photogineer

So, I'm back after a long hiatus and v1.0 and all that good stuff. I'm trying career mode and I am getting burned (pun intended) on the new aerodynamic and heat effects. I am trying to do a test contract for the RT-10 booster firing between 40km and 45km and a certain speed window, I did this by stacking three RT-10s with tweaked thrust limiters so the third one ignites while coasting in the target window. Contract satisfied, but then I can't get the capsule safely to splash down because the chutes keep failing. I've tried deploying them as early as possible but it seems like nothing I do will get them to open until 5km altitude and by the time my capsule + heatshield is that low, it's screaming along at nearly 1km/sec and the chutes tear right off. I'm not sure how to slow my capsule down enough to use the chutes safely without being able to deploy them earlier. Thoughts? Thanks!

So.... why did the camera lens ice up during the deorbit burn? Matt

So, I was reading up on the RS-25 engines that flew on the shuttle and are slated for SLS and I read in multiple places that they were deliberately shutdown before fuel exhaustion because if they were left to run dry they would be destroyed. I am curious why this is though? In my reading I've come up with two theories: 1) The sudden loss of fluid pressure inside one or both of the turbopumps would cause cavitation that could damage or destroy the pumps or 2) Since the cryogenic fuels were circulated through multiple heat exchangers to heat the fuel and cool the engine, before reaching combustion, that a sudden loss of fuel would result in abrupt loss of cooling while the combustion was still occurring, thus damaging or destroying the uncooled components. Are either of these even close to being true? Is it another reason? Enlighten me please Matt