Heat dissipation

Has anyone else wondered why there are fans on the outside of the ships to help with heat dissipation since fans don't work in a vacuum? Just an observation.
 
Where are these "fans" you speak of?

The only thing I've seen that remotely resembles a fan, are the maneuvering thrusters.

I admit the thrusters do appear to have "fan blades" that seem to spin sometimes.
AzFndvH.jpg


Heat radiator covers are normally closed so you can't see them until your ship gets hot.
7RgmWCw.jpg
 
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There are no fans to get rid of heat on our ships. What we have are radiators. Use the camera suite, and then watch your ship when you're fuel scooping or just about to jump. You'll see the radiators open up fully and glow white hot.

The "fans" you see on our ships are thrusters. I'm not sure why some of them include actual fan blades, but I suspect that they're there for the day when we can start entering the atmospheres of planets.
 
Has anyone else wondered why there are fans on the outside of the ships to help with heat dissipation since fans don't work in a vacuum? Just an observation.

Space is not empty. Heat can be dissipated by radiation, in a very inefficient way, but still.
 
Has anyone else wondered why there are fans on the outside of the ships to help with heat dissipation since fans don't work in a vacuum? Just an observation.
They are like big heat sinks, I think the best view is on the cutter, they open up during fuel scooping etc.

The 1st law of thermal dynamics applies here, I think.
 
There are no fans to get rid of heat on our ships. What we have are radiators. Use the camera suite, and then watch your ship when you're fuel scooping or just about to jump. You'll see the radiators open up fully and glow white hot.

The "fans" you see on our ships are thrusters. I'm not sure why some of them include actual fan blades, but I suspect that they're there for the day when we can start entering the atmospheres of planets.

The arrows in my screenshot point to fans, not the thrusters. The closer you get to a heat source, the faster they spin.


iXmsX8X.jpg
 
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The arrows in my screenshot point to fans, not the thrusters. The closer you get to a heat source, the faster they spin.
http://i.imgur.com/iXmsX8X.jpg
Those are attitude control thrusters. It's how your ship changes pitch/roll/yaw and slows down or reverses.

Don't ask me why they have fan blades or why they spin or even why they might seem to spin faster in a given situation.
Maybe they're jet turbines for future atmospheric flight, but those are in fact RCS thrusters and have nothing to do with heat dissipation.

Switch to external camera mode while you're flying and maneuver your ship around, you'll see the thrusters firing.
I can't switch to my Python right now but you can see the RCS thrusters firing on my Anaconda in the photo below as I pitch my nose down.
The bow dorsal thrusters push down, and you can't it see here, but the stern ventral thrusters fire to push the rear up.
8j5jf9O.png


In your photo, you can see the heat radiators glowing which are how your ship dissipates heat.
Your radiator vents are open, probably because you're near a star.
 
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RCS thrusters don't fire when you're in supercruise. Maybe those "fan blades" have something to do with attitude control in supercruise.
 
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