filling on aerocapture

[james8475]

On multiple occasions I've tried to areocapture using the inflatable heat shield to slow big and heavy Near Future Tech and Cryo Tanks/Engines spacecraft. However this has just resulted in spacecraft flipping. Does anyone have a non-cheat solution???

[bewing]

Sometimes flipping is acceptable. Sometimes you can put the heatshield on the other end and it'll be stable. Sometimes you can put heatshields on BOTH ends.

It flips because the CoM is so far behind the heatshield -- so redesign the ship to be squattier.

Or put a hell of a lot of vernors around the back end of the ship, and turn on RCS and SAS, and let the system fight to keep itself aligned.

[Snark]

Putting a shield on both ends can work, as bewing suggests:

 

...Or you can put fins / airbrakes on the back end to maintain stability.  The 10m heat shield on the front protects them from heat (as long as they don't stick out too far), but not from drag, so they can help stabilize you.