Easiest Planet/Moon to reach after Kerbin System?

[DevoidLight]

So after a number of disasters and quick saves I managed to land on Mun and Minmus, where would be an ideal next destination for a new player? And is there a list somewhere of a basic list of accomplishments new players should try for?

[aNewHope]

Next thing would be either Duna or Gilly.

Duna is very easy to reach. It only needs a little bit more ∆V than Minmus and has an atmosphere you can brake with.

Gilly is easy, because you need virtually no ∆V to get to it's surface and back (As far as I know, a kerbal can EVA his way back to Kerbin from Gilly).

[DevoidLight]

Okay, thanks. I just wasn't sure if I should go to the planets themselves first or their moons.

[Captain Sierra]

You can do an EVA to orbit on Minmus and you can do an EVA to landing and back to orbit on Gilly. That said, Duna is nice because you can make orbit with less than 1500dV using LV-909 engines. You can also use the atmosphere for a mosty unpowered landing. If you can get to Gilly for a manned landing, you might as well drop a probe on Eve because parachute landings are unbelievably easy on Eve.

[Vanamonde]

Gilly can be difficult for a learning pilot to reach, though. It's a small target and in an orbit that is both inclined and elliptical. Despite its larger size (making landing and takeoff slightly harder), Ike is much easier to reach. In fact, it's kind of hard NOT to get an Ike encounter when you're passing through Duna's SOI.

[Teirusu]

Gilly can be difficult for a learning pilot to reach, though. It's a small target and in an orbit that is both inclined and elliptical. Despite its larger size (making landing and takeoff slightly harder), Ike is much easier to reach. In fact, it's kind of hard NOT to get an Ike encounter when you're passing through Duna's SOI.

^ That! Case in point, this happened just yesterday when I was testing a lander of mine. Happened by complete chance. Just missed Ike by 77,000KMs on my way to aerobrake at Duna.

[TheDarkStar]

Eve is the actually the easiest planet or moon to get to away from Kerbin, but you're not getting back easily (read:at all) out of 1.7G gravity and an atmosphere seven times as thick as Kerbin's. If you want to get back from somewhat, go to Gilly (hard to get an intercept and very hilly) or Ike (good spot with low gravity) or Duna (atmosphere to slow down in, easy to get to).

[Sirine]

Hope this help...

[possum]

I picked Ike as my next landing spot. The gravity is similar to Mun and has no atmosphere so you can use your Mun lander. Thats what I am doing anyway.

[bsalis]

Eve is the actually the easiest planet or moon to get to away from Kerbin

The dV may be much the same as Duna, and the SOI may be a bit larger. However Duna is still easier IMO because there is no inclination change needed. So you can get a maneuver node intercept in Kerbin orbit in one node.

[Epthelyn]

Next thing would be either Duna or Gilly.

Duna is very easy to reach. It only needs a little bit more ∆V than Minmus and has an atmosphere you can brake with.

Gilly is easy, because you need virtually no ∆V to get to it's surface and back (As far as I know, a kerbal can EVA his way back to Kerbin from Gilly).

Why not just add Eve to that list? If you can get to Gilly you can get to Eve since one is in orbit around the other. As long as the rocket stays in one piece when the parachutes deploy, it's also the easiest place in the system to land.

[Pds314]

You can do an EVA to orbit on Minmus and you can do an EVA to landing and back to orbit on Gilly. That said, Duna is nice because you can make orbit with less than 1500dV using LV-909 engines. You can also use the atmosphere for a mosty unpowered landing. If you can get to Gilly for a manned landing, you might as well drop a probe on Eve because parachute landings are unbelievably easy on Eve.

You can EVA landings and back to orbit for Minmus as well, it just requires some tight margins on fuel. My first Minmus landing in career involved Jeb and a ship 8000 meters up. He even managed to get to a lake and back.

[Pds314]

Why not just add Eve to that list? If you can get to Gilly you can get to Eve since one is in orbit around the other. As long as the rocket stays in one piece when the parachutes deploy, it's also the easiest place in the system to land.

And one of the hardest to come back from...

[Jagger]

And one of the hardest to come back from...

Well, I guess you can forget the return unless you have mods or you are Jebediah's cousin... But it's nice for an atmospheric lander. Just stick 2 plastic bags on your craft (That's what parachutes are made of, right?) and your good to go. I think you can get to 100 m/s without parachutes, so the thick atmosphere gives you a good landing and a kick in science points to get more advanced stuff and head to Duna. That's how I made it. If you go to Eve, try landing near the coast (mechjeb helps), as you can get ocean data with your Kerbal.

[JiWint]

Eve is the closest planet to Kerbin.

