How to best approach Dres?

[killhooligan]

So I used my first interplanetary ship and set off for Duna which ended with the probe hurtling towards Duna's surface at 220 m/s. I tried again with a different ship(which is from here)and went off for Duna once more. As I looked at my orbit I thought Dres doesn't seem that far (relatively) I think I might try and go there. I managed to get an orbit that merged with Dres's and I elected to wait it out to save fuel. After 1 and a half years drifting I decided to try and alter the orbit and try again which also failed. Broken, I decided to make a break for Eve with the fuel I had left, of which I didn't have enough of.

Does anyone know a decent plan to get to Dres? Like an opposite facing orbit or waiting for the right angle or something similar?

[Vanamonde]

It's not clear to me what kind of problem you're having, but are you using this http://ksp.olex.biz/ or a mod to set your transit trajectory?

[Horn Brain]

If you have an orbit that intersects Dres' orbit, and you want to wait out an encounter, then just set up a maneuver node to burn prograde or retrograde when you get there to change your orbital period so that the next time you come back, Dres will be there. That's the easiest way. Other than that, just try and read the interplanetary guides. You need to do a plane change to meet Dres usually, so read about that as well.

[Panichio]

It's important to make sure the phase angles are correct, because it's unlikely that you would be able to successfully encounter Dres just like that. Do what Vanamonde suggested and use that website to plan your mission. Alternatively, you could play around with maneuver nodes while in solar orbit and if you can't get an intersect, warp forward and try again, although that's not nearly as time-efficient as getting it right the first time.

[Hannu]

You should notice, that Dres have inclined orbit. Interplanetary guide does not take that into account. Optimal window is when Kerbin and Dres are near node line when departure and arrival occurs. Othervise you may need about 600 m/s to plane change burn.

[Mr Shifty]

This planner does take eccentricity and inclination into account:

http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/

[Skorpychan]

In a rocket might help. I don't recommend trying to do it EVA.

Otherwise, maybe futz with maneuver nodes until you've got an intersect, and time-warp until you get an encounter. Otherwise, maybe get an intersecting elliptical orbit, and mess with radial maneuvers on the periapsis?

[zerotwo]

My only mission to Dres so far involved a bundled mission to Duna with a set of probes, a long range probe section refuelled to maximum fuel out of all of the mission tanks, detached, and then went from Duna to Dres when the window appeared.

If you're talking about approaching Dres with live Kerbonauts, well, anything at Dres or beyond I always launch two missions to, a fuel mission, and the actual "action" mission. I'd suggest launching two ships, have them in orbit around Kerbin about 10 km apart, and when time comes for the Dres transfer window, launch the fuel ship first, wait 24 hours (or whatever you like) and then launch the primary mission.

No matter what if your primary mission falls apart or something goes wrong you'll have a fuel depot around Dres you can use. Always handy.