How badly have you ablated your heat shields so far? From 100% obviously.

[Trenchfoot]

I'm thinking about experimenting with not taking so much heat shield up in the first place because I've only burned off 27% on any re-entry so far. 73% is a lot of weight I didn't have to pack along... What kind of results have you guys been getting with extreme re-entries that were successful?

[Radam]

I think I had an experiment where I burned all of it.

Used it to block heat coming off of LV-N. Bad idea.

[jarmund]

0 ablator left after a highspeed encounter with eve resulted in a flat but deep aerobraking maneuver. My capsule made it, but i'm sure it was mere millikelvins away from catastroflaming to pieces itself.

On the other hand, it's perfectly possible to enter without a heatshield. I've done it on kerbin multiple times (on purpose!) when i had a tight part counr budget. Just make sure you spend a lot of time high up. Burning retro around 40000m also helps.

Edited April 28, 2015 by jarmund

[Kelderek]

Your angle of re-entry will affect how much of the ablator is used. It will take practice to figure out how much you really need and if you consistently land your own craft with 50% ablator remaining, then you could certainly remove some to save on mass. I'm inclined to be conservative though and keep it all on just in case something bad happens. Also, you may have a situation where you need to use the shield more than once (aerobrake to gain orbit, and then re-entry to land).

[capi3101]

Took a heat shield down a couple of notches last night - by which I mean I had 198 out of 200 left at the end. That was for a sub-orbital flight that didn't make orbit. Not sure what would've happened without the shield; don't know if I actually needed to haul it around or not.

[Wintersdark]

I don't use them. High altitude parachute deployment has worked for me so far

[Temeter]

Took a heat shield down a couple of notches last night - by which I mean I had 198 out of 200 left at the end. That was for a sub-orbital flight that didn't make orbit. Not sure what would've happened without the shield; don't know if I actually needed to haul it around or not.

Ablator just stop a parts heating. So heating causing it to deteriorate for 2 points is something you don't need a heatshield for. Generally flat reentries supported by chutes don't need heat shields, they are for more aggressive angles.

[lajoswinkler]

Cranked up the heating to maximum (120%) and still nothing or only few units lost. I don't know what am I doing wrong.

[Starwhip]

Haven't used heatshields yet either. Engines and capsules have a 2000 degree heat tolerance, enough for shallow aerobraking.

I also refrain from using parachutes until about 2000 meters from the ground, for time purposes. Deploying at reasonable altitudes takes an unreasonable amount of time to touch down...

[colonel0sanders]

I did a free-return from the Mun to a Peri right under 30k, and used up half of the heat shield on reentry

[magnemoe]

Haven't used heatshields yet either. Engines and capsules have a 2000 degree heat tolerance, enough for shallow aerobraking.

I also refrain from using parachutes until about 2000 meters from the ground, for time purposes. Deploying at reasonable altitudes takes an unreasonable amount of time to touch down...

You could use two parachutes, and cut the first after slowing down. Its not an totally insane braking method it has been some idea about parachutes for hypersonic braking.

No they would not even look like normal ones more like an balloon.

[KerbMav]

50% while coming in from 5000km AP - and 3% once ... after ascending with the shield still in the decoupler fairing and und the pod ... !