andrea, it looks like you're going to Alpha Centauri.
hehe, thank you.
sadly, I don't have enough fuel. in fact, I doubt it can even reach jool and come back if I pack a lander.
on a parallel save, I took the ship as you see it in the last screenshot to Duna in a test flight.
It works fairly well, and lag isn't that much. in fact, it accelerates faster than many of my other ships.
but I severly underestimated DV necessary to go to another planet. even more since I didn't bother checking silly things such as right positions to begin transition, and instead burned all the way.
now, even after dumping one of the engine stages, I am still not sure if I can make it back home.
I might consider dumping the now empty fuel module, but that means undocking and then redocking, since it is in the middle.
overall, I think that with good planning it can reach Duna and come back carrying a landing module.
that should be even less of a problem since I can use the docking ports I added to attach 3 more fuel tanks. big fuel tanks!
and who knows, I could add some more fuel between ship and lander. but I might go over part limit.
It seems that I am carrying WAY more RCS fuel than I need.
I am feeling the need to redesign the whole thing, to work better with less parts, but the thought of docking everything again makes me sick
anyway, pictures!
this is my first flyby to another planet. EVER! not even a probe was sent, and now I boldly go where no kerbal has ever been before, using something that looks like a spaceship! so happy!
I'll be even happier when it is actually completed and does its voyage in the real save.
as you can see, an engine stage was dumped before the slowing down burn to enter Duna orbit ( 2200 DV... luckily 6 nuclear engines still push a lot)