Using Cheat/Orbit Menu to simulate reentry

[Mark K]

I'm putting together a Duna mission.  I want to use the new 1.2 Cheat (alt-f12) orbit menu to put my ship on a reentry vector to Duna at some defined velocity to test things out.

It's trival to put the ship in orbit, however I need a suborbital path at x velocity.  I really don't understand the various cheat orbit parameters.

How do I go about doing this?

Thanks!!!

 

[bewing]

You can't. The SetOrbit feature only does "safe" orbits. Your minimum Pe is always several km above either the surface or the atmosphere. The closest you can get will be to set your Ap, use the lowest Pe you can, then burn retrograde at the Ap to lower your Pe to the point where the velocity is right -- or maybe you even burn prograde at the atmosphere boundary to get your velocity up, if you want a high speed reentry.

If you want to hit that point with a very specific amount of fuel, then temporarily turn on the "infinite fuel" cheat, and turn it off again as soon as you have the correct suborbital trajectory set.

Edited October 27, 2016 by bewing

[Mark K]

Thanks.  I'll see how eccentric and large of an orbit I can make.