[0.20] Deadly Reentry 2.3 - reentry heat, plus thermal and g-force damage to parts

[Lexif]

Do you use the 0.20/0.21 compatible version from this thread (2.3), or the old outdated 0.19 compatible version (1.3) from Spaceport?

[Toshogu]

Spaceport......

k I'll install from here and see what happens =)

[Lexif]

Spaceport......

k I'll install from here and see what happens =)

That's it. With 1.3 it's pretty much impossible to not burn up in 0.20/0.21.

[Romby]

Hey have a problem with the mod. I cant see the heat shield value on the stock pods. So i cant see how close i was to losing shield after an entry. Another thing dont even know if my deadly reentry works. So far my pod has never exploded, no matter how i enter (etc. heatshield up or side first). But parachutes have exploded when i turn pod wrong.

[Lexif]

Please check if you put modulemanger.dll and the deadly reentry folder into the GameData folder of your KSP installation. And I seem to remember a problem when KSP was in the program folder of windows. Windows security functions might block module manager from executing there.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

Really? Impossible not to burn up? With this version I always make a Munar trip there and back and survive. This version is stable as long as you aerobrake instead of direct impact

[Lexif]

Really? Impossible not to burn up? With this version I always make a Munar trip there and back and survive. This version is stable as long as you aerobrake instead of direct impact

I was talking about using version 1.3 which was made for KSP 0.19 in KSP 0.20/0.21. There was pretty much no reentry profile that would work, so we got 2.x with the new features like g-load damage.

[Jimbimbibble]

After reading some complaints about reentry being too easy, I've been thinking about how to make it harder. I've come up with a solution that works pretty well. Since the ablative shielding is so effective, just nerf your heat shields. If you change the ablative shielding on the mk 1-2 pod to 250, this is what you get. With Ap of 2500km: Pe 25+km=safe, Pe 20km=shield failure, pod is safe but you might lose parachutes, Pe 0km=death by fire. I'm using FAR, btw. The Mk 1 pod is harder to nerf because it slows down so fast (higher surface/volume ratio). I'll let y'all know if I find a good way to modify it without detracting from realism. As for space planes, I find that stock values are satisfactory.

[NathanKell]

Jimbimbibble, are you using the fix to the heatshields? The problem with FAR and the stock DRE heatshields is the node position is messed up, leaving them with almost no drag.

Also--lowering your PE should _decrease_ your heat load, and increase your G load. Weird that it's increasing heat load!

[rosenkranz]

Harder? Admittedly, stock re-entry is pretty easy if you come down to an orbit just above the atmo prior to deorbit. However, using FAR, it is quite difficult to not only get down but reliably hit a target LZ without burning something important off (such as landing gear or parachutes)

It wasn't until I hit upon B9's air-brake that I was able to consistently get down without burning stuff up.

[Jimbimbibble]

Lowering your Pe will increase heat until a certain point, where it starts decreasing again. The deorbits I was using gave me a g load below redzone and i died from heat, whice is what we want. I haven't heard of a shield fix, but you're right about the 1.25 shield. I noticed that it has less drag. What node values should I use to fix it?

[ace.1991]

help! I can't get the heat shields to appear in the menus

[redlibertyx]

Does anybody get a problem where a craft or parts of the craft will spontaneously explode from g-forces during the loading screen either after landing or before launch?

[NathanKell]

jrandom, I forget exactly, but search this thread for posts from me. One of them is the fix.

[Jimbimbibble]

Redlibertyx, I had that problem. It fixed itself by going to the VAB and back.

[birrhan]

Take screenshots! I've never come back to Kerbin from so far away. I have done some crazy velocity tests using rockets in Kerbit oribt -- if you're going very, very fast, aiming somwhere between 50km and 56km seems to be good for aerobraking into an elliptical orbit, although you may go around many times before losing enough velocity to actually land. Should keep you from zooming off into Kerbol orbit, though.

So I was coming in around 4000 m/s, and was up to 4600 m/s at closest approach (set Pe to about 25 km). I had enough fuel to slow to about 4100 m/s. In no configuration could I slow down fast enough to avoid overheating or G force excess.

