Does Eeloo have an atmosphere now?

[Wheehaw Kerman]

So this afternoon I launched an orbital lab/science lander mission to Eeloo.  I fine tuned my periapsis to about 22km, planned and executed my orbital insertion burn, and found to my surprise at the end of the burn that I was on an impact trajectory.

I burned radial out, got my apoapsis raised satisfactorily, continued running and transmitting my science experiments, and then noticed (again to my surprise), about a quarter of the way around the planet, on the night side, that I was on an impact trajectory again.

I had about 137 m/s d/v left, and burned all of that raising my apoapsis again.  Same thing happened.  I transmitted science, separated the lander, and managed a mildly hair raising landing while the lab crashed.  The lander completed its science mission.  I did not observe any entry heating.

Either Eeloo still suffers from the orbital decay bug, or it’s got a tenuous atmosphere now.  Anybody else notice this?

[Vl3d]

It's orbital decay.

[Wheehaw Kerman]

36 minutes ago, Vl3d said:

It's orbital decay.

That’s too bad.  I thought they’d fixed that.  It’s surprisingly powerful - worst case that I’ve seen.

[Mickel]

I still have it on most (all?) of my trips.  I've learned to fly around it.  Not sure if it's because my PC is a potato.

[Bej Kerman]

On 1/6/2024 at 7:50 PM, Wheehaw Kerman said:

Either Eeloo still suffers from the orbital decay bug, or it’s got a tenuous atmosphere now. 

Unless the atmospherometer showed you as inside the atmosphere and timewarp was restricted to 4x physical, then no.