Jool Diving: How Low Can You Go?

[KevinW42]

The challenge is simple: Starting from a low Jool orbit, how deep into the atmosphere can you dive before making it back up to LJO?

 

 

Rules:

1. The challenge begins in LJO, how you get there is up to you. You can even use the cheats menu or Hyperedit if you wish, though obviously neither of these are allowed after this point. If you do launch from Kerbin, you're welcome to show off your launcher, though this won't your submission's placement.
2. Your craft must carry at least one kerbal, and all kerbals must make it safely back to orbit. Kerbals must also be inside of a command pod, no command chairs allowed.
3. Minor part clipping of things like wings and structural elements is allowed, but clipping things like engines, fuel tanks, or command pods into each other or using exploits like reversed nosecones will be considered cheating.
4. Reentry heating must be set to 100% or higher
5. You must include video or screenshot evidence of your attempt in your submission. This should include your craft before descent including your mass, your craft at lowest descent, and your craft after returning to orbit, again showing mass.
6. Entries will be ranked based on lowest altitude achieved. Entries within 500m of each other will be considered tied. Ties will be broken based on a score consisting of (Ending mass/Starting mass)*Number of Kerbals*10,000 (removing score aspect because of potential for contradictions with 3 close entries)
7. There will be separate leaderboards for those who use stock props vs those who don't.
8. You may enter more than once, but only your best entry will be counted

Mods:

1. Making History is allowed
2. Visual, informational, and autopilot mods are allowed (eg scatterer, KER, Mechjeb)
3. Mods that add parts are not allowed (unless it's just a simple slap on part that enables the functionality of an allowed mod, like Mechjeb or PWB Fuel Balancer)
4. Anything that alters physics, atmospheres, or planets is not allowed

 

 

Leaderboards:

Standard:

1. @KevinW42 16,844
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Stock Props:

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Sample entry:

Didn't get as low as I had hoped since my rocket broke in half during descent. Might try again later.

https://imgur.com/a/cqJmhea

Minimum altitude: 99,921m

Start mass: 491,982 kg

End mass: 6,458 kg

Number of Kerbals: 3

Score: 394

It's later now and I tried again. Moving all the reaction wheels and batteries to a detachable pod on the back really helped with the bendiness issue as well as saved a bit of mass for the ascent portion.Still had to spend a lot of time fiddling with autostruts to get the whole thing stable though.

I managed to get down to 16,844m where the pressure is approximately double what it is at Eve sea level and even Vectors and Mammoths barely get any thrust.

https://imgur.com/a/zIUurkI

(Someone please reply so I can put my entry in a separate post, lol)

Edited April 8, 2019 by KevinW42