Well where do I begin....
I decided to take a DGIV to Venus during a launch window that allowed me to travel there in a near Hoffman transfer orbit.
Everything was going fine till I got to Venus, 1st I attempted to do a simple Aerocapture that wasn't inverted. What ended up happening was the temps on the hull red lined but the ship survived the red line long enough for it to start cooling.
Next I did I series of aerobrakes to get my orbit to a ~220x230 orbit. This is when the disaster occurred....
I planned the journey to be just a 1st step for me attempting aerocaptures on other planets. What I failed to calculate was the time between launch windows which I needed due to only having enough dV for another Hoffman back to Earth. I calculated it as being ~1.5 years away then a 3 month journey back to Earth.
Having only 7 months of O2 this can be an issue......:rofl:
So I then calculated the amount of O2 needed and figured out a solution to the problem, everyone except the Engineer(to fix the ship of course) and I are going for an "extended" EVA.
After this I awaited the long duration for the Launch window and then did my TEI back to Earth.
Upon arrival at Earth I had several issues:
1. I only had enough O2 for 14 more days(cutting it VERY close).
2. I only had enough fuel left for a 5-7 second burn before I would drain the RCS more then the redline needed for reentry.
3. I was in a very bad inc of 95 degrees.
I solved these problems by my first attempt at complex aerocapture/braking techniques. The 1st pass I just did an aerocapture as I was worried about heat. On the 2nd and subsequent passes I aerobraked at a 80 degree bank to get my orbit to a inc to an easier to handle 55 degrees.
The last problem occured when I had just enough fuel in my RCS for reentry and nothing in my main. What made it worse was I was beyond the point of no return of stopping my aerobraking. I was at an ApA of 130km and a PeA of 55km......bad
I found out with a very G-Heavy reentry at specific AoA's I could make wideawake international.... barely. My crewmate G-LOCed when we sustained 8 G's but I survived. After reentry I pitched down to see wideawake in the distance :speakcool:. I came in a little short but thanks to having very little fuel my gear survived the 7m/s impact.
To give you an idea of how close it was, my O2 was at 2% and my fuel when transferred into the maintank from RCS got me to the next stripe on the runway. While this wasn't a full disaster, but by my faults I deemed it so.... losing 3 people and all.....
By the way...... THANK YOU creator of Aerobrake..... I wouldn't of done it without that mfd.