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Inline Ballutes Slow down your rocket in an upper atmosphere. Ballute = parachute + baloon = an alternative to a heatshield. Sample usage: Duna aerocapture and aerobraking, Kerbin reentry for reusable stages etc. Dependencies: stock aero = none. FAR: Module Manager by Sarbian and RealChute by stupid_chris Suggested mods: RealChute by stupid_chris - especially when with FAR aerodynamics. Config for RealChute is already included in the mod. RealHeat by NathanKell - brings the shock heat in the upper atmosphere to more realistic levels. Recommended especially for people that use Kerbol rescale mods (i.e. kscale2 / 64k). Installation instruction: Delete previous version of InlineBallutes mod. Unzip KermangeddonIndustries catalog into the KSP folder. DOWNLOAD 1.2.8[GitHub] Credits: Riocrokite - models, config Enceos - textures, testing, config ABZB - MM patch for RealChute License: CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA Changelog: FAQ: Is it even a real technology? Yes, you can read about this technology here [pdf] and here [pdf]. How to use it? Get into upper thin atmosphere (i.e. Duna, Kerbin or Laythe). Deploy it. Initially deceleration is marginal (depending on your vessel speed and mass) but it picks up quickly when you lower your altitude. You can repack it like a normal parachute if you plan multiple orbital decelerations Can I use it instead of a parachute? Rather not. Ballute drag is 4+ times lower than parachute. And then it's much heavier due to used material and shape (Zylon instead of Nylon). However since it's inline version you can use it complementary to parachute. Ballute is also great for semi-powered landing when you just need to use engines just above the surface for the final slowdown. How efficient are ballutes / how heavy rocket can be slowed down efficiently? The higher mass of the rocket the less efficient ballute is (just like a parachute). Ballute size (mass) - should work best for: - 1.25m (0.8t) - up to 20t vessel - 2.5 m (1.5t) - up to 40t vessel - 3.75m (2.75t) - up to 80t vessel - 5m (4.1t) - up to 120t vessel It is better than a heatshield? Depending on scenario it can be better than a heatshield. Shields usually have small diameter thus requiring ship to be slim and tall. With ballute you slow down in higher atmosphere when there's not much heat, thus you can have more broad vessel design. Also ballute slows you down quite effectively in thin atmosphere (i.e. above surface of Duna) whereas a heatshield doesn't have enough area to do this. There might be scenarios when you need both ballute and heatshield for optimal effect decelerating from high interplanetary speed). How it works with stock aero? Can I use it with FAR? Stock aerodynamics: In current version (1.0.5) aerobraking and aerocapture are quite effective, deceleration forces can reach 9g before a ballute breaks so watch out. However for extreme deceleration you'll also need a heatshield, otherwise the tip of your craft will melt Duna - interplanetary deceleration possible (+) Kerbin - interplanetary deceleration possible (+) Jool - it works great for even substantial deceleration thanks to reworked (much thinner) upper atmosphere in 1.0.5, it's best to aim at 170-180k m periapsis.(++) Laythe - only medium deceleration allowed due to very compressed atmosphere (starts at 50km) which gets thick very quickly so watch out.(+/-) Eve - limited deceleration due to thick atmosphere, should work for orbital deceleration, much less for interplanetary speeds(+/-). You can modify sensitivity of parachutes by modifying skinMaxTemp. You can modify drag (deceleration) values by changing deployed area. Tested max deceleration before breaking: about 9g. FAR (+RealChute) 1.0.5 aerodynamics: For FAR aerodynamics you need to install RealChute mod, otherwise FAR is overwritting parachute module with RealChuteLite module which has constant (and very low parachute-like) values. In other word ballutes with FAR won't work without RealChute. Current aerodynamics puts at least 10x more heat in upper atmosphere for ballutes than for parts so I couldn't balance it realistically so I just put unrealistic magic numbers (like 1m K max temperature) so it can behave similarly to stock. Deceleration scenarios: look above, one difference being that ballutes drag under FAR/RealChute is a bit lower than in stock (a little step towards realism;)). Tested max deceleration before breaking: about 4g. What about kscale2 or 64k mods compatibility? You probably want to install both RealChute and RealHeat mods by NathanKell since orbital/interplanetary speeds are much higher in those mods.