New 1.05 Career and Parachute Question... HELP!!!

[Soul]

Hello everyone. I feel like a total noob and I've been playing KSP since 0.24.

I started a new career and like my second mission I'm shooting Jeb up out of the atmo to about 70-80k. Coming straight back down I've killed that poor ....... like 10 times today. The craft won't slow down enough for me to deploy my chutes. They just get burned up or ripped off because the standard Mk1 Command Pod + Parachute + Heat Shield won't slow down under 300km/s before slamming into the ground. How the hell am I supposed to fix this? I tried throwing a small solid rocket booster underneath to slow it down but that seems ........ to have to do. Am I missing something?

[Wolfos31]

You're going almost straight up? That's your problem right there. Try to arc your trajectory more so that you spend more time in atmo which will slow you down better.

[Soul]

Thank Wolfos... totally worked. I feel like a moron now. I mean, in the earlier versions I was able to get away with being lazy on the first few launches and just go straight up, lol. Cheers man, thanks!

[627]

i have the same right now, a command pod, a mk1 crew pod, a fuel tank and a... terrier? not surehow the little thing is called. So even with the most shallow entry vector i won't slow down enough to open the chutes, i smash down with 500 m/s even at sea level.

Not sure how to get more than a command pod down right now actually...

[Norpo]

Not sure how to get more than a command pod down right now actually...

I've had success with landing with a cargo bay with a heat shield under it, and the mk1 command pod. The cargo bay is enough for some mystery goos (and later on a temp sensor), but when I tried to do a science jr. module as well the whole thing went nose down, which, of course, is not good.

Thank goodness you can remove science from modules and put them in the command pod while on EVA

Yeah, going up and straight down higher than ~60km is guaranteed death right now; an arc is absolutely necessary. Learnt that the hard way. No more simple suborbital hops!

[Vegetal]

i have the same right now, a command pod, a mk1 crew pod, a fuel tank and a... terrier? not surehow the little thing is called. So even with the most shallow entry vector i won't slow down enough to open the chutes, i smash down with 500 m/s even at sea level.

Not sure how to get more than a command pod down right now actually...

So, with all that stuff you are going in nose first, ain't you?

Flying like a missile won't stop you on reentry, the pod alone manages this because it goes flat side first, so it has a LOT of drag.

[Mahnarch]

Wait at tick...

Soul w/ question @ 17:00

Wolfos31 w/ answer @ 17:04

Soul w/ praise @ 17:09?

Quick question. Quick answer. Quick solution.

Near identical reg dates.

Both quite handsome and well to do with the ladies?

I think; A) Soul and Wolfos are the same person, or They are room mates sitting in the same room.

With the time difference - giving time to sign off and sign on - I'd say 'Same person'.

*I'm not besmirching anyone. I'm just observing and having fun with that observation.

...also, I'm both of them!

....not really.

[crash087]

same person, or clones? and if they are clones, are they still considered the same person?

[Moh1336]

Once a clone has free will it is its own person and can make its own choices. If it has cloned memories it may still use the originals history to make decisions but those decisions may not be the same clone to clone.

Sincerely Kerbal Bioengineer Department.

[Wanderfound]

i have the same right now, a command pod, a mk1 crew pod, a fuel tank and a... terrier? not surehow the little thing is called. So even with the most shallow entry vector i won't slow down enough to open the chutes, i smash down with 500 m/s even at sea level.

Not sure how to get more than a command pod down right now actually...

Drag.

Come in flat side first; build the ship so that the reentry portion is aerodynamically stable flying in its highest-drag orientation. The heavier it is, the more drag you'll need.

If you've got the tech, drogues and airbrakes work; so does retrothrust if you time it right. Control surfaces set as opposed flaps will do in a pinch, too.

[tranenturm]

After you clear the burn phase (and even during if you're careful) you can wiggle your capsule to slow down. Also, I set my reentry periapsis to between 20k and 30k and drag is enough to land me roughly where the periapsis point is.

[Mahnarch]

Thanks for pooping on our party... party poopers.

Also, notice how you never see 'Soul' and 'Wolfos' in the same room at the same time?!

[Soul]

Wait at tick...

Soul w/ question @ 17:00

Wolfos31 w/ answer @ 17:04

Soul w/ praise @ 17:09?

Quick question. Quick answer. Quick solution.

Near identical reg dates.

Both quite handsome and well to do with the ladies?

I think; A) Soul and Wolfos are the same person, or They are room mates sitting in the same room.

With the time difference - giving time to sign off and sign on - I'd say 'Same person'.

*I'm not besmirching anyone. I'm just observing and having fun with that observation.

...also, I'm both of them!

....not really.

Hahaha, this made me laugh. Believe it or not, we aren't the same person and don't even know each other. Just an awesome community here on the KSP forums!

[627]

So, with all that stuff you are going in nose first, ain't you?

