Duna or Eve ?

[Lohan2008]

OK, I want to visit Duna or Eve next.... Which one is easier to get to using the Mun (gravity) slingshot ??

Will be using a probe to start, then rover.

Any links to previous post/s will be "liked" ;P

[loknar]

OK, I want to visit Duna or Eve next.... Which one is easier to get to using the Mun (gravity) slingshot ??

Will be using a probe to start, then rover.

Any links to previous post/s will be "liked" ;P

Many posts about this. But I can spare some time to answer with my 2 cents;

For a landing and return flight, Duna is much easier. With eve you need to plan for the extremely dV hungry atmosphere.

With Duna your challenge is aerobraking - the thin atmosphere makes it hard. If you don't want to waste time, just use retro burns. I used parachutes and I smashed about 5 times into mountains, very hard to find the sweet spot (I'm using FAR aerodynamics realism mod).

Your Duna lander should have 2-3x more fuel than a Lunar lander. (depends what is your strategy) Alot of fuel will be used for braking your descent and parachutes have poor performance on Duna; Use a lander with a low center of gravity (I made that mistake). And finally, beware of sandworms!

PS: Moon slingshot is overrated. I'm pretty sure you can benefit more from a heavier planet and transferring from there just above the atmosphere. Plan your maneuver by moving it along the orbit to find the optimal spot. Your goal is not only to escape the planet but intercept another planet by increase/decrease of orbital speed around the star. Correct me if I'm wrong though at the very least it makes it easier to plan a maneuver... As with everything, the timing is essential - waiting for Duna to be at the correct angle - you might have to wait several days so enter an eleptical orbit 121km - 900km so you can fast-forward

ref: http://www.skyrender.net/lp/ksp/system_map.png

Edited September 2, 2013 by loknar

[Guest]

Duna aerocapture can be helpful, and is actually pretty fun because you have to dip so low, but a Duna transfer + capture requires so little delta-V (even when using a suboptimal window) that it's not at all required. If your transfer vehicle carries about 2.5km/s you'll be perfectly fine.

E: You should also be able to reach Eve with the same vehicle so you might as well do both (that is, your transfer vehicle can reach each planet, you'd need more delta-V to do both in one go.)

Edited September 2, 2013 by regex

[Kerbin Dallas Multipass]

Putting a suicide probe/rover on Eve is easiest. Once you hit the atmosphere any parachute will guarantee a soft landing.

A return mission (Eve and back) is close to impossible (yes, it has been done)

Landing on Duna is tricky. You want to take many parachutes and prepare for a powered touchdown.

For return misssions Duna is the easiest planet out there.

I would forget about the slingshot around the moon, you will probably end up using more fuel to correct your trajectory than a proper hohmann transfer by the book.

[loknar]

For Eve - I did not try yet - but I think it is essential to install FAR mod, test a very well working space plane design on Kerbal and use that. Turbojet engines insane efficiency seems like the way to go.

I finished designing a large stable space plane and that took me much longer than perfecting 2 missions to Duna with 4 large rovers.

[Guest]

For Eve - I did not try yet - but I think it is essential to install FAR mod, test a very well working space plane design on Kerbal and use that. Turbojet engines insane efficiency seems like the way to go.

I had thought the same thing but Eve has no oxygen so they won't work. Aerospikes and mad asparagus staging is the way to go.

[loknar]

Thanks regex. Wow Eve is really a challenge/pain. Back to the drawing board.

Well, I can use my "Space Van" to transport kerbonauts and eventually in Laythe, I guess.

[Temstar]

Manned Eve return mission should probably be the last goal you attempt as an KSP player in the current state of the game. It generally requires these skills:

• interplanetary transfer
  
• aerocapture (both to and from)
  
• docking (to meet up with a return craft, else your lander will be impossibility large)
  
• extreme engineering (to build a lander that can safely touch down with at least 8000m/s in the tank)
  
• Precision atmospheric landing (to land on the mountain top)
  

You're better off building up that repertoire of skills one at a time elsewhere instead of fail over and over again on Eve. Interplanetary transfer and aerocapture could be practised with trip to Duna or Jool. Advanced rocket engineering could be attempted by going for a manned Tylo or Moho return mission. Docking by building space stations and you can try atmospheric landing right here on Kerbin. Only once you've ticked off that list should you attempt an Eve return mission.

