Going to Duna Apollo style

[Scarecrow88]

Sometime back I downloaded an Apollo 15 craft that someone from these good forums had uploaded, and had a lot of fun with it going to the Mun. Along the way, I made a few alterations, tweaks and changes, to end up with my own version to do Apollo style missions to the Mun which I felt was a little more forgiving and a little easier to fly. During one of the many Mun missions I did with this modified craft, I wondered if it would also be capable of going to Duna, Apollo style, and this is a record of that flight.

The biggest change my craft has from the one that I downloaded is a completely new excursion module and lander. The only change I made to my modified version to make it ready to go to Duna was to add a drag and main chute to the lander.

Duna Apollo on the launch pad.

Launch

1st stage separation.

2nd stage burn.

LKO established

Duna insertion burn

Payload fairing discarded and DEM extraction.

Up to this point, the flight profile has been the same as it would have been for a flight to the Mun. Arriving at Duna made heavy use of aerobraking to establish the original orbit to save on fuel in the CSM. Only a relatively small burn was required to circularise the orbit.

In orbit around Duna.

Excursion module crewed and detached to begin landing sequence.

The use of a drogue and main chute meant that very little lander fuel was required to actually make the landing.

On the surface.

Due to the increased dV requirements to return to orbit from Duna, compared to the Mun, the entire lander is used in the initial part of the launch, the descent module only being discarded when it runs out of fuel.

Launch.

Crew module approaching for docking with CSM.

Crew excursion module being discarded, after any remaining fuel is transferred to the CSM.

Return to Kerbin is fairly standard. Fuel is not exactly tight, but you can't afford to be extravagant with it either.

Service module is jettisoned in sight of home.

A few seconds from splashdown and another successful mission.

As already stated, the only difference between this craft and my now standard Munar Apollo craft is the addition of 2 parachutes on the lander. The flight profile needs to be slightly different due to the differences between Duna and the Mun, but these are limited to using aerobraking on arrival at Duna to save fuel, parachutes during descent, again for fuel saving purposes, and using the descent module for the initial phase of the return to orbit, rather than leaving it on the surface.

Overall the trickiest part of the mission was setting up the Duna encounter so that I wouldn't waste fuel in the CSM unnecessarily trying to establish an orbit on arrival.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Scarecrow88

[jman508]

dude.

this is pretty cool.

[GusTurbo]

Very cool! This Apollo craft was made by Majorjim, who is a great builder.

[klesh]

I like that lander capsule. I ended up sliding 2 Mk-1 Lander Cans together to get a 2-man lander that could fit inside a 2.5m fairing for my Mun lander.

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/541887967093701201/B46051BB18C4392A160F06ED050ACC9C8F1FCD51/

[Majorjim!]

This is awesome to see! I'm very happy you used my Apollo craft for this! Looks like she needs a fairing update though.

Good work mate, and thank you.

MJ

[Scarecrow88]

This is awesome to see! I'm very happy you used my Apollo craft for this! Looks like she needs a fairing update though.

Good work mate, and thank you.

MJ

Sorry I didn't credit you by name in the original post, but I couldn't remember whose design it was.

[Majorjim!]

Sorry I didn't credit you by name in the original post, but I couldn't remember whose design it was.

That's fine man! I'm just happy you used it.

MJ