Ultimate Mun gravity assist

[Lagopus]

Okay, it's probably a bug or something. But after leaving Mun SOI, my ship was captured back to Mun SOI and my trajectory got really good boost...

http://i.imgur.com/ucHyrfC.png

ksp 1.0, Xubuntu 15.04, 3.19.0-15-generic x86_64

Log file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwTO_H8RhTi0MDVsQ01saW5hbXc/view?usp=sharing

Edited April 28, 2015 by Lagopus
Added log file.

[r_rolo1]

That definitely does look like a bug, since the Mun can't give that much of a gravity assist :/

[StuntMax]

I don't think it's necessarily a bug.

If you leave mun's SOI with a fairly elliptical orbit and at the ejection you are moving towards the apoapsis, when you cross a second time the orbit of the Mun you may intercept its SOI again (mun has been in a lower orbit, thus it took her less time to reach the second encounter). After leaving mun's soi for the second time, you are still slower than her , and also slower than Kerbin (probably you took a pair of reverse gravity assists), enough to be dumped out of Kerbin's SOI.

[Lagopus]

I doubt that Mun is capable of giving that much boost.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Lagopus

[EtherDragon]

I doubt that Mun is capable of giving that much boost.

Yes, it really is, actually. If you place yourself just right you can end up with a Kerbin escape trajectory with just a little more Delta-V than you would use for a basic Mun encounter.

A lot of players, like myself, who plan Munar free-return trajectories find that the same amount of Delta-V for a good free-return is just the right amount for a good departure from Kerbin SoI.

[Zuroc]

I think he is referring to the fact that his periapsis is way low, which should be impossible with a Mun assist.

[Red Iron Crown]

Yeah, that's more than a single Mun-assist should be able to do. Periapsis is inside Moho's orbit, which should cost several km/s while the maximum theoretical Mun assist is a bit under 1100m/s.