Parachute repeatedly destroyed by heat and drag

[cannedcreamcorn]

So I'm not new to KSP but just started playing 1.0 and am having a really hard time landing a capsule after a Mun mission in Career. The rest of the mission goes off without a hitch. When I get back back to Kerbin and reenter, the parachute always gets destroyed due to "drag and heat" Nothing else on my capsule gets damaged. This is with a MK1 command pod and heat shield. I've tried different reentry paths, different angles, slowing down my reentry speed by retro-firing. Is this heat or drag that is causing this? Do i just need moar struts? If it's heat then how can this be prevented? It's pretty frustrating as I have like 500 science that I can't get to the ground!

[Gaarst]

This is strange, chutes shouldn't overheat with reentry, it usually works fine.

Can you please post a screenshot of your capsule ?

There may be some clipping that generates excessive drag and heat whatever entry profile you try, but that's rather unlikely.

[mackadelik]

I had this issue a few times last weekend. All I can say it try to re enter Kerbin at under 2,000km/h and keep that blunt end of your capsule down so your parachute doesn't get hit with the heat and drag. Also make sure you're not activating your parachute in one of your stages (I did that... it wasn't smart of me). I also tend to always use a backup parachute now along the side at the top of the capsule and separate it with a stage from the other parachute deploy (but I come back with the science 9000 part and I like to have the extra slow landing). Good luck!

[Prepper-Jack]

If you're coming in very fast - enough so that parachutes burn off, consider slapping an appropriately sized heat shield on the front of the craft. Had a desperate entry at around 3900m/s last night, and luckily I had a large heat shield smack under my service bay. Pointed it to the approach, and nothing else heated up at all, including 5 chutes and a couple of goos.

[adinfinitum]

Are your parachutes exploding before or after they've deployed? If it's the latter, try setting the deploy pressure to 0.5 instead of 0.04.

[cannedcreamcorn]

...try to re enter Kerbin at under 2,000km/h and keep that blunt end of your capsule down so your parachute doesn't get hit with the heat and drag.

That is kind of difficult from a Mun mission. I managed to get my speed down to approx. 2300 m/s, but still no dice.

Also make sure you're not activating your parachute in one of your stages

It is definitely not that. I get a message saying "parachute destroyed due to heat and drag". The part is still there, but now as if it was deployed.

Can you please post a screenshot of your capsule ?

I'm at work but will do so later.

[cephalo]

I had an issue where my radial parachutes were falling off because I put too many monoprop tanks inside a service module and they were clipping through and pushing my parachute off. Sometimes clipping parts cause weird issues like this.

[KerikBalm]

I only get that message when trying to deploy the chute too early...

Are you sure it hasn't been "pre-deployed"?

I second this: " try setting the deploy pressure to 0.5 instead of 0.04. "

[cephalo]

Actually, I think I know what your issue is. I think you need to wait until <300 m/s to deploy them.

[Kuu Lightwing]

How fast are you going when activating the chute?

[SDEngineer]

Check your staging. Sometimes KSP, particularly if you're adding and removing engines, makes mistakes in how it sets up staging. My Duna probe wound up with the parachutes on the same stage as my rendevous (final) engine, so when I fired that engine to fine tune my Duna approach, it also deployed my parachutes (fortunately, my Duna entry was cool enough and slow enough that it didn't actually destroy my chutes, but if the same mistake had been made on a Kerbin re-entry vehicle, it would have been bye-bye parachutes at about 15000 ft). Please note though, the parachute does not actually deploy until it goes below a certain atmospheric level, so it visually looks like the parachute is still packed, but by default it will deploy itself quite high up while you are still moving very fast, so it is instantly destroyed by the airspeed and heat if it has already been staged. You can fix this by adjusting the atmospheric pressure it will deploy at as another poster above noted (I think you may be able to do this on the fly, but not sure - if not, you will have to wait for a rescue mission to come up and get your Kerbals and science out).

I try to remember to do a staging checklist before launching any vehicles (I simply had forgotten this time, and fortunately a cheap mistake that didn't wind up killing the mission) going over the major "oops" possibilities (like launch clamp releases before igniting the first stage - this is something that KSP usually does, and if not corrected, can easily destroy a mission on the pad).

Edited May 12, 2015 by SDEngineer

[cannedcreamcorn]

I am not deploying the chute at all. It falls off around 15000m as I'm reentering. It is set up to stage correctly as well.

I had an issue where my radial parachutes were falling off because I put too many monoprop tanks inside a service module and they were clipping through and pushing my parachute off. Sometimes clipping parts cause weird issues like this.

The one thing I haven't tried is rebuilding the capsule to make sure that part isn't clipping. I will also look at the atmospheric pressure setting (which I haven't played with before). I really try not to revert my game but this is so unfair to me that I've been replaying it to a quicksave just before I reenter. I may have to leave Valentina in a wide orbit, rebuild the ship, and rescue her later. I just want all that science!

[Invader Jim]

I am not deploying the chute at all. It falls off around 15000m as I'm reentering. It is set up to stage correctly as well.

The one thing I haven't tried is rebuilding the capsule to make sure that part isn't clipping. I will also look at the atmospheric pressure setting (which I haven't played with before). I really try not to revert my game but this is so unfair to me that I've been replaying it to a quicksave just before I reenter. I may have to leave Valentina in a wide orbit, rebuild the ship, and rescue her later. I just want all that science!

