[1.12.*] Deadly Reentry v7.9.0 The Barbie Edition, Aug 5th, 2021

[Jovus]

There are two ways to do spaceplane reentries with DRE installed: the sensible way, and the 'fun' way.

The sensible way is to bump around in the upper atmosphere (~30km) until you bleed off enough speed to go down further - which is probably when you're going 1000m/s or so. Using this method you don't really need to worry too much about stuff burning off, because your reentry heating should be minimal; if it isn't, you aren't spending enough time bleeding off speed in the upper atmosphere. However, one drawback is that this method of reentry is highly inaccurate regarding landing spots, so expect to either make a lot of landings on suboptimal terrain or to spend time motoring back to KSC.

The 'fun' way is to throw your periapsis to around 20km and position it above the desert on the continent west of KSC. Then, you use the aerodynamic qualities of the middle atmosphere to ride over to KSC at 20-25km altitude the whole way. Using this method, you need to make sure that all your valuable heat-sensitive equipment is either in a cargo bay or otherwise aerodynamically shielded behind some other bulky part. The advantages are it's shorter, and personally I find it more fun to ride the ragged edge and see how far you can push it. ...also, I don't bother to use drag chutes.

Edit: aaaaand I totally missed that stuff was melting off your craft during your way up, not your way down. Yeah, fly higher. Do your speed dash between 17km and 25km, not beforehand.

[Starwaster]

Is there a reason why this doesn't support 64 bit?

Just curious as I've recently returned to playing KSP and have not tried it out yet on 64 bit, so was wondering the reasons behind the incompatibility?

As has been said, 64bit KSP is unstable to the point that it is not feasible or practical to troubleshoot if you have compatibility issues between DRE and 64bit KSP. It's not possible to determine which is truly at fault if KSP crashes while using DRE.

[Toshogu]

odd problems. Running FAR, running the parachute mod, and DR. my parachutes are breaking cause I am going way to fast. idk which mod is causing this, but I did some testing and found out some interesting things.

Here is my new reentry sequence

from an orbit of 200k I set my entry to 32k Drogue chute is deployed 40k and reduces speed to 1000ms @ 20k. At which point my main chute deploys bring the thing down to kerbin without any heat re-entry effects.

Now here is the weird thing I found out. in my discovering of my new entry protocol I found out that if you reduce your speed to 100ms @ 8k and then let your pod drop to 1500 before deploying your main chute your speed will hit something like 350-400ms which is enough to rip your chute off and cause you to crater.

I've deinstalled and reinstalled all mods for the past 3 days now and I'm gonna say this is not a problem with the install. Something is very wrong right now =P

how do I know if I'm running 64x version of kerbal?

[Xyd]

Windows 64-bit is an unstable POS. Many mods are refusing to support it as more trouble than it's worth.

Yeah, as I've just discovered from launching 64 bit. Barely 5 mins in and crash happy. 32 bit is grand though.

[bakedbattlestar]

When launching the Mk1 Pod , the heat-shield shows 0 ? Does this not have inbuilt heat-shield anymore?

[Starwaster]

odd problems. Running FAR, running the parachute mod, and DR. my parachutes are breaking cause I am going way to fast. idk which mod is causing this, but I did some testing and found out some interesting things.

Here is my new reentry sequence

from an orbit of 200k I set my entry to 32k Drogue chute is deployed 40k and reduces speed to 1000ms @ 20k. At which point my main chute deploys bring the thing down to kerbin without any heat re-entry effects.

Now here is the weird thing I found out. in my discovering of my new entry protocol I found out that if you reduce your speed to 100ms @ 8k and then let your pod drop to 1500 before deploying your main chute your speed will hit something like 350-400ms which is enough to rip your chute off and cause you to crater.

I've deinstalled and reinstalled all mods for the past 3 days now and I'm gonna say this is not a problem with the install. Something is very wrong right now =P

What's wrong is your parachute deployment protocols. Adopt a more realistic procedure and you'll have better results. Proper altitudes and velocities have been posted about constantly over the past few pages. The very front page has an admonishment in large red letters warning you about improper parachtue deployment procedures. Do I have to resort to making it Comic Sans in order to draw people's attention to it?

how do I know if I'm running 64x version of kerbal?

If you downloaded 64x then you're probably running it.

Except that if it's Windows 64x then DREC won't run at all. So you probably aren't. Unless you edited it and recompiled it. Which I doubt.

When launching the Mk1 Pod , the heat-shield shows 0 ? Does this not have inbuilt heat-shield anymore?

Yes it does

Edited October 19, 2014 by Starwaster

[REViEWGMINGMAN]

deadly reentry parachutes overheating a month

[Soda Popinski]

how do I know if I'm running 64x version of kerbal?

Assuming you're running Windows, if you're using the standard Steam launcher or shortcut, then you are NOT running the 64-bit version. If you are either double clicking on KSP_x64.exe in the Kerbal Space Program folder, or made a shortcut to it, then you are running the 64-bit version.

