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On which planet did you Aerobrake for your 1st time?


LtHeckard

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Apart from Kerbin? Im not sure... either Duna or Eve. I consider it to be Eve, since i executed the Duna landing much in the same way i'd do a Mun landing, only with parachutes.

For Duna my capture was fully on engines and i used retro-burn to get my periapris below zero while still in space. I did land using parachutes though.

For Eve, i came in with a probe from a non-Hohmann transfer at 5 km/s relative velocity :P. Managed an aerocaptue, although it was less than ideal. I ended up having to use a part of the spare transfer stage fuel to prevent the probe from crashing to the surface - which was okay, since the probe had its own power for orbital maneuvers. Its a narrow margin between no capture and crashing.

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With my 'Mechjeb-less' reboot for 0.22, first proper aerobrake (not counting Kerbin) was Duna - had a probe that didn't have enough fuel for braking into an orbit and then descend, it was 'drop 'er in' and see what happened. Got an approach that put the probe in at around 10-15k and it worked a treat.

Now that I've managed manned landings/returns from the Mun and Minmus, I'll be investigating aerobraking into orbit for interplanetary missions.

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Kerbin first, but the second was Eve. I tossed a small lander down there, since I didn't have a decent intercept for Duna from where I was. It worked pretty well, but I forgot to turn SAS back on after touchdown, and the lander fell over. Whoops.

Duna was next. The lander came in pretty fast, and took a couple of circuits to slow down enough to get near landing. And even then, I had to use up the last of the fuel to get slow enough for the drogue chute to open. Everything worked out nicely. Lander's stuck there, but it's a probe. Nobody cares about those.

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Well, For Operation: Firestar, I had used the aerobreak on multiple occasions.

Operation: Firestar)

Mission Details: Our technology is limited, landing and returning from the mun is impossible. We do not have a landing site in mind! So, It is your job, Bigsby, to perform the first lunar flyby! You are not to land! I repeat, you are NOT to land.

Our trajectory analysis puts you into a partial orbit around the mun, however, it is designed to sling around and come back for a landing at kerbin! Any scientific observations you uncover will be of great value to our engineers and research team.

At any rate, This mission was a complete success. I was able to come back to kerbin completely free of any fuel use after the flyby was first enountered.

In fact, I did it several more times, until the scientific value was depreciated to the point where it was useless. to this day, I have not gone to minmus, though I probably should. Its super easy to get a flyby....but a free return is a bit more complex.

After which, I planned my orbits to visit the moon, drop a lander, come back for an aerobreak pass of 37 KM over the surface, which bled enough velocity to then establish a stable 125 KM orbit and rendevous with The "Vale" Space station, while using very little fuel in the process.

Edited by Zaeo
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My first intentional aerobrake was eve in career mode.

I had a probe i was going to put in orbit, and i decided to use aerobrake to get out of escape velocity....

yeah i knew eve has thick atmosphere but didnt think it was THAT thick...

next thing i knew my periapsis is now my apoapsis...and there is no periapsis...

my probe had no landing gear, no parachute...just a very small engine with a little bit of fuel...unbelievably i got it down with only braking the engine...

lets just say my space program learned to be a little more careful with aerobraking on eve...lol

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I have never managed what I would consider to be a successful aerobraking.

By successful aerobraking I mean one which takes me from a flyby to an orbit without me needing to fire the engines. And of course doesn't result in a landing/crash.

Every attempt has resulted in tragedy or a way too shallow path needing engine firing and most recently 30+ passes to get my craft to land as it was out of fuel. 3-4 hours of warp... then phys warp... then warp again isn't ideal...

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Mine was Duna but I got REALLY low (so low I actually started to see the flame effect which is hard to get to on Duna because of the thin atmosphere). Nearly came a cropper when I almost hit the side of a very high crater wall. Got me a perfect capture though with very little fuel expenditure.

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