather quickly. If you switch to surface targetting and lightly burn a low thrust engine directly at your retrograde with a few of those chutes open, you will have a very uneventful and easy descent. I find it far easier to land on Duna then on the Mun.

As for a vessel to complete the round trip, as long as you're not looking to bring several tonnes of equipment to the surface of Duna, or do sightseeing on Ike then a single rocket can service the trip with ease. If you're paranoid about your ability to spend your delta-v efficiently then send up a small refueling ship to LKO.

The most important two things, IMO, is

1. to ensure that your ship has a docking port. With a docking port any delta v miscalculations can be remedied.

2. use a seperate descent stage, don't land your entire vessel on Duna. Although this can be done on Mun missions without much thought, an efficient and safe trip to Duna should make use of a lander while the interplanetary stage stays in orbit.

[Nabiscovinco]

Thank you! I have some ideas now! And am now realizing how much I stink at making rovers