New guy here. How are you guys powering the command pod when trying to come back to the surface with just the command pod and a parachute, like during the Apollo years. As soon as I separate after the reentry burn the battery starts to drain and its empty long before I need to deploy the parachute. How are you guys dealing with that issue. I'm not able to attach any solar panels to the command pod, being new I must be overlooking something.
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2 Muskoka+1 5.2 years ago
@PointBreak Thanks again, added a small fuel tank, switched it to a battery, and all was fine. Still got a lot to learn about the inner workings of SR.
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1,114 PointBreak5.2 years ago
@Muskoka You need a "dedicated" fuel tank for battery, regardless of when you do the re-entry burn.
When you're going up, the engines usually take care of changing the pitch. But when you have a commmand pod alone, it uses the onboard gyroscope to do that.
And it's the gyroscope that's eating all the battery (if I'm not mistaken).
Just put a little fuel tank with battery between the command pod and the heat shield.
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2 Muskoka5.2 years ago
Thanks, but my fuel tank is gone after re-entry. All I have is the command pod and the parachute. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong. I'm doing the re-entry burn (battery is still 100%), separate from the fuel tank and engine, and by the time I'm close to the surface the battery has long since drained. At what altitude should I be doing the burn? I'm doing the burn at about 70,000m.
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1,114 PointBreak5.2 years ago
On the part properties of the fuel tank, deselect "Auto Select Fuel Type" and choose battery.
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You can also just decrease the amount of power the reaction wheel uses as it is way to powerful for just a command pod, parachute and heatshield anyways.