Deadly Re-entry

[Toshogu]

Heya, just installed Deadly Re-entry.

Stick a heatshield on the one man pod and have been trying to successfully land it.

Re-entry pod is, Chute, pod, heat shield. I ditch everything else after I make the burn for re-entry orbit.

70k to 35k orbit = death

70k to 50k orbit = death

60k to 50k orbit = death

55k to 50k orbit = death

100 to 50k orbit = death

100 to 35k orbit = death

100 to 10k orbit = death

No matter how shallow or steep the angle of decent my heatshield and pod burn up in reentry. KSP v.21, newest deadly re-entry, romfarer docking cam, procedural fairings, kethane, mapsat, and that's all the mods I run. Can someone help me?

Edited August 26, 2014 by Toshogu

[Bacterius]

Are you sure you put the heat shield in the right direction? They tend to spawn backwards in the VAB. Also this is rather obvious so likely not your issue but make sure your heat shield is facing prograde when you reenter..

Check the temperature of each of your parts, especially the pod compared to the heat shield, do they make sense? Otherwise I don't know, it works fine for me over here.

EDIT: also check the g-forces - you might be decelerating too quickly which is destroying your craft, though that really shouldn't happen with the kind of orbits you give.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Bacterius

[Toshogu]

...... yes I have the craft pointed in the correct position and the heatshield is installed correctly =P it's the temperature that is killing my heatshield it melts in every situation no matter the orbit I hit 10k degrees and it all just melts. The only situation in which I have been able to successfully reentry is by sticking some radial engines on the pod with a small tank and burning retro during the decent to slow my speed way down. But that doesn't make sense to me. I did reading on the Apollo program to see how they did it, and it was just like my pod. chute, pod, heat shield.

[GDJ]

I have it installed, and to tell you the truth, I find it a huge pain in the rump. I slowed down a pod down to 1200 m/s (slower than snails) and the thing still blew up.

I'm taking it out. I like a challenge as much as the next player, but there's a point.

[Frederf]

Mk1 pod already has a built in shield in DRE, don't add another one. I've found incidences of 6-20 degrees are acceptable.

[Enigma179]

Heya, just installed Deadly Re-entry.

Stick a heatshield on the one man pod and have been trying to successfully land it.

Re-entry pod is, Chute, pod, heat shield. I ditch everything else after I make the burn for re-entry orbit.

70k to 35k orbit = death

70k to 50k orbit = death

60k to 50k orbit = death

55k to 50k orbit = death

100 to 50k orbit = death

100 to 35k orbit = death

100 to 10k orbit = death

No matter how shallow or steep the angle of decent my heatshield and pod burn up in reentry. KSP v.21, newest deadly re-entry, romfarer docking cam, procedural fairings, kethane, mapsat, and that's all the mods I run. Can someone help me?

That's weird because I've been using the mk 1-2 pod with DRE, and it's actually pretty flexible for me, anything from 25k to 30k safely lands.

Now when I add in ferram aerospace it's another story, because even if I'm not steep enough to explode the aerodynamics make me move a lot faster when I approach the ground so my chutes commonly pop off. Think I've figured it out by now though.

30k is generally what you'll want to aim for I find; my burns are a bit longer than I think they need to be, because I find that by the time the shield is gone the temperature is already on its way down; stuff burns up at 1700 degrees (less for parachutes and the like) and after my shield runs out I get up to 1400 max. Also without ferram aerospace I never even burnt through the first shield on the Mk1 pod at 30k, so I don't really understand how your game could be doing that to you...

[dewinslow]

Try posting a video. That might help us help you.

[Toshogu]

yeah unfortunately I don't have the ability. k.. when you first hit the upper atmo the really thin stuff, what speed you going? I'm usually @ 2300ms. by the time I hit the 2nd layer I'm @ 1800ms. Even if I take my speed and burn retro at the begining of the thin stuff and get to like 1500ms then ditch engines, I'll still hit the 2nd layer @ around 1800 and still burn up. What speed you guys hitting the 2nd layer @?

