Trouble landing on Kerbin

[UnbeltedLyric38]

Okay so I have sent a rocket to minmus and I am able to get back in an orbit around Kerbin. My parachutes just will not deploy making me crash and I have adjusted the sliders to different adjustments and none of them work. What do I do?

[Snark]

Hello, and welcome to the forums! 

1 hour ago, UnbeltedLyric38 said:

Okay so I have sent a rocket to minmus and I am able to get back in an orbit around Kerbin. My parachutes just will not deploy making me crash and I have adjusted the sliders to different adjustments and none of them work. What do I do?

Could be a few possibilities, hard to tell without more info.  Here are a couple of possible scenarios:

• Just to verify:  You are staging the parachutes, right?  They don't deploy unless you activate them as part of the staging sequence.
• Another possibility:  you have a ship that's still going so fast all the way down to the ground that the parachutes can never deploy, because it's not safe to do so.

What would really help would be if you could post a screenshot of the problem.  Try a reentry, and when your ship gets to the point that you think the parachutes should deploy, but they haven't, take a screenshot and post it here.

(If you're unfamiliar with how to post a screenshot:  just upload it to some hosting site such as imgur.com, right-click on the image there, choose "Copy Image Location", then paste the link here; it'll get automagically converted to an inline image.)

If we can see a screenshot, we'll have a much better chance of diagnosing the problem.

[KNOEBBER]

Okay so I have sent a rocket to minmus and I am able to get back in an orbit around Kerbin. My parachutes just will not deploy making me crash and I have adjusted the sliders to different adjustments and none of them work. What do I do?

Dont want to sound like a wise guy but did you remember to deploy your chutes? can be done thru staging or right click on the the chute you wish to activate, then left click on the deploy icon. Make sure your reentry angle is not too steep. 

[UnbeltedLyric38]

I have staged the parachutes I believe I am going way too fast for them to stage and I would have a screenshot but I have to do this on phone due to lack of internet. I have tried thrusting retrograde with leftover fuel but it just seems to speed back up after. Speed is usually 1000 m/s

Edited January 28, 2017 by UnbeltedLyric38

[bewing]

Usually this is an aerodynamics problem. Typically what this means is that your ship is coming in nose-first.

Sometimes the aerodynamics on a particular ship simply does not work, and you have to fix the aerodynamics in the VAB and redo the mission.

Depending on how much fuel you have left, and whether you have solar power and batteries, it may be possible to aerobrake your orbit. The more aerobraking you do, the more likely you will be to survive.

When you burn the fuel, you want to do it as late as possible -- when you are as far down in the atmosphere as you can be and still maintain control.

Sometimes, tumbling the rocket as it reenters can reduce your speed just enough to help you survive.

And it's very important to know for these kinds of problems: do you have any drogue parachutes on this ship?

Edited January 28, 2017 by bewing

[Aegolius13]

5 hours ago, KNOEBBER said:

Make sure your reentry angle is not too steep. 

On that note, what is your periapsis coming back to Kerbin?  30km is a pretty good general purpose figure.  If it's too low (especially if it's below zero), the atmosphere may not have time to slow you down to safe chute speeds.

[Foxster]

Out of electrical power?

[Snark]

13 hours ago, UnbeltedLyric38 said:

I have staged the parachutes I believe I am going way too fast for them to stage and I would have a screenshot but I have to do this on phone due to lack of internet. I have tried thrusting retrograde with leftover fuel but it just seems to speed back up after. Speed is usually 1000 m/s

Okay, if you're going so fast all the way down, such that you faceplant while still traveling faster than your parachutes can open, then this is completely a problem about your ship design.  It's too aerodynamic on entry.  Either you need to make something with a lower ballistic coefficient (i.e. you want something flat and pancakey, not long/sleek like a javelin) so that it slows down on its own, or else you need something with steerable aerodynamic control systems so you can use lift to slow down.

Even without changing your ship design:  If you've got a reasonable amount of reaction torque, you may be able to use body lift in the upper atmosphere (by reentering at the appropriate attitude) to slow down.

Can't really say without seeing a screenshot, though.  Can you post a shot of your ship during reentry?

Here's your survival guide:

• If you're going under 250 m/s before hitting ground:  regular chutes will work to stop you.
• If you're going under 500 m/s before hitting ground:  add a drogue chute or two, that'll do the trick.  The drogues will slow you down under 250, and then the regular chutes can do the work.
• If you're going over 500 m/s when you hit the ground:  you're toast, as far as chutes are concerned. Would strongly advise changing either how the ship is designed, or how you fly it during reentry, or both.  Need to see a screenshot to offer specific advice.  (If you have airbrakes available-- they're fairly high up the tech tree-- then those might help.  They're not super useful for reentry, as they have a low temperature tolerance and tend to burn off; but once the flames die down, they're great at slowing you down from 1200ish m/s down to something that parachutes can cope with.)

