Skip reentry

[MedwedianPresident]

So i developed a concept for minimising G-forces and adjusting the landing trajectory when returning from the Mun or from Minmus.

It involves obtaining a return trajectory which will "dip" you into the upper atmosphere of Kerbin with an high apoapsis (slightly higher than when aerobraking from interplanetary trajectories - there will be almost as much deceleration). The command pod separates from the main ship and performs the skip entry maneuver; after which the capsule leaves the atmosphere again, now having a ballistic trajectory that leads to the KSC, with an apoapsis of 100-200 kilometers. Finally, the craft enters the atmosphere again, north of KSC and coasts southwards until finally landing in the sea near the KSC to easily be retrieved.

In real life, it was planned to be used on the soviet LK return capsule which also braked over the south pole of earth to land in Kazakhstan.

Currently i have no pics because i currently don't have access to KSP but as soon as i will be able to play the game again i will post a mission report involving this technique in the fan works section.

Thoughts, opinions and field trial reports welcome.

[Vanamonde]

This question about gameplay moved to the gameplay questions sub-forum.

And while I'm here, are you suggesting an aerobrake maneuver which results in the ship making a hop to a higher altitude and then falling again for a final descent on the same orbital pass? Because I'm pretty sure that won't work. In KSP, the capsule will not be redirecated upward. But perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're suggesting.

[MedwedianPresident]

I mean similar to aerobraking, yes, the only thing is that the initial velocity is less and that the periapsis is approximately 30 kilometres above the surface south of KSC.

[Red Iron Crown]

It's not similar to aerobraking, it is aerobraking. Gonna be tricky to hit that fine line between burning off enough velocity that you don't climb above the atmosphere again and not burning off enough, so that you loop around again in another orbit.

[MedwedianPresident]

Yeah. It will be very hard...

[Jimbimbibble]

I believe MechJeb has an aerobraking calculator. You might try using that but you're going to need to get your velocity to within 0.1m/s or less.

[SRV Ron]

When returning from Mun, Minmus, or the other planets, I always aim for a reentry window about a third in the atmosphere. That results in a gentle slowdown from the high return speed to the final landing. Apollo did the same as the capsule didn't contain the resources for a skip return while too steep a reentry would destroy the capsule with high g forces.