What do I do now? (Duna try)

[Joskara]

Hello,

I am trying to get to Duna. So far so good and I am in an orbit around the sun with an encounter with Duna.

What the hell do I do now? I guess I need to slow down but how do I do it efficiently? As you see I have 20 min left to burn to get into orbit and hopefully home as well. The lander is separate.

Please help.

Regards

Edited December 7, 2013 by Joskara

[lumpman2]

Is something wonky going on with that orbit? I don't think the Duna trajectory should look like it's going halfway across the solar system...

[FenrirWolf]

Did you do a direct-to-Duna burn? That doesn't look like any Hohmann Transfer I've seen. I have to say I'm kind of impressed!

As for how to slow down from that kind of trajectory, I don't think you're gonna be able to... You can try aerobraking but even with a 1m above sea level periapsis you might be going too fast.

EDIT: Oh wait, I think I'm reading the map view wrong. The weird long lines make it a little hard to interpret.

[Joskara]

I dont know. Im just the pilot!

Thats the one I usually achieve...

[FenrirWolf]

OK I think I see what's going on, looks like you're using one of the weird patched conics modes. At first I thought you just burned on a straight line until you got an encounter lol

Anyway, I'd try aerobraking in the 10,000-15000m range. You should get captured by Duna and you can circularize from there.

[That guy who builds stuff]

The most efficient thing to do is perform an aerobrake, use the atmosphere to slow down and get into a low eccentricity orbit.

Aerobraking is tricky though. Too low and you wont be able to get back out without burning fuel, which defeats the purpose; too high and you'll still be in a hyperbolic orbit.

Is something wonky going on with that orbit? I don't think the Duna trajectory should look like it's going halfway across the solar system...

I think it's a mod

Edited December 6, 2013 by That guy who builds stuff

[Joskara]

Aerobreaking?! That was the missing word. Google helped me the rest of the way. 13 000 m was the magic number. I am in orbit.

Thanks!

[Xephirious]

Make a maneuvre node to get your Duna encounter down to the 30k range. Once you get closer to duna (right after you enter Duna's sphere of influence) make a final adjustment to get your Periapsis down to the 15k range. Once you have that all done quick save. Depending on the results you may want to quickload and change the aerobrake altitude for better results.

Alot of people hate on quicksave but I don't know of a better way to learn the optimal aerobrake altitude for new folks.