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Re-entry at Kerbal 1.1.1


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Hi,

I try the turist mission, I use two pods, one of them for the pilot and other one for the turist. But I have big problems at the re-entry; the two pods get too fast and the atmosphere is not enaught to reduce the speed, so the parachutes break when I deploy.

Who can I get a easy way to re-entry?

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Hello,

The correct way to set up a proper reentry is to put your periapsis at around 30 km. If you go for a "crash trajectory" where your periapsis is under 0 m, like I suspect you to do, your spacecraft will not spend enough time in the atmosphere and thus will not slow down enough to let you open the parachute.

EDIT : You should do the tutorials. It's explained there.

Edited by Tatonf
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You asked for an easy way to reenter. If you really mean that, then try launching this ship:

http://www.virtualrealitytoursllc.com/pix/suborb1.craft

Launch it straight up. There are two pairs of tailfins on the top of the craft. When you get above the atmosphere, right-click to open the context menus of both pairs of tailfins. Click the "deploy" buttons on both sets of tailfins. Look closely at how I have the fins set. They suddenly give you maximum drag when "deployed" this way.

The ship will reach about 200km and then fall back into the atmosphere. Do nothing -- just watch how the craft behaves. Those of us who use this call it the "fin trick".

The lesson is, if you want an easy reentry, you need to use aerodynamics -- and not just some brainless heatshield or drogue parachutes.

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9 hours ago, Tatonf said:

Hello,

The correct way to set up a proper reentry is to put your periapsis at around 30 km. If you go for a "crash trajectory" where your periapsis is under 0 m, like I suspect you to do, your spacecraft will not spend enough time in the atmosphere and thus will not slow down enough to let you open the parachute.

EDIT : You should do the tutorials. It's explained there.

Even with a more conservative periapsis, even with suborbital flights, slowing down in time to open your chutes can still be tricky. This is only part of the solution.

4 hours ago, bewing said:

You asked for an easy way to reenter. If you really mean that, then try launching this ship:

http://www.virtualrealitytoursllc.com/pix/suborb1.craft

Launch it straight up. There are two pairs of tailfins on the top of the craft. When you get above the atmosphere, right-click to open the context menus of both pairs of tailfins. Click the "deploy" buttons on both sets of tailfins. Look closely at how I have the fins set. They suddenly give you maximum drag when "deployed" this way.

The ship will reach about 200km and then fall back into the atmosphere. Do nothing -- just watch how the craft behaves. Those of us who use this call it the "fin trick".

The lesson is, if you want an easy reentry, you need to use aerodynamics -- and not just some brainless heatshield or drogue parachutes.

I agree, the other part of the solution is aerodynamics. The "fin trick" is one option that works well, but the underlying principle is to use drag to help you slow down and this can be done in several ways. Sometimes it's enough to use your SAS to force your craft to travel through the atmosphere at an angle, exposing more surface to the air.

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5 hours ago, bewing said:

You asked for an easy way to reenter. If you really mean that, then try launching this ship:

http://www.virtualrealitytoursllc.com/pix/suborb1.craft

Launch it straight up. There are two pairs of tailfins on the top of the craft. When you get above the atmosphere, right-click to open the context menus of both pairs of tailfins. Click the "deploy" buttons on both sets of tailfins. Look closely at how I have the fins set. They suddenly give you maximum drag when "deployed" this way.

The ship will reach about 200km and then fall back into the atmosphere. Do nothing -- just watch how the craft behaves. Those of us who use this call it the "fin trick".

The lesson is, if you want an easy reentry, you need to use aerodynamics -- and not just some brainless heatshield or drogue parachutes.

Absolutely right.   

Separate your upper stage from the rest of the rocket stack, empty the fuel tanks so it's in the condition it will be on re-entry,  and have a look at the centre of  lift and centre of mass indicators.  Put quad steerable fins on it and position them so the centre of lift is a bit below centre of mass, so the re-entry stage is stable, but not so stable you can't steer it off prograde when you want.     Then refill the tanks and attach the lower stage.  Note the fins on the re-entry stage may shift the centre of lift to a bad place on the complete vehicle,  correct this by either putting bigger fins the very bottom of the rocket,  or have the lower stage as a pair of boosters that strap to the sides.   On re-entry you can stay prograde during max heating, so a heatshield in the nose can protect the rest of the ship (put a nose cone on top of the heatshield, so you're not penalised by drag on the launch - on re-entry, the nose cone will simply burn off and allow the heat shield to do  it's job when the going gets tough).  Then once you're no longer wreathed in flame, pitch the nose up 20 degrees off prograde and watch the awesome 10G pullout you make.   You can actually fly completely level for a few seconds on body lift,  and i've even managed to pull off a water landing without popping the chute - well the inline cockpit, and jeb himself, survived.

2016-01-26_00004_zpsekxx9d1k.jpg

You could almost call this gliding flight...

20160331222940_1_zps0cedzpc4.jpg

4 Passenger version on launch , just after main burn finished (need to circularise).   Yes, I know, that rocket looks like a huge

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