Duna

Duna is the fourth planet of the Kerbol star system. It is the Mars analog for Kerbal Space Program and is mostly red with polar icecaps. It has one natural satellite, the moon Ike. Due to Ike's size and proximity, Ike and Duna are tidally locked to each other.

Topography

A 3200 by 1600 topographic map of Duna made with the ISA MapSat plugin

Duna is a iron-rich planet which has greatly varying land altitude, the consequence of which is very difficult judgment of a safe landing position. Its mountainous ranges are a peril to landing craft, especially considering the thin atmosphere, where very little aerobraking can be done safely. It is important to slow one's ship down before coming into the atmosphere, to ensure a safe descent. Its two poles are very expansive and are the result of a thin atmosphere.

Atmosphere

Duna's atmosphere begins at approximately 41,450 m. It is only 20% as dense as Kerbin's at altitude 0 and is even less dense (relative to Kerbin) at higher altitudes.

Like the atmospheres of Eve and Kerbin, Duna's atmosphere fades exponentially with increasing altitude (with a scale height of 3000 m). In general, the atmospheric pressure on Duna at an altitude expressed in meters is:

$p_{d}=0.2\ e^{-altitude/3000}$

Parachutes work at lower efficiency than on Kerbin, making powered descent necessary when landing from orbit (unless your craft is a glider or just a pod with a parachute).

Orbital Statistics

The geosynchronous orbit of Duna is at an altitude of 2862.702 km above Duna. The speed of the satellite is 307.75 m/s and it has an orbital periode resonating with 1 Duna day (18.05 hours or 64980 seconds.) For a semisynchronous orbit of ½ Duna day (9.025 hours or 32490 seconds) an orbit of 1648.977 km above Duna is needed with a velocity of 387.74 m/s.

Gallery

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  ISA satellite in orbit over Duna being used to map the planet surface.

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  Duna's surface at Dawn.

• Duna projection.png

  A false color Mercator projection of Duna's surface using MapSat.

Changes

0.17

• Initial Release