My first interplanetary landing! :D

[SlabGizor117]

I landed on Duna, first try! And for the first time ever, I made it with more fuel than I needed. Sorta. I'll try to edit in a pic of my rocket, don't have time now, but my first stage was a Delta-IV Heavy type stage, 3 orange tanks, 3 mainsails, no extra fuel in the center though, used crossfeed as well. Second stage was a step down from the orange, forget the name. Lt-800? idk. That, and a skipper. Then a transfer stage with a nuke to stay in orbit around Duna and then a Liquid fuel and RCS probe with parachutes, LFO for soft landing and ascent. Well I ended up with a fraction of a unit in fuel to get into orbit with my nuke, and unbeknownst to me, that included my lander. So I soft landed with two radial parachutes and RCS and I don't think I'll be getting into orbit or back home...

But I still landed!

I don't know if I inserted my pic right, I'll edit with a pic of my rocket next time if I didn't. Any suggestions for a noob interplanetary Kerbonaut?

My lesson learned was more nuke fuel, and to cut the flow from my lander, lol!

- - - Updated - - -

Yep, didn't work. I'll post it when I get back home!

Fixed the pic for you. The one you want is Imgur's BBCode link.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Vanamonde

[Scotius]

You can add a couple of smaller drop tanks feeding the central tank of the transfer stage. When they are empty decouple them saving weight, and keeping core tank still full. It will eat into TWR though, lenghtening the burns. You will also have to build larger launcher to put more fuel in the orbit.

[SlabGizor117]

I suck at embedding photos, so here's the link.

http://imgur.com/a/mMjW3

Also, I forgot the docking port on top of the lander so I couldn't dock and bring the lander home anyways, let alone having enough fuel for it.

[Randazzo]

Congrats, sounds like an exciting mission! I've never had to make landing maneuvers with RCS, might have to try that some time.

Tips:

• Don't be afraid of Solid Fuel Boosters. You can run them alongside your main engine (provided you follow the second tip also) to give yourself a TWR boost and cut fuel consumption. That might also allow you to use a single stack main engine instead of multiple radially mounted ones, saving money. If you have enough of them (commonly referred to as MOAR BOOSTERS!) you can burn them as their own stage.
  
• Make sure to adhere to terminal velocity for optimized fuel consumption. It won't be perfect unless you have a computer for a brain, but throttling back to stay around terminal velocity save fuel getting into orbit, leaving you more for later. Here's a table with the values.
  

Edited February 15, 2015 by Randazzo

[SlabGizor117]

Yeah, I'm not afraid of SRB's, but I think the Delta IV Heavy is a cool rocket and I've had really good luck with launching space station parts on a Delta IV type lift stage. In case I didn't make it clear, the Delta IV doesn't use fuel crossfeed and the center stage has a little bit more than the radial boosters so that not all three engines burn out at the same time. My "Delta IV" uses fuel crossfeed and thus doesn't need extra fuel in the center stage. A little bit different, but it works. Also, to Scotius, I know I could use radial fuel tanks for my nuke, but this is my first inerplanetary mission and I underestimated the fuel consumption of the nuclear engine. Lessons learned:

1. More nuke fuel

2. Cut off fuel consumption of lander so your nuke doesn't use the lander's fuel forcing you to land with RCS originally used for orbital rendezvous with transfer stage.

Thanks for the tips guys!

-Slab

[Wabbit]

I prefer to use large LFO cores as side boosters. They have many advantages, and can be asparagus'd!