eve,minmus,or duna?

[jake9039]

I need to know, is it easier to go to eve,duna,or minmus. I have been getting board of going to the moon,because I have done it many a time. I want to go elsewhere, but don't know where. should I do eve for easiness-delta-v, duna for easier to return from, or minmus for experience?

[Slam_Jones]

Well, in order of difficulty (as I understand it): Minimus easiest, Duna harder, Eve hardest.

Besides that, Minmus is pretty boring compared to the planets.

If it were me, I'd probably go to Duna with a rover.

[FonVegen]

Minmus actually has got lower delta-v requrements than the Mun if you want to land on it (lower gravity and so on). Also you get a nice view of Kerbin and the Mun at the same time from "above", which can look pretty nice.

Duna is great if you want to do a rocket assisted landing rather than a rocket powered one, and also is possible to return a spacecraft from (I know you can return from Eve, but it's... challenging).

Go to Eve if you want to get rid of a Kerbal without killing him (directly), but instead want to give him a probably lasting home on the surface of a headache-inducingly purple planet. Should you desire a return from Eve's SoI, make a sharp turn to the left (aka 'Jump'), then slowly fiddle yourself into a Gilly encounter (a step to the right, probably). Descending to the surface of Gilly would be more of a docking maneuver than a landing, to the point where you might have to accelerate downwards in order to not having to wait for hours to get down there. This also menas a return will be rather easy. The only talent really needed for Gilly is being able to get an encounter with the potatoe moon.

PS: As 'left' and 'right' are realtive everywhere, my 'Time Warp' strategy is always working to get to Gilly, but you might need to rotate around a little bit.

[zarakon]

Easiest to get to:

1. Eve - Large SOI, no inclination

2. Minmus - Small SOI, large inclination

3. Duna - Smallish SOI, requires more delta-v, some inclination

Easiest to land on:

1. Eve or Minmus (tie) - Minmus is fairly easy due to low gravity and the big flat areas. It's kind of like landing on the Mun but in slow motion with much lower fuel and thrust requirements. Eve is dead simple to land on with parachutes, except for the problem where the parachutes can tear your vessel apart if they aren't placed correctly.

2. Duna - First you have to deal with a high interplanetary speed. If you don't bleed that off, you'll punch through the atmosphere way too fast. The atmosphere is too thin to slow you down much without parachutes, but thick enough that the parachutes can still break your ship apart when they deploy. Also, the thickness of the air varies greatly with elevation, so landing in highlands requires more rocket power than landing in the canyons.

Easiest to return from:

1. Minmus - Low gravity and low orbital speed around Kerbin. Even a Kerbal's EVA suit has enough thrust and delta-v to return from Minmus.

2. Duna - Not exactly easy, but getting home takes a lot less delta-v than getting there.

3. Eve - Due to its high mass and thick atmosphere, it's extremely difficult to even get to orbit from the surface of Eve.

Overall, Minmus is the easiest one to deal with. Getting a Minmus intercept is a good stepping stone before attempting Duna.

[OhioBob]

Minmus is fairly easy to get to, but it's 6-degree inclination does add a challenge that you don't have to worry about with Mun.

I think Duna is next easiest. It has an orbital inclination of only 0.06 degree, so it's pretty easy to set up a maneuver node. Eve, with an inclination of 2.1 degrees, is a bit trickier to get a good intercept. The delta-v needed to get to Duna and Eve is about the same. If you plan to make a propulsive orbit insertion, Duna has a much lower delta-v requirement. Eve, however, has a nice thick atmosphere that makes for easy aerocapture.

If you plan to land, Eve is easy with parachutes. Duna's atmosphere is really thin, so parachutes will slow you down but you'll likely need a small amount propulsion to perform the final breaking. Landing on Duna is more of a challenge than Eve.

If you plan to liftoff from the planet, then there is absolutely no comparison. Duna is easy while Eve is the most challenging launch in the system. It also requires much less delta-v to return to Kerbin from Duna than from Eve.

Edited December 16, 2014 by OhioBob

[Ival70]

Minmus is definitely the easiest to go to out of the three, and due to it's light gravity, and large flat plains, it's easy to land on as well. As for Duna and Eve.. It's a bit complicated. If you aerobrake, Eve is actually easier to get into orbit then Duna, since it requires a bit less delta V, and doesn't have a large moon in your way. If you have parachutes, Eve is also arguably easier to land on then Duna due to Eve's thick atmosphere. However, Eve is an extremely difficult body to get into orbit from, and requires more delta V than Duna to return to kerbin, so if you are planning a return mission, Duna is easier than Eve. If you are just doing a flyby or a one way trip, Eve is easier than Duna. Also, one thing to keep in mind is tha... wait, I'm getting sidetracked. Forget all this.

So to answer your question, Minmus is easier to go to.

Edit: Wow, I got super ninja'd. No replies when I started typing this. That's what I get for using multiple browser tabs.

Edited December 16, 2014 by Ival70

[OhioBob]

1. Eve - Large SOI, no inclination.

Huh? Eve has a 2.1 degree orbital inclination. Duna is only 0.06 degrees (almost negligible). I usually find that it can be harder to get a good intercept with Eve than I do with Duna.

[OhioBob]

One more thing about Eve vs. Duna. Eve has a synodic orbital period of 680 Kerbin days while Duna has a synodic orbital period of 910 Kerbin days. These means that Kerbin>Eve and Eve>Kerbin launch windows come up more frequently than Kerbin>Duna and Duna>Kerbin launch windows.

[Norpo]

Minmus is nice, because it's more forgiving-encounter-size ways when compared to any interplanetary mission, in my experience.

Still hard, but it get's you fine-tuning your maneuver nodes.

Also, it's a new experience, due to it's interesting colour and low gravity. After that; I suggest Duna, Ike as a nice moon to visit, and you can reasonably land on- and return from both. Eve on the other hand, only place you can go land on is Gilly, and that's a pain if you don't have Precisenode or a similar mod installed.

[Pecan]

I need to know, is it easier to go to eve,duna,or minmus. I have been getting board of going to the moon,because I have done it many a time. I want to go elsewhere, but don't know where. should I do eve for easiness-delta-v, duna for easier to return from, or minmus for experience?

Have a look at the appendix at the very end of the tutorial in my signature - deltaV requirements for missions to each planet and moon. Makes an easy look-up for what's "next".

[Janos1986]

If you asked me this last week, I'd say Minmus for easiness and multiple biomes, but since 0.90 came out, well...

I find Duna more fascinating. The sunrise is soothing.