CHALLENGE: Descend to Jool's atmosphere as low as possible and get back home

[raptor_xxl]

Descend to Jool's atmosphere as low as possible and get back to Kerbin.

Requirements:
1. Start as 1 ship. You can leave a return vessel in Jool's orbit or any other vessels if you wish
2. Have 1 kerbal on board
3. Stock parts only
4. No parts clipping to reduce drag
5. Minimum altitude is the score, so the lower, the better
6. It would be nice to post images of the lowest altitude you got, but it's an honesty system

 

Hall of fame:
Empty

[Freds]

Oh this just made-me remember a sad day in my Kerbal Space Program, where a mission to send some tourists to Jool fails There was a contract to bring 5 tourists to Tylo orbit. So i send a small ship with the tourists to a mothership in Kerbin orbit, and send the mothership to Jool. The plan was to collect science from Tylo, pol and bop surfaces, so the tourists in orbit was a bonus.

What happenned? Simple: I setted a course to jool, aiming at Tylo (to use Tylo's gravity assist). Kerbals arrived at Tylo periapsis, so i burn retrograde to get nice Jool orbit.  But, something bad happened: I dont know why, the docking port connecting the tourists ship to the mothership simply exploded, send the tourists to a one way trip into jool atmosphere. No enough DV to change course, not enough time to try a rescue. The mothership was saved, but i lost one pilot and 5 tourists that day :(. At least they managed to send some crew reports inside jool atmosphere! Its the kerbals way to do things: If you are gonna die, at least send the  science back home!

[ManEatingApe]

@raptor_xxl Does the Kerbal have to remain in a pod or are command chair entries allowed?

 

There was a similar challenge recently...

So to get the ball rolling, here's my entry from that challenge: 48,611 metres

Full mission album here

Edited November 8, 2016 by ManEatingApe

[raptor_xxl]

I looked in the first few pages of Challenges & Mission ideas and didn't find this challenge, but it seems it was already made  This is almost a copy of that challenge, so there's no point in keeping this one, sorry for not finding it.

[JacobJHC]

7 hours ago, ManEatingApe said:

So to get the ball rolling, here's my entry from that challenge: 48,611 metres

Holy cow. I thought a mission like this would need to be GIANT. You sir have proved me wrong. *tips hat in respect*

[Sabonius]

Liquid fuel engines loose a lot of Isp at high pressure.

Solid fuel boosters keep their solid 180 s Isp at any pressure (which should be considered to be a bug). So deep in Jool's atmosphere solid boosters get infinitely more useful then liquid fuel engines.