Does Jool's atmosphere really start at 200km now?

[smjjames]

Just wondering as I heard (or rather, saw) a couple of posts about it.

Edited May 11, 2015 by smjjames

[Warzouz]

And a related question : how to aerobrake in 1.0.2. I did a lot a aerobraking between 115 and 120km in beta 0.90. That went very well.

[adinfinitum]

I'm not sure on the specifics of Jool's atmosphere now, but as far as aerobraking is concerned, it's pretty much trial and error now if you don't have any mods to predict your path. It depends so much on the design of your ship, for example, when doing Minmus returns, some of my ships slow down enough to land with a periapsis of 38 km, and I've got another that takes 3 passes at 33km just to get it's apoapsis down to 300km.

[Warzouz]

True, that depends on the shape of the ship. In beta 0.9 that wasn't and only solar panels were in danger.

[TheMoonRover]

Yeah, I was testing a Laythe plane but accidentally HyperEdited it into a 190km Jool orbit. It immediately started getting re-entry effects. So the atmosphere must start at at least 200km now. Actually it survived long enough to fall all the way to Jool's -250m collision mesh.

[smjjames]

Okay thanks.

[OhioBob]

All the planets have had the depth of their atmospheres changed from what they were in 0.90. Starting with 1.0, atmospheres now start at the following altitudes:

Eve - 90,000 m

Kerbin - 70,000 m

Duna - 50,000 m

Jool - 200,000 m

Laythe - 50,000 m

[RW-1]

Yeah, I was testing a Laythe plane but accidentally HyperEdited it into a 190km Jool orbit. It immediately started getting re-entry effects. So the atmosphere must start at at least 200km now. Actually it survived long enough to fall all the way to Jool's -250m collision mesh.

Is Jool's atmosphere that thick now that being 10Km in and you're getting re-entry effects? Or were you flying by that fast in the upper atmosphere?

[TheMoonRover]

Is Jool's atmosphere that thick now that being 10Km in and you're getting re-entry effects? Or were you flying by that fast in the upper atmosphere?

Both, I'd say. You really don't need to go very deep. But it is a gas giant so I suppose it's fairly realistic. I used the simple orbit function of HyperEdit, which sets the craft in a circular orbit at the altitude you set (so it was at orbital velocity, a few kilometres per second). If you were aerobraking, you would be going much faster.

Edited May 12, 2015 by TheMoonRover