Proof why aerobraking is awesome

[Lanfranc]

Well, i think we usually use it more in the "smash into the surface uncontrollably" context. Whereas, the real context would be using airbags to soften the landing impact

Yeah, like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers:

Now that's a landing method any Kerbal would be proud of!

[The Scientific Moustache]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogravity_assist Just read this, want to try.

[birrhan]

Could someone with some experience with the deadly reentry mod, and specifically the 6.25 m shield, explain (a) what the limits are to that shield (temperature, speed), and ( how much dv you can reasonably expect to lose at Jool (or Laythe) by aerobraking.

[Ralathon]

Could someone with some experience with the deadly reentry mod, and specifically the 6.25 m shield, explain (a) what the limits are to that shield (temperature, speed), and ( how much dv you can reasonably expect to lose at Jool (or Laythe) by aerobraking.

I use DR and I advise against aerobraking at all for Jool.

The Joolian system has loads of great gravity assist targets to slow down. This allows you to slow down for very little fuel without dragging a giant heat shield all the way out there.

[Iren]

It's true, aerobraking is awesome.

However, why not just aerobrake into Laythe directly instead of lucking it.

I did this once, in a retrograde orbit! Had to make a few tries to get the best option to slow down from 7 km/s to orbital speed, I think it was about 16km over the surface

[Oggula]

I usually aerobrake at Laythe directly into any transfer orbit I need, usually to Tylo. Then I only need 800m/s to circularize...

[Lexif]

I use DR and I advise against aerobraking at all for Jool.

The Joolian system has loads of great gravity assist targets to slow down. This allows you to slow down for very little fuel without dragging a giant heat shield all the way out there.

This. You need about 200--250 m/s with a low PE to capture into the Jool system, and the rest can be done by using gravity assists to get your orbit close to your target moon. It just takes a bit of patience. About the same amount of dv might be needed to adjust your orbit to make use of those assists if you adjust your orbit at the best point, and some more to capture at your moon of choice. I use DR with FAR and RemoteTech. With these mods, aerocapture is quite infeasible, either you burn up, get ripped apart by the deceleration or you need multiple orbits to get captured. And the huge antenna needed for coms to Jool with RemoteTech is pretty hard to shield anyway.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Lexif
edited to mention FAR and RemoteTech