Problem getting back to Kerbin from Mun

[hhatch]

I had a problem getting back to Kerbin from Mun orbit. The picture below shows things just before I did a burn to get home. I did the burn and when I got to Kerbin Periapsis. I did a retro burn and I slowed down but then I sling shot around picked up a lot of speed and started heading out to space. I'm not sure what I did wrong. Also I did circularize the Mun orbit because I could not get Kerbin periapsis close enough from the original orbit. I'm getting a lot of very elliptical orbits and as the photo shows mine had a significant inclination. I would like some advice on how to improve on this

 

 

[Gordon Fecyk]

Looks like your burn didn't put you deep enough into Kerbin's atmosphere for enough aerobraking. 63 km is too high to have much of an impact on your speed.

I've returned from the Mun dipping to Kerbin Periapsis of 45-49 km, but this required two to three passes through the atmosphere to finally slow down enough to land. If you're landing a Mk1 or Mk1-2 command pod you can dip as low as 35 km as long as you have a heat shield and some ablator on it.

This looks like a Mk1 pod with a fully loaded heat shield. It should survive re-entry if you set Kerbin PE to 35 km, and you'll land in one aerobrake pass. Your inclination shouldn't matter if you don't care about where you land.

[Corona688]

60,000 and up is way too high.  35,000 is where it's at, IMO.  At 40,000 you'll chew through your heat shield without substantially slowing down.  At 20,000 you'll implode.

Edited November 29, 2017 by Corona688

[hhatch]

I just gave it another try. I set periapsis at about 35 km and made it back on my first pass. Thanks for the help.

[Zeiss Ikon]

I'll give you fair warning: soon, you'll be bringing back science on these missions, and the Mk. 1 Command Pod has a strong tendency to burn the experiments off the outside of the pod during reentry.  Go a little high, and you practically guarantee you won't get down with an external goo canister or a Science Jr. -- the latter will burn up even behind a heat shield, which will then not be attached to the rest of the craft. 

[Gordon Fecyk]

2 hours ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

The Mk. 1 Command Pod has a strong tendency to burn the experiments off the outside of the pod during reentry.

That's why you take the data first and bring it aboard the pod before you hit the atmosphere. Even a non-scientist can remove data from experiments. It's just the Goo^tm  and Science Jr that need a scientist to restore and re-use.

Or if you didn't get the Astronaut Complex upgrade yet and didn't bring a scientist, stick an experimental storage unit on top of the pod and then your parachute on top of that, as the storage unit will survive re-entry behind the pod. That part should also let you take multiple crew reports for different situations at no cost to electric charge and not having to transmit it.