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Vikki McDonough
Scott Manley
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Comments by "Vikki McDonough" (@vikkimcdonough6153) on "" video.
6:20 - Actually, that one looks more like a steak to me.
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9:35 - It'd be pretty cool if China sent a repair rover to return Viking 2 to operational condition...
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6:51 - Of course, you can aerocapture, but that requires a pretty hefty heatshield.
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@donjones4719 You're describing aerobraking. Aerocapture is when the initial deceleration from a hyperbolic trajectory is done using aerodynamic drag from the planet's atmosphere. Since the vehicle has to slow to under escape speed in a single pass (otherwise it'll fail to capture), aerocapture requires dipping much deeper into the atmosphere than plain old aerobraking, and the thermal and structural stresses are, consequently, much more severe (in some cases, approaching the magnitude of those inflicted during a full-on atmospheric entry).
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@donjones4719 I'm afraid not - I know the theory behind it, but literally the only hands-on experience I have with it is in KSP. (It's actually very useful for capturing at Duna, where the gravity well is shallow enough that you're going slowly enough at periapsis for aerocapture to be survivable even sans heatshield if your craft isn't particularly dense; depending on the craft, you might not even need to retract any deployed solar panels, and the drag from those is very helpful if you can count on them not breaking off.)
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