Is it impossible to protect a Kerbal in a control seat from heat?

[herbal space program]

I've been trying and trying to build the smallest possible recoverable Kerballed orbiter by mounting an EAS control seat on top of a fairing base and (supposedly) using the fairing to protect the pilot from heat:

 

Even though the pilot is fully enclosed by the fairing, it appears as though he is being heated as if fully exposed to the airstream, and he inevitably explodes  even though no other part on the craft even has a heat indicator lit up. Is this just a quirk of the control seat or am I using the fairings wrong? I tried building it out a bit further, and other than making it heavier and draggier, it seemed to make no difference.

Edited July 16, 2016 by herbal space program

[Rocket In My Pocket]

I've done about this same thing with a heatshield/command chair and it worked fine.

I even made one that was nothing but a ladder/heatshield, it worked but you just couldn't time warp lol.

Whether fairings not protecting Kerbals from heat is intended or a bug I think you are going to have to throw a heatshield on there somewhere.

[herbal space program]

2 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

I've done about this same thing with a heatshield/command chair and it worked fine.

I even made one that was nothing but a ladder/heatshield, it worked but you just couldn't time warp lol.

Whether fairings not protecting Kerbals from heat is intended or a bug I think you are going to have to throw a heatshield on there somewhere.

I didn't try the heat shield, but it seems the service bay works significantly better. Oddly, it seemed that the pilot was still heating up when going up, but was now insulated when going back down.

[cubinator]

I'd suggest a small heat shield with a chair and parachute attached. That should keep your Kerbal safe throughout reentry.

[herbal space program]

Thanks for the responses. I can see how for most purposes the heat shield would be the best thing, but for me as it turns out the service bay is better, because it only weigh 0.1t vs. 0.3t for the heat shield.

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, herbal space program said:

I can see how for most purposes the heat shield would be the best thing, but for me as it turns out the service bay is better, because it only weigh 0.1t vs. 0.3t for the heat shield.

I think you can remove most of the ablator to reduce mass, I would put at most 20 ablator in it and you'll be fine coming from LKO. But the service bay is a good solution too.

[dire]

Try putting him in a service bay instead. Kerbals probably get unhappy if their internal body temperature gets much higher than body temp, and having them explode due to internal heating is probably not a desirable side effect of re-entry.

 

Edit: Ninja'd

Edited July 17, 2016 by dire