Return mission to Duna. . . plus Jeb to make landfall on Laythe. (Image heavy)

[Bishop149]

So having become slightly fixated upon Laythe as the target of most of my exploration I realised I had almost completely neglected the easiest target for an inter-planetary manned return mission, Duna.

Time to correct this oversight!

Primary Mission Objectives:

I - Land three Kerbals safely on Duna and plant the flag!

II - Return them to Duna Orbit

III - Return them to Kerbin safely

I have added a small addendum to the mission: Having made significant progress with the on going project to develop a ship to return a Kerbal from Laythe to Kerbin, (see here) its time to make first footfall on Laythe. Jeb is just the Kerbal for the mission!

Secondary Mission Objectives

I - Having left Duna's sphere of influence transfer Jeb to attached minimal ion powered inter-planetary module. Successfully deliver Jeb to make first footfall on Laythe!

So 1st things 1st, Lander design. I have made one unmanned landing and return to orbit on Duna, but this MkI lander was over fueled, too heavy and under-engineered . . . didn't have enough chutes and the powered landing smacked it down way to hard. It bearly held together. But it gave me a decent idea of the fuel / thrust requirements so below is the Mk2.

Its essentially 4 nuke engines and a big fuel tank. Jeb's Laythe module is bolted to the top. I was a little unsure if the nuke engines would have enough thrust to lift off from Duna (certainly don't get it off the ground on Kerbin!) so I popped a poodle engine on the bottom for good measure which I can switch on and off on an action group.

Usually I test my craft before sending them up with crew but Duna alignements take so bloody long to come about I couldn't be bothered. . . it should work (but if it doesn't rescue mission lets launch it!

Launch! This is about the only time I have seen all the crew looking happy at the same time. Which is ironic. . . the launch had multiple problems and has been the hardest part of the mission so far! Problems include:

- Decouplers not firing (presumably damaged somehow).

- Detached staged hitting and knocking off engines.

- Engines randomly falling off.

Anyway eventually sorted all of these, mainly by adding struts and locking gimbals!

So after quite number of attempts I got to over 70km up Ap with the circularisation stage:

Seeing as the lander was nuclear rocket powered anyway I decided to use its engines to power the interplanetary stage. . . the lander is basically lugging a train of fuel tanks behind it which can be ditched in stages. Disabled fuel flow from all the tanks I didn't want it to use, to make sure it burns it in the correct order.

Interplanetary burn complete and Duna orbit arranged! The second image is taken in orbit and shows I overstocked on fuel some what, second tank is empty but the first still has 800 odd units of fuel in it. . . will refine next time!

Descent started and ditching the last of the interplanetary fuel tanks

I packed lots to parachutes due to Dunas very thin atmo. but even that lot wasn't quite enough. . . needed a tiny little bit of thrust to slow descent below 10m/s, but the chutes made it pretty easy.

Down! As usual Jeb is first out the lander to plant the flag, Bob and Bill follow to pose for photo.

Jeb admires a Duna sunrise

Liftoff! The four Nuke engines could get it off the ground and I was pleased to see their ISP was almost at its vacuum level even landed on Duna. . . but the rate of ascent was painfully slow, the poodle was required!

Orbit reattained and there seems to be enough fuel left to get them back.

Once back in solar orbit Jeb waves goodbye to Bob and Bill and goes his own way to Laythe in the ion drive unit.

After much loitering in Orbit Bob and Bill finally approach Kerbin intercept and areobrake successfully to orbit, I find AP of 35km for kerbin to work pretty well for most areobrakes.

Time to come in for a landing! KSP in sight!

And overshot. . . . precision landings are damn hard

Bill and Bob have returned!! The plant a flag to commemorate. . . . which falls over.

KSP have even sent a plane to pick them up. Saving them a 25km walk! Nice of them.

So I have successfully landed and returned from Duna! Was very happy with performance of the craft, apart from issues with the initial launch and lots of hanging about waiting for alignments everything went perfectly to plan. If I repeat the mission in future the burn to Duna stage can have its fuel reduced by 700 units or so. I had excess fuel in the lander too but not THAT much and I like the flexibility that gives.

Will Jeb make it to Laythe in his insane little Ion drive?

How will the solar panels / Ion engines function all the way out in Jool orbit?

Tune in next time to find out!

Edited October 15, 2013 by Bishop149