I went to the sun today (Kerbol), or near it anyway... closest I've been yet. I made a ship with a heat-shield umbrella, which by the time the ship got to 303051k they ablated away - but didn't totally disappear, that happened later. It was a tedious flight having to constantly time-warp and then drop out of warp so to reorient the ship and keep the umbrella facing the sun (a process which began after passing inside the orbit of Moho). By the time the ship was about 180000k away, the forward parts of the ship started to disintegrate/explode; The science instruments went first, although I got science from them before they did , followed by the batteries... after that, the forward-most heat-shield exploded leaving a gap in the umbrella. After that, the ship was pretty much done for. No Kerbals were onboard, this was a probe. At at distance of 142373k the ship finally folded, it just went POOF and disappeared. I'm considering it a success, did what I had hoped to do - collect science from "Near The Sun". The ship in transit... Last shot before it went POOF...