Leave her in orbit. Build a rescue ship and go up and get her and also take the science from her ship to the rescue ship.

Edited May 12, 2015 by Invader Jim
typo

[Venusgate]

It's a bit cheaty, but i've started attaching a single radial chute inside the service bay. created that little extra needed drag, doesnt break off, and is a nice backup to save the kerbal if the **** hits the fan on rentry.

[Khazar]

"parachute destroyed due to heat and drag".

I think that you get this message only if the chute is deployed. Otherwise it would just blow up and disappear completely. Do you have one or more chutes ? If more than one, try deploying one as soon as you enter atmosphere, leave other as it is. Would they both get destroyed at same time ?

Also how much deltaV do you have left ? You can use that deltaVs to help you a lot. Before entering atmosphere set your periapsis to around 36km. When your craft begin to overheat don't youse your engines to reduce your horizontal speed, burn upward instead. This way you will reduce your vertical speed, so you won't be sinking into denser atmosphere. The horizontal speed would be decreasing rapidly by the drag. You just have to use your engines (or to some degree shape of your craft) to adjust your vertical speed. If you get to hot you need to go up, if you stop loosing horizontal speed then you need to go down, or make another orbit if you dont have enough deltaVs. This 36km alt of periapsis is what works for me, but it depends from your speed. The faster you go the higher your periapsis have to be.

[Deflinek]

Actually, I think I know what your issue is. I think you need to wait until <300 m/s to deploy them.

300 m/s may be overkill. I usually deploy slightly above 500 m/s, but below 800 m/s should also be fine. However I wait until capsule stop "burning" in atmosphere.

[cannedcreamcorn]

Just to follow up, I redid the mission with a rebuilt craft that is exactly the same. Now it works! So maybe I attached it with clipping that somehow offset it? I still have no idea. The chute would be destroyed at about 15000m, well after I separated the capsule. I'm just going to call it a quirk and go on. Thanks to everyone for their help. This is why the Kerbal community is the best around!

[diesel_88]

I'm having the same problem. On even the gentlest of suborbital trajectories, often the Mk16 parachute on the Mk1 command pod gets destroyed by heat/aero forces prior to deployment. I've tried offsetting it longitudinally in case it's a clipping issue, but no dice. This seems like a bug. And is fun-suckingly annoying.

[Kryxal]

I don't have a problem with parachutes deploying between .3 and .4 ... though I tend to try to come down engines-first. As low as .2, maybe .15 should be fine (though that tends to be the time for drogue chutes if any).

[Xannari Ferrows]

Aerobrake yourself into a lower orbit in increments, then go for re-entry at a shallow angle, and you should be fine.

If you really want to do it all in one go, have your parachutes deploy as late as possible. You want the atmosphere to shave as much excess velocity as it can. To do this, set your air pressure requirement gauge near/at maximum. This way, you should be going slow enough before they decide to make themselves known to the world.

[Sharpy]

It seems an opened parachute is far less heat-durable than a closed one. My guess is OP is opening too early, or possibly entering at a too steep trajectory.

Procedure:

1. On return enter an elliptical orbit that goes at some 48-55,000m periapsis, rather more than less. Allow several circles of the orbit, possibly performing some retrograde burns at periapsis to speed things up if you have spare fuel; but aerobraking while less efficient is free.

2. Once your apoaxis is less than 200,000m (less is better) bring your periapsis to 45,000m.

3. When about to enter the atmosphere, burn off the rest of your fuel (retrograde), drop the last stage, and rotate the capsule retrograde.

4. Wait through all the flames and fancy effects, keeping the capsule retrograde (parachute tip back).

5. When your speed drops below 400m/s open the parachute.

If you want to really be sure, add A.I.R.B.R.A.K.E.S. and follow my procedure. (apoaxis relatively high - some 150,000, deploy airbrakes after periaxis at 55,000, burn retrograde and slightly anti-radial at 60,000, turn prograde and airbrake again. You won't even get the red tint.)

[nobodyhasthis]

This is a staging problem. There are deploying too soon. Simple as that. With stock parachutes they should be on their own stage. Which is activated only when at the safe altitude and velocity. Fortunately you can fix this during the mission.

If you want smarter chutes. Install the Real Chute mod. That gives you lots more options including automatic deployment by atmospheric pressure, material strength and size. It will even let you use realistic drogue chutes to cut down speed before the main chute opens.

Edited June 15, 2015 by nobodyhasthis

[Laie]

This is a staging problem. There are deploying too soon. Simple as that. With stock parachutes they should be on their own stage. Which is activated only when at the safe altitude and velocity.

Remember that the chutes have tweakables. I habitually crank semi-deployment up as far as it gets (0.5atm?), this leads to semi-deployment at ~4500m. If I'm still going too fast at that altitude, manual deployment wouldn't save me either.

[hka]

You are deploying too early. Even after reading this and several other posts I did not realise exactly how late you should deploy.

I put the pressure tweak on the stock parachute at maximum and lower it manually to get the chute to deploy when I am under 4000 meters, even 3000 .... and closing 200 m/s seems to work fine.

[jhousen]

I've been running the opening tweakable at .63-.64

also, you can right click the parachute on the way down and it will tell you if it's safe to deploy (unsafe, risky, safe) safe seems to reliably start at 265m/s. (from testing, YMMV)