Orbiting Missions

[beastcat]

Orbiting

I hope I will be able to complete this list. I will also probably continue it when new planets come out.

Kerbin

Synchronous orbit: 2869km

Highest mountain: ???m

End of atmosphere/lowest possible orbit: ???m

Highest possible orbit: ???m

Mün

Synchronous orbit: Not possible

Highest mountain: ???m

Lowest possible orbit: *400m

Highest possible orbit: ???m

Minmus

Synchronous orbit: Not possible

Highest mountain: *5km

Lowest possible orbit: ???

Highest possible orbit: ???m

*Marked Values are not exact

I will add your screenshots if you want. Of course I will add your name too.

I launched a spacecraft into a low munar orbit so I can observe the surface from above. It flies by the Mun Arch at a distance of about 4km and the height of the orbit is slightly over 5.000 so I can time warp. Now I can plan a route for expeditions on the surface, observe for anomalies or look for a nice landing spot. This is also my first MechJeb mission.

Have you experience with low orbiting?

What is your lowest/highest Kerbin/Mün/Minmus/Kerbol Orbit and what is the lowest safe orbit?

Do you use MechJeb?

Do you think low orbiting is usefull, if yes what do you use it for?

At what altitude are your space stations orbiting?

Tell all of your Stories associated with Orbiting!

Edited August 17, 2012 by beastcat

[Vanamonde]

For a long time I had orbiters at around 5000m around both Mun and Minmus. I would jump to those missions and just watch the terrain roll by beneath me. It's fun. I haven't taken the time to do that in .16 yet.

[Accelerando]

My Munar spacedock will probably be placed into an orbit less than 40km above the surface to reduce propellant requirements on mining shipments from surface bases. Something like 700m is the safe limit across the Mun, while a well-directed orbit can be circular at as low as 400m without danger to the crew (for at least one revolution), if I recall correctly.

My lowest orbit was around 1.5km, back when I understood little of orbital mechanics. I haven't tried for a record since.

[beastcat]

I will collect some information associated with orbiting in the first post, if something's wrong please correct me.

[Railsmith]

Seven hundred meters? I have a Munbase at the bottom of a canyon that still reads 1100 or so on the altimeter when you're touched down... However, this is a bit south of the equator, so maybe the land's a bit more flat over there.

[Accelerando]

Possibly. I'm quoting figures from .12 or .13, I believe, a long while ago. Sal_Valger said something about altitude above the Mun being counted from mean height, so maybe it's changed? Not sure.

[beastcat]

The mun seems most flat in the equator area. The further you go south or north the terrain becomes more extreme.

[Railsmith]

Makes sense. My general rule of thumb is to orbit at least 2500 meters up, since there are some wicked mountains out there. But yeah, the Munar terrain was overhauled in .14, so some experiments might be needed.

[KingAirDriver]

Wanted to share- I just put my Mun Space Station into a 100km orbit and achieved, non-Mechjeb, my most circular orbit so far. Only ~40-50m between Ap and Pe!

[Ziff]

My lowest orbit around Kerbin, is 61km. I've actually had a very small craft in a 55km orbit but it kept decaying and I had to boost a little once every orbit, so that didn't last long.

Mun= 1.5km , but I really hate not having time warp.

I forget what it is on Minmus but it's seriously is only like a few meters above the mountain. It's kinda scary.

I use MechJeb, but mostly just for the tremendous amount of information it displays that allows me to pilot better, rather than for it's automated uses.

I use low orbit's so I can actually see what my landing sites look like, and what the topography is. You really can't see that from high orbits and I have yet to download the mod that does mapping.

[beastcat]

I had a guy orbiting around the mun for quit a while because of a little accident, so today I decided to rescue him instead of him just killing himself. First I tried using mech jeb but when it started to **** up I switched to manual control. My Orbit was also going from west to south and the cosmonaut was going in the opposite direction so I actually had to turn the whole orbit around. When the cosmonaut was about 15km away I started a visual approach. Everything went smoothly and I could land with minimal damages on the vessel.

Also just an idea: Maybe you could post some pictures to make this thread less boring?

Edited August 17, 2012 by beastcat

[brians200]

I recently completed my ISA MapSat of Minmus. My orbit was at 10 kilometers. Here is the result from it.

http://i.imgur.com/mempP.jpg