1.1.3 science jr: is it just me?

[GoSlash27]

... or is this thing ridiculously fragile all of a sudden?

 I ran 3 flyby probes to the Mun today and 2 of them blew up on reentry due to the material lab overheating. Full ablator shield, normal reentry profile, no indication of heat. Just *bang* and the missions failed.

Has anyone else noticed this problem, or is it just me?

Best,
-Slashy

[HvP]

Are you using the rick-click option to close the doors on the materials bay before reentry? The doors on the Science Jr. stick out outside the protection of the heat shield so Squad added the option to close them and make it streamlined again.

[Foxster]

Why are you bringing them back anyway, Slashy? 

[ag3nt108]

Yes I've encountered a similar problem, Im sure its far more delicate than before. Doors open or not you really have to baby sit these things now because they explode in seconds.

[foamyesque]

1 minute ago, Foxster said:

Why are you bringing them back anyway, Slashy? 

Un-upgraded astronaut complex, at a guess.

[Foxster]

1 minute ago, foamyesque said:

Un-upgraded astronaut complex, at a guess.

Oh, been a while since I did the career thing. What does this mean?

[foamyesque]

1 minute ago, Foxster said:

Oh, been a while since I did the career thing. What does this mean?

 

No ability to EVA anywhere except landed or splashed down on Kerbin; means you've gotta physically return any science experiments if you want the full science bonus.

 

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by foamyesque

[stibbons]

I've been closing the doors and they survive reentry. Only to explode on impact when I land on them. I'm certain similar craft used to be able to land on a Science Jr, but now I'm adding extra radial chutes to slow down a bit more. 

[Superfluous J]

On my recent playthrough, I just decided to not bother with goo or jrs. Hasn't slowed me down.

But yes I found way back when atmo changed that the Jrs were particularly terrible for re-entry. I don't know if I've brought one back from anything but early career orbital flights since.

[Tatonf]

Yes, I have the same problem.

[GoSlash27]

6 hours ago, HvP said:

Are you using the rick-click option to close the doors on the materials bay before reentry? The doors on the Science Jr. stick out outside the protection of the heat shield so Squad added the option to close them and make it streamlined again.

 HvP,

 Yes I did. I found that one out the hard way.

2 hours ago, Foxster said:

Why are you bringing them back anyway, Slashy? 

What Foamy said; I'm playing "caveman" style. That munar flyby was the last piece of the puzzle. I was on track to complete it in 4 days, but the failures ruined my schedule.

Thus far I've had 6 launches and 3 burn-ups. The first was a low orbit. I assumed it was due to leaving the doors open. The 2 munar returns shouldn't have burned up, but they did. *shrug*.

Best,
-Slashy

[eddiew]

I've been using Tweakscale to shrink them so they fit inside a 1.25m cargo bay... 

[wumpus]

6 hours ago, Foxster said:

Why are you bringing them back anyway, Slashy? 

I'll assume it was a kerballess probe.  Lots of science, little mass.

[Kermanzooming]

11 hours ago, GoSlash27 said:

... or is this thing ridiculously fragile all of a sudden?

 I ran 3 flyby probes to the Mun today and 2 of them blew up on reentry due to the material lab overheating. Full ablator shield, normal reentry profile, no indication of heat. Just *bang* and the missions failed.

Has anyone else noticed this problem, or is it just me?

Best,
-Slashy

I had the same issue, and solved it by putting a service bay between the science junior and the heat shield. 

[foamyesque]

FWIW, I've discovered you can use the material bay to fly with; I stuck a command pod on either end and wound up with something that, doors open, has a surprisingly high glide ratio.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

7 hours ago, Foxster said:

Why are you bringing them back anyway, Slashy? 

I bring them back to get extra Kerbin biome science upon landing.

One thing I noticed is that the floating UI panel flickers when opening and closing the SciJr, maybe this is related? A bounding box issue perhaps?

[GoSlash27]

31 minutes ago, Kermanzooming said:

I had the same issue, and solved it by putting a service bay between the science junior and the heat shield. 

 That's actually how I do it as well. I think I'll try slapping a radiator on it and see if that helps.

Best,
-Slashy

[fourfa]

I've had good luck with Mk1 SSTOs (using the Sci Jr as a fuselage component) with a pair of small fixed radiators on top of the Sci Jr and doors closed.

[GoSlash27]

I was able to recover one today with the radiator installed. I'll try a few from higher reentry speeds to make sure that cures it.

Best,
-Slashy

[Jetski]

Yes, confirm the Jr is made of glass since 1.12. My early science roller (capsules with a Jr in the middle) shatters on the second roll unless I can wrap it in radiators.  Haven't had problems with heat as long as doors are closed though.

[Vermil]

I may have had that problem. Original theory was that the re-entry was made at a slanting angle. But thinking about it, I don't think I had closed the doors.

 

[GoSlash27]

6 hours ago, Jetski said:

Yes, confirm the Jr is made of glass since 1.12. My early science roller (capsules with a Jr in the middle) shatters on the second roll unless I can wrap it in radiators.  Haven't had problems with heat as long as doors are closed though.

Oo. Shadoobay... Shattered.

Sorry. I'm a big dumb animal.

-Slashy

[Violent Jeb]

[who cares]

Edited August 16, 2016 by Violent Jeb

[bewing]

I find that tumbling works great and heat shields don't. Just spin the ship (while 90 degrees to prograde) and do enough gentle aerobraking passes to slow down.

[SpacedCowboy]

I say, stick it inside a large storage bay with some heat shield below it, and forget about it! (no I'm not from New York)

Adjust ablator to speed of re-entry. You should be good.