One way mission is a whole different ball game though and one way Eve landing is probably the easiest of all interplanetary landing missions.

[The Destroyer]

Eve is better for just going there and landing on Parachutes. Duna if you want to return and land nice. Visit Gilly while in Eve, its awesome low gravity! Ike in Duna is like the Mun!

[CalculusWarrior]

If you want to replicate one of the proposed post-Apollo mission plans, you can always do a manned Eve flyby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_Flyby). That way you don't have to worry about all the bother of bringing along a lander. Or you could bring a really tiny RCS lander to go to Gilly--that's always fun!In my personal opinion, the Eve system is more interesting than Duna, as there is Gilly and a mysterious purple planet. Duna is just pretty much Mars; and Ike, while possessing a massive SoI, is nothing to write home about, just like the pre-0.21 Mun. You can often pull off much more interesting missions around Eve; working with the constraints of that tremendous gravity well and atmosphere really stresses your imagination, leading to manned stations in orbit, one-way 'bases' (really just failed return missions) , or just playing around Ike's gravity well.

[magnemoe]

If you want to replicate one of the proposed post-Apollo mission plans, you can always do a manned Eve flyby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_Flyby). That way you don't have to worry about all the bother of bringing along a lander. Or you could bring a really tiny RCS lander to go to Gilly--that's always fun!In my personal opinion, the Eve system is more interesting than Duna, as there is Gilly and a mysterious purple planet. Duna is just pretty much Mars; and Ike, while possessing a massive SoI, is nothing to write home about, just like the pre-0.21 Mun. You can often pull off much more interesting missions around Eve; working with the constraints of that tremendous gravity well and atmosphere really stresses your imagination, leading to manned stations in orbit, one-way 'bases' (really just failed return missions) , or just playing around Ike's gravity well.

Gilly is insanely fun,

However Gilly is far harder to reach than Duna, it has an tilted eccentric orbit and an very tiny SOI it also cost more than 1000 m/s from low Eve orbit, you can reduce this cost with an correct aerobrake but this is not something I would do for my first interplanetary trip.

For an probe mission, I would do Eve with Gilly as an mission extension. For an manned I would do Duna.

[M5000]

Yeah, your first interplanetary would really depend on what you want to do as to what's best for you.

As a few users have said, it really depends on what you want to do.

If you want to do an unmanned mission, Eve will be best, which is really where I suggest you start, unless you don't care about stranding your Kerbs. Here's why:

-Eve is the lowest amount of delta-V to reach, from LKO, in the whole game.

-Eve has the second largest SOI, if I'm not mistaken, in the whole game.

-Eve has a very thick atmosphere that allows you to rely entirely on parachutes for your descent (so that coming all that way through space isn't ruined by the landing.)

-Eve is very pretty.

-You can aerocapture if you want, just don't dip too low.

If you wanted to do a manned return mission, however, then Duna will be the best bet because..

-Duna's SOI is also considerably large, a bit smaller than Kerbin's.

-Aerocapture is easy on Duna, you're not going to overshoot and brake too hard unless you pretty much impact the planet.

-Landing isn't horrible, you can still use chutes, but you either need to have engine assisted landing, or a ton of chutes.

-The delta-V to reach it is only a bit more than Eve, but is far less to get back from the surface to Kerbin, since the atmosphere is much thinner.

-Duna is also pretty.

-Duna has no oceans or "water" on it, unlike Eve, which could ruin your day pretty bad if you land on those or didn't quicksave. Even if you don't get destroyed, good luck getting anywhere.

So it really depends on what kind of mission you want. I started with an unmanned mission to Duna, but really an unmanned mission to Eve so that you don't have to worry about return is a quite good idea and should be the easiest interplanetary mission you can do.

Have fun!

-M5K

[lajoswinkler]

If you want to come back, don't go to Eve. If you just want to get somewhere, go to Eve. If you're lucky, you'll end on a mountain or close to the shore. Be sure to frolic on Gilly beforehand, because you aren't going nowhere after falling into Eve's atmosphere.

Duna's Ike is interesting only because it's albedo is VERY low. It's almost like coal. Very weird environment.