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Repack Chute via Action Group


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I'm building a re-usable/fuel-able lander with a tight cluster of 20 parachutes. After I touchdown, I must EVA and go through the painstaking process of trying to click each parachute to repack everything. I'd much rather EVA, get in range, press "1" then be done with it. I've searched high and low looking someone else that's had this problem and decided to fix it by enabling the "Repack Chute" button in the VAB's Action Group tab. However, it seems I'm somewhat alone in my desire. Stock, the only two Action Group options are Deploy and Cut.

I'm open to all suggestions as hopefully this thread can be referenced by future users that might not want the exact same solution that I do.

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Yeah, the problem is that action groups only apply to ships. There's no way to apply action groups to EVA activities.

Would be cool if they'd make EVA so that you could alt-click to select multiple things at once (e.g. the way you can do with fuel tanks so you can transfer stuff). But alas.

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Ahh, I see what you are asking for here.

I haven't tried doing as you ask in my fixes (enabling the "Pack Chute" as an action group), but I think that without further programming, it wouldn't work as currently set up. Since (as mentioned above) action groups apply to the vessel. And the "Repack Chute" option is actually attached to the chute, although marked as available for EVA usage (which allows the right-click menu to be accessible when EVA).

So the way the stock code is written, I don't think one could simply "unlock" the action group and it would be ready to use. There would be some other work involved, namely attaching the functionality to an EVA kerbal which looks through nearby parts and repacks chutes that are close enough.

Cheers,

~Claw

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Ah, yes. I see what you mean about Repack being a function of the EVA Kerbal. Looking less and less like an easy fix.

Perhaps a wise modder could make it a vessel-based hotkey that first checks for an engineer before executing...in the same way ForScience can harvest science, but will only run single-use containers (Goo/Jr) if a scientist is on board to "Reset" those experiements.

Example A:

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It might be more convenient to use fewer chutes (maybe airbrakes in place of some but not all) coupled with a powered landing for final decent.

A single cute has significant effect on terminal velocity. Most craft have low double digit terminal velocities with one chute. Air brakes are not as powerful as chutes, but they can be freely deployed and retracted (and are more heat resistant deployed)

With such high drag, you don't need much thrust to have a safe landing velocity (.6-.8 TWR is about right) and the slow fall speed makes timing a suicide burn easy and the dV for one small. You also save on takeoff mass which is a big plus.

The single cute thing also helps for passive landers. Open one chute higher (400-600 m on Kerbin) and you will be going slow enough to safely open the rest later than normal (50 m on Kerbin). All my passive Kerbin recovery craft have a minimal group of chutes set to .45 atm + 500 m and the rest for .50 atm + 50 m. (If you have reentry effects below 8 km you have bigger issues that chutes burning up) You can even stage it at 30 km on accent with your fairings so you don't forget! That system hasn't failed me yet.

Edited by ajburges
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