Duna Fuel

[Lohan2008]

The Dauntless does not make it to Duna in one go, the small engines eat too much fuel.

Edited October 16, 2013 by Lohan2008

[LeFudge]

Go for the LVN engines, you grow old waiting for burns but you cant argue with fuel effeciency.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Provided that you do not use engines nor fuel from the top, I get it to about 3000 delta V, which should be more than enough. Did you launch at a proper window?

[rodion]

Provided that you do not use engines nor fuel from the top, I get it to about 3000 delta V, which should be more than enough. Did you launch at a proper window?

Same idea here. Duna doesn't require a lot of delta-v to achieve insertion, it seems more like a failure to make a good encounter than a failure to bring enough fuel.

Edited October 13, 2013 by rodion
punctuation error

[Teirusu]

Same idea here. Duna doesn't require a lot of delta-v to achieve insertion, it seems more like a failure to make a good encounter than a failure to bring enough fuel.

Agreed, Duna only needs about.. 1200ish Delta to get there. (Escape ejection burn + Kerbol orbit correction burn) Less then 400 what what you need to get to the Mun. If you're wanting to start doing interplanetary missions. I'd recommend getting the mod Protractor. Its an excellent tool that tells you when its the best time to burn and -where- to burn in your orbit for the optimal transfer window. So far, in my experience, it seems to be slightly more accurate then the nodes that Mechjeb sets up. You can even tell it to adjust its calculation for your ships current thrust ability.

[Vanamonde]

Approaching it from the other side, you could shave a lot of weight off of that lander, and when the payload gets smaller, every stage below it goes farther. As an example, this is what I use for Duna surface excursions.

[Lohan2008]

Vanamonde, that is a nice looking lander.

After I get next fuel tank on, I will see how it goes, those small engines are using too much fuel/burn.

I hope this does not mean a 3rd re-build

[Lohan2008]

The Lt-v 30's eat up the fuel too fast> Would need to re-build with Mainsails as I don't have patience for LV-Nukes..

[John FX]

The Lt-v 30's eat up the fuel too fast> Would need to re-build with Mainsails as I don't have patience for LV-Nukes..

This is where you go wrong. Every craft I have built that worked better than the one before was smaller but took longer for burns. You are now on a death spiral of larger engines means more fuel needing more mass needing larger engines etc

Instead you should try to reduce payload meaning a smaller previous stage, meaning a smaller previous stage, meaning a smaller previous stage etc

[kahlzun]

The Lt-v 30's eat up the fuel too fast... . re-build with Mainsails....

I think you underestimate how much less efficient mainsails are.. at least use Skippers instead.

[Lohan2008]

Used Mainsail for middle engine > burn to Mun = cut the trip to 30 min real time.

Edited October 16, 2013 by Lohan2008