Can you actually land on jool?

[Vane]

I've tried various attempts at landing on jool, But for some reason while i'm descending my ship just freezes and i have full electriccharge and no time acceleration on and i can't control so it forces me to revert to launch or VAB... So what i'd like to know is it just a bug or a glitch or can you actually land on jool?

[SRV Ron]

I've tried various attempts at landing on jool, But for some reason while i'm descending my ship just freezes and i have full electriccharge and no time acceleration on and i can't control so it forces me to revert to launch or VAB... So what i'd like to know is it just a bug or a glitch or can you actually land on jool?

Sounds like you have a glitch. Otherwise, the answer is no.

Jool has no solid surface. You just slowly fall through it until your lander get crushed at about -250 meters.

[cerberusti]

You can get below zero altitude, but not actually land.

Drag is intense in the lower atmosphere, your craft will orient itself accordingly and it can be difficult to rotate at all unless you have a large amount of control items.

[Starstrider42]

The Wiki page on Jool has a pretty lengthy discussion about how to land (and not land) on Jool. Short answer is "yes you can, but you're openly inviting bugs by even trying".

[magnemoe]

The Wiki page on Jool has a pretty lengthy discussion about how to land (and not land) on Jool. Short answer is "yes you can, but you're openly inviting bugs by even trying".

You could land in Jool in some versions, 0.17-0.18 up to 0.201 I think, I even put jeb on the surface and submitted an bug report that I could not plant flags.

Used balloons and kas.

jeb was pushed around a lot, if you dropped parts they would randomly explode.

In later games this has changed, -250 meter over surface and your ship explode like then getting to close to sun.

However I recommend dropping something like an probe down where for an fun view.

[BlueGothic]

What I recommend is to either take a pobe with a communication array, and transmit your science projects, or dip into lower atmosphere, and then have the rocket power capable of then lifting you back out and back to Kerbal.

Be advised, I've tried the first of kamakaze-transmit probe, but I have not done the hercules jool escape probe.

[EliteShadowLeo]

I do not think you can land anymore, as the ship is devoured by the kraken. You can however get very close to the surface..

[magnemoe]

What I recommend is to either take a pobe with a communication array, and transmit your science projects, or dip into lower atmosphere, and then have the rocket power capable of then lifting you back out and back to Kerbal.

Be advised, I've tried the first of kamakaze-transmit probe, but I have not done the hercules jool escape probe.

Done that too as manned mission, you need to drop down to 120 km to get flying at measurements, and yes you has to bee on an suborbital trajectory (lowest point of orbit is below ground to do upper atmosphere measurements.

Rocket with an 360 liter fuel tank, LV-N and four 48-7S on struts, three thermometers and barometers, dropable goo and material labs and also atmospheric measurement nosecones. dropped from Laythe and did an Jool aerobrake who put me in an jool orbit just outside atmosphere, you can just leave Pe at 80, as pe drops to zero take upper atmosphere measurements, continue to check at around 120 km you should get in flight and here its nice to have an hotkey to take messurements of the second set if instruments, it gives you in flight science, push nose 45 degree up and activate the 48-7S, lift Ap up to 100 or something, turn of 48-7S and contunue to lift it to 200 and hold it against drag, remeber to get eva in upper atmosphere at 140, go out and get the data from lab, goo and atmosphere before doping it and return to mothership.

And yes an bonus for taking it down to -250 m on Jool to get rid of it and enjoy the view.

[Taki117]

Edited September 22, 2014 by Taki117

[Aethon]

If you want to see what it looked like in an earlier version, Dahud lefthanded did it.

[Laie]

you has to bee on an suborbital trajectory (lowest point of orbit is below ground to do upper atmosphere measurements.

That's what I expected, but to my great surprise, I actually got "upper atmosphere" and "flying at" results while aerobraking at Jool. And no, that was not a suborbital trajecotry (believe me, I'd have noticed).

The attempt to get even better results by "landing" was an utter failure. Kerbals will reliably fall off the ladder when going EVA; I had to add some surfaces for them to fall on or they'd be gone. After that, they're either prone or on a ladder (they can seize a ladder and stay on it, they only fall when they first go out the door). The common glitches that allow you to take surface samples while standing on your vessel didn't work, maybe because the Kerbals couldn't stand up.

Scientific instruments reported no data that I didn't have already. So for all the hassle, all I got was EVA reports. A single Kerbal in a seat would have been enough.

[cantab]

Interesting. When I did a Jool aerocapture at forty km/s with a periapsis below 90 km the game still always regarded it as near space. So I'm not sure what changed it for you.

[KerikBalm]

I think i've done this on Duna too, IIRC, when I got low enough, while still on an escape trajectory, it let me take atmosphere samples, and then when I dropped below escape velocity, I couldn't any more, until my apopaps was also lowered to in the atmosphere

[magnemoe]

I think i've done this on Duna too, IIRC, when I got low enough, while still on an escape trajectory, it let me take atmosphere samples, and then when I dropped below escape velocity, I couldn't any more, until my apopaps was also lowered to in the atmosphere

I think this has changed in 0.24, in 0.235 you had to be on a suborbital trajectory to do atmospheric samples, aerobrake who returned you to space would not let you.

However in current game I have done upper atmosphere science on both Duna and Eve. This has an benefit that you can do an aerobrake then have time to recover your data before the second pass.