Any way to put something on top of a parachute?

[Oddible]

I'm trying to make a landable craft and following the "Campaign" on the wiki so I'm launching without SAS until the 3rd age. I have noticed that the rocket is significantly more controllable with a nose cone vs a parachute at the top (in fact, I have a lot of trouble keeping it upright without a nose cone). Does the parachute ALWAYS have to be on top? Isn't there a way to mount the parachute inside the fuselage that I can decouple during free fall?

Edited July 18, 2013 by Oddible

[Frederf]

There's a radial one in stock parts I think. The drag's pretty high so pairs are a good idea.

Parachutes are quite lacking even with mods. There was some mod pack that had stackable "disk" parachutes that could be sandwiched below a nose cone.

[Oddible]

Thanks, will look for that. Just wanted to follow up and clarify that the controllability issue I was experiencing didn't really have anything to do with the parachute, it is just that the nose cone is significantly lighter than my Mk-16 parachute so when I swapped them my craft got top heavy and now wobbles a lot without the 1st stage to balance it.

[stupid_chris]

Well, excepted for being lighter, the nose cones are just dead weight and don't affect air flow at all. You could also use small cubic octagonal struts to mount the small parachutes radially using part clipping.

Radial parachutes are your best bet, 3+ is probably the most stable way of doing it. But really the Mk16 parachute shouldn't be giving you that much trouble.

Besides, NovaPunch has some stackable parachutes you could use.

[astropapi1]

The mod you're looking for is NovaPunch, it has two stackable parachutes: 0,675m and 1.25m in diameter.

If you're ok with part clipping, you can use the normal parachutes and octo trusses to stack them.

EDIT: Damn, Ninja'd by Chris.

[rryy]

You can actually place a radial attachment point or a docking port on top of a parachute, so you can put a nose cone or something else on top of it.

Edited July 18, 2013 by rryy