Closest you have gotten to the Sun

[Cheif Operations Director]

My record is PE 684 419 363 M

[Cheif Operations Director]

Working on one at 550,000 K

Edited August 11, 2018 by Cheif Operations Director

[Superfluous J]

I have no idea. Really low, though. Like, sun-is-half-the-sky low. This was way back before 1.0 and actual temperature though, and it was just a flyby from about Eeloo's orbit.

[Reactordrone]

1290m back before heat was a thing.

[purpleivan]

17846m... again before the days of heating turning ships into explodium.

 

[SiriusRocketry]

In heat related days, my 'Helioclipper' ion probe skimmed the Sun at an altitude of just under 325,000 km.

[Cheif Operations Director]

What is the closest you have gotten with heating

[AngrybobH]

I've flown a probe straight into the sun. I'm fairly certain an atom or two got to the "surface". The altitude before it blew up? Well that was much higher at several hundred thousand kilometers.

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

What is the closest you have gotten with heating

Moho.

Actually I guess technically Moho in the Snarkiverse, as that's closer to the Sun than Moho in the normal KSP universe.

A.K.A. not really all that close.

[DualDesertEagle]

I'm sure SOMEONE can tell from their own experience what altitude my kerbal was at when he went POOF. Coz I don't remember.

[Just Jim]

About halfway through Emiko Station I did a close Kerbol fly-by... I'll have to dig around to see if I can find the exact altitude I ended up at, but I found this so far...

[Cheif Operations Director]

Ive gotten down to 350,000,000

[purpleivan]

As those strange tall creatures sent their Parker Solar Probe to their sun today, the KSP decided to do likewise (gotta keep up with the humanses).

Here's the highlights.

Launch

So what's inside... lots of heatshields

Heading out of Kerbin orbit.

Dropping some of the nukes

1st heatshield is getting a little toasty.

... aaaand it's gone.

Just the one left now.

The trajectory

Snagging a gravity reading before the inevitable.

Kaboom at 77,509km

This probe was sent on a one way trip, but based on what happened I think it's possible to skim and survive at somewhere between 100,000 to 150,000km, using a single heatshield. Much below 100,000 they start going like popcorn.

Edited August 12, 2018 by purpleivan

[maceemiller]

I'm currently building my "replica" of the Parker Solar Probe in RSS and will try to get as near as I can....got lots of heat shield testing to do and the results I will post here and the "what have you done in KSP today" thread.... I'll be posting in the next few days as to how my attempt is going....after all...I'm not NASA!

[The Aziz]

I mean, I almost always appreciate any input of any user on this forum, but what's the point of posting closest approaches before heating was a thing? Like, I could say that I was closer than anybody because I touched the sun when it was only a bitmap in the sky back in very early alpha... 

So I believe, but could be wrong, that I made it just below 500000m, the radiators were barely managing to dissipate the heat from the probe. It didn't explode, but I didn't try to get lower either, just dropped the save.

Edited August 12, 2018 by The Aziz

[purpleivan]

2 hours ago, The Aziz said:

I mean, I almost always appreciate any input of any user on this forum, but what's the point of posting closest approaches before heating was a thing? Like, I could say that I was closer than anybody because I touched the sun when it was only a bitmap in the sky back in very early alpha... 

So I believe, but could be wrong, that I made it just below 500000m, the radiators were barely managing to dissipate the heat from the probe. It didn't explode, but I didn't try to get lower either, just dropped the save.

[place for picture here later]

The same could be said, although to a less degree, to most of the "fastest, lowest, lightest... etc." challenges (which this isn't) or answers to a question (which this is), as the content of the game has changed in so many ways over time. Seeing how the game has changed over time and therefore what is possible within it, is interesting in itself.

In my case I posted an old "before heating was a thing" distance and then as I was curious to see what's possible now, flew a mission to see what's possible today.

Don't see anything to complain about there.

[Gaarst]

Have just done 250,000 km on a stable/non-exploding path. As long as you keep the heatshield towards the Sun you can make an infinite number of passes (no ablator used, they are just here for radiation shielding and insulation, not dissipation). The solar panel stabilises around 92% heat and is the critical part, I've made a new version where they don't stick out as much but haven't flown it yet.

 

Edit: under 100,000 km with the updated version

Edited August 12, 2018 by Gaarst

[WWEdeadman]

I crashed into it, that's the closest I got.

This was back in Episode 28 of my Let's Play, which is up to over 500 episodes by now

[Atkara]

Ran a test of what I'll do in my career save at some point:

I think that's close enough, given the fact that the mission is/will be crewed. Took a bunch of other shots which can be found here, for anyone interested.

[Chel]

Does glitching inside the Sun count?

[Cheif Operations Director]

I'm going to try to land inside the sun lol

[OhioBob]

I've never flow by the sun, but I just completed a flyby of Grannus (GPP & GEP).  Got to 38,601 km at closest approach.  Heating-wise, that should be the equivalent of about 120,000 km from Kerbol.

[netdomon1]

i have no idea 

[CaptainHaywood]

Managed to complete an insanely close pass (sun was filling the entire screen) by slingshotting around Duna to Jool and out to Eeloo before falling sunwards. I hit like 100 km/s when I ran the engines at full burn, and it went up to like 125 km/s after the pass.

 

I currently have a ship with a grabbing arm and a whole lotta Dawns heading out to grab it :p 

[maceemiller]

Just finished my version of the Parker Solar Probe in RSS.....

Now to set up and build the next stage which will give me a Venus fly-by to assist Parker to the Sun....

Comes with a communatron and 3 magnotometers purely for asthetics.

Edited August 19, 2018 by maceemiller