Reenter/Aerobrake with Gigantor panels

[juanml82]

So, how do you people reenter, or at least aerobrake (not capture, just aerobraking would be fine) a ship which uses the gigantor solar panels? Since they have a heat tolerance of 1200°K I pretty much always blow up most of them while aerobraking. Maybe I could try to break by barely hitting the upper atmosphere, but that takes several passes to have a significant effect. I was also thinking about storing them in cargo bays, but that adds a lot of weight for just solar panels. The other option I had in mind was to spam the smaller panels, but they can block each other, and it adds to the part count.

[FancyMouse]

(Disclaimer: I haven't got a chance to do this. My suggestion is based on many tests in 1.0.4 and a few tests on small crafts in 1.0.5)

Clip it inside a little bit. Place it towards the tail hoping (read: do testing to make sure) that entry shockcone covers it (yes, unlike drag, non node-attached parts can occlude heat)

Or just try a larger size heat shield.

[Temstar]

You could move all the heat vulnerable part of the ship to a separate module that is in itself a small autonomous spacecraft, then harden the rest of the larger spacecraft for aerobrake.

Then have the two detach before aerobrake. The larger, heat resistant spacecraft aerobrake as usual while the smaller spacecraft with all the heat sensitive parts can use rocket power to brake into orbit. Then the two can meet up again in orbit and dock again.

It works better for interplanetary motherships since you can separate early (say upon entering target SOI) then space out the two ships a bit so that the aerocapture and retroburn happen at different times.

[technion]

On re-entry.. I don't care. As long as the chute is fine, the mission is fine.

I really think the heat changes made aerobraking obsolete, and I'm OK with that. You'd be surprised how effectively you can capture at Jool with a Tylo gravity assist. It takes a lot more work than just aerobraking but it's an interesting way to play.

Eve is the only other place that aerobraking into an orbit even makes sense, and I think the general rule there is, you don't hit the atmosphere with anything that isn't covered with heat shields.

[Rfmeijboom]

Just put them in a cargo bay.

For reenty, you can then close the cargo bay to protect the solar panels.

[KerikBalm]

Just have them in the "heat shadow" of something else.

If I have a rocket entering "tail first" with a tapered tip (ie the 2.5 to 1.25m adaptor with fuel)... then sticking them on that tip should have them shielded from the heating.

Likewise if you have other things radially attached, you can put the gigantors above/below (depending on orientation of your reentry) to have them shielded.

[FungusForge]

Something I did with my shuttle which used one of the many unshielded NFT solar panels, I placed a wing perpendicular to the airflow and angled it just enough to shield various delicate components on the outside. It works well, and you can keep every inch of space in the bay without clipping.

If needed I'll be more than happy to provide images.

[juanml82]

On 8/12/2015 0:09:05, Temstar said:

You could move all the heat vulnerable part of the ship to a separate module that is in itself a small autonomous spacecraft, then harden the rest of the larger spacecraft for aerobrake.

Then have the two detach before aerobrake. The larger, heat resistant spacecraft aerobrake as usual while the smaller spacecraft with all the heat sensitive parts can use rocket power to brake into orbit. Then the two can meet up again in orbit and dock again.

It works better for interplanetary motherships since you can separate early (say upon entering target SOI) then space out the two ships a bit so that the aerocapture and retroburn happen at different times.

Sounds rather complicated.

 

 

I like it

On 8/12/2015 4:40:53, technion said:

On re-entry.. I don't care. As long as the chute is fine, the mission is fine.

I really think the heat changes made aerobraking obsolete, and I'm OK with that. You'd be surprised how effectively you can capture at Jool with a Tylo gravity assist. It takes a lot more work than just aerobraking but it's an interesting way to play.

Eve is the only other place that aerobraking into an orbit even makes sense, and I think the general rule there is, you don't hit the atmosphere with anything that isn't covered with heat shields.

Mostly, I'm thinking about aerobraking asteroid catchers in Kerbin's orbit or large tankers so I save fuel in bringing the Ap down

On 8/12/2015 9:40:00, KerikBalm said:

Just have them in the "heat shadow" of something else.

If I have a rocket entering "tail first" with a tapered tip (ie the 2.5 to 1.25m adaptor with fuel)... then sticking them on that tip should have them shielded from the heating.

Likewise if you have other things radially attached, you can put the gigantors above/below (depending on orientation of your reentry) to have them shielded.

I've tried that using procedural tanks, but it didn't work (the panels were attached to a thinner tank than the rest of the stack). But maybe I lacked the control surfaces to make sure the ship kept pointing retrograde.

On 8/12/2015 9:46:37, FungusForge said:

Something I did with my shuttle which used one of the many unshielded NFT solar panels, I placed a wing perpendicular to the airflow and angled it just enough to shield various delicate components on the outside. It works well, and you can keep every inch of space in the bay without clipping.

If needed I'll be more than happy to provide images.

Will try. Winged asteroid catchers!