Yet another dragless craft. Music: "Gaslamp Funworks" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons...
If you had ditched the transfer stage before getting too close to the Sun, you could have gone through with zero heating, since it’s a dragless vessel.
you can use engine plates to get away with not turning off heating. once i tried to land on the sun, and the problem wasn't the heat but the thin-ness of the sun's atmosphere, which didn't allow me to slow down enough before impacting the sun even from low orbit, even with loads of flag panels.
Высадились американцы успешно на Луну. На следующий день к Советскому космонавту приходит член политбюро и говорит: "Вот американцы на Луну высадились, а мы им покажем настоящую силу - вы полетите на Солнце!" Космонавт отвечает: "Помилуйте, там же 6 000 градусов Цельсия на поверхности!" - Вы думаете в политбюро дураки сидят?! Вы ночью полетите!
I bet you can do it without turning off heating (it's not actually too hard if you exploit the heating modrl). If that's too easy, try slowing down and landing (didn't manage to do that yet)