Help with Duna landing/getting into orbit

[Bradvh97]

I'm trying to land on Duna but there is a slight problem if not a massive problem. Here are some pics of my situation. I want to ask, have I completely screwed up this mission or is it still possible even with my atomic nuclear engines with barely any thrust. My Periapsis of Duna is just above 1,000,000m

[Exclipse]

Very possible, aero break.

[Johnno]

Oh you should be fine. Of course aerobreaking in the atmosphere would save you a lot of fuel, but even with that trajectory you should be fine. Set a node at the PE to slow down and get an orbit, any orbit really, then once you're in a stable orbit you can burn at your AP to lower your PE, then at your PE to lower your AP, rinse repeat until you're in your desired orbit.

[jebster]

You're going slow enough that you can get into an orbit if you burn at your periapsis, but if you want to conserve fuel, you could try aerobraking.

[Bradvh97]

I've been trying to aerobrake but it's taking too much fuel, it takes about 1000m/s of delta-v to get into the atmosphere to aerobrake. I fear that this is another failed mission along with my mun mission.

[TheDarkStar]

Since you are still very far away from Duna, you should try burning sideways to move your periapsis (might take some trial and error). You don't need to burn retrograde to lower it, since that means you are trying to stop the movement towards Duna and the sideways movement; you just need to stop the latter one.

[Bradvh97]

I managed to get into orbit with plenty of fuel in my main rockets. The problem is that there wasn't enough fuel on my lander therefore I couldn't rendezvous with the main rocket in orbit. The 2 Kerbals on Duna plummeted towards the surface and sadly passed away in a blaze of glory. The Kerbal on the orbital main rocket found his way back to Kerbal safely. That takes my Kerbal death count up to 5 on my save.

[Johnno]

The problem is that there wasn't enough fuel on my lander therefore I couldn't rendezvous with the main rocket in orbit. The 2 Kerbals on Duna plummeted towards the surface and sadly passed away in a blaze of glory.

Something to keep in mind for future missions in case you weren't aware, you can repack parachutes by sending a kerbal on EVA and right clicking the chute(s) with the kerbal closeby. That way you could at least try to parachute down and save the poor things. I seem to recall repacked parachutes don't work by staging (spacebar) though, you'll have to right click them - deploy chute, alternatively try action groups (not sure the latter works, will test later).

[Captain Sierra]

Problem with a lander on Duna is it's size and gravity. Duna is not small and it's gravity is a force to be reckoned with. It isn't as strong as Kerbin gravity and it's atmosphere is thinner, so you need less thrust, but you do need a decent bit of fuel. Think about how much fuel it would take to build an SSTO lander for Kerbin. Then take about 25-30% of that (guys, double check me on that). People, what is the dV requirement for getting into orbit around Duna from the surface?