Of Atmospheres and Terminal Velocities

[FastMINI42]

This is a mission report for a $42.9M test flight of an atmospheric probe that will later on be hurled at Jool. Jebediah volunteered to go down in a lander can and write down the measurements every few seconds, but there were concerns about getting him back. The consensus was also that Jebediah probably would not be able to fly AND write down measurements without crashing ... so the scientists settled on a Telemachus equiped unkerboled probe instead. It comes equipped with all the fancy sciency sensors, a radio dish and some antennas. (KSC scientists have also been picking up Elevator Muzak in their radio telescopes on Kerbin. Most scientists are convinced it's interference from elevators the VAB, but we went ahead and put the radio antennas on there anyway to see if the Muzak is coming from Jool). Plans are to take two on the grand tour to Jool & Dres, so that we can throw one at Laythe as well.

Kerbin's atmosphere from 100km:

Small floodlight, just it comes down in the dark:

This test flight also gave me a chance to check my numbers in a MS Excel spreadsheet I cobbled together for calculating terminal velocity, specifically with parachute selection in mind (more specifically, for designing a Laythe Lander). Final velocity was 10.8m/s, which was pretty much right on. Final velocity before landing (if you can really land on a gas giant) for Jool should be 2.48 m/s: