Closest Solar Approach 84,159.3km is it not possible to get closer?

[Redacted]

No matter what I try I can't get the solar-approach to Kerbal to focus in more than 84,159.3 km. Which is really frustrating considering that is 7-8 times the distance of Kerbal from it's moon. Ideally I'd like to shoot into the upper atmosphere (Aerobrake) to avoid overshooting Kerbal. Otherwise I'll need over 5000 m/s in fuel to brute-force a coarse correction.

Any ideas how I can get this done?

Thanks in advance!

Redacted

[Reactordrone]

Click on Kerbin and select focus view to see where your orbit is in relation to the planet. That should let you see whether you need to adjust up/down  or closer in using the prograde/retrograde or radial in/out handles. You may need a mid course correction but you should be able to do it from there.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Reactordrone

[Redacted]

Thats just it... I cant adjust in finer than 84,159.3 km, even on a mid coarse correction. Once the SOI has been reached, it wont calculate for anything inside it until I reach the SOI. At which point it's too late.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Redacted

[Redacted]

Here is the closet I've come thus far. It's still 6 times the Muns orbit and doesn't do much except deflect the trajectory. Unfortunately, the Kerb-Pe isn't shown until about a day or so out from Kerbin's SOI.

 

 

Will try again after i pick up my kids.

 

Thank you!

[OHara]

Too late, but 84 159.3 km is the 'closest approach' on a segment of orbit after you encounter the planet, and then escape its sphere of influence.   
84 159.3 km  is the radius of the sphere of influence of Kerbin.

This is one situation where the right-click persistent display of a number is not helpful, because you need to watch if a different symbol appears for a periapsis, and then start making its number get smaller.

(I remember an option "always show closest approach markers" that if turned off might make the 'closest approach' go away when the closest approach happens after an encounter and you presumably don't care about closest approach anymore.)

Now that you have the periapsis distance displayed, you can watch it while you adjust the maneuver, and probably you will see the maneuver adjustments that you expected to work before (while watching 84 159.3km not change) actually do work.

[PunkyFickle]

Your problem is your 11° of inclination. From where you are, you can only encounter Kerbin if it happens to cross your orbit at the same time as you reach an ascending or descending node, which is not the case, thus this distance. You'll have to wait until you reach your ascending node to correct it and then plan for an encounter.

Edit : Hmmm, this is wrong.

Edited February 5, 2019 by PunkyFickle

[Kryxal]

6 hours ago, Reactordrone said:

Click on Kerbin and select focus view to see where your orbit is in relation to the planet. That should let you see whether you need to adjust up/down  or closer in using the prograde/retrograde or radial in/out handles. You may need a mid course correction but you should be able to do it from there.

I prefer to open the maneuver node, then use the tab key to change focus ... saves the trouble of re-opening the node at range.

Of course, something like Mechjeb or Precisenode works too...

Also, for the OP, from the look of that node you need to arrive a bit later without adjusting the intercept point, adding a combination of radial out and retrograde should (I think) do the trick.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Kryxal

[Redacted]

2 hours ago, Kryxal said:

I prefer to open the maneuver node, then use the tab key to change focus ... saves the trouble of re-opening the node at range.

Of course, something like Mechjeb or Precisenode works too...

Also, for the OP, from the look of that node you need to arrive a bit later without adjusting the intercept point, adding a combination of radial out and retrograde should (I think) do the trick.

In that pic i was able to perform a coarse correction closer to the SOI. I discovered that, when 1-2 days out, its possible to see the predicted Pe beyond 84,159.3 Km. However because i was already so near,  the ship ran out of Argon / Mono propellant before the correction finished. What is shown in that image was the result after i Warped ahead to view the outcome.

Side note: I’m using a 2-man capsule with Hall-Effect thrusters. Where as the Argon tanks are held behind the engine(s) and thus can be safely staged. (15 tanks, arranged 5 long, in three columns around a center spar) This arrangement adds a small bit of DV during the staging which is nice. During launch, I’ve enough M/S to easily break from Kerbins SOI just using the first stage. Whole setup cost about 100k to build, which is dirt cheap considering the ships performance. If not for the poor node resolution, I’d of already made it back to Kerbin with fuel to spare.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Redacted

[Redacted]

Using the TAB focus, I was able to get the Pe down to 17km for just aprox 1000 m/s in fuel.  On the final approach past the Muns orbit, the little ship burned all avalible m/s to slow down from 4500. (1500 m/s Argon and half the RCS) Re-entry speed was just over 3300 m/s and quickly bleed off thanks to the heat shield and ships low mass.

All in all, its a great little solar rescue ship for under 100k, even if the mission did take 19 years.