What do radiators do?

[carneyvich]

I get the idea but gameplay wise what do they do?

Edited August 8, 2015 by carneyvich

[Magion]

They take the heat from your ship and radiate it into space to prevent the craft from overheating. Mostly useful at closer distances to Kerbol and on vessels with Nervas. You can display the part's temperature overlay inflight by F10 and F11 keys.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Magion
Added link

[Foxster]

What do radiators do?

To be honest - not much.

There were problems with nuke engines and re-entry but they got fixed. At the same time radiators got introduced and promptly weren't needed.

[Sharpy]

Actually, when you're running long burns with NERVs not attached to BIG tanks - say, mounted radially on LF fuselages (as is common in SSTO planes) you will eventually run into the overheating problem. Still, a pair of the smallest radiators solves it quickly. I've never seen a situation where the Large Thermal Control System would be useful. (at least for its intended purpose; it's still good for pushing things around.)

[LostOblivion]

To me, they look awesome on space stations. :-)

(Come to think of it, TAC Life Support and Universal Storage converters should really make a lot of heat to make these babies needed.)

[Spacetraindriver]

What Radiators?