How to deal with interplanetary aerobrake/reentry?

[panzer1b]

Well as the title says, i got myself a laythe capable SSTO, but i cant seem to bloody aerobrake in the jool system without vaporizing myself, its either dip down a teeny bit and get nothing useful out of it, or dip too deep and explode.

At speeds in excess of 4km/s, is there ANY WAY to aerobrake to the point that you get a stable orbit out of the deal?

I agree its way more realistic, but how on earth are we suppose to make a SSTO capable of a laythe roundtrip when we cant even aerobrake, and the sheer dV needed to bypass aerobraking makes it outright IMPOSSIBLE to pull off a laythe roundtrip mission right now.

Anyone have some ideas?

[Rodyle]

I agree its way more realistic, but how on earth are we suppose to make a SSTO capable of a laythe roundtrip when we cant even aerobrake, and the sheer dV needed to bypass aerobraking makes it outright IMPOSSIBLE to pull off a laythe roundtrip mission right now.

I hate to break it like this: but maybe we just can't anymore.

What you could try though is to slow-burn into stable orbit with ion engines. Should take a long time, but when you have a stable orbit, then you can start to degrade it slowly.

[Kelderek]

Air brakes and/or drogue chutes, give those a try.

[Snillum101]

Maybe do what the do in real life with Martian probes. Burn retrograde at periapsis until you are no longer on escape trajectory, then dip your periapsis just into the top of the atmosphere. Over time your orbit will decay. Wait until its at the level you want and then circularize at your desired apoapsis. (Diagram if you want: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Mars_Odyssey#/media/File:Odyssey_summary_br.jpg

This method is quite time consuming though

[juanml82]

Alternatively, would docking with a heatshield in LKO and carrying it in the nose (or somewhere) work? Yeah, it wouldn't be a "pure" SSTO but if the thing doesn't tilt over and keeps the heatshield in front, that should be an option.

(Goes to the scratch pad to think about cargo ships carrying heat shields for the return leg from a Jool-5, remembers he has yet to land in the Mun in 1.0)

[Kourou]

While i think it is possible to perform aerocaptures with A.I.R.B.R.A.K.E.S/drouge chutes with both Jool and Laythe(just guessing), here is what i thought reading this:

Forget Aerocapture. Just don't risk your Kerbals ending grilled and do it the much safer and, if you're planning your maneuver well, even less fuel-costly way by performing a Gravity Capture.

That's a reverse gravity assist which will send you from your interplanetary course onto a elliptic Joolean orbit for free, achieved by a Swing-By on a moon. You want to use Tylo for this when going to Jool though it should also work with Laythe and Vall. This also works fine with the Mun when returning, as well as Ike, only Gilly will be quite useless and Eve stay challenging. An advantage is, that, as you are not doing anything inside an Atmosphere, you can pre-calculate your way exactly when still in Kerbin orbit using maneuver nodes, though not quite neccessary. For in-depth explanation check the wiki page http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Gravity_Assist (there is a good example picture of a Jool capture showing the ideal solution to your problem) or search for ksp gravity assist on youtube. I would still recommend the new radial drouge chutes for laythe/kerbin entry, if you wanna fly on after re-entering, don't forget to bind "cut parachute" to an action group if you use several and simply press that button when at about 10 000 - 15 000m.