Finally I have done it.

[Travisfv]

After over 250 hours in KSP, I have finally landed a crew on another planet, and returned them home safely.

Up until now I had mastered the Kerbin system. Stations, Probes, Landings, Rovers, Docking, Rendezvous'. I can perform all of this within Kerbin's SOI without a fuss.

That isn't to say I haven't tried. I have launched and landed plenty of probes and failed numerous manned times. Two days ago was my last failed attempt. As my ship dropped into Duna's atmosphere, the capsule was ripped from the rest of the ship. Needless to say it was a failure.

So today I started again, carefully crafted the ship to have enough TWR, Delta-V, and parachutes for the landing. I breached Duna's atmosphere and skimmed over the surface. This gave me an orbit but my injection stage from Kerbin had some fuel, so I burned it and went for my landing.

Touched down with 5 big parachutes fully deployed and at the last second fired my rockets to kill the last bit of speed. Simply looked astounding. Had 3050 D-V remaining.

On the return home, seeing Kerbin in all her glory made my heart skip a beat. The capsule and landing module streaked across the atmosphere. Watching those chutes deploy and the legs go down was exhilarating. 430 m/s Delta V leftover.

I have finally done an interplanetary mission.

Sorry if everyone has heard enough of these. but dammit after 250 hours... I feel like I have opened up a whole new game. Hell, after 250 hours I still feel like I'm just scratching the surface and keep coming back for more.

[Merinsan]

Well done!

Took me a few tries to get the Duna landing right too. Making sure the chutes don't rip apart the ship is the hard part. Once you are there, getting back into orbit is the easy part, providing you packed enough fuel!

[Travisfv]

I feel like kerbal engineer was a bit confused at the end there. It said I had 430 delta v leftover, but i think it also was counting the monopropellant (should not have brought as much as I did).

[Guest]

Congrats on your achievement!

[Guest]

I feel like kerbal engineer was a bit confused at the end there. It said I had 430 delta v leftover, but i think it also was counting the monopropellant (should not have brought as much as I did).

I don't think it works like that. At least, the delta-V I see reported in the VAB and in orbit doesn't change based on the presence of monopropellant.

Also, well done! I've done a few planetary landings but I have yet to make a return.

[Scotius]

Congratulations. It is a very special moment. And i assure you, you are not the only whose heart skipped a beat at the sight of Kerbin after long time in deep space.

[spikeyhat09]

you know, SQUAD should really either:

a) enforce the use of this section: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/forumdisplay.php/55-Mission-Reports

or

remove said section

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

*wild cheering*

Well done! It took a me a few attempts to land on duna

[Tw1]

Well done! I landed on Duna ok first time, (extensive parachute testing had been done on Kerbin) but only completed the recovery mission a while back. And seeing Kerbin again is a beautiful thing.