Is it my imagination...

[Rijjka]

Or are parachutes pretty much useless when within Kerbin atmosphere now?

I've had at least four crews killed when the parachutes get ripped off when they open. what's worse, is it wasn't even a particularly high up drop. The rocket only made it up to about 5000 Meters before I decided to try and save the crew. Adding more parachutes doesn't seem to help either. In attempting to save the flight again, and see if maybe I just needed more parachute power, I added no less then 4 parachutes to the capsule, making it look like a blistered hideous mockery of itself.

All four ripped off in sync.

So far my only living crew on the new version involves a mk1 plane cockpit with two of the small parachutes on it, and a Kerman I coincidently stranded on the Mun.

I take it I'm going to need to keep the lander stage at all times now just so I can slow down the rockets on rentry? Even when it's only 5000 m up?

[Moach]

sounds like you're coming in hot with a heavy lander.... have you tried fastening the chutes to the top of the pod with struts?

i usually do this to help keep them attached - and you could also attach a smaller chute on top (check the addons board, there are several nice options) and use it as a drogue to slow you down and steady your attitude before hitting the larger silk

cheers

[Rijjka]

I figured it out afterwards. It was horribly embarrassing really. This was before I realized that we have a new Advanced SAS module for the larger sized parts, so I was using the little one strapped to the top of the capsule and then put the parachutes on that... not the capsule. So yeah, the ASAS module survives every time, what with four parachutes carrying it safely down, especially after losing all the dead weight of the capsule.

That was far more derp then I was hoping.

[sal_vager]

This was happening to me, but with a small RCS tank instead of the ASAS, I even strutted the thing to prevent this to no avail.

It turned out that the direction of the strut holding the RCS tank was critical to holding it in place, if you run the strut from the ASAS or RCS tank to the pod, it'll fail.

But if you run the strut from the pod to the RCS tank, it'll hold, even one strut is enough, you don't even need one from the tank to the chute.

I think it's the pods mounting point itself that is to blame here, and as for the strut, I guess the check to see if the joint is overloaded happens before the check to see if the strut holds it on if it's on the wrong way round.

[EndlessWaves]

Yeah, parachutes themselves can tear away from their mountings but it's fair more common for the rest of the rocket to come apart rather than anything to do with the chutes themselves.

[MOhon]

Well, the idea is that there is a maximum speed for the opening of the parachute and that they do not break when opened. We must take into account both the weight of the ship as the atmospheric pressure.

At 5000m the atmospheric pressure is less than 2000m, and is better Kerbin wait to get to 2000m to open the parachute.

Anyway, always good to try to land on earth with a ship with capsule and motor support.

No engine support must try ditching.

Good luck!!

[Lesarthois]

I you have still some working engines when you go down to Kerbin, try to burn and slow you down before opening the chute.

And in any case, do'nt open them at 5000m, it's useless.

I open my chutes when I'm around 2000 meters, and my velocity is under 200m/s. It seems that opening chutes at a higher velocity may rip them off, especially if you have an heavy pod.

[Railsmith]

Yeah, I've ripped some chutes off on steep re-entries. I've worked around this by still opening the chutes in space, but opting for a very shallow return trajectory. Parachutes usually stay on, and it takes a little less delta-v, too.

[samstarman5]

If I still have fuel in my lander, I will keep it on to provide retro-thrust to help slow down enough for the parachutes to do their job. Then just when I deploy the chutes, I blow the separator and watch it make a pretty explosion as I float gently down.

*Ahem* Watch the LANDER make a pretty explosion.