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If you are willing to add some mods you could try MechJeb too (apart from KAC that is actually everything you need, Chaos_Klaus reply is the best you could get around). Mechjeb can provide the same graphs you could get from the Alexmoon calculator directly ingame.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but did you open the bay before deploying the chutes? Deploying in a closed bay may result in an aerodynamic failure.

Yeah, I thought about it just after writing the nonsense. It is not so hot at all.

Well, I had a quick look and the temperature on the pad is over 287°. (hot summer day!)

I think it is a matter of heat transfer from the bay to the first part directly connected to it. RTGs directly connected to the bay will blow up pretty soon, while on the other hand a RTG in the bay connected to a jr docking port, connected to a cubic that finally connects to the bay is apparently safe.

So as far as I understand the best way to reenter (Eve in this case) would be to "do the Baumgartner": decreasing horizontal speed as much as possible while still in orbit to minimize risks and then go for a controlled free fall.

Engines (imo) are the best heatshield you could find around at the moment. About Eve, if you go to a lower altitude than 45000m at an airspeed of more than 2300 m/s your ship will explode, no matter the skin or core temperature of the parts.

+1 for the rear steering enabled on long vehicles. If you want a kind of tow truck you could try with a claw with pivoting enabled. You can not connect it in the VAB and it might eventually summon a kraken as side effects. I would like to spend a word in favour of the big wheels: I agree with you that the small ones look cooler but they are pretty fragile for "trucks" like this. Moreover they have got a steering that is better suited for such a big vehicle. I use my "truck" to drill for resources and to push/pull things around on the surface and I must say I am a very satisfied customer.

In my case the heatshield was not the first thing to explode. The "experiment" was conducted on Eve. The ship was 1.0.2 made, so no radiators available. I was actively monitoring the skin and core temp of the risky parts, the temp gauge was showing just a couple of 2.5m heatshields with a skin temperature around 2500° and a few green bars mostly related to airbrakes. Airspeed was around 2300 m/s and altitude of 45000m, I went for a multiple aerocapture, I was aerobraking from a 95x80 orbit and the descent was engine assisted. Engine temperature was perfectly safe (750° skin, 600° core - better performance than a heatshield during Eve reentry is something to keep in mind). Suddenly everything blew up w/o notice. F3 reports in the pics. The 3.75 heatshield skin temperature was around 1600°, I would expect some debris in a case of a single failure. EDIT: the nosecone that exploded first is not front facing at all and I did not have any piloting issue, attitude was perfectly right. Airbrakes were not deployed, so they are unlikely to be the cause due to heat transfer.

To be back on topic, that stuff definetely works (and it works a lot better than what you could get as an alternative - like paracetamol or ibuprofen). The States banned it and UK did not even want to start a trial for it. It is commonly used in Japan and other major EU countries. Where I am living it needs a prescription and they are however limiting its use to very high temperature cases. Known side effects range from ipotension to light immunodeficiency. I would skip it for a common cold, saving it for the worst moment of a bad flu. I'd rather take acetylsalicylic acid + vitamin C.

Are your RTGs connected directly to the cargo bay? I noticed that the RTGs that are not connected directly to the bay do not overheat. I have a 2 bay reentry vehicle, a RTG powered rover is stored in the first, the second one is the ship "service" bay carrying batteries, a couple of RTGs and stuff like that. The RTGs in the service bay usually explode while the one attached to the rover does not even overheat.

Sorry, my fault. If you have a closer look that fuel line goes into the "Twitch" and not to the bottom Oscar-b, that's why the tank is drained. You will need to move that.

Hi, there was an issue in the fuel lines. It seems to work as intended now. Here you can download the modified .craft, I worked on it in the VAB and I tried it on the launch pad instead of the strip. Hope this could help. Cheers.

Ehm, the concept of calories and energy is clear to me. It is not clear how can I calculate how many kJ are produced in an energy flux generated by my 236t lander falling through Eve atmo at 2800m/s at an average altitude of 70000m and how can this effect my poor aerobrakes. We maybe need a wind tunnel at KSC. However I think I can go on with this doubt still in place. Thank you.

I see, thank you. So, as far as I understand, it works exactly like a microwave oven and the more energy the parts do absorb the more they are susceptible to explosions and the "limit temperature" we can see in the parts description is a "soft" ceiling. And spikes should be affordable while long term overcooking might be dangerous. Which is the most common way to calculate the amount of the energy flux generated? Is there any "public" table with the amount of kJ the parts can absorb before exploding? The energy is continuously absorbed/dissipated or are there some triggers?

