Heat shields for Duna landing?

[Skylab]

I'm planning a manned mission to Duna. Does my lander need a heat shield in order to avoid damage to the engine and landing legs, or is the atmosphere so thin that I won't need one?

Edited July 1, 2015 by Skylab

[Feradose]

I dont know your descent velocity, descent profile, mass or how aerodynamic your vessel is, but here are some tips for landing on Duna.

-Triple the amount of parachutes you would use on Kerbin.

-Keep your easy to fry/easy to snap parts in cargo bays or compartment bays. Or just somewhere that it doesnt show mach effects/entry effects.

-In Duna, you want a really shallow entry, and you might still need to do a powered attempt to slow down, because the atmosphere is nowhere enough to slow down heavy and aerodynamic craft.

Edited July 1, 2015 by Feradose

[tomf]

No, It is certainly possible to do an aerocapture and then a landing on Duna without requiring heatshields, it just doesn't have enough atmosphere to do real harm.

Assuming that your guys are coming back I would simply use you ascent engine to take the worst of the re-entry heat and then provide last minute thrust to give you a soft landing. It will only require a small amount of fuel and will save you from carrying large numbers of parachutes.

[tutike2000]

I've landed a pretty heavy lander on Duna and used zero ablator on my 3m heatshield.

I did land at very high altitude, though. Retrograde burns on descent were necessary, the craft did not slow down enough on its own to allow parachutes to be used, not even drogues.

[Skylab]

Thanks everyone, that answered my question.

[ringerc]

I'm planning a manned mission to Duna. Does my lander need a heat shield in order to avoid damage to the engine and landing legs, or is the atmosphere so thin that I won't need one?

In 1.0.2 and below you're really unlikely to need a heat shield. My heavy mining base landed with a mix of parachutes and reverse thrust.

In 1.0.4 you're probably going to need heat shields and to keep everything very tightly behind the heat shield to avoid being obliterated, unless you do many high atmosphere aerobraking passes or a big retrograde burn first. Even then, possibly, given how harsh the curves are.

[Reactordrone]

In 1.0.2 and below you're really unlikely to need a heat shield. My heavy mining base landed with a mix of parachutes and reverse thrust.

In 1.0.4 you're probably going to need heat shields and to keep everything very tightly behind the heat shield to avoid being obliterated, unless you do many high atmosphere aerobraking passes or a big retrograde burn first. Even then, possibly, given how harsh the curves are.

I just landed a base with no heat shield and had no problems. After capture I was in an elliptical orbit of about 460 x 60 km and then dropped the periapsis down to 20km for landing. It was a pretty basic 2.5m stack but carrying 1000 units of monoprop for a contract so it was reasonably heavy.

[Montag]

I just landed a base with no heat shield and had no problems. After capture I was in an elliptical orbit of about 460 x 60 km and then dropped the periapsis down to 20km for landing. It was a pretty basic 2.5m stack but carrying 1000 units of monoprop for a contract so it was reasonably heavy.

What periapsis did you use for capture?

[Reactordrone]

From memory, I think about 20km. It slowed me down but I had to burn a little to get the capture.