Deflate-O-shields

[Kerbal pancake]

am I the only one who wants the inflato shields to be able to deflate and re inflate in flight? It would make it easier to detach them so that they don’t fling around and destroy your ship. Is there a way to change this in the configs or a mod? That does so?

[FleshJeb]

If you have Module Manager installed, this will work:

//Allow deflating inflatable heat sheield
//Author: Chris97b
@PART[InflatableHeatShield]:AFTER[Squad]
 {
    @MODULE[ModuleAnimateGeneric]
     {
        @allowAnimationWhileShielded = true
        @disableAfterPlaying = false
     }
 }

From this thread, under "Allow Deflating Inflatable Heat Shield":

 

[Kerbal pancake]

Thank you!

[Corona688]

Realistically speaking, I have no idea how you'd deinflate something like that.  You can make it leak, sag and go flat, but it won't politely fold back up the way it started.  And re-inflate?  Space balloons are inflated by tiny, special-purpose solid-fuel engines.  Once they're burned, they're burned.

Perhaps they could be repacked and refurbished by an engineer like parachutes are.

Edited November 23, 2017 by Corona688

[pandaman]

On 23/11/2017 at 6:29 PM, Corona688 said:

 

Perhaps they could be repacked and refurbished by an engineer like parachutes are.

This ^  seems like a reasonable compromise to me.  Same procedure as parachutes, re-useable without being way too over the top.  I would suggest though that there should be 2 versions. One single use as it is now, and an 'improved' model that is slightly heavier and more ecpensive, but is re-packable.

[OHara]

On 11/22/2017 at 8:53 PM, Kerbal pancake said:

It would make it easier to detach them so that they don’t fling around and destroy your ship.

The inflatable heat shield has a "Jettison Heat Shield" action, but the only safe time to jettison is when enough parachutes are open to slow the craft below the terminal velocity of the unladen heat shield, because of the aerodynamics and toughness of the heatshield.   That prevents creative uses, such as decoupling the heat shield high in Eve's atmosphere and using minimal wings to glide deliveries over an Eve base before opening parachutes.  

This has come up several times:
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/139450-inflatable-heat-shield-would/
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/162756-decouple-inflatable-10m-shield-before-open-parachutes/
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/141973-heat-shield-10m-self-destruct/
https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/139012-10m-heat-shield-solution/

 

Ideally we would have a sequence of actions, Inflate, Deflate, and optionally Repack, similar to those for parachutes.   Automatic (explosive) deflation upon jettison would solve the problem of jettisoning and avoid the (non-specific) concerns raised in the first thread above about making the shield overpowered.

The simple change of "disableAfterPlaying = false" in the stock game seems clearly better for new players than what we have now.  The part is also missing the messages that the non-retractable solar panels have, warning that extending them is non-reversible, so we could report the inconsistency as a bug.

[fourfa]

On 11/25/2017 at 2:15 AM, OHara said:

 terminal velocity of the unladen heat shield

Kerbinian, or Dunian?

[MinimalMinmus]

On 26/11/2017 at 9:36 PM, fourfa said:

Kerbinian, or Dunian?

I don't know tha-AÀAAAAAAAaaaa...