But I have thermal resist shields !

[CMDR Harada]

Doing my normal fuel scooping on my way home from Didi's... and the 'Vette is getting a little toasty, 82%. And then it hits me.. HEY ! I just engineered the frijoles out of my shields for thermal.. I should be able to wake surf on the surface of that star and still keep the beer cold !

Thermal Resist shields should allow me to get closer.. And it would make for a nice evasion tactic against some ships : run cold, hug the star, and watch your attacker burn .

 

[Faded Glory]

Shields only protect you against pew pew and bumping into things. They offer no protection against heat.

In fact they generate (indirectly) rather a lot of heat...

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

You need an efficient reactor to run cooler. Even a class 1 upgrade allows you to get closer to stars. My class 1 upgrade saves me 3 or 4%... i bet you can get much closer with a higher grade reactor modification.

 

[Ceekay]

The thermal in thermal shields refers to the much higher damage resistance against thermal weapons (lasers) at the cost of kinetic resistance, a well engineered 7C bi-weave thermal shield and 4 x A0 boosters have around 1000 MJ raw shield strength but when the resistances are factored in the effective thermal shield can be over 4000 MJ.

As mentioned in earlier posts you want low emission power plants to reduce heat buildup, deactivating the cargo hatch can be useful or any other modules that aren't in constant use like AFMU, SRV hangar, limpet controllers, refineries etc

 

[Tams]

Thermal shield resistances only block thermal based weapons (lasers) from causing damage to your ship.

Although that's not a bad idea for later features to the game, enabling modifications to shields to allow you to get closer to suns or even survive corrosive gas giant atmospheres (very Trek). Helps bring an existing mechanic in to use for something other than combat. Just brainstorming there though.