Trouble reentring from Lunar orbit (RSS + DRE + Real Heat)

[Gaarst]

So I can't seem to be able to reenter a simple Mk2 pod from a lunar mission. Just the pod, a fully loaded heatshield and chutes. It used to be fine before 1.1 when I did not use DRE, but now I do and stuff explodes (I don't want to remove DRE).

If I set my periapsis over 60km, I don't explode but I don't aerocapture, go back in space, run out of EC and everyone dies.

If I set my periapsis under 60km the heatshield overheats and explodes (with over half the ablator left) and everyone dies.

 

Tips?

(I'll try and change DRE settings when I have access to my game this evening)

[Jovus]

Are you doing a simple ballistic reentry?

If so, try flying the pod by using roll to manipulate the offset centre of mass. If done right, you should be able to slow yourself down

 

 

That said, I don't know if you're experiencing a bug. I was under the impression that the reason the Apollo capsule did a skip reentry wasn't because it would actually burn up in the atmosphere, but because a simple ballistic trajectory would involve enough G's to kill the crew.

[DrLicor]

Realism overhaul does rescale the parts, but doesn't change the heat resistance and max temp of some parts. You have to change them yourself. But I never had the exploding problem.. What difficulty are you playing with and which reentry mods?

[Gaarst]

2 hours ago, Jovus said:

Are you doing a simple ballistic reentry?

If so, try flying the pod by using roll to manipulate the offset centre of mass. If done right, you should be able to slow yourself down

 

 

That said, I don't know if you're experiencing a bug. I was under the impression that the reason the Apollo capsule did a skip reentry wasn't because it would actually burn up in the atmosphere, but because a simple ballistic trajectory would involve enough G's to kill the crew.

I tried to change the orientation of the pod, but the peak heating occurs really quickly when hitting the atmosphere at 11km/s. Usually I explode before the orientation of the pod has any noticeable effect.

1 hour ago, DrLicor said:

Realism overhaul does rescale the parts, but doesn't change the heat resistance and max temp of some parts. You have to change them yourself. But I never had the exploding problem.. What difficulty are you playing with and which reentry mods?

I'm not using RO.

Normal difficulty, 100% everything, and the only mods affecting reentry that I have are DRE, RSS and Real Heat. The maximum temperature for the heatshield is 3300K but because of DRE it starts getting damaged when over 2800K (I have asked on the DRE thread is there was any way to edit this).

[Norcalplanner]

Might want to check out SMURFF - it makes most parts lighter, including capsules. I ran RSS with SMURFF and no other mods (such as DRE or Real Heat) and things worked just fine.

One thing you might consider doing is using up any remaining fuel in your craft to slow down a bit before hitting the atmosphere. Even 500 m/s can make a big difference in reentry heating.

[Gojira1000]

Second the SMURFF suggestion. Ran a very successful 1.1.3 RSS/SMURFF career and while it was possible to botch a re-entry and die, it was also possible to do it right and survive. 

[Clipperride]

@Jovus With regard to your aside about the Apollo - they used the offset CoM in order to splashdown with greater accuracy, as it could be used to refine the distance traveled and, to a lesser extent, allow cross range corrections.  The only time it was used to actually skip back out of the atmosphere was when weather issues required a late change of recovery location.  NASA became so good at using this method to accurately adjust the landing that there were some concerns about actually hitting one of the navy's recovery vessels.  The most punishing re-entry were the first two (ballistic) Mercury flights, with Alan Shepherd experiencing 6g during powered flight and a punishing 11.6g during re-entry (apologies to the Original Poster for not answering his/her question.)

Edited September 24, 2016 by Clipperride
Corrected so as not to assume gender of OP

[Gaarst]

20 hours ago, Norcalplanner said:

Might want to check out SMURFF - it makes most parts lighter, including capsules. I ran RSS with SMURFF and no other mods (such as DRE or Real Heat) and things worked just fine.

One thing you might consider doing is using up any remaining fuel in your craft to slow down a bit before hitting the atmosphere. Even 500 m/s can make a big difference in reentry heating.

 

20 hours ago, Gojira1000 said:

Second the SMURFF suggestion. Ran a very successful 1.1.3 RSS/SMURFF career and while it was possible to botch a re-entry and die, it was also possible to do it right and survive. 

I'm already using Real Fuels so I don't need SMURFF.

I think that the issue is originally caused by RSS configs missing on DRE (max temperature is not changed). So it should be ok now