Flying like a missile won't stop you on reentry, the pod alone manages this because it goes flat side first, so it has a LOT of drag.

no, engine first, i have fuel left i use to brake, too. but even that is not enough. sometimes the rocket flips to nose first (mostly when fuel is empty) sometimes not and even with the most shalow angle I end up with 500 m/s on impact, no chance to drop the chute.

I'm early in career, so only 30 parts, no airbrakes or droques... kinda challenging now to rescue 3 kerbals from space instead of only one. next time i send a probe, lol.

[diggzakk]

if you have more than one or two capsules on reentry from your rescue mission, this one is much to heavy and makes not enough drag, it doesnt help that much to brake with your fuel left because you make the angle more worst.. the only way to handle this is, to bring a full tank with you on reentry, make the angle flattest as you can like apoapsis/periapsis 70 and lower the periapsis maybe to 50, as soon you see the effects at 50km start burning slowly just that much that speed decrease, the trick is that you dont burn to much fuel to fast or the ship flips over and you have the nose down and mostly nomore chance to bring the nose up.. if this happens your last chance is to drop the tank immediatly, maybe if youre deep enough and slow enough it could be possible to survive with the tank and éngine as this bigger machine has more drag if you are able to wobble the whole thing

i make a lot of tourist missions right now to get money, you know build a 12k credits rocket and bring home 40k credits etc.. so in the beginning i put up to 5 capsule for 4 tourists and it is hard to bring it down not crashing the surface, even only three capsules is difficult and better to choose a water landing, one time i put 6 capsules with a huge tank to slow it down, so it is possible but not that easy

the most of the time i reach the magic 270m/s to open parachute is under 1000m, to less in the mountains

Edited November 15, 2015 by diggzakk

[TMS]

Drag.

Come in flat side first; build the ship so that the reentry portion is aerodynamically stable flying in its highest-drag orientation. The heavier it is, the more drag you'll need.

If you've got the tech, drogues and airbrakes work; so does retrothrust if you time it right. Control surfaces set as opposed flaps will do in a pinch, too.

This.

I've had plenty of successes with straight up-straight down missions. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that such missions are practically encouraged by the lack of SAS in probes, active wings and vectoring engines in the early game. It's just easier than finessing a decent trajectory and the speeds aren't that massive.

The trick is ensuring your CoM is closer to the engine/heat shield than it is the capsule. Come in blunt-end first and you'll shed a lot of speed in the last 5km. I've had a few missions where I flipped in the lower atmosphere, came in pointy-end first and smashed into the ground.

[627]

so, this did the trick:

Now it is quite easy, I can open the chute around 8-6km.

[sal_vager]

This is better in Gameplay Questions, so I've moved it.

Also, in my early career games I surface attach a structural girder on top of my pod, then put a chute (or test payload with chute underneath) on that.

The extra drag really helps slow my descent after a flight.

[Snark]

Another thing to bear in mind, you can get a surprisingly large amount of help from body lift.

For example, let's say you have a Mk1 command pod, sitting on top of the 2t LFO tank, with a Terrier underneath. If you launch on a reasonably shallow trajectory, (i.e. you're not going straight up and down), then when you're reentering, do it butt-first, but don't hold perfectly retrograde: fly "tipped", so that you're leading with the engine and the command pod is pointed about 35 degrees below retrograde.

The aero force against the side of the fuel tank generates a surprisingly large amount of lift, which will keep your ascent shallow and you'll slow down a lot. I've done reentry from orbit this way, with a craft like that, and it's not hard to get the speed down to 200 m/s or so when still several kilometers above the surface.

[ForScience6686]

I've been employing a similar trick. I have started turning off SAS and allowing the pod, cargo bay, and science jr, and heat shield to wobble on re entry. The added landing legs begin to overheat and I add roll into the equation. This with the wobble has increased my altitude above 6km where I can safely deploy regular chutes. IHave not ran into issues with the craft flipping to prograde. Flying at retrograde as not been very successful, usually end up with very tight margin of deployment.

[numerobis]

Even if you screw up and end up going in head-first with a small chute, pod, 2t fuel tank, and terrier, you can survive!

Pitch and yaw as hard as you can, so that you're pointing up from prograde and to one side or the other. Below about 20km, you'll be unable to pull the nose up as much as you might like, but it's still just enough to slow you down to 250 m/s at about 1500 m altitude. Just remember: you need to point *UP* -- point down and body lift just pulls you down faster. The sideways trajectory makes you spiral a bit, which bleeds a tiny bit extra speed. With this trick you can even survive a grassland landing spot if you time it just right!

(Not that I would have frequent personal experience with this...)

- - - Updated - - -

Another dumb trick in case you can't slow down enough because your reaction wheels can't stop your from pointing face-first: just before you enter the atmosphere, pitch up 30 degrees. Then stabilize there, and as you enter, hold the yaw key so you're in a flat spin, pitched up 30-40 degrees. As the atmosphere thickens, you're spin-stabilized to have a whole bunch of drag and upward body lift. This reduces your risk of overheating.

Make sure you keep enough electric charge to implement my previous stupid trick, because you'll need it.