Aerocapture experiences

[Pablonius]

I did an aerocapture through Dunas atmosphere with a periapsis of 10000m but I came in a bit too hot at about 2400m/s so I had to retro burn to bring my apoapsis down and after a few more burns I was in a nice 71km circular orbit.

[Eric S]

Indeed. So we're going to have to either: 1) Use more fuel for retrograde burning, 2) make a number of passes to slowly reduce apoapsis (takes aaaages), or 3) Some combination of the two.

This depends on just how the devs balance reentry heat. I did a round trip to Duna with Deadly Reentry, went straight for an aerobrake landing (9km periapsis) without burning off any of the transfer velocity, and never got a heat bar on my heat shield. Similarly, on return to Kerbin, I aerocaptured into.. can't remember, 500 or 800km apoapsis with a 35 or 36km periapsis, also without a heat bar.

Then, just to make sure that I hadn't messed up the DR install, I reloaded the quicksave that I took when I hit Kerbin's SoI and tried a periapsis that was 1.5-2km lower. I figured I'd see a heat bar and get a better idea of just how low I could get my apoapsis in a single pass. Well, I went from "Ooh, look, finally a heat bar!" to BOOM in well under 10 seconds.

Something to keep in mind is that a normal Kerbin reentry velocity is about a third of that of a normal Earth reentry velocity, so they're going to have to make it worse than reality for there to be any challenge, and the balance is just how much worse they decide to make it.

[Iansoreta]

Aerocapture is where you aerobrake into orbit, which I think everyone here should be familiar with.

I understood Kerbin well. 36km was a nice altitude to set the Pe for capture from Mun and Minmus return. Anything under 35km was a full re-entry. So far I have found that 15km is good for Duna. That was a proper intercept near Ap on an eccentric orbit.

So what have peoples experiences been of aerocapture at the new planets? I'd like a heads up, since I prefer to avoid quickload if I can.

EDIT: details so far...

Duna

10.5km Pe, 1900 m/s = 1333 km Ap

11.5 km Pe, 1680 m/s = 1155 km Ap (me again)

12.6km Pe, 1300 m/s - fail, too slow/low (me again)

14.5 km Pe, 1675 m/s - fail too fast/high (me again)

15 km Pe - mixed results... too little or too much depending upon entry m/s

25 km Pe - Fail - too high

Eve

60km Pe, 4000 m/s - capture success

70km Pe (m/s unknown) = success 300km Ap

Jool

90km Pe - epic fail (~120km minimum suggested)

119.5km Pe (m/s unknown) = success (and Laythe capture)

115km (m/s unknown) = 22,000km (~Laythe orbit height)

121km Pe (m/s unknown) = 46,000 km Ap

127km Pe (m/s unknown) = success

Laythe

9km Pe, 7600 m/s - fail, too low

21.88km Pe (m/s unknown) = 235km Ap

You know what, due to EXTREME variation of atmospheric entry altitude and speed for Duna coupled with unpredictable aerodynamic drag in Duna's atmosphere, don't ever trust with your own details and calculations. Remember to quicksave many times when necessary.