Orbital Altitude minimum for equatorial Lunart orbit?

[VincentMcConnell]

With the new terrain engines, it\'s safe to say that the terrain is much higher in elevation. In the old game, you could orbit the Mun at about 1000 meters. Now, of course, you can\'t do that. Does anybody know the lowest safe orbital altitude around the equator of the Mun with this terrain engine?

[UmbralRaptor]

The equator tends to be lower than the poles, but there are still a few mountains. I\'d guess 3000-3200 m would be relatively safe. Go above 3400 m for a guarantee. (Outside of a very few mountains that push 3700 m, you\'ll be safe in polar orbits)

There seem to be some good maps in Innsewerants\' thread/

[togfox]

The kerbal geographic society would know. Do a search and ask there. I\'m guessing around 2000 but I\'ll try to work out the highest peak.

[PakledHostage]

The kerbal geographic society would know. Do a search and ask there. I\'m guessing around 2000 but I\'ll try to work out the highest peak.

Constraining my search to between 1°N and 1°S, I get a maximum altitude of about 2855 m at roughly 130°12\'W, 0°54\'N.

I got this number from the same data set that I used to make the map below. I\'d be interested to see a screen shot showing the terrain elevation at that location if someone wants to land there.

[imnotacanadian]

The lowest safe equatorial orbit that I have achieved is 3800 meters. I had dipped a few degrees below the equator though. Amazing views of the giant rift/canyon on the side of the moon opposite Kerbin.

[Zephram Kerman]

That area has peaks, which surround the equatorial canyon for which everyone has their own name. I call the canyon 'Jeb\'s Landing', since it looks like something enormous plowed into the surface here.

The altitude at this image is 2814m, but the next ridge about 100m ahead and to the right is a little bit higher at 2821m.

The lander has enough fuel to check out the pointy one across the canyon, but I have to go to work. Expect an edit in about 12 hours.

[togfox]

Good golly miss Molly, include lat/long and claim the name at the kerbin geographic society!

[PakledHostage]

That area has peaks, which surround the equatorial canyon for which everyone has their own name. The altitude at this image is 2814m, but the next ridge about 100m ahead and to the right is a little bit higher at 2821m.

The lander has enough fuel to check out the pointy one across the canyon, but I have to go to work. Expect an edit in about 12 hours.

Awesome! Thanks for posting the screen shot.

I\'m curious if you have enough fuel to fly 11 km? Your screenshot shows you at 133° 03\' W, 0°15\'S. My radar detected slightly higher peaks (2855 m) at 130°12\'W, 0°54\'N. By my figures that is 10.8 km away from your present location on a heading of 68°.

[Zephram Kerman]

Lo and behold, they are one and the same. The pointy peak on the opposite side of the canyon is the highest point I could find, and just a short drive from PakledHostage\'s requested landing site.

(Sorry for the mix-up on this morning\'s post. I came in from orbit low and fast. MechJeb had trouble with that situation and the rough terrain. So I had to switch to manual and pick a landing spot visually. In this image, the distance to target readout is still jammed.)

Here is the scene from (as close as I could get to) the requested coordinates:

And, here is a glorious view of Jeb\'s Landing, looking southwest, from the highest elevation 2968m. (This will also show up in the KGS thread momentarily.) 8)

[PakledHostage]

Lo and behold, they are one and the same. The pointy peak on the opposite side of the canyon is the highest point I could find, and just a short drive from PakledHostage\'s requested landing site.

What can I say? I\'m confident that you\'ve landed on the highest equatorial mountain on the Mun. Kerbalmanjero? The twin peaks of Kerbalmanjero?

The elevation in your first screenshot agrees within 14 metres of my measurement. I\'d say that this is pretty good considering that the measurement positions aren\'t identical (through no fault of your own). The position that I gave above for the highest measured point was rounded to the first decimal place. The precise position that I measured from orbit is located 154 metres away from your location on a heading of 105°. This could easily account for the 14 metre difference.

And for anyone who\'s interested, my radar altimeter works by emitting five 'rays', fanned out in a ±40° arc under the orbiting spacecraft. I use the quaternion rotation identity to rotate the local 'down' vector about the spacecraft\'s velocity vector to orient the sensor rays. I sample at about 2 Hz, which corresponds to about 250 metres between sets of samples at typical orbital speeds. Unfortunately, the probe also has to orbit very close to the Munar surface for the radar to get valid returns, so the horizontal resolution is limited. Even using the fan technique, this means that the probe can only really measure directly below itself while passing over the highest peaks. Obviously the resolution can only be so good with this system, so I\'m not surprised that it didn\'t detect the higher point that you found located just west of my highest measured position.

(Sorry for the mix-up on this morning\'s post. I came in from orbit low and fast. MechJeb had trouble with that situation and the rough terrain. So I had to switch to manual and pick a landing spot visually. In this image, the distance to target readout is still jammed.)

So what you\'re saying is you had to take over manual control and land manually to avoid a large boulder field? Looks like you might also have only had about 20 seconds of fuel left when you touched down... Zephram 'Neil' Kerman.

[Zephram Kerman]

... The precise position that I measured from orbit is located 154 metres away from your location on a heading of 105°...

Any further south would have sent us into the canyon. Jeb wanted to 'go for it', but Bill and Bob actually managed to talk him out of it... mostly because the fall might cause him to accidentally spill his drink.

And for anyone who\'s interested, my radar altimeter works by emitting five 'rays', fanned out in a ±40° arc under the orbiting spacecraft. I use the quaternion rotation identity to rotate the local 'down' vector about the spacecraft\'s velocity vector to orient the sensor rays...

It never ceases to amaze me what smart folks can do in this game with plugins. It sounds like your code works just like a real life orbital terrain mapper.

...Obviously the resolution can only be so good with this system, so I\'m not surprised that it didn\'t detect the higher point that you found located just west of my highest measured position.

For purposes of knowing the terrain and 'not crashing the ship' this is plenty good. And, for mapping an entire planet or moon, perfect resolution would be overkill anyway. Quite a handy tool you\'ve got there.

So what you\'re saying is you had to take over manual control and land manually to avoid a large boulder field? Looks like you might also have only had about 20 seconds of fuel left when you touched down... Zephram 'Neil' Kerman.

You make it sound like good piloting. 8) But it was more like, 'Too close for missiles, switching to g- AYEEEEEEEE, whew!' - ...Zephram 'Maverick' Kerman.

'Yes, ma\'am, a \'Kerbal Aviator\'.'