Can you get closer???

[Elusive Delusion]

Ok so i did do this by accident (aka running out of enough fuel and having to improvise) but i created an orbit around the Mun in which my apoapsis reaches 16 km but my periapsis reaches 5,061m! i nearly get destroyed. it was 4,750 or so but i was able to use my rcs thrusters to boost my self upwards and keep my self from crashing. my closest distance from the ground is around 500m

what i want to know is can anyone get closer? i have looked and there is a video where someone comes closer to the ground of the mun (like half a meter) but i cant find someone with an orbit that comes this close (distance from centre)so i now wish to challenge those who dare get closer?

YOUTUBE VID

 

Edited March 10, 2019 by Elusive Delusion

[Gargamel]

I know I've had a 7km-ish circular polar orbit.  I thought I was fine until I passed by a mountain near the south pole with the summit above me.  

[Martian Emigrant]

Wasn't there someone that had an orbiting ship orbit right true the Mun-arch?

 

ME

[FleshJeb]

Here, I'll ruin it for everybody:

"Terrain heights for the different inclinations on the Mun in 0.21.1."
https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Mun

[Superfluous J]

The The trick is, Mun rotates under you so what is safe in one orbit is not in another. So any orbit with a Pe less than 5823m will crash, eventually. And any orbit with a Pe more than 7047m will be safe, forever.

In theory you could find a latitude that - for the entire way around the Mun at that latitude and for multiple degrees above and below it - the highest point is lower than 5823m, but that would take a decent amount of survey work and I doubt you could do it with in-game tools (short of finding the highest point at each degree or so manually).

I wish you the best of luck. But I'm personally happy keeping my equatorial orbits over 6km and my polar ones over 8km.

[ZooNamedGames]

Avoid the poles and you'll be fine as that seems to be the worst region for hills in my experience, but maybe a map disagrees.

Edited March 11, 2019 by ZooNamedGames

[Scarecrow]

3 hours ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Avoid the polls and you'll be fine as that seems to be the worst region for hills in my experience, but maybe a map disagrees.

Did you mean the poles, though to be fair the polls around here on voting day can get a bit rambunctious.

[ZooNamedGames]

32 minutes ago, Scarecrow said:

Did you mean the poles, though to be fair the polls around here on voting day can get a bit rambunctious.

Typo. Fixed. I haven’t gotten much sleep lately.

[Tyko]

will the game delete on-rails craft that close to the mun or does the 25km limit only apply to bodies with an atmosphere?

Edited March 11, 2019 by Tyko

[ZooNamedGames]

Just now, Tyko said:

will the game delete on-rails craft that close to the mun or does the 25km limit only apply to bodies with an atmosphere?

Afaik, no. Though the lower you go the more likely you drop too low below the surface and the game considers it a crash, orbit or no orbit. 

[SlinkyMcman]

12 hours ago, Martian Emigrant said:

Wasn't there someone that had an orbiting ship orbit right true the Mun-arch?

 

ME

pics or it didn't happen

Edited March 11, 2019 by SlinkyMcman
:D

[Martian Emigrant]

8 hours ago, SlinkyMcman said:

pics or it didn't happen

Well, I was hoping for an answer, vague memory, but I went looking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU2e06IErU8

I really like that Lander-hover car. ^^^^^^^^^^^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLqZNaB3130

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQMWTVd-QTM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz30kObLChg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI0Ad6gTgXQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8hGp4K2Kqs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgtstJ995HQ

 

ME

Edited March 12, 2019 by Martian Emigrant

[Eriksonn]

Reminds me of that time when i needed to do a gravity assist with ike and i missed it by like 10 meters:

[purpleivan]

The thing that comes to mind for me was when I sent a plucky Jeb on a fast flyby of Eeloo for a challenge.

Shot by at closest approach (3600m) at 31km/s... he's not been seen since.

Just a shame I shot past the shadowed side.

[Johnster_Space_Program]

30 minutes ago, purpleivan said:

The thing that comes to mind for me was when I sent a plucky Jeb on a fast flyby of Eeloo for a challenge.

Shot by at closest approach (3600m) at 31km/s... he's not been seen since.

Just a shame I shot past the shadowed side.

Is that normal speed with no timewarp? Wow, that's very fast!

[purpleivan]

1 hour ago, Johnster_Space_Program said:

Is that normal speed with no timewarp? Wow, that's very fast!

Yup

I actually misread the rules of the challenge and thought it was just a question of how fast you could get a kerbal to Eeloo's SOI. It turned out you had to land and return from that frozen world... that made my entry a bit redundant, but at least it made for fun little video.

Edited March 14, 2019 by purpleivan

[Johnster_Space_Program]

I can try. I'll try and aim for 5000 m perapsis in an equatorial mun orbit. Its gonna be close though and I will have to time it right.

4,996 m periapsis, that is very close

 

Edited March 14, 2019 by Johnster_Space_Program

[Johnster_Space_Program]

@Elusive Delusion I think I might have gotten closer. Periapsis was 4,497 m.

 

Edited March 14, 2019 by Johnster_Space_Program