Deadly Reentry - Can i hold my own heatshield?

[Sokar408]

Basically, can I use the structure plates to build a working heatshield? I have no idea how the mod does it thing, nor what parts can hold up to what temperatures and so on.

[Godot]

There are special heat shields in the mod that you can put below those parts that need to be shielded (and can be dropped via staging after having fulfilled their purpose)

Also some of the capsules (for example the one Kerbal capsule) come with built in heatshield

[Sokar408]

There are special heat shields in the mod that you can put below those parts that need to be shielded (and can be dropped via staging after having fulfilled their purpose)

Also some of the capsules (for example the one Kerbal capsule) come with built in heatshield

Yes I am aware, however those shields will only have for X sizes, and making support structures to cover my more.. ambitious descents is far harder then just making a huge shield. Also what about SSTO's? Again i'm assuming some parts hold up better then other parts (for example I noticed almost any exposure destroys parachutes). What exactly defines the breaking point of a part when it comes to reentry?

[Godot]

Temperature of course ...

during the reentry your parts heat up and if the temperature exceeds the maximum temperature the part can stand, it explodes.

With heatshields, instead of the temperature in creasing the shield temperature, it melts down the ablative protection layer and only if the influence of the temperwture if high/long enough to completely melt the protective layer down, the shield itself heats up (and may explode).

How much heat each part takes is dependant on its orientation with regards to the thrust vector (and if it has parts in front of it which may protect it from heating up).

This part for example is my Standard return module:

http://imgur.com/uWaQNPD

Each of the 3 science jr. modules below the stack tricoupler hs a heatshield below it ... if oriented correctly, the heatshields protect the whole return module.

But (as I experienced) it is also possible to survive when heatshields fail (if the reentry temperatures aren´t too high) ... by keeping your reentry module in constant changing orientation, so that not one part constantly faces "downwards" and gets heated the most, but instead several of the modules take turns in heating and cooling down (so that no single module gets over the maximum temperature it can stand).

But well, to sum it up ... (unless the mod changes it which AFAIK it doesn´t) the difference between a stock structure plate and a heatshield is, that the structure plate is missing an ablative layer and every heating immediately is compared to the maximum temperature the plate can stand.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Godot

[larsmaehlum]

So, what about several layers of plates? I might have some testing to do

[Sokar408]

Temperature of course ...

during the reentry your parts heat up and if the temperature exceeds the maximum temperature the part can stand, it explodes.

With heatshields, instead of the temperature in creasing the shield temperature, it melts down the ablative protection layer and only if the influence of the temperwture if high/long enough to completely melt the protective layer down, the shield itself heats up (and may explode).

How much heat each part takes is dependant on its orientation with regards to the thrust vector (and if it has parts in front of it which may protect it from heating up).

This part for example is my Standard return module:

http://imgur.com/uWaQNPD

Each of the 3 science jr. modules below the stack tricoupler hs a heatshield below it ... if oriented correctly, the heatshields protect the whole return module.

But (as I experienced) it is also possible to survive when heatshields fail (if the reentry temperatures aren´t too high) ... by keeping your reentry module in constant changing orientation, so that not one part constantly faces "downwards" and gets heated the most, but instead several of the modules take turns in heating and cooling down (so that no single module gets over the maximum temperature it can stand).

But well, to sum it up ... (unless the mod changes it which AFAIK it doesn´t) the difference between a stock structure plate and a heatshield is, that the structure plate is missing an ablative layer and every heating immediately is compared to the maximum temperature the plate can stand.

Make sense, but where do I find the "max" temp for a part? It must be there despite me having looked, since engines tend to be able to take much more heat then other parts.

[Godot]

Make sense, but where do I find the "max" temp for a part? It must be there despite me having looked, since engines tend to be able to take much more heat then other parts.

I am not totally sure ... the KSP Wiki lists max temperatures for several of the stock parts (which are already included in the part.cfgs per default)

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Parts

I guess that DRE makes use of exactly these values, but I never checked if it is really the case (or if they may use other, lower values instead)

[SgìobairOg]

I've had a Kerbal re-enter with nothing but the spacesuit before. He survived re-entry just fine, splashdown was the main issue.

[arq]

I find there are some parts that can survive re-entry just fine with DRE. Decouplers actually do very well (though they seem bugged, barely heat at all), engines, and some other stuff. It wouldn't surprise me if structural elements (including the plates) had the tolerance to survive, too. On shallow re-entries, I find that parts seldom heat above 1800deg, so somewhere above there is probably safe.

[Taki117]

The max temp of the part can be found in the tooltip for the part. I have also used procedural fairings as heat/radiantion shielding. There is also a mod called Alskari heat shields that adds 3 different sized radial and circular heat shields. I don't know how well structural plates will protect whatever they are protecting, but I do know it will add lots of weight.

[peadar1987]

Presumably several plates will act as an ablative heat shield. The first few will burn up, exposing the ones beneath, and if you have enough, you won't burn through to the capsule.