2.5m heatshield doesn't protect hitchhiker pod?

[Clonos]

It's jst that the Hitchhiker has a low heat tolerance, but tater did explain something well. I found this out when i was challenged to ferry 7 kerbals to the Jool System and back, with the same craft on a direct re-entry. I ended up using the engines.

[tater]

Yeah, at much higher velocities compared to a direct entry from even Minmus orbit you might have to bleed off some velocity. Alternately, play with stock parts on a rescale at some time, it makes reentry suddenly something that you actually have to think about a little (unlike stock, where as I said above, I solved OP's problem the first time I tried via setting periapsis to a reasonable value).

That higher is worse is somewhat counterintuitive, but many things in spaceflight are counterintuitive at first. V scrubbing passes would be higher still, but you'd have to be patient enough to do a lot of them.

[Tyko]

On 7/21/2017 at 4:06 PM, Mitchz95 said:

I just lost an expedition (six tourists, one pilot) because the Hitchhiker exploded during reentry on the way back from the Mun, despite having a 2.5m heatshild directly attacked to it. Why did this happen?

can you post pix of the craft?

[wumpus]

On 7/24/2017 at 9:36 AM, tater said:

It's pretty hard to get anything in stock KSP to have problems reentering, ever, in my experience. Periapsis below 40km? I'd set it below 20.
[deletia]
It's a balance between peak heating and constant, lower level heating. Too deep, too fast, and peak heating will kill you. Not deep enough, and you heat without bleeding off velocity.

Does KSP (or RSS/RO) model the differences in temperature in the atmosphere?  I understand that on Earth 50km is roughly "peak temperature" (near sea level temps, but obviously less heat due to less pressure) and 10km-20km is minimum.  You might want to avoid the lower end of that, but since heating comes from compressing the atmosphere aerobraking works best with the least amount of heat to compress.

[Kerbal101]

Just had something similar. Look at Mk1 cabin overheating, then look at prograde marker on Navball. Thats descending directly from 20km orbit around Mun - to 21km Kerbin PE.

Definitely center of mass issue, must put something heavy on "brick" side. Case closed?

Edited July 29, 2017 by Kerbal101
Marked up the relevant parts

[richfiles]

On 7/24/2017 at 8:03 AM, Red Shirt said:

@Red Shirt

I've tried several times this morning to intentionally explode the hitchhiker on reentry. I failed. How ironic is that? One time I even forgot the heat shield and at about 25k the can turned prograde and I still managed to land it. I must be losing my Kerbal touch. I am in sandbox using KSP 1.2.2. 

Made all the more impressive, given the username, plus it being a landing mission! 

Edited July 26, 2017 by richfiles

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

@Kerbal101 In career mode I routinely send rescue craft which have mk1 crew cabins on them and they never blew up on reentry. They are capable of 2 rescues in LKO,  1 in HKO.

 

[Kerbal101]

7 minutes ago, Bottle Rocketeer 500 said:

@Kerbal101 In career mode I routinely send rescue craft which have mk1 crew cabins on them and they never blew up on reentry. They are capable of 2 rescues in LKO,  1 in HKO.

This is great to know That is, great to know that you've not lost any crew because of it.
But I also play hard career and these things happen, the evidence and reason are all above. 

[Bottle Rocketeer 500]

Oh, I don't play hard career, because I have never finished career yet.