[Umbongo Time]

Realchute parachutes automatically cut if I'm going a couple of hundred metres per second in the atmosphere. The log reads that they burnt up despite the temperature never going over about 20 degrees. What's going on?

[Starwaster]

Realchute parachutes automatically cut if I'm going a couple of hundred metres per second in the atmosphere. The log reads that they burnt up despite the temperature never going over about 20 degrees. What's going on?

The part might not have gone over 20 but the temperature outside is what matters. If you deploy chutes into the superheated plasma of reentry then they will burn. And your Kerbals die screaming.

[Starman4308]

The part might not have gone over 20 but the temperature outside is what matters. If you deploy chutes into the superheated plasma of reentry then they will burn. And your Kerbals die screaming.

It's strange that they would burn up at just ~200 m/s though: that's subsonic velocity, which is in the realm of sanity for when to pop chutes.

Realchute parachutes automatically cut if I'm going a couple of hundred metres per second in the atmosphere. The log reads that they burnt up despite the temperature never going over about 20 degrees. What's going on?

There's also a max temperature multiplier of 0.25: the parachutes burn up a lot more easily than their casings. Are you sure you're only at 200 m/s surface velocity? Supersonic velocities (~330 m/s) are the destroyer of parachutes.

[Starwaster]

It's strange that they would burn up at just ~200 m/s though: that's subsonic velocity, which is in the realm of sanity for when to pop chutes.

.

If its a couple hundred exactly then sure that is a bit much, but I have to assume it's possibly higher.

It's also possible he's not updated. Latest updates did fix some problems with chutes burning up too easily.

[Toshogu]

yeah... what I am experiencing is being unable to deploy chutes regardless of what I try that is normal. 80k to 20k results in a burnt up pod, 80k to 30-38k results in a pod not burnt but still going too fast for a chute to deploy at ANY ALTITUDE. anything past 38k and I double dip into the atmo and burn the pod up.

I read, I test, I come here as a last result cause one of your mods is ....ing up. Either DRE, FAR, or the Chutes has a decimal point in the wrong place, or something is else is going on in the interactions with the other mods. I came hear to say it cause I suspect it's YOUR mod more than the other two because the other mods don't have people complaining about similar problems like mine, but here it's all up and down your thread. So I came here.

[NathanKell]

And yet those of us who deploy parachutes at sane altitudes (and fly sane reentries---oh, and use the current version of the plugin) somehow, magically, don't experience this "bug." Funny, that.

[Boamere]

And yet those of us who deploy parachutes at sane altitudes (and fly sane reentries---oh, and use the current version of the plugin) somehow, magically, don't experience this "bug." Funny, that.

Oh the passive-aggressiveness is REAL right now *Grabs popcorn*

[Starwaster]

yeah... what I am experiencing is being unable to deploy chutes regardless of what I try that is normal. 80k to 20k results in a burnt up pod, 80k to 30-38k results in a pod not burnt but still going too fast for a chute to deploy at ANY ALTITUDE. anything past 38k and I double dip into the atmo and burn the pod up.

I read, I test, I come here as a last result cause one of your mods is ....ing up. Either DRE, FAR, or the Chutes has a decimal point in the wrong place, or something is else is going on in the interactions with the other mods. I came hear to say it cause I suspect it's YOUR mod more than the other two because the other mods don't have people complaining about similar problems like mine, but here it's all up and down your thread. So I came here.

I try to be nicer about these things than some other people who might come in here and chew you out but how many times do I have to say this in one day?

IT IS NOT THE MOD THAT IS MESSING UP. IT IS YOU.

• DOWNLOAD VERSION 6.2.1 OF DEADLY REENTRY
  
• AND FOR PITY'S SAKE, STOP DEPLOYING CHUTES AT HIGH ALTITUDES.
  

Even with the latest version of the mod it is insane to think you can deploy chutes at high altitudes like that except on planets with very thing atmospheres like Duna. And the altitudes you mention have to be Real Solar System which is an even more deadly reentry. Do you think Neil Armstrong deployed chutes at higher than 30 kilometers? Buzz Aldrin? They'd have been dead heroes if they tried that.

Go get the most recent version and practice sane deployments.

When launching the Mk1 Pod , the heat-shield shows 0 ? Does this not have inbuilt heat-shield anymore?

Sorry I was out the door when I replied to you and my answer was cut short. Yes, the Mk1 pod has a shield, no it should not be 0. Need more information. Maybe screenshot showing the pod in the VAB, and have you tried tweaking it to increase the quantity of shield? Or did you maybe accidentally tweak it and remove the shield material? Make your log files available if you are still having trouble. There's no reason why it should show up as 0

Edited October 19, 2014 by Starwaster

[Toshogu]

Here is something interesting Mk.1 w/ shield terminal velocity @ 1000ft is 1500ms my kerbal died of G forces somewhere @ 3000ft. it did not burn up it just cratered. Are you sure the heatshields are producing enough drag? Cause DRE and FAR are acting very weird with each other. I took a booster, shot it straight up it reached 180k perigee and fell straight down. In the last version of FAR and DRE the thing would burn up before it even got to 1000ft.

