Spaceplane Reentry

[theend3r]

While trying to prevent my SSTO cockpit from burning away, I found out there are two types of reentry:

1. Careful reentry like the shuttle does where you need to mind the reentry angle - too shallow and you burn up, too steep and you lithobrake/get torn apart
2. Kerbal reentry - a reentry technique with as much chaotic movement as possible. The angle doesn't matter as your chaotic rotation will keep the heat evenly distributed and let parts cool off while they are occluded.

A demonstration with FAR, no damage due to aerodynamic stresses, craft is kept cold, works in 100% of cases with no part loss:

 

The actual rotation speed was about 1 rotation per 1-2 seconds. In shallow reentry angles, the cockpit kept going from 80% overheat to zero very rapidly but never overheated. Also note, that the wing surface is not below average so this type of renetry seems to work with FAR aerodynamic stress just fine.

Of course this won't work with all types of craft but if you have problems with burning up during reentry, rotation may be the way to go.

Edited December 7, 2015 by theend3r

[Aethon]

I don't know about FAR but stock aero from Kerbin orbit, cobra reentry is the way to go.  Set your periapse to 30 km, point the nose at the zenith and nothing gets very hot.

[Guest]

I just use REALLY high angles of attack.

[WillThe84th]

2 minutes ago, CliftonM said:

I just use REALLY high angles of attack.

I do the same thing. If you pitch up, it allows you to stay in the upper atmosphere so you can bleed off as much speed as possible before you start really heating up.

[Captain Sierra]

I've given up on using 100% heating. When it was first announced that it was becoming a thing,  I remember it being explicitly stated that it would be "forgiving", that as long as you didnt do something crazy like direct entry from Duna, it wouldnt prove a challenge. Since that statement has since been proven a lie I just dont play on full heating. I see no point. I don't want to be hoping for a full 6 minute descent that I guessed right on my altitude and wont burn up. To me that isnt gameplay, its luck. I drop it to 60% and call it good. Stuff gets hot, but not in danger of exploding, from an LKO reentry.

[panzer1b]

Ive had the best results (including 1 pass direct aerobrakes from interplanetary velocities) pointing whatever craft i had radially.  This has the advantage of maximizing drag and it seems to spread out the heat so no one part takes all the heat whereas pointing prograde (even if you are flying the exact same speed as radially) tends to overheat the nose.  Overall, i do not consider the heating an issue for anything but ascending with spaceplanes (which is annoying as hell now as you cant obtain efficient speeds before switching to rockets).  Aside from that and trying to slow down extremely streamlined vessels that have 0 wings on them, i do not consider the thermal model to be very harsh, duna aerobraking works with anything, laythe aerobraking also works very well provided its a plane style build (forget aerocapture there with a rocket, cant slow down enough and fries if you go deep enough to actually benefit from the aerobrake).

Finally, my solution to cockpit overheating is placing cockpit to the rear of my vessel and on top.  This provides its own share of challenges as its harder to balance the CoG as you dont have anything on the nose to counter the engine mass, but overall it does nullify the entire overheating cockpit issues (and i never even noticed the nerf to live pilot cockpits in the lower internal max temp since i never expose the cockpit to the airstream to begin with).  its not a solution for everyone, but for me it one, gives my ships a more unique/sci-fi look and not just another replica of real world craft or (agruably) unoriginal nose cockpit that everyone else seems to do often, and well it does nullify thermal issues regarding the pit itself.

[WillThe84th]

For some reason I've found that the Mk 1 cockpit heats up more than the Mk 2 and Mk 3 cockpits. Has anyone else experienced this?

[theend3r]

9 hours ago, WillThe84th said:

For some reason I've found that the Mk 1 cockpit heats up more than the Mk 2 and Mk 3 cockpits. Has anyone else experienced this?

For me, the Mk3 burns up practically instantly even with high AoA. It starts to heat and poofs in a few seconds. Mk2 is fine in comparison but maybe that's just my craft as iirc the Mk3 has higher heat resistance on paper.