DresCroffgrin

@ferram4: Thanks for all of the help with the Dragon Capsule! After adjusting the capsule to the actual mass of Dragon and playing with S, I was finally able to get it to stop and touch down safely! However, it required an S value of 350, which is nowhere near realistic (about 10x what it should be). I think one of the reasons this is happening is because, as S increases, my CD decreases (S = 35 gave CD ~ 0.0344, S = 250 gave CD ~ 0.0069). It all works and is good now; I just didn't know if this information was helpful to you at all.

Here are the results from my test: KerbX Dragon actual Re-entry test (no cfg changes from above): Entry Speed to atmosphere from 280 x 30 km orbit (relative to surface): ~2300 m/s Speed @ 40 km (relative to surface): ~2325 m/s Speed @ 35 km (relative to surface): ~2319 m/s Speed @ 30 km (relative to surface): ~2235 m/s Speed @ 28 km (relative to surface): ~2184 m/s Speed @ 26 km (relative to surface): ~2120 m/s ... At which point I surpassed the thermal limits of the ship. It is interesting to note that, when most of my ships fail from re-entry, they fall sort of all-at-once, going from a few thousand degrees to the 50k I have set as a limit very quickly. This guy just sort of gradually moves up to the threshold and explodes. While it was feeling the effects of the drag for sure, it was much, much less than it realistically should be. It should be noted that I flew it in with the docking port and three parachutes attached. The entire contraption massed at 6.49 tonnes, as opposed to the 4.75 tonne re-entry mass of my Mk1-2 Pod + Heat Shield + Docking Port + Parachutes assembly. Perhaps S or CD simply need to increase for this pod? EDIT: I did the drop test from 200 straight with the Mk1-2, and you are right, the behavior of little to no slowing followed by a sudden flash of acceleration (and destruction) is the norm. Although Jeb was piloting the test, so that may have had something to do with the explosion. EDIT 2: Results from running the Mk1-2 through the same trial as the Dragon (Entry from a 300 x 30 orbit) All speeds relative to the surface: @ 70 km: 2250 m/s @ 60 km: 2280 m/s @ 50 km: 2314 m/s @ 45 km: 2325 m/s @ 40 km: 2321 m/s @ 35 km: 2275 m/s @ 30 km: 2080 m/s @ 28 km: 1960 m/s @ 26 km: 1820 m/s ... And so on with smooth sailing. But that data isn't really relevant for comparison, as this is the point where Dragon exploded. The Mk1-2 Pod made it down to the surface safe, and with a peak temperature of 16,000 degrees (which occurred deeper in the atmosphere), less than 1/3 of the temperature that Dragon got at nearly the same speeds while still 26 km up. However, the accelerations seem to hold the same proportions between the two capsules, which makes me think drag simply needs to be scaled up for Dragon. If I were to do this, what would the best way to do this within FAR?

The size is fairly comparable to that of the Mk1-2 pod, however, it is greater (not greater enough to cause the magnitude of not-accelerating that I am seeing, I think). Here is a picture comparing the two: And here are the cfg files: KerbX Dragon Current Mk1-2 Command Pod (I've edited a bit, and it still works fine) If you have any suggestions for me to try, things you want me to play around with, or anything else you want from me that might help you figure out what is going on, feel free to ask! And I'm an Aerospace Engineering student minoring in Computer Science, so technical is ok . Thank you for your time!

Well, I've got another question for ferram4 or anyone else in this thread who may be able to answer: I recently installed the KerbX mod, and am trying to get the dragon capsule to work with FAR. So, I copied the FARControlSys and FARBasicDragModel Modules from the Mk1-2 Command pod to the bottom of the cfg file for the KerbX dragon pod part, then changed the drag type to override and set the default drag parameters to zero (as was done in the cfg files for all command pods that come with FAR). However, the pod does not experience atmospheric drag in any meaningful quantity. In a straight drop from 200,000 m, it continued gaining speed until about 16,000 m, at which point it lost 1 m/s of velocity and Deadly Re-entry blew it up. The isShielded:false indicator has shown up, so I know FAR is seeing it. Both Q and CD are reading as non-zero, non-trivial values in the flight information readout - I assume that the reference area is out of whack. I have made these modifications to other modded pods (FASA Gemini and the Dragon Rider mod), and it has worked there. Thanks!

@ferram4: Thanks! I'll get to tweaking to make the two play nicely with each other. I am actually looking forward to ramming lots of things into Kerbin's atmosphere.... in the name of science, of course .

First of all: I love this mod! As an aerospace engineering student, this mod really enhances my enjoyment of the game! Do you have any recommendations when using this mod with Deadly Re-entry? I am trying to do a free-return reentry from the Mun with the 3 man pod and the stock Deadly Re-entry 2.5m heatshield. I am set my periapsis at a range of values ranging from 0 to 45 km for reentry, and for any trajectory that allows me to land on the first approach (like Apollo did) generates enough heat to destroy the heat shield and the pod. After config editing to make the temperature resists much higher, I am finding the lowest I can get the maximum temperature to be on a capture trajectory is about 30,000 degrees (the heatshield resists 10,000 by default). I expected just ramming the pod at Kerbin to fail, but this surprised me. Is this normal? If it is, I am ok with playing with the config files to make Deadly Re-entry and FAR play well with each other; I just want to make sure that I'm not missing anything before I do. Thanks !

The specific rocket I am experiencing is both on a persistence file that has used previous versions of MechJeb 2.0, and the MechJeb module was added to a part (Mk1 Command Pod). I'll test on a new save and see if I can still replicate. EDIT: After cleaning out and rebuilding my rockets, it appears that it all works now. Thanks for the help!

I've been playing with MechJeb for a while (and I love it!), and I am experiencing the custom window vanishing bug in version 2.0.7. However, I was able to identify a repeatable method for causing the custom windows to vanish. If I load a stock rocket that features MechJeb on it, the windows will vanish. If I load the exact same craft file, but from my save's specific craft files, it works fine. For instance, loading "Kerbal One (Stock)" erases the menus, while loading the same file as "Kerbal One" (because it was not in the stock folder) does not. I hope this information is helpful!