The title says it all.
A big heavy heat shield will mean a whole lot of wasted delta-v if it's not required to re-enter on Duna. With Duna's low gravity and hence low orbital speed, combined with sparse atmosphere, is a heat shield necessary?
Kerbal Space Program – Do You Need a Heat Shield to Land on Duna?
kerbal-space-program
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Best Answer
No, a heat shield is not necessary for landing on Duna. At least not when you go into orbit first. It might be necessary when you do a direct descent from interplanetary transfer speed, but in that case the bigger problem is slowing down fast enough before leaving a crater.
One thing to consider when landing on Duna is that with the new aerodynamics model, parachutes are even less effective than they used to be. They can help, but you should definitely plan a retro-burn before ground contact and/or invest in heavy landing gear.