Parts & Vessels Heatshield Ablator Doesn't Deplete / is barely depleting

[Astroneer08]

Reported Version: v0.2.0 (latest) | Mods: none | Can replicate without mods? Yes 
OS: Windows 11 | CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H with Radeon Graphics. | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop | RAM: 40 GB

 

Now, the title explains it all, but I wasn't sure if this was supposed to happen, so here we go. On the exit the atmosphere mission, I was returning to Kerbin after a nice short flight to 100km and on the way back, my ablator wasn't draining and the heat shield wasn't charring either. Now, this is important because my rocket's parachutes only deploy if the ablator is half depleted, so...

Revert to save Val.

Edited April 14 by DibzNr

[OPERATOR571]

On 1/5/2024 at 12:46 PM, MechBFP said:

You aren't going nearly fast enough to cause ablation. That isn't a bug, that is a user error.

I've hit Kerbin's atmosphere going 4.5 km/s and done Eve descents from near interplanetary trajectories without burning any ablator.

[MechBFP]

On 12/22/2023 at 10:05 PM, Astroneer08 said:

Reported Version: v0.2.0 (latest) | Mods: none | Can replicate without mods? Yes 
OS: Windows 11 | CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H with Radeon Graphics. | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop | RAM: 40 GB

 

Now, the title explains it all, but I wasn't sure if this was supposed to happen, so here we go. On the exit the atmosphere mission, I was returning to Kerbin after a nice short flight to 100km and on the way back, my ablator wasn't draining and the heat shield wasn't charring either. Now, this is important because my rocket's parachutes only deploy if the ablator is half depleted, so...

Revert to save Val.

 

Included Attachments:

You aren't going nearly fast enough to cause ablation. That isn't a bug, that is a user error.

[Temporal Wolf]

Did a duna return mission, hit the atmosphere reverse to Kerbin's spin at like 4.5km/s, no ablator loss.

There is definitely some weirdness going on with ablator.

[TROPtastic]

Reported Version: v0.2.0 (latest) | Mods: none | Can replicate without mods? Yes 
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 19045) | CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor (16 CPUs), ~3.8GHz | GPU: RTX 3080 12GB | RAM: 32GB

I had an issue with re-entering Kerbin's atmosphere from the Mun. Before I hit the atmosphere I was travelling at around 3000 m/s and I had a PE of 32 km. I expected the heatshield to be ablated, but despite the re-entry effects appearing the heatshield wasn't damaged at all.

Steps to reproduce:

Load the attached quicksave, fast forward time to re-entry, watch as the ablator isn't consumed at all during re-entry.

Included Attachments:

quicksave_10.meta

quicksave_10.json

[The Space Peacock]

@TROPtastic merged your report

[TROPtastic]

On 1/5/2024 at 9:46 AM, MechBFP said:

You aren't going nearly fast enough to cause ablation. That isn't a bug, that is a user error.

At what speed should ablation happen in KSP2? Agreed that it should be minimal for a suborbital hop, but there should be some scorching at least for a return from LKO and definitely degradation for a return from outside Kerbin's SoI.

[MechBFP]

29 minutes ago, TROPtastic said:

At what speed should ablation happen in KSP2? Agreed that it should be minimal for a suborbital hop, but there should be some scorching at least for a return from LKO and definitely degradation for a return from outside Kerbin's SoI.

The issue is that the scorching effect appears to be based on the total amount of ablator that is currently installed on the vehicle. So if you manually reduce the amount of ablator by like 90%, you will see scorch marks before it even touches the atmosphere. As such the small amount it ablates in those instance doesn't burn though enough material to cause the effects to happen.

[DoomsdayDuck555]

I’ve done multiple jool returns at 7-8km/s with a pe of 25km and it uses around 2-5ish percent of the total ablator.

 

[TechieV]

The ablator drains way too slowly for me. Even when coming down to 35km from the Mun, the ablator barely reduces. I think the devs might fine-tune this in future updates.

[QuantumFailure]

Reported Version: v0.2.1 (latest) | Mods: none | Can replicate without mods? Yes 
OS: Windows 11 | CPU: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11700KF | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti | RAM: 32

 

 

Title: No Ablative Resource for MD Heat Shield During Re-Entry

Specs: See Attached Specs

Severity: Med (feature not working as expected)

Frequency: Med

Description: Upon re-entry with MD heat shield, no ablation occurs and the "Shield Status" is "No Ablative Resource". The "Ablator" resource remains at "0.8/0.8 t" regardless of velocity. For example, re-entering Kerbin's atmosphere at a steep angle going approximately 3.5 km/s depletes no ablator at all and the status is not "Nominal" (as I believe it should be, correct?), it's "No Ablative Resource" (see screenshot). This is the case any time I think to check the status of the heat shield, i.e., I have not seen it ever be "Nominal" though I don't check 100% of the time.

 

Included Attachments:

Edited February 26 by Spicat

[Spicat]

@QuantumFailure, merged your bug report.

[DoomsdayDuck555]

Reported Version: v0.2.1 (latest) | Mods: none | Can replicate without mods? Yes 
OS: Win 11 | CPU: R5 5600x | GPU: 3070 | RAM: 32GB

I’ve noticed  that ablator doesn’t ablate more than 5-10% regardless of re entry conditions. For example, on lunar re entry with a periapsis of around -10km and hitting the atmosphere at  3000m/s, I only lose .01 tons of ablation from the .20 in the small heat shield. Although I don’t remember the exact details, on a re entry from jool at around 8000m/s, I only lost .05 tons from the .20 total in the small heat shield. Re entry heating is set to 100%, and I’m wondering if this is intended behavior. If it is, I suggest changing it because re entry doesn’t pose any big dangers with the current behavior.

Included Attachments:

[DibzNr]

@DoomsdayDuck555 Merged your report with this post