Jool general question concerning the Fine print mod

[cicatrix]

I've got a mission 'Perform an aerial surveillance of anomalies on Jool' at an altitude of 17500-22000m. The question is - would it be possible to get back from that trip or is it a one-way ticket? I'm considering between a manned or unmanned mission.

[Streetwind]

Theoretically yes, there's nothing that will destroy or trap your craft or anything. Practically though, that is really, really deep. It would be worse than taking off from Eve - while Jool's gravity is lower, the atmosphere is ridiculously dense. It'll still be a fair bit more dense than Eve at sea level at that altitude, and the way up to space will be longer than from Eve at sea level.

Honestly, given the choice of lugging a giant manned Jool ascent vehicle in all the way from Kerbin that will absolutely require staging, or using a tiny throw-away probe with perhaps some winglets... I know which one I'd take

[cicatrix]

That's the easiest, of course, but we, Kerbals, like challenges So, it *IS* doable?

[psyper]

THAT. SOUNDS. AWESOME!

I haven't progressed that far in the game for fineprint to generate Jool missions but I'm assuming thats the same as the kerbin ones where you have to fly to 4 points on the map. Personally I would retrofit my ssto from air breathing to lq+ox and take it for a spin in the atmosphere!! but yeah it might be worth going steetwind's method - perhaps mini-ssto's with probe cores instead of kerbals for a one way trip down in to the atmosphere - far safer..

[Streetwind]

Someone once did a "landing" and relaunch to orbit on Jool. I think you might be able to find a youtube video of it, I don't know any details of the mission (if it was manned or not).

It was in a past version, and the "surface" of Jool is basically one giant Kraken. But yes, it is theoretically doable, especially if you're staying up above 17km. All you need to do is figure out how to get the dV to get back out again (remember, no oxygen in this atmosphere).