Radial Heat Shields

[SpacePilotMax]

The title speaks for itself, and it would make learning how to build spaceplanes a bit easier.

[Tex]

Any idea how these would look, and for that matter, how they would help learn how to make spaceplanes? I'm getting a weird picture in my head when I think of this, as in the regular heat shields but stuck on OCTO plates.

[qzgy]

11 minutes ago, Tex said:

Any idea how these would look

It could just be the radiator panels, just as a heat shield....

 

[Tex]

4 minutes ago, qzgy said:

It could just be the radiator panels, just as a heat shield....

 

Could be, I suppose, but that'd make spaceplanes look a little funky.

[qzgy]

Just now, Tex said:

Could be, I suppose, but that'd make spaceplanes look a little funky.

I think radial heat shields are always going to look funky, unless specific parts were made for each fuselage type. Even then, for the Mk2 and mk3, you may need to add two types - normal top/bottom ones and ones for the left/right sides

[Tex]

I personally don't think heat shields are a requirement for any vessel. If you do it right, even in the new aero model, you can enter just shallowly enough to not need them. Even my planes nowadays get up to 1,300 m/s and stay there until my engines start to boil.

[Speeding Mullet]

Perhaps a tweakable option in the right click menu of the part could change the model (picking a part at random lets say the Mk2 liquid fuel fuselage) to one with an ablative tile coating with the properties of a heatshield.  This would look better and be a better option that introducing a separate part.

I agree with @Tex though, it's not really required if you do it right, but it'd be a nice touch for the game in my opinion.

SM

[StahnAileron]

15 minutes ago, Speeding Mullet said:

Perhaps a tweakable option in the right click menu of the part could change the model (picking a part at random lets say the Mk2 liquid fuel fuselage) to one with an ablative tile coating with the properties of a heatshield.  This would look better and be a better option that introducing a separate part.

I agree with @Tex though, it's not really required if you do it right, but it'd be a nice touch for the game in my opinion.

SM

If this is the case, I'd rather see it as a mod via IFS or B9PS as a fuel-/meshswitch.

Though really, as a spaceplane advocate, it's not really needed on any of the spaceplane parts unless you're coming from one hell of a apoapsis. Or you're hitting up Eve or Jool for an aerobrake. Personally, I don't think building spaceplanes is the hard part (it's not too much different from building a regular plane); it's finding the right ascent profile for a design. (And with part mods, the problem is trying to not burn up on the ascent rather than the descent.)

[Wjolcz]

Procedural parts with texture switch that adds a heat shield on one side would be pretty neat and the best way to do it IMO.

Edited April 23, 2017 by Veeltch

[fourfa]

Then this might be the right place to start:

 

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Out of curiosity, what would a new space plane builder be doing that these would be significantly helpful with?

Heating is quite forgiving in KSP. If the problem is on ascent, just throttle back and climb a bit. If it's on reentry, pull the nose up. If you can't pull the nose up, you were probably going to lawn-dart anyways.

Idk, maybe it would help more experienced players doing extreme stuff with space planes, but what I see happening with new space plane builders is them seeing the part and thinking it must be some necessity on space planes, and so adding it. The parts would then add weight and drag and make it harder to get to orbit.

Edited April 25, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139
Missing space + OCD

[Cucco-Master]

3 hours ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

what I see happening with new space plane builders is them seeing the part and thinking it must be some necessity on space planes, and so adding it. The parts would then add weight and drag and make it harderto get to orbit.

Something like this definitely happened to me when I tried to build my first space plane (well, actually it was a pathetic attempt at a shuttle replica). Reentry heat had been introduced as a stock feature just a short while earlier and so I thought heat shields were somehow mandatory. Like the OP I wondered why there were no radial ones - so I covered the entire bottom of that wannabe-shuttle with radiators instead xD. You can imagine how far I came with that contraption

[juanml82]

Reentry heating is an issue when going interplanetary, or when returning to Kerbin after an interplanetary mission. The problem with spaceplanes, though, is also to have enough control authority to keep them pointing in the desired angle through the whole descend. But ablative heat tiles in the belly (through a tweakeable in the VAB/SPH) sounds like a good idea for Mk2/Mk3 based ships which are coming and going to different planets

[capran]

Was just bored at work and thought of this very thing. A heat shield part that fits radially onto a MK2 or MK3 part the same way the stock heat shields attach and look great on the Mk1 and Mk1-2 command pods. There was a mod a while back that gave you radially attached heat shield "tiles", I can't remember the name now. They were ugly though, didn't look right on just about anything, and they were heavy too.