On Tue, Jul 05, 2016 at 11:27:30AM -0400, Jeffrey Schwartz wrote:
> The other thought that came to mind is that for a gravitic-capable
> spacecraft, the options would be different.
> You could approach from over the pole, like Juno did... and brake to a
> stop, then slowly drop into the polar atmo and leave. You don't need
> to make orbit so long as you have contragrav or enough thrust to hover
> and break away.
>
> What's the flight profile in your TU for skimming ?

Mostly, gathering water/ice from gas giant moons.  In the very rare
occasions where a trip into a gas giant atmosphere is required, pretty
much what you said: drop in on contragrav and thrusters at very much
suborbital speeds.  Going in hot at orbital velocity is generally
considered an awful idea due to the hull damage that results.

The temperatures associated with atmospheric entry at more than 40 km/s
are insanely high; rather a lot higher than those created by
Traveller's starship laser weapons.  So any ship surviving such a
sustained plasma blast is at best going to come out with less
thickness of hull than it went in with, and looking much worse for
wear.

- Tim