Challange: how low can you go

[sneakeypete]

Now that we've got a more gradual atmosphere and new aerodynamics model is much more possible to not actually be drawn in as you pass through, so i propose this challange:

Without any thrusting below an altitude of 70000m (which is near the new atmospheric boundary supposedly), how low can you have your command pod (or rocket, so long as its not thrusting) get to the ground but still have enough energy to return to that 70000m mark?

Starting off with my first attempt, from a circular orbit of 300000 i set a transfer to ~57500. Lowest altitude was at

And i managed to easily get back to the edge of the atmosphere, and keep on going, enough infact to return to a distance of ~282000m before going in for another go (ongoing)

I think that getting down to 50000 from an orbit of 600000-700000 and getting back up again would probably be possible, and with gratuitous amounts of thrusting before the 70000 limit you'd probably be able to get even lower.

Second pass through from 280000 got down to 56870. Get the impression that this could take 5-6 goes to finally get stuck.

[MyNameIsNotPa]

No thrusting below 70000 means no liftoff.

[SteevyT]

No thrusting below 70000 means no liftoff.

He means to get yourself into a highly eccentric orbit that passes through the atmosphere and see how low you can get while still being able to coast back out past 70,000m.

[sneakeypete]

Yes. and you can thrust on your way back in before you hit the 70000m limit aswell to get yourself even more speed if you like.

I might have another go at this thisarvo and aim for a 50000m pass from 600000m

Edit:

Aimed for a transfer orbit of 45000m from an altitude of 516000. Made it back into space from 44000m this time, though once it was below the 50000m mark speed was starting to bleed off while still descending. Will see what happens on the next time around with this flight.

[Ivan Ivanovich]

Mods allowed or stock only?

[sneakeypete]

Doesn\'t matter how you get there, so yes! (though i suppose you could be silly and thrust upto 100000m/s or something)

My best so far is 38400m, transfering in to a 39000m orbit from 4.2Mm orbit. Not trying anymore until we get time compression.

[Ivan Ivanovich]

I\'m just coming in from a 1012k orbit as we speak, aiming for 5k. Let\'s see how it works out!

[Jarnis]

I\'m just coming in from a 1012k orbit as we speak, aiming for 5k. Let\'s see how it works out!

Poorly. Below 20k the atmosphere is a wall. I re-entered at 6.6km/s at 40km and by 10km it was below 1km/s.

[sluissa]

Yesterday I accidentally hit the space bar before completing my deorbit burn. Ended up with a periapsis at about 58 km. I wanted 35, but like I said, stupid thumb. Anyway, it took maybe half a dozen orbits. (Not entirely sure, I left it to go eat dinner for a bit. But after about 5 hours of slow aerobraking, it finally dipped down low enough to catch some thick air and landed. This starting from an orbit of about 500 km, I believe. The first few passes only shaved off maybe 10 or so m/s from my speed. But by the next to last pass I was losing over a hundred. That dipped down to maybe just above 45 km.

[Ivan Ivanovich]

Indeed. I didn\'t expect the drag to be that intense, but the moment I hit the lower atmosphere, my 3k m/s nearly instantly turned into 1 m/s (with a vector that pointed anywhere but upwards for the return swing).

Being light on the tail (i.e. the rocket aligned in the air with the capsule to the back) also means that I doubt adding wings would change much to improve that. I guess the 30s will be the limit.

[Salda007]

Just managed a pass through at 37,199. Could probably do a bit lower with some tweaking, but I\'m not sure how much. This run knocked my apogee from 19,500 km down to 1,400 km.

[CarolRawley]

With X2, an apoapsis of 75,63*m and a periapsis of 73*m. (* is an unstable number)