Max Schram

Just put the whole DeadlyReentry folder into the gamedata folder.

Great Plugin - KSP on hardmode I did a quick test run here at work and everything went as expected. Heat was generated and parts were destroyed. Will do more testing when i'm at home.

Go for a Sun apoapsis above 100,000,000km (the more the better) and a Sun periapsis below 100km (the lower the better). Then calculate the remaining burntime of your vessel (time = Fuel/FuelPerSecond) and take 50%-70% of it. Start burning at this amount of time before periapsis in prograde direction until you run out of fuel.

This Plugin lets you disable engines as well as fuel tanks: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/22951-MajiirKerbalLib-0-2-1-Engine-toggles-high-Isp-prioritization-stock-part-fixes

Mech Jeb is a 'must have' for me: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/12384-PLUGIN-PART-0-17-Anatid-Robotics-MuMech-MechJeb-Autopilot-v1-9-3 And Protractor for getting to other planets/moons: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/21544-17-Protractor-Rendez-Plugin-v-2-3-3-10-14-12 The Kethan pack is fun to use: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/23979-Kethane-Pack-0-2-Find-it-mine-it-burn-it!-Now-with-smarter-cartographers I also like to use the NovaPunch Remix Pack. But it adds alot of parts to the VAB, which can be quite confusing if you just started. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/3870-0-16-NovaPunch-Remix-Pack-1-3-Beta-%28Sept-7th%29-Compatible-with-0-17

Since i have not much to do at work atm, i did some simulation on this topic. I want to share some of the results with you guys to improve our final velocites. First some considerations: I thought about the Sundive and its effect on the final result and came to the following conclusion: Gravity is acceleration in direction of the governing body (The Sun) and decreases velocity over time. To minimize its influence it's necessary to increase the distance as quick as possible, because the amount of deceleration decreases with distance. In order to achieve a maximal velocity we not only want to generate as much deltaV as possible, we also want to apply it as fast as possible. A low periapsis and high apoapsis support this fact, because this setting ensures a maximum velocity for the closest (to the sun) part of the trajectory. Since a bi-elliptic transfer is the most efficient way to reach the sun, this is what we are looking for. Initiating a burn near periapsis also increases this effect. I did an ODE solve for the Movement Equation around the sun and generated some pictures to illustrate the previous thoughts. The first two pictures show the effect of the apoapsis altitude on the final velocity. The effect grows with altitude, but doesn't increase to much after 200e9 m. Going even higher mostly increases flight time to a couple of years, which would take hours even on full time warp. I measured the final velocity at 9e10m to cut down simulation time. But a faster vessel (without additional deltaV applied after this point) will also be faster at 100e10m. The next pictures illustrate the impact of the periapsis altitude. As expected, the final velocity is decreasing with higher periapsis. The main reason for this chart was my own consideration while doing this challenge: Burning before periapsis, increased it about some 100km and i was worried it could have an impact on the result. But 100km is relatively small compared to the altitude increments in this test and can be ignored safely. The last test is the most interesting and covers some effects of the burn point and the applied deltaV. The first picture illustrates the varying burn interval relative to the periapsis. The x-axis in the second picture corresponds to the burn start time before the periapsis, relative to the full burn length. E.g. -1 corresponds to the left trajectory of the first picture and 0 to the most right trajectory. The five curves show different vessels with an increasing amount of Rockomax X200-16 Fuel Tanks. The rest is: Command Pod Mk1 and LV-N Atomic Rocket Engine. As one can see, the best point to burn is between 60% - 70% of the burn time before peripasis. This might vari for other crafts, with more thrust or better staging. Adding deltaV (more tanks) does help, but only to a point were the final velocity can't be increased.

I got a new highscore with stock parts: 22214 years. Keyfeature is the last stage, which jettissons empty tanks whenever the are empty. This is way more efficient than just adding a bunch of large fuel tanks. There is still some potential left, but i dont want to do this time consuming process again. Maybe by saving ~500deltaV during bi-elliptic transfer to sun or some planetary slingshot, but it would take even longer.

Looks like the functionality to disable fuel tanks doesnt work anymore with your plugin - which was usefull too. Any change to re-enable it? Anyways, thanks for the great plugin.