What counts as suborbital? Ferry tourist suborbital to the moon

[Mastikator]

I got this contract, Kathly's literary "Suborbital flight on the mun". Will a flyby count or will I have to go to the mun, slow down and speed up again?

Edited April 30, 2015 by Mastikator
edited to answered

[Leszek]

To be suborbital you need...

1)To be captured in the SOI.

2)Have an Ap above the atmosphere if it has one, above 0 if it doesn't.

2)Have a Pe below the top of the atmosphere if it has one, below 0 if it doesn't.

I don't know about the most efficient way to do at the mun it but the way I would do it would be close...

1) On entering SOI, burn retrograde to capture. (I might wait a bit from the SOI, but not to far.)

2) If necessary burn radial-in to get the required Pe.

3) Contract should be completed here.

4) Burn radial-out to avoid hitting Mun.

5) Plan prograde burn at or near Pe to get back to Kerban as required.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Leszek

[AlexinTokyo]

Suborbital generally means having your apoapsis out of the atmosphere (if any) and your periapsis below the surface of the body.

So for a suborbital flight on the Mun, I would expect you to need to slow down and lower your periapsis until it disappears. To escape back to Kerbin, you will, of course, have to speed up again.

Since you need to get a suborbital trajectory for this contract, I'd recommend trying to combine it with a landing contract (if you can) and do both at once.

[Mastikator]

Alright thanks, was hoping I could combine it with a rescue and flyby mission. Guess I'll have to make the tourist a separate rocket.

[NoMrBond]

Alright thanks, was hoping I could combine it with a rescue and flyby mission. Guess I'll have to make the tourist a separate rocket.

Not at all, if you're touching down on the Mun anyway, you'll automatically pass through the 'sub-orbital' area for the contract.

And if you're not touching down it doesn't cost very much dV once you're captured to briefly dip your PE to zero, you can then immediately do a prograde burn and pull it back out into a regular orbit

[Fishslap]

I got this contract, Kathly's literary "Suborbital flight on the mun". Will a flyby count or will I have to go to the mun, slow down and speed up again?

It does mean that you have to go below ground level. But you don`t have to land. You just have to burn your periapsis down to below 0. As long as the active Mun orbit is below ground level at some point you`ll get the mission done. I find it best to do this right before I head back home to Kerbin, just so I don`t accidentally time accelerate kamikaze into the surface or something.

[ghpstage]

I've not done any of these, so I don't know how they work, but won't redirecting a flyby into a collision course using radial a burn count for this? Done not long after entering the SOI this would save a great deal of dV.

Edited May 10, 2015 by ghpstage

[Fishslap]

Not sure if you have to be in orbit or not but probably yes. Collision course is what counts as sub orbital on Mun. Weird tourist destination I think...

[AlexinTokyo]

For suborbital, I suspect you will have to have an apoapsis within the Mun's SoI. So a direct collision course will not count, because you won't.

I could be wrong, though.

[Alshain]

Fly by doesn't necessarily mean you have to fly by it. It just means you have to be within it's sphere of influence. Capturing will not prevent you from getting credit. It's the easiest one to combine with other tasks really.

[RizzoTheRat]

I've just tried to combine it with a Minimus flyby mission, visiting the Mun on the way home. Alexin's right, you need to be captured, ie have an apoapsis in the Mun SoI not escape plotted.

[Snark]

As folks have said, you get more bang for your buck if you combine it with a landing contract.

However, if you're not landing, the cheapest dV way is this:

Set up your approach so that it has the lowest possible periapsis. At periapsis, burn retrograde just enough to capture (i.e. the highest possible apoapsis). Coast up to apoapsis, then you just need a tiny retrograde burn to lower periapsis below 0, thus completing your contract, then immediately a tiny burn prograde to raise periapsis to something barely above the surface (so you won't crash).

Then just orbit the mun until your periapsis direction lines up with your next stop; for example, if you're going back to Kerbin, wait until your periapsis happens about 70 degrees west of the spot on the Mun directly facing Kerbin. Then do the necessary prograde burn right at periapsis, and you're on your way.