Measuring reentry heat

[Asmayus]

Anecdote is not the same as data. And as you can see, we clearly exist.

I realise* we are going off topic here but I've always felt that speaking in gender neutral terms is doable;

Instead of saying "as he/she said" you could, for example, say "as Zeroignite said"

or "I was yapping with generic_user and they said this and that and the other."

It's really just a change to sentence structure.

*realize? I can never remember

Back on topic: Yeah, most of the science kit is terrible at what it's supposed to do. I think the original plan was to wait for resources to be implemented and then create e.g. "temperature maps" which were effectively treated as a resource. I'm not sure where I read that, though

[dave4002000]

offcourse i heard from the different air-layers, but didnt imagine that they are implemented.

I'm not saying that they are implemented. I, honestly, have no idea if they are or not. I was just expanding on Kimberly's post where she said higher does not equal colder(in regards to real life).

[Metapher]

looking at my screenshots and comparing it to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standardatmosph%C3%A4re_1976_90km.png, then keeping the layers in mind (Tropo (warm), Strato (cold), Meso (warm)).

Then it looks like it.

Also the mod works nice.

(just noticed, that i forgot to toggle the thermometer...what you see is the mod's temp)

[dave4002000]

The Deadly Reentry mod is awesome, indeed. Gone are the days of reckless aerocaptures and atmospheric entries!

Here's another real-world atmosphere chart(if you're interested) that's a little easier to read. http://www.atmos.illinois.edu/earths_atmosphere/images/temperature/layers2.jpg

I think i'm going to actually do some science tonight and graph the temp of Kerbin's atmosphere just to see what it actually looks like. Damn you for making me do actual work instead of blowing up kerbals! haha

:edit: Alright, so i just spent 5 mins and did a very basic test and there is definitely something weird going on..haha. Here's the graph i threw together:

This was just a straight climb to 200km while recording the temp from the 2-Hot Thermometer every 5km. One thing is for sure, there is no thermosphere modeled.* However, the lower atmosphere results are interesting. What is also peculiar is the fact that if you do a straight climb the temp falls off quickly from -40 to -200 degrees between 150-200km. BUT, if you park at a 100km orbit, the temp will stay at ~-45 degrees for a few minutes before, rapidly, dropping to -200 degrees without any change in altitude I wonder if there is some kind of delay to the temp readings?

* I take that back, looking at the numbers more closely it looks like the thermosphere extends from about 60km to 80km. Which doesn't make any sense because the entire atmosphere is supposed to end at 69km.

Edited August 22, 2013 by dave4002000
Added Kerbin Graph

[Metapher]

The most disturbing fact to me is: all graphs from Earths atmo tend to humongous "hot" values in the thermosphere, like +1200°C.

And then theres your graph showing exactly the opposite xD

[dave4002000]

HAHA! Awesome picture. I love Mythbusters.

The most disturbing fact to me is: all graphs from Earths atmo tend to humongous "hot" values in the thermosphere, like +1200°C.

That's due to the ionosphere. The higher you go in that region, the hotter it gets(due to solar radiation ionizing the molecules) and can reach over 1500C in some cases. The the main thing to remember is how temperature is actually defined. In a gas, temperature can be defined as the average molecule speed. So while the actual "temperature" is described as 1500C, once inside the exosphere, very little of that actually gets transferred around due to the extremely small amount of particles and would still be considered 'cold' by us.

[Metapher]

So due to the fact that KSP doesnt have solarwind implemented, we messure the real cold space?

Thats what i got from Graphotron.

And from the CSV (with height)

edit: Deadly Reentry enabled...could it be compromised by it?

[dave4002000]

I purposely disabled Deadly Reentry for my test because i assumed it might mess with the temps. And looking at your temps, i would have to say my assumption was correct. My highest temp was ~19 degrees on the surface whereas your highest was ~80 degrees at 35km. I would venture a guess and say that was caused by DR's friction generated heat.

As far as your solar wind question. I'm afraid my knowledge is only in meteorology so i won't be able to answer that one.

[Metapher]

Ok

Maybe somebody wants to add your data to the wiki?

[DaRocketCat]

Re-entry heat was confirmed to be mandatory in the past.

[Rassa Farlander]

Well the wiki says its not happening although I really hope thats just someone who thinks they are funny or I really hope they re-consider having that a feature. Without it you can just send anything through the atmosphere and survive. Mods not included, because we are talking about the core game fetaures, mods are cool, but not everyone uses them.

[Metapher]

As by now, even 99% of the debris is coming down in one piece.

ofcourse they shatter to pieces, but they dont become pulverized in the atmosphere by the mod.

[Rassa Farlander]

Im happy to see this:

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Planned_features

Re-entry heat and damage is back on the list Not that it will happen anytime soon, Im just glad its off the not happening list

[Dispatcher]

@ Zeroignite, Kimberly: I recently read a post by Harvester (I know, that person alternates uppercasing letters) wherein that person indicated that the (supposed) demographics here relative to males and females is about 58 to one. So forgive them for referring to you (or someone you know) as "he". There is only one solution to the disparity: advertise KSP!

Happy KSP journeys!

Edit: Back on topic. It would be interesting if Squad were to implement atmo heating. If Squad is opposed to implementing it, I would have no idea why. If the objection is due to not wanting vehicle destruction animations, the solution could be to invoke a generic "char layer" cast onto the existing textures of the burning craft or parts; or a particle effect which looks like the said charring; persistent while the parts are able to be viewed. But I'm no programmer, so I would not know what would be involved to do that.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Dispatcher
Trying to steer back onto topic.