Jump to content

Tips on Solar Escape?


Recommended Posts

I am currently attempting to build a rocket capable of escaping the Kerban system, and I wondered if anyone else had attempted this and if so whether they had any tips to share? My current intention is to transfer to Solar orbit with as much fuel as possible and then angle the craft outwards and continuously accelerate until I find myself upon an escape trajectory... probably not the most efficient way to do this but bear with me I'm new :P. I've run a couple of test flights using segaprophet's Scarab HLS, but it seems like I end up with my orbital map flickering between a very elliptical orbit and solar escape every couple of seconds... my Solar Periapsis is currently ~8000000000m, and i've been in the same situation the last 2 billion metres, so it doesn't seem like my continued boosting is actually helping things... I could be wrong, however.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't wait to enter Kerbol orbit; take advantage of the Oberth effect instead. Significant fuel savings.

Get into eastward, circular, equatorial, low Kerbin orbit. Say 100km or so.'

Go around Kerbin, wait until you're a bit before the Midnight Line.

Burn prograde up to more than about 5000 m/s. If you've got the paid version, the patched conics will show you escaping. If you want to be moving as fast as possible as you escape Kerbol, keep burning until your tanks run dry.

Coast. You'll leave the Kerbin SOI in a direction pointed near the direction of Kerbin's travel, and you'll escape Kerbol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Attempt 2 was successful! I built a pretty simple 2-stage gantry-based rocket using parts from the Deep Space, Gantry and NovaPunch packs (but no Ion engines or anything like that, that'd be cheating...) and basically burned straight up in a rough experiment. Upon running out of fuel at approx. 24.7km/s, I found myself on a solar escape trajectory with a very very very low periapsis... I'm not certain, but I believe I max have actually flown through the sun... but I accidentally toggled 100000x speed at the wrong moment so I can't be sure... currently at 1.7 trillion metres above the sun and steadily climbing - it's almost impossible to actually see any part of the system from this altitudeand the orbital map is either glithced and not showing any lines or working and not showing any lines... I'm not sure which! If anyone is insterested I did take a few screenshots of the thing... would be happy to post them provided people are actually interested! I'm honestly suprised at this result... the rocket I used isn't even named because it was intended purely as an experiment... it just happened to end up achieving the exact thing I'd been trying to do with more refined designs!

EDIT: The Explorator 21, a refinement of my previous design, just ran out of fuel at 102000m/s... I don't appear to be seeing the Kraken at all either. I'm honestly astonished how easy this was to launch - I literally engaged sas, ignited the solid boosters, detached them and activated the liquid engines at full thrust and lefft it about 50 minutes to use up all the fuel... solar escape in no time! The solar escape trajectory appears to be broken in the orbital map for me though - it's 68y, 35d and 3h away and that time never decreases...

Edited by 666lumberjack
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can fairly easily do it using stock parts.

My example:

.craft: http://per.hedbor.se/probe1.craft

Both the capsule and the "probe" is escaping the sun. I have mechjeb on it because I wanted a separately controllable probe, but it also makes the launch easier (and significantly less tedious, the boost is 24 minutes or so long).

The trick is to do most of your boosting in low kerbin orbit, as previously mentioned in the thread.

The easiest way is to launch as normal, start tilting over at 10k or so, and once you get the "orbit" indicator follow that the rest of the burn (this is made easy using mechjeb, just click the 'prograde' button)

Using the high specific impulse engines helps too. The aerospikes are not vectored, though, so you have to be extra careful when launching.

My launch in the movie is rather far from optimal, if nothing else i did not end up boosting in the correct direction, I was about 20 degrees off, so I lowered the periapsis some.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...