new to game. can you only re-enter with capsule?

[Arcadian Del Sol]

In career mode, seems like everything I try, everything blows up trying to return to the surface or comes in so fast that chutes wont work and I explode on the surface.

[andylaugel]

Some parts can take heat better than others, and these numbers are available when you build your craft. Heat shields can help, as do putting delicate parts in cargo bays.

It also helps to control your re-entry. You don't have the decelerate until your orbit touches the ground. Aim for 45 km Periapsis, and the atmosphere will slow you down the rest of the way.

[EasyAce]

Try to keep the return-angle low - which means don't do a retro burn until your periapsis is -20km, leave it at >25km. In fact, I find the best periapsis to aim at when you return from the Mun to be 28-32km. This makes your capsul break enough to not go above the atmosphere, but still not steep enough to burn up.

Make sure you have a heat shield.

And remember - if you can go on EVA you should gather all the science in the capsule and let everything else separate and burn up on reentry. This makes your capsule ligther :)

[andylaugel]

You also need to deploy your chutes when it's safe to do so, and no sooner. The icon in staging for them changes color. You should be below 20 km with the icon in green before you deploy. Yellow is risky, but also deployable in a jam. Red is death.

The next suggestion is a bit more advanced, but I'm putting it out there anyways. By spinning or tumbling, you can redistribute the heat evenly over your craft. But it can also put delicate parts at risk. Spinning is when you keep the same parts pointed prograde, like a heat shield, and is generally safer. Tumbling is a risky strategy when you change which parts point prograde. But using both allowed me to land on Eve with 6 RoveMax Model XL3 wheels intact--or at least repairable.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=745273720

[Arcadian Del Sol]

so i dont think i understand all the terms, but I think i get it. Basically what I just did (successful ferry 2 tourist mission) was to make sure I had fuel left after I hit 70,000. And rather than just do a free fall straight back down, i burned at max power parallel to the surface of kerbin so that my return path on the map was as flat as I could get it.

no gear or batteries etc burned off but i had to fight against the ship wanting to flip around and burn. It was a water landing so I couldn't get out the landing gear yet, but we came back home alive this time.

I only took about a year and a half off, and the game is SO different now.

[broken condom]

Originally posted by andylaugel:

Some parts can take heat better than others, and these numbers are available when you build your craft. Heat shields can help, as do putting delicate parts in cargo bays.

It also helps to control your re-entry. You don't have the decelerate until your orbit touches the ground. Aim for 45 km Periapsis, and the atmosphere will slow you down the rest of the way.

wait so you can store experiments in a storage bay? why haven't i been told about this before?

[andylaugel]

Originally posted by kmccallister1:

Originally posted by andylaugel:

Some parts can take heat better than others, and these numbers are available when you build your craft. Heat shields can help, as do putting delicate parts in cargo bays.

It also helps to control your re-entry. You don't have the decelerate until your orbit touches the ground. Aim for 45 km Periapsis, and the atmosphere will slow you down the rest of the way.

wait so you can store experiments in a storage bay? why haven't i been told about this before?

I was refering to putting sensors, all of which have a maximum temperature 1,200K, physically inside something like a Service Bay (2.5m), whose max temperature is 2,900K.

You can also send someone out on EVA, collect data from the instruments, and store them in any part capable of holding Kerbals too. Scientists can even restore mystery goo and materials bays to be used again. But that's a different kind of storage.

[broken condom]

Originally posted by andylaugel:

Originally posted by kmccallister1:

wait so you can store experiments in a storage bay? why haven't i been told about this before?

I was refering to putting sensors, all of which have a maximum temperature 1,200K, physically inside something like a Service Bay (2.5m), whose max temperature is 2,900K.

You can also send someone out on EVA, collect data from the instruments, and store them in any part capable of holding Kerbals too. Scientists can even restore mystery goo and materials bays to be used again. But that's a different kind of storage.

can you send any kerbal in the vessel at the time out to get the data reports? or is it just the scientists that can interact with the goo, insterments, and mat bay?

EDIT: yes i just tested it. nice. my vessel design changes... slightly

[CoonFatGravy]

Make sure you aren't hitting the atmosphere too fast, and use heat sheilds. Also, usually when you're around 3k meters from the ground on kerbin, your ship should be slow enough to use the parashutes. don't try using them while 30k meters in the sky, or higher, lol. You're usually going to fast if you're at that height coming from orbit/other plants. Good luck

[Arcadian Del Sol]

thanks for the help. I started saving enough fuel so once I reach about 70k (for the VIP tourism missions) I started doing a horizontal burn to lower the angle of my return.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=751408406

as you can see, it's working.