Dres?

[Jodo42]

Maybe more people would go to this place if it wasn't such a pain to get to. I'm using this tool for a burn date and delta-v, but I can't seem to get an intercept with Dres no matter how hard I try. I'm trying make 1 burn with no inclination to get to the right altitude, and then correct inclination at the ascending node, but no matter what I do I can't seem to get an intercept. The closest approach nodes keep flickering between before and after apoapsis, with before always being closer, but most of the time they're not there. The ejection dv displayed doesn't seem to be enough to get to Dres' altitude, but increasing it hasn't helped.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I have had no problems with transfers to Eve and Jool, perhaps largely thanks to their large gravity wells, but I can also easily get to Duna. All this leads me to believe I'm dealing with Dres' inclination incorrectly. Should I be burning with an inclination relative to Kerbin for my ejection? How do I find out what angle?

Edited September 7, 2014 by Jodo42

[Zylark]

Main problem with Dres is that it is so tiny with a gravity-well to match. So to get an intercept you need to get very close. My approach is to get to a high Kerbin orbit - around 30.000km, wait until the approximate launch window give or take a couple of weeks either way and then just eyeball it until I get a little flicker of an intercept. That means I'm in the ballpark. Then I use the Maneuver Node Editor of MechJeb to make very fine adjustments until I get a stable intercept. Any intercept will do. After performing the initial burn, about halfway out I make some small adjustment to get a better intercept (or regain it should it disappear whilst en route - happens often especially with crewed vessels using powerful engines, less so with small probes using low-thrust engines), preferably even a Pe marker. Repeat that as I get closer still.

[Jett_Quasar]

Dres is actually a lot easier to get to than some of the other destinations like Eeloo or Moho which suffer from a small SOI like Dres but also require lots of delta-v due to the fact that they are farther out and inclined compared to Kerbin's orbit. As a matter of fact many people overlook Dres because there's nothing particularly unique or challenging about it. For me that represents the perfect opportunity to do something different to make it interesting...

JR

[astropapi1]

Dress is a plainly boring planet. It's like a bigger and lonelier Mun. I've been there exactly once (with a rover), and apart from the giant canyon, there's not too much to it.

[Superfluous J]

Dres is advanced mode. It's supposed to be hard to get to. But once you're there it's a lot like Mun (actually it's smaller so it's easier to land on once you're there).

Not every planet should be as easy to get to as Jool or Eve. There has to be some ramping up of difficulty to keep the game interesting.

As far as advice: don't go for the mid-course correction. Launch when Kerbin is at one of Dres' AN/DN nodes and then burn up so your ship's Apoapsis is touching Dres' orbit at the AN/DN. You should have a "close approach" marker but unless you're EXTREMELY lucky it won't match up. No biggie.

Make a maneuver node just AFTER your apoapsis, AN/DN, and approach marker. Push it prograde and the other close approach marker will come around and eventually they'll either get REALLY close or you'll actually get an SOI encounter. Once you're super close, it's all just tweaking.

Do that a dozen times and you'll be a pro at it.

Edited September 8, 2014 by 5thHorseman

[Roadkill]

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My quick mission to Dres. You can totally do this completely stock and by eyeball. The intercept markers do tend to jump or disappear for no reason sometimes, and this happens with more transfers than just Dres. Sometimes, you can do a quick 5x timewarp to stabilize the ship and the markers to get an estimate of what you need to be doing.

[Jett_Quasar]

How to make Dres interesting...

Just to give you a taste of what I'm working up to, this is one of my bases on Dres...

All KSP images have been moved here.

This structure was launched and landed all in one piece as you see it here - all stock, no mods or cheats.

JR

Edited September 28, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[astropapi1]

How to make Dres interesting...

Just to give you a taste of what I'm working up to, this is one of my bases on Dres...

http://i.imgur.com/jRXUD6F.png

This structure was launched and landed all in one piece as you see it here - all stock, no mods or cheats.

JR

Looks like some kind of villain's lair or something. Cool!

[JebNeedsHelp]

I had a funny Dres adventure today, but it looks nowhere near as cool as Jolly_Roger's. In my new .24.2.save, I haven't left Kerbin's SoI yet. Today I decided to send a 6-Kerbal Colony out - I thought I'd head for Duna but it was behind Kerbin, and Dres was just about in the right place, so I went for Dres instead. My transfer stage had enough fuel left in it that I figured I might as well try to land it, just to see if I could. Well, I came down in the dark and landed on the side of a crater. I decoupled the lander and gave myself some altitude as the rest of the ship bounced down the slope, breaking off three of the four engines. The fourth just kept going. Here's what it looked like the next day (notice the engine is still going):

Jed (not Jeb) went out to check things out:

I time warped ahead just to see how long this engine would run - it was at low power when I decoupled, and had quite a bit of fuel to burn. After 430 days, the engine was still going. This time Jed wanted to invent a new delicacy - vacuum-exposed nuclear cooked beanie weenies. However, before I could get Jed up to the flame, it died out. What were the odds? Jed was truly disappointed.

I swear, sometimes you have to try really dumb things just for the fun of watching them go wrong.

[MarvinKitFox]

Dres?

Dres??

I'm sure I've heard that name somewhere before...

{looks in wiki. Digs through ancient archives. Asks around....}

AHA! Found it:

Definition: Dres

The uninteresting void between the planets Duna and Jool.

Commonly thought to be a placeholder until the asteroid belt is implemented.

see also related terms: Drek, Dross

[KandoKris]

Dress is ok It dosn't deserve the bad name it has.

If you fix your inclination to match it before you leave kerbin its easy.

If you have trouble use this; http://ksp.olex.biz/

To make my dress base more interesting I placed it on the side of the massive scar that runs along its surface.

It definetly has made for some fun jumps in my rovers.