New image one the Dev Blog

[armandleggames]

What is this part? Is it some kind of reentry sheild or a payload fairing?

[NovaSilisko]

Inflatable heat shield.

[armandleggames]

Is it an inflatable thing? I just noticed that it is inflatable. 

[quasarrgames]

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Yes! Wants! 

Also looks very much like a mod port

[Temstar]

Woah that's massive. Tha's like a sixfold increase in diameter after inflating.

It would be very useful for interplanetary motherships for aerocapture.

[Rithsom]

Where did you find this? I would be very happy to know if this will be included in 1.1.

EDIT: Oh, Devnotes. Silly me. 

Edited December 16, 2015 by Rthsom

[armandleggames]

Holy Crap! I didnt even see how much bigger that got when it expanded! I thought the cone one was the bigger fully expanded one! HOLY COWZERS!

[problemecium]

I guess we really can't be SURE it's an inflatable heat shield, but I'm going with the majority here xD

I'm pleased about this! TBH I think it'd be cool if instead the heatshields were made procedural a la the fairings (pick out a base and then click to set the diameter, and perhaps drag it up to wrap the edges around the sides of the ship a bit). But this works too. It's sure to be very good for my Eve lander and stuff.

[nosirrbro]

Im so happy to see squad beggining to start adding parts that we are used to only finding in often outdated, unstable mods, but now are seeing as high quality stock parts!

[KerBlammo]

Oh! Oh! I so want to use this!

 

[Geschosskopf]

Thanks for the heads-up, @armandleggames.  I keep forgetting about Devnote Tuesday, mostly because my work computer usually blocks the KSP forum.

I hope that it has a built-in decoupler (l*cough* like the escape tower should have had).  This looks like it will sterilize 1 end of the ship for both docking and propulsion as long as it's in place.

[Foxster]

At 10m wide when deployed, this is going to make Eve etc landers so much easier to design. 

[Terwin]

12 hours ago, Temstar said:

Woah that's massive. Tha's like a sixfold increase in diameter after inflating.

It would be very useful for interplanetary motherships for aerocapture.

Roverdude said it has a 2.5m connector and inflates to 10m, so a 4 fold increase in diameter.

I don't usually use heat shields due to lack of experience and confidence with aerocapture so I just bring along the fuel for capture, but this part may well tempt me to try an aerocapture...

 

 

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

12 hours ago, parameciumkid said:

I guess we really can't be SURE it's an inflatable heat shield, but I'm going with the majority here xD

I'm pleased about this! TBH I think it'd be cool if instead the heatshields were made procedural a la the fairings (pick out a base and then click to set the diameter, and perhaps drag it up to wrap the edges around the sides of the ship a bit). But this works too. It's sure to be very good for my Eve lander and stuff.

Yeah, procedural heatshields would be cool. It could make it possible to give spaceplanes heatshields, like the Space Shuttle.

[Venusgate]

Roverdude said it would be attachable to a 2.5m cross section and the inflated diameter is 10m. And no, it won't be a mod part.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

2 hours ago, WildLynx said:

It's not a heat shield per se, but Low Density Supersonic Decelerator or Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator.

 

 

 

 

So kinda an airbrake of sorts? Would you put it on top of your capsule to slow you down?

[Wallygator]

For a strange and somewhat embarrassing reason this part reminds me of a 1980s Madonna stage prop.

still, I like it. But not because of the memories. Or maybe...

[CalculusWarrior]

1 hour ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

So kinda an airbrake of sorts? Would you put it on top of your capsule to slow you down?

It's a heat shield, you place it on the bottom. Its name simply states that the supersonic region is where you do the most aerobraking (and hence experience the most heat).

[Wjolcz]

I exactly knew what that is the first time I saw it! Yussssssssss!

[pincushionman]

20 hours ago, WildLynx said:

It's not a heat shield per se, but Low Density Supersonic Decelerator or Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator.

It should be the Hypersonic Inflatable Decelerator Extension (HIDE). Because acronyms are cool. And stuff "hides" behind it. "Extension" doesn't sound very good, though, but I didn't think "enclosure" was very accurate.

The design challenge here will be not flipping out from all the drag, no?

Edited December 17, 2015 by pincushionman

[Kerbol Macrosystems]

1 hour ago, pincushionman said:

It should be the Hypersonic Inflatable Decelerator Extension (HIDE)

It could also be the Overly Huge Shield Hiding In Topcone

 

[Kerbart]

Well if they do inflatable things now...

Maybe they should look into the Bigelow inflatable habitat. And if there's a mod out there that replicates that, make it part of stock. Of course, they'd have to trust the mod creator and hope he'd have no problem with his mod parts being incorperated in stock, but one can hope, right?

 

...yes yes yes... trust me, I know.

[pincushionman]

1 hour ago, Kerbol Macrosystems said:

It could also be the Overly Huge Shield Hiding In Topcone

 

Conical Re-entry Ablative Protection

[TopHeavy11]

It's inflatable....

[monophonic]

Whatever it is called it will make a great sunshade for that Moho base I will never get around to build.