Land this rover right side up!

[Elsig]

I've placed many a rovers on various surfaces where there's no athmosphere and have no problems with that.

My latest mission is to place a rover on Duna to go with my existing Duna base.

I've come across a hurdle however.

I've got 4 parachutes to help with the descent. They are placed on the beams next to the wheels. Center of gravity is more or less in the middle of the 4 chutes. When I deploy them in the athmosphere everything looks OK. However, as soon as they fully deploy the rover flips up side down and i'm unable to rotate it the right way.

I'm baffled as to how this is possible. Looking at my descent can you see a reason why this would flip when the chutes fully deploy? Seems illogical to me.

[CaptainKipard]

You put your chutes below your center of mass. Having them more or less ther isn't a good idea anyway, they should be well above it.

[Pulstar]

It's because the parachutes are attached to the bottom of the rover, ships rotate in atmosphere to face the prograde with the side that generates the least drag (good to know if you're doing extreme aerobraking so that ships don't break apart when entering the atmosphere the wrong way). Since parachutes work by generating drag and by pulling things they're pulling the lower part of your rover up thus flipping it. Always put parachutes on the top side.

[Sirrobert]

Try put the shutes on the top of the standing beams

[Azazael]

Raise the parachute module to a point higher than your Rover body.

I would use 4 vertical struts at the point where you currently have the parachutes package.

Each vertical strut should have your current parachute at the top and a small separator at the bottom.

Also if the drag of the chute breaks something add a Mk25 chute as well as this has Drag 170 and opens at 2500m (Pre slows the decent)

Your current 4 Mk2r have a higher drag of 500 and open at 500m (fully slows the decent)

Aim to land at <10ms

Edited July 1, 2013 by Azazael

[Elsig]

Raise the parachute module to a point higher than your Rover body.

I would use 4 vertical struts at the point where you currently have the parachutes package.

Each vertical strut should have your current parachute at the top and a small separator at the bottom.

That's great advice and very helpful insight into why it flips! I'll try that and report back

Thanks.

[cjphoenix]

have you tried cutting the back 2 chutes just before the ground to land it on the back wheels then reverse to land flat? either that or just add 1 or 2 control chutes on the very top on the rover.

[catmando]

create a base above your rover, attach chutes to that, once they are deployed and your rover is <3-5 meters release the rover from the base.. the wheels will absorb the impact and you can happily drive around to find your favorite snack...