Help me get Jeb and some dorks back home :( !

[Stewcumber]

I'm in a bit of a predicament at the moment. Jeb is currently orbiting Kerbin @ 2200m/s at 80KM. He's showing some tourists the sights and perils and space. Whenever I try to get him back down his low-tech ship always disintegrates. I played KSC [i]a lot[/i] around 0.18 but this re-entry heat stuff is new to me!

anyway the ship:
[img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13203382/OCUK/November/2015-11-20_00001%20%28Small%29.jpg[/img]

The situation:
[img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13203382/OCUK/November/2015-11-20_00002%20%28Small%29.jpg[/img]

If I re-enter the atmos very steeply (by using all of my remaining 70 units of fuel lowering burning retrograde) my rocket overheats and explodes very.

If I re-enter the atmos very genttly (set my P to 61Km or so) it burns up at around 33km altitude. If I spin the rocket around, I can keep the temperature-weak cockpit away from the heat, but I then run out of that fuel that SAS uses and the rocket settles to cockpit-first because of the big fins at the back causing a lot of drag.

Do you reckon there is a way down? What sort of altitude should I burn the remainder of my fuel retrograde? Could I release my four parachutes one by one whilst burning through my atmos to try to slow down or would they have absolutely no effect at 2000m/s?

And how would I design my ship around this problem next time? Edited November 22, 2015 by Stewcumber

[Randazzo]

Not yet having tried an SSTO plane in 1.0.5, take this with the appropriate amount of salt-

Typically I'd set my reentry PE at 20k just over the peninsula east of KSC, with AP around 75-80 on the opposite side (where I'd be doing the deorbit burn) and hit the atmosphere (surface)Prograde but pitched up 15 degrees with airbrakes deployed, adjusting as necessary to hit the landing strip.

I'm not sure if the Mk1 can survive that. Your parachutes certainly wouldn't.

[Vanamonde]

I suspect the trouble you're having is those fins forcing the nose to lead and take most of the heat until it fails. Re-entering with a side facing the direction of motion creates more drag, slows you more effectively, and helps distribute heat across multiple parts. [img]http://i.imgur.com/1VPuptp.png[/img]
Can you move fuel between tanks to shift the center of mass toward the back? Probably not enough, in the craft you've pictured, but worth a try?

[EditorRUS]

Unless you've got a pretty big heat shield with entire craft behind it, it's pretty bad idea to re-enter facing speed vector as you force little amount of parts to take the heat and which is also not effective because of less drag induced that way. So re-enter as shown above. Edited November 21, 2015 by EditorRUS

[Supernovy]

If very steeply and very gently both result in the craft burning up, try somewhere in between.

Use pitch trim or something to keep the winglets at maximum deflection the whole time to increase drag.

Face as much area into the relative wind as possible. You won't be able to keep at 90 degrees angle of attack for long, but it should help a little in the upper atmosphere.

[Stewcumber]

In the end I did it, using the totally legit method of deploying all the tail fins, so my craft span around repeatedly so the cockpit didn't get the full blast of heat and I was generating lots of drag. I'm sure NASA themselves also use this method :rolleyes:! I also retro burned for a bit at 50, 45, 40 and 35km and got them both back safely :) Edited November 21, 2015 by Stewcumber

[ForScience6686]

Retro burns will only make you drop faster,as you start falling more vertically you lose the time spent in the upper atmosphere to slow you down. . That current design is not made to re enter. Next time I would add a stack decoupler to drop the tank and fins. Or add wings to give you lift so you can glide longer higher up, but that will add challenges in getting it to space in the first place.