Reflective sunshield?

[MaverickSawyer]

I recently decided to give the whole "sundiver" concept a whirl recently...

The initial results have educational. The biggest issue lies with the incoming heat flux from being so close to the surface of the star. And traditional ablative heat shields simply do not work very well for the "fryby" part of the mission.

Three things really struck me as being beneficial for these down-sun missions:

1. Some sort of reflective heat shield for you to tuck all your equipment behind, deep in the shadows.

2. An active heat-rejection system better than the stock radiators that can be surface mounted.

3. An insulator to isolate the thermally sensitive parts from the high-temperature parts.

I can deal with the second part with a quick .cfg edit to the stock passive radiator, but the first and third parts, the reflective shadow shields and insulators, are beyond my comprehension of how the game tackles incoming heat.

Anyone feel up for the challenge?

[Tex_NL]

Personally I use Heat Management. It's got heat sinks, active cooling, thermal insulators and surface mounted radiators.

[MaverickSawyer]

Personally I use Heat Management. It's got heat sinks, active cooling, thermal insulators and surface mounted radiators.

I would, too, if it worked with 1.0.4. But I feel it's better to keep the heat from reaching the vehicle in the first place. That's why I wanted the reflective sunshield. Something like what is used on Messenger or the proposed Solar Probe Plus.

[Melfice]

I would, too, if it worked with 1.0.4.

If it doesn't work with 1.0.4, you'd better tell Randazzo.

Seeing as it's been updated for 1.0.4 since, at least, June 30th.

[MaverickSawyer]

If it doesn't work with 1.0.4, you'd better tell Randazzo.

Seeing as it's been updated for 1.0.4 since, at least, June 30th.

o.O

*facepalms*

Sorry, was thinking of Nertea's Heat Control. Similar names, similar objectives.

[Randazzo]

This thread scared me.

Anywho, I've been thinking about tackling this, or trying to. Since I'm limited to creative use of stock modules, don't get your hopes up too high yet.

Edit: After some brief testing I think I see an inherent problem with anything designed to block heat: It won't function at high time warp. I'm not sure what heat model is used, but regardless of the heat properties of the item, it will heat up as it approaches the sun while in warp.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Randazzo

[MaverickSawyer]

This thread scared me.

Sorry about that. There really should be a little bit more in the names to distinguish the two mods.

Anywho, I've been thinking about tackling this, or trying to. Since I'm limited to creative use of stock modules, don't get your hopes up too high yet.

Edit: After some brief testing I think I see an inherent problem with anything designed to block heat: It won't function at high time warp. I'm not sure what heat model is used, but regardless of the heat properties of the item, it will heat up as it approaches the sun while in warp.

Drat. That is a major drawback to the idea.

Oh well. Maybe something to pitch to Squad for the next update?

[J.Random]

The biggest issue lies with the incoming heat flux from being so close to the surface of the star.

Nope. The issue is that there's no thermal shadow as you get lower than 500Mm or so. Your radiators simply won't radiate any heat, even if they're shadowed by heat shield. In fact, I think they start accumulating external heat at some point.

[MaverickSawyer]

Nope. The issue is that there's no thermal shadow as you get lower than 500Mm or so. Your radiators simply won't radiate any heat, even if they're shadowed by heat shield. In fact, I think they start accumulating external heat at some point.

Huh. I've had no issue with shadows down to 225Mm. The forward shield was over 1600 Kelvin, but the aft end of the craft was down around 1300 Kelvin. The four radiator panels were doing their job, as everything "downstream" of them was significantly cooler.