Question regarding re-entry?

[F1RacerDan]

New to the forums but have been viewing forums for some time now. Been playing kerbal for around a year now and very happy to see the new .23 update, however I was curious to find out about re-entry, do you have to re enter safely and can your ship be damaged by re entry?

[SpaceSphereOfDeath]

Not at the moment, re-entry is purely FXs

[Moar Boosters]

It's only the G-forces due to deceleration that have any effect. They can rip weaker craft apart or make unstable craft spin, like spacesphere said, there's no friction or heat modelled..... just pretty fx.

[J.Random]

there's no friction or heat modelled

Just in case: it's not friction that generates heat, it's pressure.

[FITorion]

reentry can rip solar panels off your ship... but that's about it. If you have some large asymmetric thing like a space station then that could break apart too... But for the most part the reentry effects are just for show and there is no heat associated with it. You can slam your pod at any angle into the atmosphere at 5Km/s with no fear of any damage.

[Pbhead]

insert deadly reentry plug here

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

For the moment the reentry effects you see in KSP vanilla are pure cosmetic. Apart from destroying your solar panels, it doesn't do anything. You can however install the deadly reentry mod which adds a lot more challenge to your gameplay. With this mod you need to keep an eye on the speed and the angle when you enter an atmosphere. It comes equipped with heath-shields and decouplers.

I highly recommend this mod to anyone who wants a little more realism, or at the very least a more daunting way of playing KSP.

[SirJodelstein]

Yes, Deadly Reentry is highly recommended. But take care: re-entering too fast or at too steep angles will explode parts of your ship. Even shallow reentries and aerobrakes especially at Eve can become adventurous.

Just today i finally nailed an Eve landing, after the thick atmosphere had eaten some previous probes that did not pack enough heatshields (not that these are extra-harsh settings i am using here, default is somewhat less deadly but still nothing to be ignored). Woohoo! Video

[Soda Popinski]

Note, thr Deadly Re-entry mod also includes death by high G-forces. When I first installed it, I had to many parachutes on the craft. It survived re-entry, but at 500 meters, all the chutes popped and killed my crew!

[LethalDose]

Just in case: it's not friction that generates heat, it's pressure.

It's both friction and pressure according to Wikipedia.

[Kasuha]

Reentry in KSP is usually mostly harmless. As mentioned above, solar batteries need to be folded before it and in case of particularly intense reentry, parts of different drag factor may cause structural damage to the ship, especially in combination with physics time warp. No heat effects are simulated in the stock game yet.

Edited December 25, 2013 by Kasuha

[brooklyn666]

Note, thr Deadly Re-entry mod also includes death by high G-forces. When I first installed it, I had to many parachutes on the craft. It survived re-entry, but at 500 meters, all the chutes popped and killed my crew!

Realchute mod stops the "sudden 20g parachute deployment syndrome".

[Kasuha]

Realchute mod stops the "sudden 20g parachute deployment syndrome".

So do drogues.

[Soda Popinski]

RealChute drogues for the win!

[F1RacerDan]

This deadly reentry mods looks great! Will I be able to use it with the career mode?

[F1RacerDan]

Can you use deadly re entry with career mode?

[peadar1987]

Can you use deadly re entry with career mode?

Yep, the heat shields are in the tech tree