Landing with Remote Tech

[rcp27]

I've decided to have a go at a career mode with remote tech, but I've hit a bit of a problem. I'm quite early in the career game, dealing with contracts to rescue stranded kerbals from LKO and tourists wanting to go to orbit. In a standard career mode, my solution is a simple rocket with a Mk1 capsule and an OKTO probe core to fly it. I've put up a basic comms network of 4 satellites in 1000 km circular equatorial orbits with communotron 16 antennas to give full LKO control. The problem I'm facing is getting tourists back down safely. The communotron 16 won't survive re-entry if activated, but the dipole antenna doesn't have the range to talk to the 1000 km network. For a rescue mission, this isn't a problem because once I've rescued the Kerbal, he/she can fly the re-entry and landing. Tourists, however, can't. With parachutes in 1.0.4, you can't deploy them until quite low/slow, so you really need to be in control of your ship right down to 5000 m altitude. With the help of repeated quick saves I managed to bring a tourist down so that the capsule was within line of sight of the KSC when the parachute needed to be deployed, but that doesn't seem a reliable option. Looking to future missions, that certainly won't be an option if I want to do a parachute landing of a probe on somewhere like Eve. Does anybody have advice on how to deal with parachute landings in 1.0.4 of unmanned craft with remote tech?

[Drew Kerman]

look into Smart Parts, which can re-deploy your antenna once the capsule has dropped below a certain altitude (where it would be going slow enough not to rip off the antenna) and re-connect with your comm network so you can command the chutes to deploy. A more complex (and more rewarding IMO) solution would be to automate it all via kOS.

[RainDreamer]

I believe someone has been able to do it by assign the antenna to a action group, then activate action group with a time delay on the flight control menu, so that the antenna deploy again once it is safe. Require great timing though, but so does a lot of other things related to space travel.

You can also try mech jeb so it automate the landing for you without control from KSC, and have antenna deploy after that.

[Senormeens]

you could also set the pressure that the parachutes deploy higher, and then stage them before losing contact, but since you changed the pressure they deploy, the won't "pop" out of their cases until lower in the atmosphere.

[rcp27]

you could also set the pressure that the parachutes deploy higher, and then stage them before losing contact, but since you changed the pressure they deploy, the won't "pop" out of their cases until lower in the atmosphere.

Good suggestion, that seems like a useful idea. Can someone advise what the appropriate value is that corresponds to 5000 m?

[FancyMouse]

Does anybody have advice on how to deal with parachute landings in 1.0.4 of unmanned craft with remote tech?

Assuming normal shape of the vessel and shallow reentry, set 0.6~0.65 semi-deploy pressure and 800~1000 full-deploy altitude. With this you just deploy chutes, turn off SAS, turn off Comm16, and then just watch.