[jmiki8]

Yes, Eve is the closest, and it has thick atmoshpere (like twice as thicker as Kerbin's), so you can land very safely. On the other hand, you must be very cautious when landing on Duna, as its atmosphere is very thin, and if you don't put enough chutes on your vessel (or have landing rockets), you won't survive the landing. Also, there are really high mountains on Duna, and parachutes might not open early enough to slow you down - which is not really a problem on Eve.

But as a beginner, don't even try to go back to kerbin from Eve, it's not impossible, but it's really challenging (maybe with an Apollo-styled landing). Returning from Duna is much easier.

Edited December 31, 2013 by jmiki8
ninja'd

[celem]

People given you loads of good suggestions here, theres not much more to suggest since things start to cost considerably more dV and involve trickier intercepts beyond those listed above.

Beware Moho, it looks tempting for something to do after you hit those above but it's not for the faint of heart. Dres isn't so bad, just like a distant Ike but a weird orbit.

Personally I did Ike in your situation. Gilly is the cheaper dV, but Ike is one of the easiest things to hit in the system.

[Sirine]

Just twitch parachute to open full at high altitude at Duna.

[Vahal]

not 100m/s, I managed to have a 58m/s vertical speed with my first probe sent to Eve. Of course no chute, out of fuel and promised to a brutal lithobraking. And surprisingly if almost of the probe was blasted on the impact, a battery, a basic solar panel, the core and half of science modules survived. I laughed a lot.

The easiest celestial body to reach and landon, that's Minmus. Not simple as the Mun to reach, but so easy to land on. Weak gravity, no atmosphere, nice flat "seas" at 0m or so... A really nice place to train.

[SRV Ron]

Duna and Ike, easiest to reach. Try to land in a valley on Duna so you can take advantage of its thin atmosphere for parachute and aerobraking landing. Being dry, there is no liquid surface to avoid. Return is also quite easy thanks to its low gravity and thin atmosphere.

Eve, easiest to land, extremely difficult to return from its surface due to the higher gravity and thicker atmosphere. Also, about 50% of its surface is liquid that should be avoided. Air breathing engines won't work on Eve.

[Max Grant]

Air breathing engines won't work on Eve.

Wow. I've been Kebaling since 073 and never contemplated that. I have been recently going over how I would build a big enough rocket to come back from Eve with some science, and I have to wait until I can get the big Clamp-0-Tron Seniors. I was thinking maybe I should try doing a spaceplane, but I forgot that whatever is on Eve is probably not oxygen.

Anyway to answer the OP it is Duna and Ike. Duna is actually not that hard. If you are having trouble with parachutes on Duna, remember to do your deorbit burn from 180 degrees away, so that your entry into atmo includes a nice long horizontal slice of air, that you are more or less pointed at a valley. Also strut the daylights out of whatever your chute is attached to, to whatever you'd like to make it to the ground.

Also, also, also, it is very helpful to plan a Duna lander like a Mun lander, with parachutes. You still need a descent stage, and you want to turn it on at least three times during descent: once before you pop your chutes, once when you reach the fully-open altitude of your chutes, and once before you hit the ground. In the first and second cases, having some kind of decelerating thrust will keep the chutes' jerk from ripping your vessel to pieces. In the third case, you just need a little extra lift to bring your velocity down to under 5 m/s. Duna is so light, that if your landing vessel is tall, or wobbly, it may bounce back off the surface so you have to have some fuel to make up those last few m/s.

[Tank Buddy]

Definitely Duna and Gilly, which is exactly what I'm doing. After more than one year of playing the game extensively; lets just say I waited until a point were I was good enough to almost never fail.

Duna is probably your first target because of the thin atmosphere, lower gravity (1/3 of Kerbin's) and it's moon Ike, which takes less than 100 m/s of delta V when in LDO. Both are very fun to explore and your Delta V budget will be small, so you can go ham and do lots of maneuvering.

Gilly is more difficult to get to because of it's orbit and low gravity. You will have to kill AT LEAST 850 m/s to get into orbit. But once there, you can land and get into orbit with ~50-75 m/s of Delta V. Also, Ion engines are practical for use there.

[The Jedi Master]

If you don't care about going home, I'd say Eve. Otherwise, go with Ike.

[RocketPilot573]

If you're an experience player (but just haven't gone to planets before) then I'd recommend Gilly. But Ike is probably the easiest, Duna is easy to get to, but a nightmare to land on... (it USED to be easy, but the devs raised the terrain up to 5 Km, so the atomshere is effectivly thiner, leading to smashing into a mountain at 700 m/s).

Edited December 31, 2013 by RocketPilot573