Large spaceplane overheats on reentry

[Jonboy]

Hey guys. I'm not particularly good at building spaceplanes, but I've built my first Mark 3 one that can get a significant payload into orbit.

My issue is reentry, I can't seem to find a way to prevent parts from overheating and exploding (even ram intakes, and Mark 3 parts). I've tried reentering at many different angles, but can't seem to prevent it. How do you guys get large spaceplanes to survive reentry in 1.02? Any general tips or guidelines?

Edited May 21, 2015 by Jonboy

[Xannari Ferrows]

How steeply are you entering? If you honestly cannot get through without overheating, then try multiple passes. Gradually slow your velocity in the very thin atmosphere, until your orbit naturally drops low enough. You always want to come in as parallel as possible.

[Rodyle]

In my experience, you can be pretty aggressive with the reentering as of 1.02. What kind of height/speeds are you reentering with? What is you periapsis when doing so?

[Jonboy]

The least steep approach I did was with a periapsis of 45km, and that was from a 75km orbit. I'll try higher and see if that helps.

[Rodyle]

The least steep approach I did was with a periapsis of 45km, and that was from a 75km orbit. I'll try higher and see if that helps.

That should be shallow enough to work. What is the rest of your procedure? Have you tried flaring the nose at much as possible during the initial descent to bleed off speed and stay higher up? That alone was enough for me to not burn up (at least from Kerbin orbits).

[Jonboy]

Even flaring the nose 5 or 10 degrees up caused me to flop... I will try it again with a higher periapsis.

[Murph]

Even flaring the nose 5 or 10 degrees up caused me to flop... I will try it again with a higher periapsis.

Try being more aggressive in the early stages of descent inside the atmosphere. Nose very high, like 45° up, puts you into the territory of maximum drag, as well as reducing your rate of descent. The drag scrubs off speed, the reduced rate of descent pushes the great balls of fire into the future.

I've yet to do much with mark 3 stuff, but mark 1 and 2, I can drop Pe to 0 from 75â€â€100km circular orbit, with any major issues from heating. I tend to sit the plane flat across the airflow above 50,000m, i.e. nose 90° up, (there's very little air up there, but there's enough that it does scrub off some extra speed by being at the most draggy attitude). Below 50,000m, it varies, but pulling up hard works well to scrub off more speed if things are looking too fast.

Until your speed is down to below 1000 m/s, and altitude below 25,000m, you're not trying to fly, you're trying to brake. Think drag, not good aerodynamic flight.

[JTpopcorn]

You could use drogue chutes in the upper atmosphere and cut them so you can land

[The Destroyer]

You could use drogue chutes in the upper atmosphere and cut them so you can land

Pretty sure they will still burn off.

Try airbrakes. They work wonders.

[Jonboy]

Pretty sure they will still burn off.

Try airbrakes. They work wonders.

Yes! Why didn't I think of this before I will try it

[Murph]

Pretty sure they will still burn off.

Try airbrakes. They work wonders.

It doesn't matter if they burn off eventually, only that they do some useful braking before they burn off. I'm not certain of the highest altitude you can get the drogues to open at, but I think it's above the great balls of fire, so worth a try.

[Mister Dilsby]

Try airbrakes. They work wonders.

True dat. There's a heatshield on the front, it barely gets used coming back from the Mun.

[Jonboy]

The airbrakes worked. Didn't even see reentry heating on the way down. Thanks!

[The Destroyer]

It doesn't matter if they burn off eventually, only that they do some useful braking before they burn off. I'm not certain of the highest altitude you can get the drogues to open at, but I think it's above the great balls of fire, so worth a try.

I'm not sure about "Eventually". I tried deploying my mains around 1km/s or so, maybe a bit faster, and as soon as I staged them, it said they burnt off. It's not like you deploy it, then it takes 30 sec to burn.

The airbrakes worked. Didn't even see reentry heating on the way down. Thanks!

No problem! Airbrakes are OP! heh

[Murph]

I'm not sure about "Eventually". I tried deploying my mains around 1km/s or so, maybe a bit faster, and as soon as I staged them, it said they burnt off. It's not like you deploy it, then it takes 30 sec to burn.

We're talking about a totally different situation. The suggestion was to use drogue chutes, if they could be deployed before the heating even starts in earnest, i.e. put out "semi-deployed" at the highest possible altitude, getting some braking out of them, and then burning off when the heating starts. Yes, of course they will burn off instantly if you deploy them during great balls of fire.

I'm not at all surprised at main chutes burning off at 1000 m/s, as that would usually be much lower altitude, close to or just after the peak of the heating.