I notice that the 6.25 m inflatable heat shield likes to cause drag; every time it likes to re-orient above the craft, much like an ad hoc parachute. Next configuration will try to take advantage of that and I'll put one on each end. I also imagine coming in slower (intercepting much prior to Kerbol Pe) will increase success rates--it seems Lexif had success at 3100 m/s. I think the magic question is "is it even possible to aerobrake from interplanetary space using FAR + DE, and if so by how much?"

[jrandom]

It's got to be possible. I'll fire up my screw-around non-serious save game and see if I can test this out.

[rosenkranz]

I'm pretty sure you can aerobrake from the edge of SOI but you'll probably want to send out test craft and quicksave prior to testing. Then try various Pe and see what happens. I don't think you'd want to try a Pe lower than 35km from SOI though. IIRC from Minmus (which is close to SOI), a 35km Pe will get you an Ap of <1000km

There is an aerobrake calc somewhere where you can put in orbit specs, your Cd and desired Ap to get an estimated Pe. However, I can't remember what it was called.

Edit: Found it http://alterbaron.github.io/ksp_aerocalc/

[birrhan]

I'm pretty sure you can aerobrake from the edge of SOI but you'll probably want to send out test craft and quicksave prior to testing. Then try various Pe and see what happens. I don't think you'd want to try a Pe lower than 35km from SOI though. IIRC from Minmus (which is close to SOI), a 35km Pe will get you an Ap of <1000km

There is an aerobrake calc somewhere where you can put in orbit specs, your Cd and desired Ap to get an estimated Pe. However, I can't remember what it was called.

Edit: Found it http://alterbaron.github.io/ksp_aerocalc/

So from Minmus your speed at Pe will be around 3000 m/s. It is definitely possible to exceed that coming from interplanetary space. You have to bleed off enough speed through drag to get a capture--in other words, it's the difference between your speed at closest approach and ~3100 m/s. Stock aerocapture bleeds off between 1000 and 2000 m/s; this ignores heat and G force. Incorporating that, I don't think you can stop very much. That said, I've seen a lot of questions on the subject, but few answers--so I'd be curious what other players' experience has been.

Experiments!!!

[jrolson]

Does this work with 21.1?

[jrandom]

Does this work with 21.1?

So far so good on my end.

[jrandom]

Okay, I'm running some tests with the Mk1-2 pod with heatshield but no airbrakes, entering Kerbin's SOI at around 2000m/s.

Periapsis 40km: Wholly inadequate. But 30km should work, right?

Periapsis 30km: Holy heck, this also results in simply bouncing off the atmosphere.

I might have to rethink my reentry strategies when coming back from distant locations. I'm going to try 20km, and depending on if the pod survives or not, will run tests at other altitudes to see what will work. (I'm hitting 70km at around 3500-3800m/s depending on periapsis.)

This is with both DE and FAR.

Edited August 8, 2013 by jrandom

[jrandom]

Again, entering Kerbin's SOI with a speed of 2000m/s, hitting 70km at 3800m/s.

Periapsis 20km: Total destruction of the pod. The heatshield overheats and explods, with the pod following shortly thereafter.

Periapsis 26.5km: We have a winner! Pod survives and winds up with an orbit of 25.7km x 6968km. 2/3rds of the ablating shield are left.

So when coming in that fast, 30km is too high and 20km is too low. The reentry window is around 26.5km but I don't know how narrow that window is.

[jrandom]

Full reentry on the second orbit. Unfortunately, IonCross drained the rest of my battery power so I couldn't deploy chutes, but had I added a second battery, it's totally survivable. G-forces never went over 2-something.

[Jasmir]

Periapsis 26.5km: We have a winner! Pod survives and winds up with an orbit of 25.7km x 6968km. 2/3rds of the ablating shield are left.

So when coming in that fast, 30km is too high and 20km is too low. The reentry window is around 26.5km but I don't know how narrow that window is.

The Problem is, this PE value is completly addicted to the mass, the drag and the stability(aerodynamic* and g-forces) of the vessel (and, of course, the incoming speed). So this PE will will just work for this POD at this speed.

*Large Vessels tend to flipp over if you go to steep into the atmosphere. If this occur in the "hot" reentry-phase, bad things will happen