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Lowest Orbit You Have Ever Seen Or Gotten To?

irichey25

By irichey25
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rryy

rryy

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I once had a lander in about a 5 km parking orbit around Dres. I was waiting for a transfer window, but I couldn't timewarp, so I switched to another craft so I could. After it was time to perform the transfer, the lander was nowhere to be found. :sealed:

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babbo

babbo

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My lowest orbit happened entirely by accident, and it may well have been one of the lowest ever.

If an unmanned, involuntary orbit counts, that is.

Some versions ago, Jeb and friends were on final approach for a Mün landing, before they had a dedicated Apollo-style lander and all. As they were coming in and their trajectory was already intersecting the surface, I dropped (cleverly, I thought) the rocket stage that had given them a ride from Kerbin so that it would crash harmlessly on the Münar surface and, who knows, maybe create a tourist attraction. Everything was going swimmingly: I was managing to land the tallish lander proper side up without creating too big a divot, the green guys were already dreaming of Münar glory, and in a heroic feat of crazy rocket science, the spent stage went slamming into the surface. I was already dreaming of the ticket parade on Kerbin.

Then Physics intervened.

Little did I know that a rocket stage could so nicely break up on impact before every bit had actually impacted. And little did I know that when you try to throw a glancing blow at the Mün, sometimes, the Mün hits right back. Most of the stage did mesh with Münar dust quite nicely, thank you, but a tank and some other parts attached to it decided to pursue their own space program and were hurled back into space by the blast.

Many minutes later, the Apocrap crew was busy milling about on the surface of the Mün, doing whatever it is that astronauts do on dust balls. Bob was busy making shadows on the craft with his helmet lamps, when WHOOOOOOOSH WHATTHEBLOODYHELLWASTHISRUNFORCOVER something looking like a giant spacebound water heater hurtled past like a freight train, about 20 metres above their heads.

The tank had achieved orbit, and while its apoapsis was quite normal, its periapsis was, well, roughly twenty metres above the landing site.

Needless to say, the Münar landing procedure was slightly altered following the incident, though the mini solar transit that took place every orbit was the source of much science for that mission.

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Bothersome

Bothersome

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I snapshot this photo some time ago. Thought it might fit in this challenge. Might not be the lowest but it's pretty low.

Yes, those are the lights shining onto the surface of the Mun as it orbits around it. The orbit was near perfect circle too btw.

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samstarman5

samstarman5

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I achieved a super low orbit on the Mun back in 0.17

My dream is to make a Munar station that orbits at least 200m from the highest point on the Mun, and on that point there will be a base.

Let us know how you do with the first docking maneuver. Even with 200m to play with, the ground flying by that fast will screw with your equilibrium.

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