Hi all, I searched for a previous thread with this question but I could not find one, so here I am with my question: how does heat get absorbed (not dissipated) by components? Is there a limit temperature where the heat absorbtion starts for each part? It is better to have a 1 sec temperature spike of (e.g.) 3400° or to cook slowly for half an hour at 3000°? (or if you prefer, if I put my oven at 220° how long it will take for my aerobrakes to cook till explosion?) Has anybody got a clue about this? EDIT: Didn't notice 1.0.3 was out with maybe new questions, so feel free to ignore me.

"Fire in the hole" does not work properly if you need to decouple an interstage fairing too, you risk the "stowed engine" alert message. In this case I set up a "fairing in the hole" to make the engine activate properly. Oh, well, ninja'd. Sorry guys, +1 Romphaia.

Due to this I am trying a completely gearless/legless design atm. I am flying the first Eve mission during this week end. It is working on Kerbin so, based on my previous experiences I think it will on Eve too. If anybody wants to give it a try I uploaded the craft here.

Hi all, I am currently working on a twin seater Eve mission to recover my stranded Jeb (marooned on Eve testing the single seater prototype) I am quite proud of I would like to share. It is a work in progress cause due to time issues I could just run the basic Kerbin LKO tests until now and I did not bring it to Eve yet. Still, compared to my previous experiences I feel it is working so well I need some outer criticism to fix the issues I could miss. That's why a WIP. I feel it is not flawless: the concept is ladderless and legless so it has got some critical components that still may fail during the mission due to the extreme design and there are still several tweaks that might be implemented to improve the overall fuel efficiency. Take off is safe above 500m of altitude, you must keep an eye on the landing site you choose. Careful with slopes when you land, your landing base is quite wide but pretty fragile overall, be gentle. The staging of the return RCS module must be manually operated. Keep the fairing, you will need it for the aerobrake at Eve. RCS tanks need to be opened up to operate the ship. Save the 2.5m tank for the final approach, you'll need it for the aforementioned "gentle" landing. Pressing B toggles (and does not lock) aerobrakes. You must have RCS on at take off, it is fundamental to keep control (there is just one reaction wheel). The craft is completely stock. Below a few pics showing the current test flight and the download link. "Delta Dart" I will really appreciate any feedback on optimization/enhancement of the concept. Thank you and enjoy (yeah, well, fly safe...), I had really a lot of fun while designing it. Eve pics coming soon (I hope...).

I have a very similar rover but I usually deliver it outside Kerbin so it just needs a very basic engine setup to be autonomous.

Check your fuel lines. There must be an issue in the fuel lines connecting the stages. You might have a fuel line clipping through a stage separator or fairing that is interrupted even if apparently connected. It happens sometimes when you reload your craft and struts and lines are "reconstructed". You can fix it in this craft manually editing the persistence file. I would advice you to move the suspicious line a little far away from the clipping part before your next launch or simply rebuild them. It fixed the issue for me. Or you just had a separation issue and the lines are interrupted due to the accident.

I am a MJ user but I tried KER too and in my opinion KER got a better way to show you the infos, the HUD is great. What you get in the VAB is basically the same. MJ needs just a small part attached to your vessel and as far as I know at the moment it does not consume any energy. It lacks the EVA infos, as stated above. MJ, on the other hand, was my first teacher and he is now my petty officer. There are things that are more boring than others that he can handle perfectly. (Yarr you cursed pegleg freebooter get my ship circularized now! And get me some good grog.) Just do not trust him too much: he is just a D grade pilot (sometimes I suspect he is driving under the influence too), he does not know how to handle several kind of designs without a proper setup and there are maneuvers his famed fancy autopilot will never be able to do. And be careful for what you ask him, he is pretty dumb and he does not know anything about Kerbol system apart from its math. He will always need your expertise, petty navigation excluded. 50% of the times he does not know anything about your rocket too. His navigation skills are just slightly better than his piloting - some of the nodes he sets are "daring" at the least - but the alexmoon porkchop d/v map integration is great. MJ can display aerobrake nodes too.

Easiest solution would be to ask MJ to do the job for you this time and then go back to the VAB to design a new project incorporating what you learnt. To overcome the navball frenzy add a "friendly" pod in a reachable place to set it as the control part whenever needed.

I hear say that stock Jool atmosphere is pretty burning and I know first hand that Eve's one can and will overheat and burn your ship if you are not careful enough. Kerbin is not the harsher place where that stuff might be used and they should be tested in the harsher possible situations before being so questioned. Podless Kerbals surviving orbit reentry and landing on their own are pretty fun though.

+1 Moreover I think the engine has got its weight increased in 1.0.