Mitigating Parachute shock.

[nhnifong]

I'm having a really hard time landing my current creation because when the chutes open it explodes from the sudden force of deceleration.

Are there some creative way of placing parachutes that can spread out the force of deceleration without using thrusters?

[jebster]

Struts are more powerful than they look. Take those tiny trusses that only cost 10 credits and put them all over your craft on separate parts, then attach them with struts. I started looking through my screenshots folder for an example of this and I found this one. It isn't great but if you look on the right side of the ladder you can kind of see the trusses with the struts between them:

Prior to those struts my craft would immediately separate and explode once the parachutes were fully deployed. They're very very useful!

Edited August 18, 2013 by jebster

[CvVtjRtb]

[]

Edited August 2, 2019 by CvVtjRtb

[nhnifong]

I just realized we live on the same island on Laythe

Ahh, welcome to the Volcano. Rent will be 10000 units of kethane per day, delivered by helicopter.

[Xeldrak]

A lot of struts help with the parachute shock - in very extreme cases I've used retro rockets I fire before the chute opens

[nhnifong]

I'm going with a slightly cheaty approach for now. Yes, lots of struts help, but I also changed the semideployed-drag of the radial chute to about 45. (it was only 1) for comparison, the fully deployed drag is 500.

This seems to have completely solved the problem for my current vessel and give a more realistic looking decent.

[Vanamonde]

Either open the chutes in batches with action groups, or, as others suggested, add a few drogues.

[Whatshtisthis]

I usually have the parachutes closer to the "core" of whatever craft it is, having them on the edges or the "branches" normally tears those parts off when the chutes deploy at high speeds, at least for me. Spreading them out on the "core" helps as well.

[bsalis]

I found that mixing drogue chutes and regular ones together works quite well.

I just realized we live on the same island on Laythe

Been there. It's not that great.

THere are cooler islands about.

[Johnno]

I usually have the parachutes closer to the "core" of whatever craft it is, having them on the edges or the "branches" normally tears those parts off when the chutes deploy at high speeds, at least for me. Spreading them out on the "core" helps as well.

QFT. Always try to put your chutes onto the "core" and particularly on the heaviest part (normally a fueltank). If you put them at the top and there's any weak joints inbetween them and the heavy stuff, the heavy stuff will break off, physics at work. And remember to place them above the center of mass, or your craft will flip once they deploy.

[Skorpychan]

Also, consider a decoupler to dump anything that isn't the command pod, if you're returning to kerbin.

[annallia]

Only thing I can think of that hasn't already been said is those little micro srb's that only burn for a few seconds.

Some of my heavier crafts I place them around the bottom, few seconds before my chutes would deploy I would fire them. It doesn't do much but it does lower your speed enough that it has saved a few problemed crafts from tearing themselves apart.

[Anton P. Nym]

Only thing I can think of that hasn't already been said is those little micro srb's that only burn for a few seconds.

Some of my heavier crafts I place them around the bottom, few seconds before my chutes would deploy I would fire them. It doesn't do much but it does lower your speed enough that it has saved a few problemed crafts from tearing themselves apart.

That'd work; Soyuz uses something similar to cushion landing shock, so using SRBs as drogues makes sense. I throttle up my landing engine(s) before chute opening on heavy landers, myself.

-- Steve

[rkman]

I did not test this thoroughly but i think increasing "deploymentSpeed" in the cfg causes deployed drag to ramp up more slowly, thus reducing the shock from deceleration.

[zarakon]

I usually have the parachutes closer to the "core" of whatever craft it is, having them on the edges or the "branches" normally tears those parts off when the chutes deploy at high speeds, at least for me. Spreading them out on the "core" helps as well.

Putting parachutes on all of the main parts will help spread the load out

[TheDarkStar]

If possible, deploy the chutes later (once the atmosphere slows you down). If you are landing somewhere really low, it works on Laythe, and it works on Kerbin and Eve (it's necessary on Eve).

[Frederf]

I did not test this thoroughly but i think increasing "deploymentSpeed" in the cfg causes deployed drag to ramp up more slowly, thus reducing the shock from deceleration.

I've been meaning to test the functionality of this cfg value. Is that what it does, ramp up speed or is it a delay between deploying and the parachute pop?

[nhnifong]

I did not test this thoroughly but i think increasing "deploymentSpeed" in the cfg causes deployed drag to ramp up more slowly, thus reducing the shock from deceleration.

I've tested it. I'm certain it's purely visual. Slowed it down by 100 times an still observed a "shock" deceleration.

[Tripzter]

I usually toss the side shutes on the main body. That usually solves my problems.

[Frederf]

nhnifong, pretty sure it's in seconds (or rather time) so you want to increase the value to weaken the effect.

[WhiteWeasel]

What speed do you open them at? I try to wait until my velocity is <200m/s if possible.

[Frederf]

I try for less than Mach 1.

[JakeGrey]

It depends on the weight of whatever you're trying to land, but I suggest waiting until terminal velocity. That's with FAR installed, though; I couldn't honestly tell you what it's like with vanilla drag values, it's that long since I played stock.

[nhnifong]

What speed do you open them at? I try to wait until my velocity is <200m/s if possible.

The moment you deploy them makes little difference (with stock values) because the big shock comes when the chute opens from semi-deployed from fully deployed which happens at 500m nomatter what.

[annallia]

What speed do you open them at? I try to wait until my velocity is <200m/s if possible.

It doesn't matter. The shock comes when they fully deploy. If anything waiting can hurt you as the faster you are falling when they fully deploy the more shock you will get. Since even semi-deployed they add some drag they will slow you down more though there is a limit to how much.