1.02- Heat Shields for Very Large Spacecraft?

[Moss]

Just wanted to ask a question of you all. What's your go-to solution for making heat shielding for very large spacecraft? I know that atmospheric heating in 1.02 is pretty lukewarm, but I like to include them anyway. I suspect that when I get around to a return mission from Eve I'll need to shield a pretty massive lander. I think it would be excellent for Squad to make even larger heat shields to play with, like in the region of 5m and 10m sizes.

So do you attach round heat shields radially, make huge ones out of structural panels, use huge fairings, or simply not bother? Interested to see what people say, pictures extremely welcome.

Thanks

[OddFunction]

Just wanted to ask a question of you all. What's your go-to solution for making heat shielding for very large spacecraft? I know that atmospheric heating in 1.02 is pretty lukewarm, but I like to include them anyway. I suspect that when I get around to a return mission from Eve I'll need to shield a pretty massive lander. I think it would be excellent for Squad to make even larger heat shields to play with, like in the region of 5m and 10m sizes.

So do you attach round heat shields radially, make huge ones out of structural panels, use huge fairings, or simply not bother? Interested to see what people say, pictures extremely welcome.

Thanks

To be honest I just consider nosecones to be a heatshield for boosters and cockpits because it performs just as well.

As for Eve, I find I slow down so fast just from 1 parachute or aerobraking that I never heat up a lot. I always come down from orbit though.

[smjjames]

Theres a couple of 5m heatshields in a few mods around.

I find that engines work decently well as a heatshield, as long as your SAS can overpower the aerodynamics and rockets tend to want to dive in nosefirst rather than enginefirst.

[n0xiety]

Use engines they work like a charm. Make sure you are bottom heavy tho or aero will force your craft to turn towards the prograde

[Snark]

Airbrakes = easy mode. They weigh almost nothing, attach radially so you can slap 'em on anywhere, and are astonishingly effective. They slow you down gently as a feather, way up in the upper atmosphere, often without so much as a single visible reentry effect.

[SAI Peregrinus]

Procedural Parts has a procedural heatshield. It gets as big or as small as you wish.

[Feradose]

For biggest missions I use docking ports and folding (IR) structural panels just for fun, launch my big rocket to orbit, assemble and strut (KAS) it in orbit, dock the capsule/station with it and deorbit gently and pray that it doesnt turn to a parachute.

[Ferdoni]

In 1.0 I dont even use heat shields anymore, i just put a few parachutes on the craft. And on descent when entering the atmosphere I activate them. Of course they dont come out immediately but around 20.000 m and just before my craft heats up too much they unfold and slow me down sufficiently

[Jaeleth]

Cluster a lot of the largest heatshields around a common center, like the turtle formation used by Roman legions ages ago it works. But make sure you get plenty of drag behind, either with another cluster of shields or with airbrakes, or the whole thing will flip over.

[Moss]

I've started making huge cones out of wings, actually. We'll see how well that turns out.

[Captain Sierra]

I've started making huge cones out of wings, actually. We'll see how well that turns out.

The real question I have is how well does that shield stuff behind it? KSP aero was disappointing for not even attempting to simulate airflow so I'm curious how the game will handle the occlusion of that.