Dumb question about re-entry effects

[Superfluous J]

I know, I know. There are no dumb questions! But this one feels at least obvious and I've not seen it mentioned anywhere.

In all the threads discussion re-entry (flame) effects, we're discussing what does or does not look better or worse than whatever else is being done. That's fine and all. I have my opinions on it as well and for sure feel that some things look "more" or "less" realistic than others. However...

Do we actually know what re-entry looks like into an atmosphere?

To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever filmed a vessel re-entering the atmosphere in a similar way to how we see it in KSP. Either we're looking at it from the ground, or MAYBE as it's passing another satellite/ship/station in orbit, or the video footage comes from within the vessel itself. I cannot find a video from a nearby ship going roughly the same direction and speed as the re-entering craft (for understandable reasons... the filming craft would need to be re-entering as well!)

I spent all of 3 minutes looking for such videos, and could only find 2 cases: From the ground, and from the craft itself. Neither are enough to tell me what it would look like from outside, nearby, going the same speed.

Does such a video exist?

Edited December 12, 2023 by Superfluous J

[Cosmic Sailor]

The latest post is a video of a space craft re-entry

[HebaruSan]

23 minutes ago, Cosmic Sailor said:

The latest post is a video of a space craft re-entry

I think the OP is asking about videos from real life. These are what some Discord users offered when I asked the same question:

Spoiler

  

So indeed, applicable reference images are quite scarce, given the difficulty of stationing a camera a steady 50m from a reentering object, and much extrapolation has to be done. The one thing that seems clear is that the trails are many many kilometers long, which I haven't seen reflected in the WIP screenshots thus far.

[Kerbart]

To be fair, we don't need re-entry to look like reality. We need it to look like what we think is reality.

[The Aziz]

Well now we kinda know how it looks from the inside looking back

i suppose it's a bit late to consider it into VFX production?

 

[NexusHelium]

Well, shooting stars go through reentry so... If no one on the planet has ever seen a shooting star then no, we would not know what reentry looks like. We can get a pretty good estimation of what it looks like from the ground so don't exactly count that out.

Edited December 12, 2023 by NexusHelium

[Bej Kerman]

6 minutes ago, NexusHelium said:

Well, shooting stars go through reentry so... If no one on the planet has ever seen a shooting star then no, we would not know what reentry looks like. We can get a pretty good estimation of what it looks like from the ground so don't exactly count that out.

They mean from up close.

[Royalswissarmyknife]

2 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

The one thing that seems clear is that the trails are many many kilometers long, which I haven't seen reflected in the WIP screenshots thus far.

Guess we will have to wait for Reentry Particle Effect Renewed 2. 

[mcwaffles2003]

4 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

So indeed, applicable reference images are quite scarce, given the difficulty of stationing a camera a steady 50m from a reentering object, and much extrapolation has to be done. The one thing that seems clear is that the trails are many many kilometers long, which I haven't seen reflected in the WIP screenshots thus far.

And if they can get long re-entry trails maybe they could apply that to SRB exhaust plumes!!!

[kedrednael]

Here is reentry seen from a little distance away. I think that's the closest to the normal KSP perspective we can get.
So the video is slightly underexposed for the flames. I don't know if there is a lamp or the jet is really bright. The very horizontal lines in the flames are because of the rolling shutter effect.

 

In this video from fastest spaceX fairing reentry you the flames at the far end of the fairing are probably like 10 meters away from the camera, since the fairing is 13 meters long. 

I think if the reentry looks realistic from inside the vehicle, and from far away, it's probably really realistic from the normal 3rd person KSP perspective too.

 

 

 

[The Aziz]

37 minutes ago, kedrednael said:

Here is reentry seen from a little distance away. I think that's the closest to the normal KSP perspective we can get.
So the video is slightly underexposed for the flames. I don't know if there is a lamp or the jet is really bright. The very horizontal lines in the flames are because of the rolling shutter effect.

A simulation test of reentry performed on Earth*.

Edited December 12, 2023 by The Aziz