Spaceplane overheating and exploding on re-entry

[robb79]

I have a space shuttle-like craft that can get in to an orbit of the moon. However when I try to return to Kerbin and enter the atmosphere it burns up. I know there are ablator shields but only for stack seperation, no radial ones. (I've even tried attaching them to struts underneath the craft but that didn't work either). I've tried attaching radiators to the bottom but they didn't do anything either. I really want sort of like tiles I can attach like on the real space shuttle. (The black tiles underneath).

[Guest]

Radial heat tiles... now there's an idea for a mod.

Best advice I can give you is to slow down more when coming in. Are you coming straight from the Mun, or is it burning up from LKO re-entry?

[KerikBalm]

how low is your perapsis... mk2 and mk3 spaceplane parts should be forgiving enough for reentry from LKO without much trouble. Coming in from Mun, you may want to do some aerobraking passes first.

[Gojira1000]

If it's a Mun return, yes, figure on multiple aerobraking passes to shed velocity before going in for real.

Spaceplanes don't use heat shields, in any case, nor should you need or use radiators..

[Venusgate]

Welcome to the forums!

Re-entering with spaceplanes can be a bit tricky. With a Pe of no less than 35km, try bleeding off speed by holding the nose of your plane up ~45 degrees. If you went straight in at this height it might burn your nose off, but in this way, you are sharing the heat load a little bit. Make sure you don't have anything with a low head tolerance in your re-entry profile! (mat science container for example, goes in or on "top")

[bewing]

One more voice chiming in: set your Pe to 60km, and come in with your nose pointed at 90 degrees (until your altitude drops below 50km -- then go to a 30 degree nose angle). Be patient while your spaceplane goes through multiple aerobraking passes -- don't try to force it down in a hurry.

[AeroGav]

 

The last minor update from 1.1.1 to 1.1.2 seems to have made heating problems worse.

This is  a video i shot in 1.05 which is the last time re-entry heating took a major upswing.   in early versions of KSP it could be pretty much ignored.

 

I was flying with an old (faulty + erratic i later discovered) joystick, held about 20 degrees nose up all the way in.  This was about a 35km periapse on a low kerbin orbit, so from Mun I'd set it nice and high like Bewing suggests and just be patient. Also i open my cargo bays and lower landing gear for extra drag but i am not so sure it's helpful now - hypersonic lift:drag ratios seem worse in 1.1.2.

What is blowing up btw?    There's not much you can do if it's your wings.  Yes, you could put some parachutes in a service bay but landing an unpredictable distance far from KSC with major pieces missing melted and bust off on ground impact is not very economic.  

If the cockpit blows up, try using an inline cockpit, then whatever size adapter,  followed by a heat shield then a nose cone.      The nose cone will now get the worst of the heat, if it explodes, the next thing in line is the heat shield, which will start to ablate and should then begin protecting the rest of the fuselage.  As soon as the nose burns off you'll see a dramatic drop in temperatures for the rest of the fuselage.

[awfulhumanbeing]

Go with multiple passes, mate. Or use the engines to slow down about 50km. 

Also, mk1 parts aren't very heat resistant. You could use radiators, or use a shielded docking port on the front to stay alive and do not burn to ashes.

[Reaper_Works]

also spinning madly when reentering works really well, even try to start to tumble. as long as your plane can recover