How long did you wait in your career for duna?

[mattig89ch]

Hello all,

I'm getting rather bored of going to the mun or minmus over and over again. In my career mode, I've landed on the mun 3 times, and minmus twice. And the scince I'm earning for doing so is just getting smaller and smaller.

I feel as though I need a big move to bring in those science points. So I'm thinking of trying for duna.

Only trouble is, I don't have Nuclear engines, or aerospikes. So I don't see getting to duna as realistic w/out either one of them. My question is, how long did you wait before going for broke, and just getting out of kerbin's sphere of influence?

Did you wait till you unlocked docking ports and nuclear engines?

Did you fire up the game for the first time, and build a rocket for duna and back out of nothing but a command pod and srb's? Something in-between?

[The Destroyer]

I waited until nukes, they were easy to get.

A great way of getting plenty of science is to send a vessel slightly out of kerbins SOI and returning. Another good way is a landing on eve, transmit the data back.

[bludy]

i've sent landprobes on duna and eve to transmit data and gain the science to unlock nuclear engines since i unlocked the 650 kN engine, also a manned vessel collecting data(goo, junior box and gravioli) flying ''high over the sun'' and landing back at kerbin provides you tons of science without a big effort in matter of design and fuel..

[Geschosskopf]

1 landing on Minmus, 1 landing on Mun, then off to Duna and Eve both with the same ship design.

[Seret]

I went to Duna and Jool as soon as I had nukes, but I had been pushing for them deliberately. I'm now actually going back to the Mun with a more thorough programme landing at more sites with more sensors.

[annallia]

Honestly I had been mostly through the career before I bothered with duna. I did science on mun/minmus and kerbin itself until I had the parts I wanted. Then I would launch a big vessel. It would go to eve and drop two probes (one intentionally in the ocean another on land) and then head off to the sun.

With that done I pretty much finish career mode. The tech tree anyway.

[Levelord]

Surprisingly, 909 engines are enough to get to Duna. I had 3 909's attached to 3 FL-T800 fuel tanks. When I reached Duna orbit, I ditched the transfer stage for a single 909 and a single FL-T800 fuel tank. The lander went down to do it's stuff, came back up and we went home.

[magnemoe]

I did a lots of Mun expeditions, unlocked most parts, that is LV-N but not mainsail, made an Moho probe, then all the planets at their launch windows, exception was Eve where I waited until I could get an manned return mission.

The result was that I took Moho before Duna

[Iren]

I went as soon as I had Skippers and Poodles. -> http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/56729-Mission-to-Duna-Career-Mode

[boxman]

I am really not sure how long I waited. I know i had struts, but definitely went to duna before i got the nuclear engines and docking ports.

It is definitely very possible to get there and even back without nuclear engines or aerospikes.

I am pretty sure i used the lv-909 to get to duna and back.

The main trick with duna is to do a direct aerobrake from encounter so that you dont have to use any fuel at all to slow down which will save you alot of fuel.

Edited November 6, 2013 by boxman

[chuangatronic]

I went after my third mission landing on a non-Kerbin celestial body. Total missions was 1 sub-orbital, 1 orbital, 1 mun landing, 2 minimus landing (the 2nd minimus mission was just to test new my rocket build). My first 5 missions were enough to get me nukes, skippers, struts, batteries, docking ports, and solar panels. It could have been done with less but I preferred the convenience of having enough dV to allow for mistakes.

[Kasuha]

I waited for skipper and probe core (Stayputnik). After that it was just three probe missions - one to Ike/Duna, one to pick up remaining science on Minmus and Mun (because I left a lot there), and one to Gilly/Eve. That was enough to fill the tech tree.

[Nimaci]

I made a manned landing and return from Ike with cross-fed droptanks and a single LV-909 as my transfer(from LKO)/land/return stage, with a chute and a higher transfer orbit from the launcher it should manage a Duna return.

[tobjv]

Well one mission I had a over engineered ship meant to reach the Mun or Minmus. I was planning to go to Minmus the node planning went a bit astray..... I ended up with a slingshot around both the Mun and Minmus and getting me a really good insertion on Duna. So I went for broke got a alignment. Made the orbit dip below 10000M on Duna and went for it.

Landing Didn't got to well. Ship landed on the side of a huge mountain and nearly broke apart several times rolling down the hill, but it is working!

My eve trip on the other hand stranded Jeb there.... Bill is tasked to go rescue him but he said he would get to it Soonâ„¢.

[Superfluous J]

I sent probes to both Jool and Duna as soon as a window opened for them. Not only don't I have nuclear engines, I don't have any engines besides the first 3 on the tree. I don't even have the 800 liter fuel tanks. Or RCS.

The Delta-V to get to Duna (one way) is *LESS* than the Delta-V it takes to land on either Mun or Minmus. Literally. Coming back is more expensive, sure, but getting there - if you aim yourself right for Duna from far away (say, just outside Kerbin's SOI) so you can aerobrake yourself to a stop, you can do it.

take the launcher that got you to Minmus. Take the lander off the top. Slap a probe core and a science bay, some solar panels and landing legs on that sucker, top it off with a parachute and get yourself to Duna! Go to Jool too, it's just a thousand more Delta-V or so. Which incidentally is what you spent getting down to the surface of Mun and back up.

[Dooz]

Until i got nukes

[3mon]

I made it to Duna with no nukes as soon as i had the "poodle" and the 909s. First time a one way trip with a science rover, then succesfully got there and back in one launch. Managed my landing with the radially mounted 909s, then launched to orbit with what was left of the 909s, detached, and finished the mission with the "poodle".

[DeepSpaceDutch]

I just send my first probe to Duna yesterday, having not yet unlocked the LV-N I used a X200 fuel tank and a Poodle engine as the transfer stage. Worked perfectly! And with the science from that mission I was able to unlock the LV-N

[McFarnsworth]

My second career mission included a Duna flyby + Ike landing of the main craft while it dropped a probe onto the surface of Duna. No nukes, just a 909 engine.

The main craft should still have enough dV to get to Eve, do a Gilly landing and then fly back home. But I'm still waiting on the right launch window before taking off from Ike and messing around with how to properly do a Duna gravity assist.

[Sirrobert]

The 909 is MORE than enough to get a probe out to anywhere in the system

[UnthinkableThinker]

Did not wait for nuclear engines at all, right after getting to Minmus the first time, made my first expedition to Duna, got the science points, but Jeb got stuck there for a bit before I could send in a rescue ship.

[Spyritdragon]

Quite lierally, a pancake tank and a poodle suffice as an eve transfer stage for a very small probe.

I casually progressed through the tech tree, untill i bumped upon the nuclears. I then sent a last mission to an unreasearched Munar crater, and developled them. Im heading to Duna very soon with LV-N and docking ports. Ive scanned Kerbins equatorial areas, been to the Mun three or four times, and Minmus once by accident when i overshot the Mun in a timewarp fail. Ive only taken goo to land on the Mun once though, and not to Minmus yet.

[egnio98]

I tried entering a really weird orbit around kerbin, like 470 by 130,000 km at a really weird inclinations. Then, the ocassional random minmus/mun capture lets me do orbit science before being flung out of kerbin SOI. Then, more science! Naturally its a probe.

[Wallace]

I went to duna with no nuclear engines, however I did use docking ports, I wouldn't want to have to lift all my return fuel from the surface, though I did insist upon taking the 3 man pod, so if i'd sent the one man pod then lifting off with full fuel would have been a lot easier.

[AmpsterMan]

I imagine I'll end up going after my Mun/Minmus missions are over. Those are my two favorite places anyway so it's not bad