[1.2.2] [CKAN] Decouple from heatshield

[GERULA]

they explode at reentry

[Faile]

On 11/2/2016 at 2:57 PM, GERULA said:

they explode at reentry

I just tested and no, they do not. If you are coming in at a too steep angle, even a heat shield won't save you.

Quote

Surviving Orbital Re-Entry 101

This is the combination that will help your ship survive orbital re-entry on Kerbin(It will probably also work on Eve, Duna, Laythe and Jool):

1. Have a heat shield

The heat shield is designed to save ships from re-entry from orbit. Engines also work pretty well for heat shields, but don't rely on them.

You can sometimes get away with a 1.25m heat shield on a 2.5m craft, but avoid this unless you like explosions.

2. Point your heat shield at the heat

If your heat shield isn't pointed towards the heat, it won't work. If you have a heat shield on the bottom of your ship (Like a command pod Mk1) and a level 1(or higher) Pilot, use SAS and point Retrograde. If the heat shield is on the top of your ship, point Prograde.

3. Don't enter too steep

When it comes time to re-enter, it's easiest to drop your Periapsis to 0m. Then you know where you're going to hit (factoring planetary rotation) and you can target the VAB for maximum recovery dollars.

But that is a terrible, dangerous way to re-enter. What you want to do it drop your periapsis to around 30,000m (on Kerbin) so you can ease down your speed, rather than trying to lose all your speed at once.

You also want to drop your apoapsis as much as possible too. That will reduce the amount of speed you need to lose at periapsis. You definitely don't want to re-enter hyperbolically!

4. Use parachutes

This one is so obvious. On Kerbin, chutes can open around 22,000m. The drag from partially open chutes can slow you down enough that heating effects dissipate in seconds. However, it's super annoying to have your chutes slowing you down all the way to the ground and removes some of the "realism" to open your chutes at Mach 3.

EDIT: As of KSP 1.0.1, parachutes can be destroyed if you open them going more than 1000m/s. So don't go doing this at 3000m/s and expecting to survive.

5. Keep everything stowed

I used to like to make a nice symetrical ship with mystery goo containers, batteries, solar panels and monoprop tanks on the outside of my ship. You can't do that anymore - store them in the new "Service bay" parts. I've found that you can position 4 solar panels inside the service bay nicely so they open out without clipping into things.

Even OX-STAT, the single solar panel is destroyed on re-entry if you come in too fast

This short guide is courtesy of Coomie

[Loren Pechtel]

I'm having a problem with this.

It does exactly what it says on the label until I take it into flight.  At that point it might work as it should, I might fire the decoupler, see the puff of smoke but the rocket doesn't come apart.  This appears to be VAB-related, taking the stage off and putting it back on sometimes fixes it.  Any given design either works or doesn't.

While I doubt it's your bug it makes this too much of a hassle to rely on.

It also needs a version update on CKAN.

[Faile]

1.2.2 version update done, looks like no changes required but functionality has been improved:

- will not work if you do not have a shroud on your heatshield

This is what I always thought would happen when you click 'jettison shroud', ie. the shroud and whatever is connected below goes bye bye

On 12/24/2016 at 7:06 PM, Loren Pechtel said:

I'm having a problem with this.

It does exactly what it says on the label until I take it into flight.  At that point it might work as it should, I might fire the decoupler, see the puff of smoke but the rocket doesn't come apart.  This appears to be VAB-related, taking the stage off and putting it back on sometimes fixes it.  Any given design either works or doesn't.

While I doubt it's your bug it makes this too much of a hassle to rely on.

It also needs a version update on CKAN.

I suspect you were seeing the double connection point issue, when you connect something below a heatshield there are two points that can happen, one is a little further down and will cause a shroud to be put on the heatshield. This is the configuration you want.

The other is closer to the heatshield and I suspect you're actually connecting the bottom piece to the _top_ connector on the heatshield, where it is connected to the part above. When this happens, no shroud is shown and decoupling won't work.

[Loren Pechtel]

6 hours ago, Faile said:

1.2.2 version update done, looks like no changes required but functionality has been improved:

- will not work if you do not have a shroud on your heatshield

This is what I always thought would happen when you click 'jettison shroud', ie. the shroud and whatever is connected below goes bye bye

I suspect you were seeing the double connection point issue, when you connect something below a heatshield there are two points that can happen, one is a little further down and will cause a shroud to be put on the heatshield. This is the configuration you want.

The other is closer to the heatshield and I suspect you're actually connecting the bottom piece to the _top_ connector on the heatshield, where it is connected to the part above. When this happens, no shroud is shown and decoupling won't work.

Your description makes perfect sense as to what's happening.  Since you're giving a visual indication that addresses the problem of unreliability.

Thanks.

[toric5]

maybe target the patch at anything with the moduleablator? that way it works with modded heatshields as well?

[Loren Pechtel]

1.3?

I strongly suspect it will simply work but updating the version info on CKAN would be nice.