After significant experimentation and practice I managed to perform a sub 24 hour Cape Canaveral → Brighton Beach → Cape Canaveral flight using the default XR-2 Ravenstar (this is a significant detail as it would be much easier if you use the "trip to jupiter" ISP settings instead). The run includes a direct Brighton Beach landing at an approach speed of 7.8 km/s, a quick refuel, and a direct reentry to Cape Canaveral at a wopping 14.9 km/s at reentry interface. Flown with cargo slot 1 empty, slot 2 main fuel, slot 3 main fuel. Important MFDs not included with default Orbiter: IMFD, BaseLandAutopilot, Glideslope. Parameter settings: all enabled except Atmospheric wind effects.
There is still room for improvement and it could probably de done in as little as 21-22 hours:
If you'd like to try yourself, basically the only rule is that you should use the default XR-2 Ravenstar settings.
Also many thanks to both David Courtney and Dgatsoulis for their tutorials, I got a number of different concepts and ideas for this run from their video series.
All in all this was a fun challenge and I'm curious to hear what you think.
There is still room for improvement and it could probably de done in as little as 21-22 hours:
- The ascent could be flown a little more efficiently. This leaves more dV for accelerating+braking.
- The TLI is ideally performed immediately after / as a part of the launch, saving some time.
- A manual BB landing could probably be more fuel efficient compared to BaseLandAutopilot, again leaving more dV for accelerating+braking.
- I think the almost full orbit around the Moon before TEI is not strictly necessary.
- Earth reentry velocity could be even higher. I think as fast at 16.00 km/s should be possible. No matter how fast you’re going, as long as you can find a reentry altitude where A) you don’t burn op and B) inverted flight generates enough negative lift to keep you at said altitude, you should (at least in principle) be able to make it work.
- Reentry/gliding could be more aggressive (Glideslope profile is not the best for this).
If you'd like to try yourself, basically the only rule is that you should use the default XR-2 Ravenstar settings.
Also many thanks to both David Courtney and Dgatsoulis for their tutorials, I got a number of different concepts and ideas for this run from their video series.
All in all this was a fun challenge and I'm curious to hear what you think.