Lowest orbit you can fly on the moon?

[COEPTIS]

I tried 4.7XX whatever above the moon but I came to a startling dark death on the far side of it. I want to know how low can orbit perfereably equalateral to the Earth's equator. Will post screenshots of my closest encounter with the surface if you guys tell me!

[Winters]

I think the highest mountain like terrain on the moon peaks at around 5-6k.

[Langkard]

I'm sure you mean the Mun and Kerbin, not the Moon and the Earth.

The highest point on the Mun is 7061m near the south pole. An equatorial orbit, with an inclination of 0 degrees, is safe above 5900m or so. Here is a chart:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/File:Mun_heights.svg

To be absolutely safe, if your orbit is never lower than 7200m then you won't hit any mountains. The lowest completely safe orbit is the one at 0 deg inclination, but there are some higher mountains faily close to that orbit, as you can see on that above graph. If you're off just slightly, you might hit one. There is a fairly safe sweet spot in altitude above 6150m or so which covers a good chunk of the inclinations less than 50 degrees.

[COEPTIS]

Originally posted by Langkard:

I'm sure you mean the Mun and Kerbin, not the Moon and the Earth.

The highest point on the Mun is 7061m near the south pole. An equatorial orbit, with an inclination of 0 degrees, is safe above 5900m or so. Here is a chart:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/File:Mun_heights.svg

To be absolutely safe, if your orbit is never lower than 7200m then you won't hit any mountains. The lowest completely safe orbit is the one at 0 deg inclination, but there are some higher mountains faily close to that orbit, as you can see on that above graph. If you're off just slightly, you might hit one. There is a fairly safe sweet spot in altitude above 6150m or so which covers a good chunk of the inclinations less than 50 degrees.

Thanks for the information. I noticed that one spot on the moon near the equator there is a sort of streak( probably caused by a skim from a meteor) that created a reaaly high mountain. I think around that point is the danger zone as I had to raise my altitude from about 5.5 to 6.0. I really can't tell what's on the dark side and that's what scares me the most. I don't know about the poles because having a polar orbit would mean the ground is changing under me, bringing my lowest possible orbit to the lowest common denominator.

Once again thanks for the info, this is all really interesting!