Spaceplane landing on duna?

[Othuyeg]

I've been trying to land my spaceplane on duna with NEAR enabled... Do you reckon it is possible? Been gliding for hours trying to figure out a way to get it on the ground.

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Restart the mission and bring airbrakes? More surface area to the wings?

I have been trying to find a place where I can land uphill but even then the speed is just too much for the terrain...

Are the poles flat?

Edited November 29, 2014 by Othuyeg

[Hodo]

The poles were flat last time I was there, (.21).

But honestly for FAR and NEAR, treat Duna like a world without an atmosphere. It is so thin it is actually easier to come in use the atmosphere to slow you down to Kerbin hypersonic speeds, mach 5+ and then use drag chutes to slow you down to near mach 1, then just switch to a VTOL mode and land as a VTOL. The amount of wing you would have to bring to Duna to land at a reasonable speed is HUGE!

Duna is by far one of the hardest places to land a SSTO space plane because of its thin atmosphere. It is just enough to fool you into thinking your plane will fly normally, but it isn't enough to actually keep a plane in the air at a reasonable speed.

[BrotatoSalad]

IIRC, Scott Manley did it with a crippled plane (wings at an offset angle from an Infernal Robotics glitch) in an Interstellar Quest episode, and he had FAR installed. I would advise getting close to the ground and using forward-pointing radial engines to slow down, and when you stall, do it a few meters above the ground to avoid damage. I agree entirely. Trying to land a plane on Duna is insanely difficult. However, taking off is easy in the low gravity if you have a decent TWR.

[Wanderfound]

Landing in unusual places is as much about post-touchdown behaviour as what happens before. Wide-set landing gear, tailstrike guards, and some Vernors or Sepratrons for retro-thrust braking. Find a good flat spot and you can safely touch down at 200m/s if you build for it.

You won't get a lot of effect from airbrakes on Duna; the air is too thin to give them much grip. Use S-turns, loops or climb/dive cycles to ditch airspeed before touchdown.

[kriseric]

My approach to landing a spacelpane on Duna involved 5 parachutes:

[Superfluous J]

[Othuyeg]

I kind of want to do it without parachutes. I have planned a massive glider to be sent there. Unpowered, unmanned. I am testing if it is possible as an unmanned mission.

[Othuyeg]

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It worked easily.

[kriseric]

Great video series! Made me feel not so bad about all of my crashing into Duna

[Van Disaster]

Giant flaps with large extension range - they work as both brakes and lift devices ( and you need considerable lift for Duna if you want to slow down and not fall ). Upwards facing speedbrakes for post-landing ( pre-landing if you balance right ) to help keep it down. Also wide track landing gear & make sure heavy braking won't flip your plane. Retrojets sound a nice idea but extra weight is never really great.

Quite a hard place to land an aircraft designed for the planet, stopping is the biggest problem.