My parachutes always fail.

[jeancallisti]

I'm trying out 0.22 and only just started playing, I'm a total newbie.

I'm building a simple rocket with the pod, 2 or 3 stages of liquid fuel, and the propeller. There's an Mk-16 parachute at the top.

1) My rocket goes high up (about 25km)

2) The rocket goes down, still with everything attached (I haven't unblocked the decouplers yet, so I can't put any)

3) I fire the parachutes when I'm around 2km high, and my speed never exceeds 130m/s.

Yet, the parachute stays half open for a few seconds, then breaks and gets detached. And the rocket crashes.

And it always happens.

I don't know what's the deal. Apparently very few people have that issue, since there are so few posts about parachutes on the forums.

Edited November 25, 2013 by jeancallisti
ANSWERED

[Sirrobert]

Sounds like you are in physics timewarp. That messes up the calculations sometimes, often resulting in the chute getting ripped off as it opends

[Galileo Kerbonaut]

I think your rocket is to heavy for the parachute and therefor it will rip apart. I made this rule for myself to use 1 parachute for every 1.7 ton (on Kerbin) that has to come down (so a 3 ton contraption takes 2 chutes, etc.). I'm not sure if this is totally efficient, but it works for me. When the whole thing lands, I keep a close eye on the touchdown speed that I never let exceed 7.5 m/s (It's a rough landing, but nothing breaks). If it is way lower than that (and I need some more space on my rocket) I ditch a chute and see how that goes.

Edited November 25, 2013 by Galileo Kerbonaut

[MrJacobean]

It's either you are physics warping (which makes the engine unstable for big ships) or your ship is too heavy for your ship. Use the radial parachutes when you unlock them or decrease the weight of the ship (you don't have to go into space to earn science). When coming in for landing, you could burn upward to decrease the amount of strain on the chute

[DrMonte]

Isn't Mk25 already opened? As I remember it is in some of the first steps of career mode. You can add Mk25 to slowdown before Mk16 opens.

[SRV Ron]

Too much weight for the connection. Either more parachutes or use struts to connect the parachute to the capsule.

This design had problems until I used struts. it wasn't too heavy, it just had a problem with weak connections.

Even then, in Career Mode, the MK-16 should still stay connected although you may lose part of the rocket upon landing.

[Starwhip]

Are you in physics warp? It'll say "time warp (1-4)x". If you are, your 'chute will definitely get ripped off. And if it's much more than the capsule, your rocket might be too heavy to be supported by the 'chute. Post pictures. (If you did I don't see them because I'm at school.)

[Turvok]

My other comment here is that you might be waiting too long to open the chute. You can technically open it at any time even when u are having the re-entry visuals going on. When it's partially deployed it will still slow you down a lot. Also the other stuff mentioned above. Mass. And physics warp being the top 2.

[jeancallisti]

Alright, here is the solution :

The rocket was indeed too heavy for the tiny parachute. I was considering only speed, but I should have also considered mass.

The actual solutions are :

1) Make a tiny rocket

2) With that tiny rocket, do at least one successful suborbital flight (go up and down, and land with the parachute)

3) That should unlock enough science points to unlock science step "basic rocketry"

4) Now you have decouplers. => design your rocket so that at the time you land, the parachute only has to support the weight of no more than the pod, a few gizmos (science stuff), one medium tank and one engine. The Mk-16 parachute ought to be strong enough.

Note : open it at no more than 110m/s (and not 130 m/s, as opposed to what I wrote before -- even that speed is too high)