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Hello everyone. I've been a big fan of the RealChute mod for a long time, and I consider it one of the absolutely essential mods to have on any of my KSP installs. One thing has always bothered me slightly, however, and that is that, specially when paired with DeadlyReentry, even the Kevlar drogue parachutes with very light loading will instantly fail above a certain altitude (above 10-15km~) on reentry, but the idea, and even technology, of "parachutes" rated for reentry does exist, as do flexible(~) materials stronger and/or more heat-resistant than Kevlar. For example: Silica can be processed and woven into fabrics rated for 1800°F (980°C), for example. Carbon fiber being woven into fabrics is already a thing too. And apparently carbon tensile strength actually peaks at 1500-2000 °C with 5,650 MPa/820,000 psi, and carbon fibers heated in the range of 2500-3000 °C exhibit a modulus of elasticity of 531 GPa, or 77,000,000 psi (!!!). (for comparison, Kevlar fibers only have 3,620 MPa, 525,380 psi) Oh yea, and last but not least, chutes could be made of multiple layers and/of composite materials. So yea, in my humble opinion, Kevlar might still come with an anchor tattoo, but it should very much NOT be the strongest material available! Our dreams of conquering and settling the whole of the Kerbol system and beyond should not be limited by a lackluster set of parachute materials! HOWEVER! I am not a material engineer. I'm not anywhere close to any scientific fields. In fact I even suck at math. So! Community! I need your help(s) to research and understand this stuff so I can implement these RealChute Material Extensions! (pah-dum-tss) Ways you can help me help you get some of that juicy juicy material booty: Research: Find viable parachute materials! As close as possible to the fabric of that material that can be found or somewhat reliably assumed/extrapolated/calculated with some accuracy, find: areaDensity dragCoefficient areaCost maxTemp specificHeat emissivity Speaking of that, I have no idea what the 'specificHeat' and 'emissivity' parameters are in the existing materials. Explanations welcome! (And again, sorry, outside of the everyday basics, I'm not a thermodynamics-savvy guy) What is thermodynamics? And will it scream if I poke it with a stick? What is material science (specially this tensile strength stuff that seems really important for parachutes)? And will it end the kuniverse through a big rip? Testing: For whatever materials that are currently included in the mod as fully implemented or WIP, play around and if you find issues of any kind, tell me! For suggestions of balance or realism, it's important that you justify the reasons for the suggestion, either with good arguments or with verifiable data. Preferably verifiable data. Materials implemented thus far: Fully implemented: None. WIP: Carbon Fabric. areaDensity: Unknown - Currently approximated to 0.000072 by guesswork (same as RC's Kevlar). dragCoefficient: Unknown - Currently approximated to 1.25 by guesswork (same as RC's Kevlar). areaCost: Unknown - Currently approximated to 0.16 by guesswork (2 times the cost of RC's Kevlar). maxTemp: Semi-unknown - Currently approximated to 2273.15 K (2,000 C) based on temperatures from the wiki page on Carbon Fibers. specificHeat: 795.492 - Based on specifications of commercial products. emissivity: Unknown - Currently approximated to 0.5 by guesswork (rounded number close to the same as RC's Kevlar). Silica Fabric. areaDensity: Unknown - Currently approximated to 0.000072 by guesswork (same as RC's Kevlar). dragCoefficient: Unknown - Currently approximated to 1.25 by guesswork (same as RC's Kevlar). areaCost: Unknown - Currently approximated to 0.12 by guesswork (1.5 times the cost of RC's Kevlar). maxTemp: Semi-unknown - Currently approximated to 1273.15 K (1,000 C) based on specifications of commercial products; specially heat-resistant curtains/blankets for welding. specificHeat: Semi-unknown - Currently approximated to 1420 based on guesswork (same as RC's Kevlar) emissivity: Unknown - Currently approximated to 0.5 by guesswork (rounded number close to the same as RC's Kevlar) Download: SpaceDock NOTICE: I've changed the mod folder name (and the mod name in general) as of today (Version 0.1.2). This was done to remove the 'AlmightyR_' prefix from the name, since apparently that is not supported by ModuleManager and would need the underscore to be replaced by a '?' for user/sub-mod patches. As well as to improve grouping with the parent mod in searches and lists and stuff like that. If you have installed versions previous to 0.1.2, DELETE THE OLD MOD FOLDER ("AlmightyR_MaterialExtensionsForRealChute") before installing this version. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Summary: You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Ramjets and scramjets; and special material layers. Today I have several suggestions to improve several parts of game related with flight in atmosphere. These suggestions are derived for several problems that I saw. 1. Ramjet intakes (ram air intake and structural intake) are relatively unrealistic (taking in count that all the parts of game has a moderate realism). 2. Is very difficult obtain high hypersonic and ultrasonic* aircrafts, due that air intakes of any type and the most part of winglets and wings are destroyed over speeds of 1300 m/s. To these problems I suggest several new parts and fixes: 1. Make ramjet intakes a little more realistic, this mean make these to only work at supersonic speeds, speeds over 340 or 400 m/s. 2. Add scramjet intakes, special new intakes able to support very big quantities of intake air. Also, these intakes only would work at high supesonic speeds, over 500-600 m/s. 3. Add the possibility of add special material layers to all the vehicle, like a extra option or a thing like "undefined size part". These layers would have a variable price based in the size of surrounded vehicle or specific part. For now I suggest these possibilities: - Titanium (Laythanium in ksp?): it would make to the vehicle more resistant to pressure and pressure changes, and a little more to heat; with big heat mounts can not protect to the vehicle or part to pressure and overheat. - Ceramics: it would make to the vehicle more resistant to heat and friction (except to engine parts), this mean the possibility of obtain durable and manageable hypersonic aircrafts, but this type of layer is weak to big pressure changes and impact, and can be removed by these conditions. Thanks for read. _______________________ * Ultrasonic speeds are the same than atmospheric reentry speed, so a ultrasonic aircraft is a very advanced aircraft capable to fly at these extreme speeds.