Jump to content

Optimal Aerocapture and Aerobraking altitudes


Recommended Posts

You need to get under 41,446 km to start aerobraking on Duna

Optimal is going to depend on how much weight and atmospheric braking you're going to apply though (with drogue shoot's or high drag parts like the B9 air brakes), you'll need to get to 10,000 or lower before even the drogue shoots will partially open.

Edited by NoMrBond
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's very sensitive to your entry trajectory and desired results, and there's no simple formula to tell you what periapsis altitude to target. Fortunately, some helpful person wrote a calculator that handles this stuff for you: http://alterbaron.github.io/ksp_aerocalc/

It can be fooled into giving you unreasonable answers, though, so check that its numbers make sense by comparing them to the atmosphere numbers on the wiki, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From a Kerbin transfer speed, 13,000m will drop you into a middling-height orbit of Duna. I don't remember the exact height that you end up, but it's around 40% of Ike's orbital altitude. It's a pretty small window, though. 12,000m is a ground impact and 15,000m is a fly-by on your way to interstellar space, so quicksave upon entering Duna's SOI.

Edited by Vanamonde
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  ZingidyZongxxx said:
Just remember to quick-save so you can try it again if you mess up. You can also use Mechjeb (If you want) to give a good estimate of what your orbit will be after aerobraking with a certain periapsis.

I'll second using MechJeb to provide estimates for aerobraking. No sense making wild guesses if you don't have to (unless you want to, of course).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...