[Shania_L]

I get that you are trying to encourage people to look up real-life values to work this stuff out, but the fact of the matter is that people dont want to do research to play a game, that Kerbin does not conform to real-life values and neither does the technology that people are using.

The defaults on the realchutes parachutes (as you probably know,) are set at a 30,000m deployment for drogues and 25,000m for the main chutes. I saw Starwasters post on the previous page (or so) and he referenced the Apollo values of 7,000m drogue and 3,000m main, not withstanding that those values are based on Earth not Kerbin they are considerably different from the default values you get off the stock and realchutes parts.

You have built a great mod here that is intended to show that re-entry is hard, congrats you have managed it. Now how about you stick the sarcastic evasive "advice" and put a proper guide on the OP illustrating the expected re-entry procedure?

I am sure it gets annoying for you to answer the same questions over and over, but maybe there is a reason for that? Shocking this may be to you but the majority of people who play this game are not rocket scientists, they do not have degrees in hypersonic aerodynamics and do not possess a detailed knowlege of the science involved in re-entry beyond "stuff gets hot".

How exactly do you expect them to know what the 'sane' values are? or the 'correct' angle? People want to use this mod, but you have to realise that you need to provide a way for them to know how to use it. Anything people look up elsewhere will relate to Earth not Kerbin, so the values are not compatible.

[Toshogu]

HOW MUCH MORE CLEAR DO I HAVE TO MAKE IT

I HAVE ALL THE RECENT UPDATES I HAVE REINSTALLED THEM THINKING MAYBE IT WAS A BAD DOWNLOAD.

I HAVE TRIED 80k to 20k-40k THERE HAS BEEN NO ALTITUDE IN WHICH MY POD HAS DROPPED BELOW 350ms where it would be safe to deploy a chute. I.E Even doing a 60k to 32k deploying a chute is impossible because my pod is still traveling way to fast @ all altitudes until I hit the ground.

Yes I have angled my pod in hopes of creating some lift and adding to the time I have to bleed off speed, but that still doesn't get me slow enough.

Again I am coming here as a last resort

Edited October 19, 2014 by Toshogu

[Toshogu]

Yes I have tried 7000k and 3000k deployments, I have tried 5000k and 1000k deployments, I have tried 4000k and 500k deployments all from 80k to 20-38k ALL result in having your chutes being ripped off.

[legolegs]

I must report I killed several kerbals doing reentry with 35km periapsis due to chute failures. I clearly see something in DRE was changed between 5.2 and 6.2.1 and chutes became MUCH more difficult to use. Perhaps a bit too much, m?

[Jashin]

Toshogu, I had the same "issue" with the most recent update : it's impossible that your craft does not slow down to match the recommended speed for chutes deployment. This is simply due to terminal velocity : your craft won't physically be able to fall at a higher speed than than number, unless of course you point your engines towards the ground ! That being said, it's probably better to check the speed you're falling at rather than the current altitude : if you're below 330 m/s, you're good, if not chutes will get ripped off. I was mad when I thought that DRE wasn't working properly, but then I did my research and was taught by Starwaster and NathanKell here and everything in the current settings is in keeping with IRL procedures.

Try to check the 330 m/s mark for yourself, I guarantee it works every single time.

[Master Tao]

Mk.1 w/ shield terminal velocity @ 1000ft is 1500ms my kerbal died of G forces somewhere @ 3000ft. ... Are you sure the heatshields are producing enough drag? Cause DRE and FAR are acting very weird with each other.

Can I assume you meant meters instead of feet?

This may be the key. Sounds like you have your heatshield attached by the wrong node. If so, it's producing little-to-no drag, which explains why you're pushing Mach 5 at only 1 km up. Make absolutely certain that the heatshield's top node is attaching to the bottom of the command pod.

[Starman4308]

Yes I have tried 7000k and 3000k deployments, I have tried 5000k and 1000k deployments, I have tried 4000k and 500k deployments all from 80k to 20-38k ALL result in having your chutes being ripped off.

I must report I killed several kerbals doing reentry with 35km periapsis due to chute failures. I clearly see something in DRE was changed between 5.2 and 6.2.1 and chutes became MUCH more difficult to use. Perhaps a bit too much, m?

Okay, to help eliminate confusion, can you clearly separate what you reentry profile is from what speed/altitude you pop chutes? Say something like "My reentries were 80x40 km, and I popped chutes at 7 km, with speeds ~250 m/s"?

Also, Toshogu, are those typos when you say "7000k and 3000k deployments"? A 7000m pre-deployment (into drogue mode) is sensible: a 7000 km pre-deployment means you're popping chutes in high orbit.

[FlowerChild]

Sorry I was out the door when I replied to you and my answer was cut short. Yes, the Mk1 pod has a shield, no it should not be 0. Need more information. Maybe screenshot showing the pod in the VAB, and have you tried tweaking it to increase the quantity of shield? Or did you maybe accidentally tweak it and remove the shield material? Make your log files available if you are still having trouble. There's no reason why it should show up as 0

That sounds a lot like he's using BTSM, where the integrated heat shield is a separate tech tree unlock.