Ships break up more easily in 1.1?

[martincmartin]

I have a simple ship with a parachute, MK-1 command pod, Science Jr., service bay (goo, barometer, thermometer, battery) and heat shield.  In 1.0.5 I could land this no problem.  In 1.1, it breaks up on reentry.  I just did a test from LKO, going about as slow as possible, and it broke up going 1900 m/sec, forget the height maybe 35 km.

I used to bring back Science Jrs all the time, now it looks like there's essentially no way they'll survive reentry??  Has 1.1 made ships a lot less stable in atmosphere?

Image of ship

Edited May 9, 2016 by martincmartin

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I haven't noticed ships breaking up any more than usual, a picture of the craft in question would help. (Drogues are unlocked much earlier now but it sounds like you are blowing up earlier than they would be useful.)

That said, do you have EVA's off of Kerbin unlocked? (It's the astronaut complex's second upgrade I think?) If you do, there really isn't any need to bring any of that stuff back.

Just send your Kerbal out to grab up all the science points by right clicking each experiment part and clicking "collect data" then bring it back to the pod with you. Disconnect all those science parts via a decoupler and just deorbit the pod/heatshield/parachute assembly. Honestly, it's embarrassing how long I played the game myself before I figured out you could do that!

Edited May 9, 2016 by Rocket In My Pocket

[CodeFantastic]

You do have a heat shield?\

Did you try closing the MB?

[martincmartin]

5 minutes ago, CodeFantastic said:

You do have a heat shield?\

Did you try closing the MB?

Yes and yes.

[CodeFantastic]

Just now, martincmartin said:

Yes and yes.

 So it's overheating, yes?

[martincmartin]

1 minute ago, CodeFantastic said:

 So it's overheating, yes?

I don't think so.  How would I know for sure?  There's a red bar that appears on one of the parts, but I don't think it fills all the way.  I could check...

[CodeFantastic]

Just now, martincmartin said:

I don't think so.  How would I know for sure?  There's a red bar that appears on one of the parts, but I don't think it fills all the way.  I could check...

When it overheats, it blows up.

If it's not doing that I need a bit more details on what's happening.

[Brian444444]

I use a setup similar to yours all the time in 1.1.x with no problems. I usually have 2 side mount chutes on the capsule cause if you don't land in water it (science jr) will explode on impact with the ground and typically have a heat shield on it as well. Can come in from the Mun with no fuel at a stupid shallow angle busting 3200 m/s and it makes it in just fine. The only thing I can think of is maybe you should pile a few more batteries in that container. If you run out of juice your vessel is a rudderless ship.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Brian444444

[CodeFantastic]

 You're not deploying you chutes pre-maturely right?

[panzer1b]

Well sofar i havent managed to create a single ship in 1.1 that doesnt explode once it reaches orbit...  Its impossible to survive a barrage of 20 or so ibeam missiles aimed right at your face in the new update

[solarbearman]

Attatch some wings on the Mk1 cockpit so it will look like a nuke. Always solved the vessel instability for me 

[sal_vager]

The trouble  with that design is the rather massy pod on top, think how a dart or an arrow works, you need the mass at the front for stability, but your mass is on the back.

Try the Science Jr on top of the capsule, give it its own heatshield if you're concerned, the heaver pod will naturally want to "lead" during re-entry.

[martincmartin]

So i just ran it again, and in the log it does say that the science jr exploded due to overheating.  There was no warning leading up to it, and I was careful to keep the ship pointed surface retrograde.  @Brian444444 I can't think of why it would work for you and not me.  And why it's worked fine for me so many times in 1.0.5 but not in 1.1.  My laptop has low end graphics so I've had to turn the graphics options all the way down, but that shouldn't matter, right?

[Brian444444]

Well as I said I do use 2 radial chutes on my capsule as well. (MK2-R) Maybe their weight is factoring into my stability and not yours. That is a wild guess though. Are you 100% sure your batteries aren't draining causing your capsule to roll over and explode? If your graphics aren't great maybe you just aren't seeing it. Again, just a guess. Try throwing 2 MK2-R's on your capsule to the left and right side and see if you have better results.

Just prior to reentry make sure your ball is set to surface and not orbit. Maybe that transitional period is causing your ship to whack out.

 

 

Edited May 9, 2016 by Brian444444

[FullMetalMachinist]

5 hours ago, martincmartin said:

So i just ran it again, and in the log it does say that the science jr exploded due to overheating.  There was no warning leading up to it, and I was careful to keep the ship pointed surface retrograde.

Are you closing the science bay doors before reentry? There was some new heat flow problems in 1.1 with the open doors gaining huge amounts of heat during reentry. So for 1.1.2 they made it so you can close the doors without resetting the experiment (an thus losing the data).