[Bacterius]

Okay, I did some science, see if you can reproduce. I took the 3-man pod, stuck a large heatshield (the one that fits neatly, with 1000 shielding points) underneath, then a decoupler and a mainsail. Hit infinite fuel, and circularized at around 150 km (be careful not to burn up during launch). Next I deorbited with a periapsis of around 20 km, decoupled the engine and turned retrograde for reentry. Heat shield temperatures/status and velocities, at various altitudes follow (this is without FAR):

Alt.  | Temp.  | Shielding | Velocity
-------------------------------------
68 km | -116 C | 1000/1000 | [forgot to measure]

50 km |   -3 C |  997/1000 | 2405 m/s

40 km |  295 C |  982/1000 | 2385 m/s

35 km |  401 C |  956/1000 | 2149 m/s

30 km |  433 C |  892/1000 | 1995 m/s

25 km |  415 C |  750/1000 | 1682 m/s

20 km |  384 C |  483/1000 | 1225 m/s

15 km |  433 C |  304/1000 |  733 m/s

10 km |   94 C |  304/1000 |  371 m/s

 5 km |  -28 C |  304/1000 |  193 m/s

 1 km |    2 C |  304/1000 |  122 m/s

See if you can reproduce these. Note that was a rather brutal reentry - a shallower angle of attack is suggested for most crafts (I typically aim for a 30 km periapsis).

If that doesn't work, then it looks like a mod issue.....

[Toshogu]

Okay, I did some science, see if you can reproduce. I took the 3-man pod, stuck a large heatshield (the one that fits neatly, with 1000 shielding points) underneath, then a decoupler and a mainsail. Hit infinite fuel, and circularized at around 150 km (be careful not to burn up during launch). Next I deorbited with a periapsis of around 20 km, decoupled the engine and turned retrograde for reentry. Heat shield temperatures/status and velocities, at various altitudes follow (this is without FAR):

Alt.  | Temp.  | Shielding | Velocity
-------------------------------------
68 km | -116 C | 1000/1000 | [forgot to measure]

50 km |   -3 C |  997/1000 | 2405 m/s

40 km |  295 C |  982/1000 | 2385 m/s

35 km |  401 C |  956/1000 | 2149 m/s

30 km |  433 C |  892/1000 | 1995 m/s

25 km |  415 C |  750/1000 | 1682 m/s

20 km |  384 C |  483/1000 | 1225 m/s

15 km |  433 C |  304/1000 |  733 m/s

10 km |   94 C |  304/1000 |  371 m/s

 5 km |  -28 C |  304/1000 |  193 m/s

 1 km |    2 C |  304/1000 |  122 m/s

See if you can reproduce these. Note that was a rather brutal reentry - a shallower angle of attack is suggested for most crafts (I typically aim for a 30 km periapsis).

If that doesn't work, then it looks like a mod issue.....

welp 29k altitude, speed 2130. [pd destrpued/ 150 to 35 no joy

130 to 35 dada

[rosenkranz]

Maybe it's too shallow. When I deorbit from 75km, I don't just lower my Pe to 35km or 10km. I lower it to -120km which is approximately what MJ landing guidance does. Without FAR I was hard pressed burn anything up as temperatures rarely got over 1200.

Now add FAR and it's a whole new ball game. With FAR you're still doing 2100m/s at 33km up and it is hard not to burn up at those speeds at that altitude.

[Toshogu]

Yeah, I tried again using your base line. But no matter what is going on I'm burning up once I hit the second layer. I'm not using FAR or any other "flight mod" aside from Deadly Re-entry. I've got, Kethane, Mapsat, Procedural Fairings, Procedural wings, and a couple more, I'm not home right now, so I don't remember everything I have. But all of it is just really parts and nothing that I have aside from deadly re-entry messes with physics or flight stuff. Is there a list of known mod conflicts for this mod?

[rosenkranz]

Maybe it's a bug. Did you try re-downloading DRE? Make sure to delete the old first. DRE has undergone several revisions trying to find a balance. Also, check the flight log and make sure burning up is the problem. Currently DRE does g-force damage as well, which is something I wish was optional.

[Diche Bach]

I love the idea of this mod and my hat is off to the modder(s) for the good work implementing it. But for now, I think I'll hold off as it sounds like it adds a substantial degree of difficulty and perhaps makes the game a bit unpredictable? With several mods running I'm guessing it might be a bit difficult to pin down exactly what might be happening, and I have a bunch of others that I want to play with for a while.

Doesn't squad intend to add in this sort of game mechanic eventually (making it an optional "play with / play without" feature I'd hope/expect as having it be requisite would really hamper new players I reckon)? I do hope that this mod and the playtesting of it are helpful in that respect!