Do you have to protect your rover against re-entry heat, as of this version?

[Benie]

So I got a question. I know it's realistic to want to protect your rover against re-entry heat from planets that have atmosphere. But do you really have to?

It's just, the rovers I have are quite, oversized. And being a noob at building rockets and rovers, I have no idea how I can make a heat shield for it, and also have the rover hooked up to a rocket, and have that rocket not spin out of control when I try to do my departure burn.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Benie
Question answered!

[Vanamonde]

Right now, re-entry is only a visual effect and generates no heat.

[stupid_chris]

There isn't reentry heat in .20, so there's really no need to it. But I usually do it for the RP, it's sorta easy to do with a few structural panels

[Benie]

Thanks guys. I know eventually in a future version, you'll have to. And I'm hoping Squad makes a heat shield for just that.

[stupid_chris]

Don't worry, when we get reentry heat they're gonna give us a bunch of heat shield parts

[Motokid600]

Eve landings would be terrifying.

[AceMgy]

No heat yet, but keep in mind there still is atmospheric drag acting on each part. If you have any weak connections they could pop off.

And do remember to pull in your solar panels before entering the atmosphere if you have extendable ones. They simply shatter once you pass a specific mach number. Not sure what value but it's quite low, 8 m/s or so on the surface of Kerbin for example.

I've had a probe land successfully but then lose battery power and die because the solar panels popped off.