Lowest Orbit You Have Ever Seen Or Gotten To?

[irichey25]

So, when I was screwing around the Mun with my Rover I decided with the help of the low graviy I'd use my engines that are attached to my Rover to make it go faster I'd try to get a very low orbit. And I indeed did... It quickly came to an end when I slammed into a little mountain thing... Good thing I saved! Anywho, I digress. What is the lowest orbit you have seen or gotten to? On any planet.

[leax256]

8k orbit around mimnus. Don't have pics though.

[Mr. Rogue Ace]

1.whatever to 7.whatever Km on the Mun, randomly...

[PhoenixStar117]

I have gotten to about 5K over the surface of the Mun. I did not ram into any mountains or anything.

[UmbralRaptor]

~4-5 km over the Mun with the first version of ISA mapsat. (Back when there was a narrow range between low enough to work and high enough to not hit a mountain)

[maackey]

3k by 2.5k on the Mun. Screenshot of my lowest point 600m above surface (was actually 5-something but I wasn't quick enough)

[TheTriniFlyer]

Well, technically the lowest orbit I ve been in is on Kerbin at <1metre with 0.99999... Eccentricity

[irichey25]

3k by 2.5k on the Mun. Screenshot of my lowest point 600m above surface (was actually 5-something but I wasn't quick enough)

Nice! Was it a pain to do?

[tntristan12]

One time I did a gravity assist around the Mun where I came within 1km of the ground. I was puckered up all throughout that whole ordeal!

[tom1499]

1km above moon, apo was alot higher though. Those rocks came by fast!

[entaran]

One time I did a gravity assist around the Mun where I came within 1km of the ground. I was puckered up all throughout that whole ordeal!

I think quite a few of us have done this.

I've aerobraked into Jool at like ~40km before. That was an oops moment, I made it out the other side by full power prograde burn after the periapsis...

[gerryrbd]

I got this little satellite orbiting minmus at around 5800mts, generally around 50mts above surface. Watching it from the ground is a blast

[CobraA1]

Thanks to the oberth effect - it would actually be very useful to know the minimum safe distance over which you can fly over any of the planets/moons/planetoids without atmospheres.

That kind of info should be useful to put into the Wiki.

[Daze]

Why not consider also flyby? I've made a beautiful 30 meters pass on the Mun some time ago...

[Alavarien-46]

I found this on youtube. I don't see how we can go lower.

[ImpulseSpaceCenter]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/33838-Lowest-orbit?highlight=Highest+Terrain

[RawChicken]

I found this on youtube. I don't see how we can go lower.

Wow..just wow..

[JelloTickles]

10k over the Mun was my lowest.

[alaskafish]

Through a Mun arch. But then i had to pull up due to the fact I was traveling too fast and the Mun was loading the HD textures/Ground scatter.

Killed my CPU. (No it didn't)

[Scotius]

About 3 kilometers above the Mun. I tried to go lower, but i actually caught a shadow of my ship on a mountain's slope and decided to not push it. It was exciting though

[Sapphire]

I found this on youtube. I don't see how we can go lower.

Challenge mode: Grab the passing spacecraft with KAS' grappling hook.

[Spartwo]

3.1 to 2.9 on the moon wanted a stable orbit.

EDIT:

the highest montain is 3.5km.every orbit I deathstar through a vally

Edited June 15, 2013 by Spartwo

[maackey]

Nice! Was it a pain to do?

Not really, there is physical timewarp which helps below 5km, and those close-calls above the mountains make up for the plains

That video was pretty awesome I have to say. The buggy nature of nearby ships is really frustrating, I can't build any bases because they all spontaneously explode or teleport off 2km away when I get near. I'd like to do something similar with the great munar arch, but getting a good polar orbit to match rotation is a bit more difficult...

[Werwolf]

I use the Mun as a grav assist every time I leave kerbin's SOI, and I've come as close as 300m off the surface. With a massive interplanetary vehicle loaded down with Kerbals. Talk about tense..

[nhnifong]

It's tough to orbit lower than about 3km on minimus because of the mountains, but I have performed a maneuver in a hyperbolic orbit over one of the ice lakes at only around 50m I could see my shadow at some points.