Parachutes need a fix

[cicatrix]

From ~1800 m/s to 26 m/s in a second? Really?

Poor Valentina! She's smiling though

[Aerindel]

She's lucky. Mine had to deal with 3500 m/s. Yeah. Its nuts. I really don't understand how anyone thought this was a good idea. I figured out parachutes where broken on my very 1.0 first re-entry

[Mr. Scruffy]

i share the observation - why is it happening though? What´s going on there (technically)?

[Aerindel]

Good question. It seems like the parachutes create enormous drag in 1.0 and are indestructible. The drag level may actually be perfectly fine but since they are indestructible and parts do not seem hurt by massive G's there is no reason to bother with proper re-entries or heat shields. You can just slam your pod into the atmosphere and pop your chute and all will be okay no matter your velocity or altitude.

[Hcube]

Bu then theres the problem of the new aero : if you launch a basic capsule+heatshield and small chute on a eccentric suborbital flight, the re-entry is pretty steep : while not using the chutes you decelerate WAY too slowly when not using a chute. If you dont open it you hit the sea at 400m/s (and the terminal velocity of the pod is way less!)

So if we balance the chutes in a somehow realistic way (make them burn if theres fire and plasma, make them tear apart if you are going at 3000m/s, or if you get 30g) we will not be able to open them before the craft hits the ground !!

[Aerindel]

I see your point. Well, obviously it works IRL so there must be some solution. I honestly don't even understand why there is a new aero physics at all, it was fine the way it was. Aside from not having heat damage the actual speed curves of re-entry where pretty good.

[GigaG]

I see your point. Well, obviously it works IRL so there must be some solution. I honestly don't even understand why there is a new aero physics at all, it was fine the way it was. Aside from not having heat damage the actual speed curves of re-entry where pretty good.

The real Earth is bigger and has a higher atmosphere.

I do not like that you are forced to open your parachute at supersonic speeds, and that semi-deployment sends your ship careening to a lower speed almost instantly (almost necessary, but still - you're barely drifting down after semi-deployment if you open it too high.)

[Technical Ben]

Old aero/chute meant either massive g = disassembly or cute fell off.

I wonder if that would be added back in?

[Instresu]

RealChutes just must be a part of stock KSP. This is not even a debate.

[cicatrix]

Bu then theres the problem of the new aero : if you launch a basic capsule+heatshield and small chute on a eccentric suborbital flight, the re-entry is pretty steep : while not using the chutes you decelerate WAY too slowly when not using a chute. If you dont open it you hit the sea at 400m/s (and the terminal velocity of the pod is way less!)

So if we balance the chutes in a somehow realistic way (make them burn if theres fire and plasma, make them tear apart if you are going at 3000m/s, or if you get 30g) we will not be able to open them before the craft hits the ground !!

Actually I ran into this problem using FAR + RealChute when landing on Duna. The atmosphere is thin so one of two things hapenned:

1) Parachutes didn't kill enough speed so there was a litho-brake with a big explosion.

2) Parachutes were too big and opened too high which led to disassembly of the craft.

So it took me a lot of fine-tuning to get working parameters. Since I am in no mood for long calculations I used trial and error method and added a lot of struts (12 struts only to keep the parachute capsule from tearing off).

I can't say it were the best 2 hours I spent in my life but I don't like the way parachutes work in 1.0 either.