NASA Heatshield Concept

[trekkie_]

static heatshield, always deployed. includes fuel tank nodes, which should help balance it if done correctly.

will be done when it's done. just showcasing what I have so far

Edited November 13, 2013 by trekkie_

[DisarmingBaton5]

Could be useful with deadly reentry as well as stylish.

[Voidryder]

Ok, that does look cool. Take it, once it is through plasma/high heat phase, it is jettisoned?

[Traches]

Oh yeah-- with FAR installed, you could offset your CoM with those tanks and then fly your re-entry apollo style. (They had an offset center of mass, causing the capsule to sideslip and generate lift on re-entry, which allowed them to cover distance and steer towards a target.)

[sojourner]

Make the tanks separate parts.

[trekkie_]

the tanks themselves will not be included in the final design, unless I decide to actually put in the effort of detailing them. they were there just to show the complete look (there's plenty of tanks out there already, including spherical)....but there will be hard attachment points where the tanks are, along with the metal bars.

the shield will come in 2 sizes, large (suitable for 2.5m and 1.25m parts) and small (suitable for ~1.25m parts).

I don't think the heatshield itself will incur any weight penalties at this point, so it's going to be very light so it doesn't mess up balance and require you to carry a bunch of extra fuel to use it since protection from heat is not an actual mechanic in the game, it's all for look now just like re-entry effects. the several hard attachment points should provide enough room to balance the vessel out so the heatshield doesn't end up facing the wrong direction.

all I've got left to do is add the attachment node coordinates, and fix an issue with a low poly mesh collider for the shield (it's still showing up in game even though I turned rendering off for it in unity, so the whole bottom of the inside of the shield is texture-less because it's overlapping it)

the nasa logo has a really perfect specular to it, almost looks like it has a reflection map at certain angles.

thinking maybe I'm going to have to do some planning on how to fix this. it seems the shield, for some reason, doesn't generate re-entry effects along the sides. the metal bars however, do (even though they're not exposed). it does glow nice and hot looking though. maybe just a side effect of the shield shape or high poly count itself, because obviously the shield is glowing from the effects. I don't know if not having a mesh collider on the shield model affects re-entry effects. right now I'm using a decimated low poly copy of the shield as a mesh collider, but it doesn't even act like it has a mesh collider either even though everythings been done properly in unity.

I don't think you'd need to jettison these at all after entry. slap a parachute or landing gear on it and land whichever way you want. it could probably serve as a really wide base for landing gear, making it easier to land huge vessels.

it should hold up for long trips across the solar system if you design properly, or jettison it whenever you please.

it would be cool if these were inflatable, with the nasa logo being an inline part and the shield coming out of it, but I'm not really an animator and it would kill the attachment nodes for balancing the weight. I don't think it's a big issue though. a nicely designed vessel would look even nicer with an always deployed heatshield like this, no matter where it's at, and since it also serves as an attachment hub, it's useful in designing your vessel around its nodes.

Edited November 13, 2013 by trekkie_

[tom1499]

I don't think KSP likes mesh colliders. Try checking the 'convex' tickbox on the mesh collider setting in Unity. What would be awesome is landing gear that stays behind the shield stowed but when deployed folds in front of the shield. Would be very complicated to make them look good though. Lovin' the design, reminds me of the old Von Braun NASA dreams.

[Nibb31]

Why would space engineers waste weight and risk messing with heat dissipation by painting a logo on a heat shield?

[Guest]

Why would space engineers waste weight and risk messing with heat dissipation by painting a logo on a heat shield?

It would have been different had they not botched getting the Reebok endorsement.