How to de-orbit in RSS+FAR?

[Prillmeister]

Sooo, I decided to restart my career game with some new mods. I wanted the real deal, the extreme etc.

I got me FAR, RSS, TAC, RemoteTech, KER, KIS, KAS and perhaps some other that I've forgotten.

With some fiddeling around, lots of contracts grinding to get funds, I finally got Jeb in to a 135x162 orbit with about 400 m/s dV for my de-orbit burn and I thought that "YES, this will be a success".

WEEELL, not really!! It seems that no mather how shallow of a return I do, my ablator runs out and my heat shield burns up with a poof and is taken the entire ship and, of course, Jeb with it.

What have I done wrong? Is it THAT more extreme and dangerous to de-orbit with the mods I've installed or isn't the stock heat shield enough for the extreme speeds experienced?!

Here's a little collection of screenshots for you, maybe they will provide an answer!

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Is Jeb going to make it or will he be doomed?

I've provided him with about 100 days worth of life support but of course I haven't got any solar panels yet so he probably will die if a rescue isn't coming soon.

[Data]

I'm in the same boat, can't figure a way to de-orbit and stay alive.

There are quite a few of us in the RSS thread, who seem not to be able to come back alive.

I hope someone will find a solution soon.

[Mastikator]

Have you tried setting the reentry heating to a lower value? The current reentry heating physics is based on the kerbin universe where planets are tiny and super dense.

[Prillmeister]

Oh, didn't realize it was a common problem! Maybe I should check in with the RSS thread. I assume it's the mod thread you're talking about?!

- - - Updated - - -

Have you tried setting the reentry heating to a lower value?

No, I haven't! Problem is, the ablator is running out even before the reentry effect is kicking in..!

[Jimbimbibble]

Before the devs made their own reentry heat, there was a mod called Deadly Reentry that did a pretty good job with RSS. Also, I'm surprised you're using stock parts. That's really hard in RSS because stock engines/tanks are really nerfed compared to real life due to it being 1/10 scale. You should look into getting more of the mods on the realism overhaul thread.

[maceemiller]

I use FASA and dont have many reentry problems

[ratchet freak]

It's possible that you are not getting any drag due to a bug in FAR, update to the latest dev build or revert to a quicksave in orbit

[NathanKell]

It's highly recommended (says so in the OP! ) to use Realism Overhaul when you use RSS. Realism Overhaul, amongst other things, corrects the physics to be more or less real-life regarding thermo.

If, for whatever reason, you don't want to use RO, you can use just the physics patch:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KSP-RO/RealismOverhaul/master/GameData/RealismOverhaul/RO_Physics.cfg

(change FOR[RealismOverhaul] to, say, FOR[ROPhysics] though)

KSP is set up to provide near-Earth-reentry temperatures for Kerbin reentry. If you reenter on Earth with those settings, you'll get shock temperatures in the, what, 20,000K range?

[Prillmeister]

It's highly recommended (says so in the OP! ) to use Realism Overhaul when you use RSS. Realism Overhaul, amongst other things, corrects the physics to be more or less real-life regarding thermo.

If, for whatever reason, you don't want to use RO, you can use just the physics patch:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KSP-RO/RealismOverhaul/master/GameData/RealismOverhaul/RO_Physics.cfg

(change FOR[RealismOverhaul] to, say, FOR[ROPhysics] though)

KSP is set up to provide near-Earth-reentry temperatures for Kerbin reentry. If you reenter on Earth with those settings, you'll get shock temperatures in the, what, 20,000K range?

Thanks! Where do I put the physics patch though? In the GameData folder or inside the RSS folder?

[NathanKell]

Anywhere you like. It's just an MM patch.

[Prillmeister]

Anywhere you like. It's just an MM patch.

Okay? I'm no expert at this kind of thing and I've been trying all evening to get something to work. I did a clean install and downloaded CKAN, to get things right you know. But in CKAN I could't find Realism Overhaul, obviously because it's not up to date with KSP!?

But I installed quite a bit of mods with CKAN! Some beautyfication mods, contracts mods (because stock contracts thinks you can get in to orbit and do contracts for under 30k, my best effort landed me around 101k) and so on. Now, my game wouldn't start! I got to and completed the loading screen, but when main menu was about to load it crashed! I deleted some mods, got me a little further but always ending in a crash!

So I did the communtiy workaround to 64-bits (first time I've ever done that). It all started up (with Nyan Cat at the loading screen) and I got a Sandbox save going! Launched a rocket, didn't get me quite in to orbit but I had 5.8 km/s so I thought "Hey, let's try it at 2 km/s slower and se what it does."

Slammed in to the Earth at about 5.5 km/s.......

Something (probably FAR?) is interrupting 64-bit, causing a significant decrease in drag?

So I'm back to square 1.. I can run RSS, FAR and so on without 64-bits, that's proven. But I cannot land from orbit (or a close-to-orbit sub-orbital trajectory) with these mods. Either I burn up (pre-64) or I'm slamming the ground doing 19800 km/h (post-64).

I want RSS, I want the challenge. I want it with RemoteTech, TAC:LS, FAR and all those other "real world-mods". But am I hoping to much? Hoping that all of these mods will work with only 32-bits?

Is this a cause of "i can't get what I want"?

:(