Aren't solar panels supposed to snap off during re-entry?

[AechBomb]

I was returning a ship from kerbin orbit so I could recover it, and I expected the solar panels to snap off, but they stayed quite attatched throught re-entry and all the way to landing. I remember having solar panels snap off in the slightest breeze in the past, these seem far stronger than they ought to be.

Is this an intended feature, or is something up with my install?

Link to video of the re-entry in question

(playing in Sandbox mode, Normal difficulty defaults, no cheats enabled)

 

 

I'm playing version 1.10, these are the mods I have installed:

Stockalike Station Parts Expansion Redux

Kerbal Atomics/Cryo Tanks

Texture Replacer

Both of the official DLCs

Kerbal Alarm Clock

Transfer Window Planner

Planetary Base Systems

[Streetwind]

I would indeed expect them to snap off early-on, or if not, at least melt. No idea why it didn't happen for you. Maybe it's a new bug in 1.10? You could try testing with other craft and other solar panels to see if a pattern emerges.

[AechBomb]

On 7/8/2020 at 2:37 AM, Streetwind said:

I would indeed expect them to snap off early-on, or if not, at least melt. No idea why it didn't happen for you. Maybe it's a new bug in 1.10? You could try testing with other craft and other solar panels to see if a pattern emerges.

I tested this in a fresh stock install of 1.10, and the XL panels overheated, but all the smaller panels stayed intact through the atmosphere, all the way to impact

I think the panels didn't overheat before because the craft was spinning and distributing the heat better

video link

 

[AHHans]

On 7/8/2020 at 5:36 AM, AechBomb said:

I was returning a ship from kerbin orbit so I could recover it, and I expected the solar panels to snap off, but they stayed quite attatched throught re-entry and all the way to landing. I remember having solar panels snap off in the slightest breeze in the past, these seem far stronger than they ought to be.

Indeed, I just did a quick comparison between 1.9.1 and 1.10.0. In the first the solar panels survived a lot longer than I expected but did break at some point, while in the latter the solar panels only failed when the whole shebang crashed into the water and everything - including the tank they were attached to - got destroyed.

I wonder if this is related to bug #25744, but IMHO this is clearly a bug.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Do the panels actually break and just look OK or are they actually intact? Try to check their status when parachuting down to the surface or hit F3 and see if they’re listed as breaking.
You could also try adding thermal control units and/or deployable antennae to see if they are also affected.

[OHara]

The panels remain functional and F3 remains clear, after putting them through aero forces that surely broke panels before.   

This looks different to the already-reported graphical error on truly-mechanically-broken panels, so I made a bug-tracker entry https://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/issues/25795

[klesh]

Yes, this is different.  This is not breaking them, as opposed to breaking them but showing them unbroken upon reload.