mk2 parts re-entry position

[rdem]

Mk2 sp parts have heat resistant cover on their front and sides. Not at their bottom. Does that means it should enter the atmosphere straight down? Or, is it just for flying with high speeds in atmosphere? Maybe it's not even a heat resistant cover.

[InterCity]

Hello, rdem.

I am not sure whether painted thermal tiles are actually functional. AFAIK, when playing with deadly reentry (like me), you want to keep the cockpit prograde. Not because of the cockpit itself, but because bad things happen to wings when you don't. You want to go prograde until ideally 300 m/s speed, then you can start leveling off. Of the ground is too close, try earlier, but you risk overheating of wings.

And maybe it's not my place to say, but this thread belongs in "gameplay questions and tutorials ".

Bes

[prophet_01]

First of all, those thermal tiles don't matter. It's a texture (I don't want to miss them, bcause roleplaying).

When it comes to reentry with actual heat you want to stay in the upper atmosphere for as long as possible so your velocity decreases significantly so you don't get too much heat in the lower atmosphere (that's the part where the most heating takes place anyway). If you want to slow down effectively you need to generate lift to lose some speed high up in the air. Thats when plane like vessels (mk2 belongs over here) get interesting as they can easily generate a lot of lift so they generally have a slower reentry with less heat. But that only works if your orientation is right (nose forward, slightly upwards).

Capsules/pods work differently but can also use theire flat belly to generate lift and therefore reduce heat, however thise vessels can take a lot more heat before it gets dangerous. Those use different forms of protection

Btw 0.90 version of KSP doesn't have any reentry heat mechanics, so this isn't important atm. If you use the deadly reentry mod that kind of stuff gets more important.

[GusTurbo]

This is a good question considering that 1.0 will most likely feature reentry heating. The Mk2 and Mk3 parts don't appear to have any thermal protection systems at present. If the whole part is heat resistant, then we would be able to perform reentry upside down, which would just look silly.

[LABHOUSE]

It will feature re entry heat, max had a tweet mentioning it.

[Arsonik]

Presumably it will be of the form that it will be negligible to the integrity of the spacecraft except for specifically marked instances (looking at you lander pods) or returning from beyond the depth of Kerbin's gravity well.

[LABHOUSE]

Well he said it cremated jeb...

[Arsonik]

I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that it won't be anything to worry about unless returning from beyond the moon, or on an absurd trajectory. I'm assuming that most people de-orbit shallow already rather then pointing at the ground and accelerating so it shouldn't be of much concern in that respect. For everyone else it will be a quick learning experience.