The above numbers are approximate, but that's the gist.

[UnbeltedLyric38]

Thanks for advice I tried to add picture but forum isnt letting me. It sucks but im gonna have to change the ship design and do the mission again without drogue shoots(Havent researched them yet) I really need to xc

[UnbeltedLyric38]

One more question. I have a science jr in a payload container since i have 3 crew command pod should I put the other science equipment like mystery goo containters on the pod with heating off instead? Idk if this will help  

[Snark]

1 hour ago, UnbeltedLyric38 said:

I tried to add picture but forum isnt letting me.

Could just be because you're a newbie in the forum and don't have enough post count yet.  (It's a security feature for the forum: any time a new user joins, their first few posts are automatically hidden until a moderator approves them.  It's to protect against spambots.  After you've done a few posts, the restriction automatically drops away.)

Also, make sure you're doing it the "right way":  don't try to use the Imgur buttons above, they can be flaky.  Just put a picture on imgur, copy the image location (i.e. right-click on the image in imgur.com and choose "Copy Image Location") and paste the link here.  That ought to do the trick.

56 minutes ago, UnbeltedLyric38 said:

I have a science jr in a payload container since i have 3 crew command pod should I put the other science equipment like mystery goo containters on the pod with heating off instead?

Okay, still kinda hard to tell without seeing a screenshot, but I start to get a vague idea of your ship.  I'm guessing that by "payload container" you mean the 2.5m service bay, and that it's on the bottom (wide) end of the command pod, yes?

When you're entering, are you doing it pointy end first, or blunt end first?

You really, really want it to be blunt end first.  Fortunately, that's easily done with the 3-person command pod, since it's so heavy.  Suggestion:

• Get rid of the service bay.
• Put the Science Jr. on top of the command pod.  It fits nicely, since the top of the pod is 1.25m, which is the same size as the Science Jr.
• Any other science instruments (goo, etc.):  just put them on the sloping sides of the pod, not too close to the bottom.
• When you reenter, do so with the fat end (i.e. bottom) of the pod facing forwards, with the top (pointy) end facing backwards.

The pod will take the brunt of the reentry heat (you can put a 2.5m heat shield on it, if needed).  The science instruments (including the Science Jr.) will be just fine, because they're "hiding" behind the pod; it shields them from the blast furnace.  And having that big flat 2.5m surface facing forward will be really draggy, which should slow down your ship a lot.

[GoSlash27]

2 hours ago, UnbeltedLyric38 said:

One more question. I have a science jr in a payload container since i have 3 crew command pod...

Ah, I believe that's at the root of your problem. It can be difficult to get a reentry pod to remain stable blunt end first when you add stuff like that. It winds up wanting to go pointy-end first.

 My cures for that situation are twofold:

1) Make sure that the center of mass is as close to the ablator as possible. All the heavy, dense stuff should be back there, while the light stuff is in the nose

2) Draggy stuff needs to be up near the nose so it can act like a drogue during reentry. My favorite trick is to use solar panels canted inward at an angle and mounted as high up on the nose as possible.

 You can often fix an unstable design this way. If not, I'd recommend ditching the Science Jr. and installing a science pod in the nose. Or simply go EVA and retrieve the science. Your reentry pod will be much more stable without it.

Good luck,
-Slashy

[Zeiss Ikon]

All of the above taken into account -- your reentry path is still critically important.  If you set up your return from Minmus to just about "center punch" Kerbin, it's unlikely the atmosphere will be able to slow your command pod enough to safely deploy parachute(s) before you splatter.

If, on the other hand, you set up a return trajectory that has a periapsis between (in my experience returning from fairly high Kerbin orbits and Mun only, since I haven't been to Minmus yet) 35 and 40 km, even if that leaves you with what looks like an orbit that's going to kick you way back out to another Minmus orbit crossing, if you're flying base first when you pass through, the drag of the atmosphere will slow your ship enough that, contrary to flying back out to the edge of Kerbin's sphere, in fact, you'll wind up dropping to lower altitudes and speeds, ultimately dropping below 300 m/s by the time you're down to 10 km or so -- and that's when you deploy your parachutes.  For Mun returns, I usually aim for 37 km, but you may need to go lower for Minmus return, as you'll be coming in faster and might bore right through and have to wait another orbit to land.

I'd recommend always using a heat shield, but be sure to jettison it after your parachutes open; the weight difference adds up to a significant difference in descent speed under parachute.  Also, for the 3-Kerbal Mark 1-2 Command Pod, you'll want to mount three of the blue radial parachutes (assuming you have those available) to get a reasonable descent speed; the single-seat Mk. 1 is okay under a single Mk. 16 or blue radial, but the heavier Mk. 1-2 needs more...

[UnbeltedLyric38]

Thanks for all ze advice I just put a experiment storage unit on the pod and a decoupler under it and it landed first time. Such an easy fix should've known