Parachute-only Duna landing

[fourfa]

That looks familiar, from the GPP loading screens...

[foamyesque]

On 2017-06-19 at 2:35 PM, Snark said:

Yup, building a Duna airplane is definitely doable, and can be a fun change of pace to try.

The main challenge is getting the landing speed low enough not to break up on landing.  Duna's atmosphere is so thin that even spamming lots of wing area, it can be tricky to go really slow without stalling; and also, Duna doesn't have a lot of really flat areas.  It tends towards gently rolling hills everywhere.  Those gentle hills are no problem at all when you're coming down on parachutes, but they're a major pain in the posterior when you're gliding along at nearly 100 m/s looking for a place to land.

I've had best results when I mount a couple of Vernor engines on the underside of the plane (one in the front, one in the back), with an action group toggling them on/off.  They don't have to be strong enough to lift the plane (I'm not building a VTOL); just enough to provide a bit of assistance. I leave them off most of the time, and turn them on only when I'm about to land.  This gives a few benefits:

• By providing some lift, it allows me to slow to a more manageable speed for landing.
• Since I tip the nose up when I flare for landing, that points the Vernors somewhat forward, which means that their thrust helps to slow me down.
• When it's time for takeoff, it helps me get airborne sooner because the one in the nose helps shove the nose off the ground and get me rotated for takeoff.

 

 

You can do the same thing with nuclear engines and a Mk3 cargo bay, if you want to try something a smidge larger. Doesn't really count as a no-engine landing by that point, of course...

[blorgon]

There's also this tool for finding the number and type of parachutes you'd need in a landing with a desired touchdown velocity:

https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20161225235749/http://ksp.freeiz.com//

As far as the OP, for anything heavier than a microlander, I tend to use a powered descent. Although my rover delivery system comes in at transfer velocity, so I use the inflatable heat shield and parachutes for that particular type of mission.