Need Help Rescuing Kerbals

[Biker Joe]

Hey all!

So heres my problem.

I got 5 Kerbals in a spacecraft coming back from the Mun, and everytime I try and land it the lander can, housing 2 Kerbals, falls off when the parachutes deploy!

Any ideas/suggestions?

Edited November 21, 2013 by Biker Joe

[Vanamonde]

That is a design problem that will be very hard to get around. The only suggestion I can make is to open the chutes one at a time with their right-click menus so that they don't all jerk at once, though being able to do that between 500m and the surface in time may be tricky.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Drogue. They help stop the "jerk" when deploying main paras. Also, for the love of Jeb, don't physwarp.

[Biker Joe]

Drogue. They help stop the "jerk" when deploying main paras. Also, for the love of Jeb, don't physwarp.

Too late to add a drogue shoot, they're already on the craft heading to Kerbin!

Also I don't physwarp so that's not an issue.

I'm thinking try and get close to it and use a winch with a magnetic thing on it to hook in the ship (KAS add-on, whch I have), then transfer the Kerbals to a stronger lander to get them home?

[DeMatt]

There's a couple things you can try before you start building rescue ships and so forth:

First, fire your parachutes earlier. Semi-deployed parachutes (what you get before they hit 500m altitude and fully deploy) still offer more drag than stowed parachutes, so having them out earlier means you'll slow down more before they jerk you to a halt.

Second, if you've got any fuel or engines left, use it to slow your descent just before the parachutes open. Keep in mind, you want to watch the radar altimeter in the IVA view, not the barometric altimeter on the standard view.

[Jason Patterson]

You can just fly close to it and EVA them across if that is an option.

The other choice, if it is a powered lander, is to fall in as horizontal a trajectory as you can (so that you slow as much as possible) then open just one chute. Just before 500m above the surface, when the chute deploys, burn all of your engines to slow yourself as much as possible and relieve the strain on the lander can/chute connection. Once the single chute is deployed, open all of the others immediately.

[Smidge204]

Do you have any ability to provide thrust at all? If so, thrust retrograde once you're going slow enough that you don't get the heeating effect anymore) to slow yourself down as much as possible. Try to wait and time it so you're under 100m/s when the chutes deploy at 500m above the surface.

Transferring to a better ship is plan B, and it's a good plan. You can even use the same ship just with a few struts and/or radial chutes on the lander can.

Something crazy you might want to try, if you dare, is activate the capsule's SAS system (I'm asusming you have a Mk2 capsule and a lander can under it). And flipping the whole thing around backwards so the lander can is "on top." It'll be a hell of a ride but it might just work!

EDIT: No, no that does NOT work. The lander can doesn't have a very strong connection at all... I was actually able to spin my craft with reaction wheels alone to snap it off and send it flying. That might be an idea, though: See if you can ditch it in orbit by spinning your capsule really fast, land the capsule, and come back to rescue the others...

=Smidge=

Edited November 18, 2013 by Smidge204

[magnemoe]

If you have engines on your lander you can try to lower your speed before 500 meter.

Then parachutes deploys your lander get an serious shock as you go from 80 m/s to 8 m/s in a second. you you can reduce the speed to 40 m/s you will be better off.

You do not need to have TWR above 1 to slow down.

If you have KAS you can try to move radial parachutes around, put two on the lower lander.

This mobile munar science lab, separated on parachute opening, you see that the probe and upper docking port is on the top lander and not on the rover, still it came down safe as the rover was lighter than the lander so it was pushed against it.

[Biker Joe]

thanks everyone for the advice,

The craft still has a bit of fuel left in it and I tried using that to slow down my descent before deploying the parchutes and opened them using the right-click, main ones first then the smaller ones but still no good...

I'm thinking plan B is the only option I'm left... unless I'm missing something?

I'll throw up a picture of the craft in question in the morning, off to bed now!

[Scotius]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/57988-WIP-0-22-x-RealChute-Parachute-Systems-realistic-parachutes-v0-1b-16-11-13

Try this if you have nothing against plugins. One of main points in this mod is gradual deployment of chutes - so there is no 15 g spike when they deploy instantly. Caveat: I still have to try how this works. My Duna lander is aimed for aerobraking at Duna now

[nhnifong]

Next time you build a ship. Use struts to connect heavy things to the parachutes.

[Biker Joe]

Next time you build a ship. Use struts to connect heavy things to the parachutes.

Sound advice thanks but doesn't help solve my current predicament...

EDIT:

This is the transfer craft!

Kinda big isn't it!

Edited November 20, 2013 by Biker Joe