Remove the "unmanned atmosphere enterers get destroyed" thing for career mode

[Firenexus13]

i noticed that this "unmanned atmosphere enterers get destroyed" thing has to be removed... how will we recover/salvage our last-minute ship debris?

unless we got a refund when this happens, this must be removed. Opinions?

Edited August 8, 2013 by Firenexus13

[boomerdog2000]

Do you mean debris that reenters the atmosphere gets destroyed so we wouldn't be able to salvage it? It seems to make sense. Unless you put some parachutes on and activate them in atmosphere the debris wouldn't survive the landing anyways.

[Eric S]

While I agree that this will be an issue for recovering launch stages, I don't think simply removing that function would be the best way to approach it, as it does fill a function for removing orbital junk that didn't quite make it to a real orbit, but won't impact the ground while on rails. As is, you can create orbits within the atmosphere as long as you stay above the cutoff point, by removing that, you're changing that limit to staying above the terrain.

Do you mean debris that reenters the atmosphere gets destroyed so we wouldn't be able to salvage it? It seems to make sense. Unless you put some parachutes on and activate them in atmosphere the debris wouldn't survive the landing anyways.

The problem is, parachutes only work within the physics bubble, so within 2.5km of the focused craft. Outside that bubble, the craft/debris goes on rails, which doesn't simulate aerodynamic drag, so the craft/debris impacts the ground and is destroyed. At one point I was using Romfairers plugin to increase the size of the bubble to almost 100km which let me get closer to making it work, but there were still issues.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Eric S

[Firenexus13]

i mean stuff like whole ships that can survive a water crash, or decoupled parts of ships within 2.5km.

[Eric S]

I understand. The problem that would cause is with parts who's orbits wouldn't hit the ground.