How do you tell if re-entry will destroy your ship?
Kerbal Space Program 1.0 is finally out. The big change is re-entry disintegration. It's a problem for me.
My first few flights escaped atmosphere without a heat shield and reentered just fine.
But orbital flights destroyed my ship on re-entry.
What is the rule of thumb regarding heat shields?
Bonus points I used the 2.5m wide Hitchhiker storage container to take up some brave tourists and it survived with a 1.5m heatshield. Can I get away with the smaller heat shield all the time?
Best Answer
Something you didn't mention that actually works exceedingly well is wings. If you put wings on your ship and keep them perpendicular to the direction of motion (so as to create as much drag as possible), it is actually quite simple to slow yourself down enough to never see heat from atmospheric entry at all - and all you really need is a set of fins. Make sure your craft has enough SAS strength to manage it, though.
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Answer 2
No mention if airbrakes here yet I have found that for me they are a must have item for less than deadly re-entry . Fir example a mk2 pod (3 kerbal stock pod) attaching a 2.5 heatshield and 4 airbrakes allows you to re enter at twice as steep an angle , have the airbrake nose (the bit that sticks to ship and pivots from) pointing to the nose and turn the brake utility on as soon as you hit atmosphere and leave them on all the way down just by adding this step a pod survives at a +15-20° from horizontal re entry whereas with just a shield the same pod can only hope to reenter at +5-10° from horizontal I hope this helps ... if not just stick some airbrakes on and have a play and u will understand
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