Parachutes in 0.23!

[Epthelyn]

One thing I have noticed is that the chutes break when you hit 0m/s.

Last night I was returning and decided to burn off the last of my fuel since I was coming in a little fast and was worried about the chutes ripping things apart. I didn't shut down the throttle after the chutes deployed and hit 0m/s a hundred meters above the ground so the chutes vanished and I slammed into the sea hard enough to destroy everything.

That happened before 0.23, too. The parachutes detect whether or not the craft is moving vertically as a means to determine whether or not they should remain open, hence why aeroplane braking chutes don't work.

[Kromey]

Is that the altitude for full deployment? And is the Min. Pressure the condition were the chutes will deploy in a reefed state (assuming you press the keys to deploy them at an altitude above that Min. Pressure?

I thought I heard that there would be a tweak able for how changing the rate at which the chutes fully deploy (to reduce the deployment shock). Did I miss-hear that, or was that something that was not implemented?

I could swear that I heard somewhere that they (Squad) had made a change to parachutes so that they no longer switch to full drag instantaneously when they fully deploy, reducing the g-forces. This isn't a tweakable setting, just one of the fixes they put into 0.23. I can't for the life of me find any reference to that now, unfortunately.

In any case, setting min pressure lower will let your chutes deploy reefed earlier, which will slow you down more by the time they fully open; similarly, lowering the altitude when they fully deploy will also give you more time to slow down. Both to a point, of course, but a slower speed when they fully deploy will of course give you less shock.

[tntristan12]

Also attaching multiple sets of parachutes to a complicated, heavy load allows you to stagger their openings so the force is more distributed, alleviating the problem where such a load would rip off upon opening!

[annallia]

Set their deployment altitudes in sets so that they don't all open at once, distributing the shock. It's similar to the function that drogues perform.

Now that I know about this, this was my first thought on what I could do with it. Make a smoother transition and less chance of my craft ripping itself apart.

For many versions now, the stock parachutes have taken the height they deploy as height from terrain anyway, so I don't see any reason why descending over mountains would be a death sentence...

As someone else said... Duna.

I can think of a half dozen or so crafts I have had come in over the mountains of Duna, the chutes opened before I hit but not nearly early enough to slow the decent.

[NoPanShabuShabu]

No really, Duna. I sent a lander to Duna yesterday and tweaked the drogues higher, a pair of normal chutes at like 2000, and the final pair at standard 500. It was *soooo* much smoother and less dramatic. If only I had given a little more thrust to the landing, I wouldn't have to mount a mission to rescue Bob today (motor fell off the bottom on landing.)

[Sirrobert]

My parachutes are still ripping the Sci. Jr's off my capsules. Only took one loss of a full load of science from minmus to make me start strutting and moar chutes

That means your craft is not strong enough to survive the drag. Either strut or add a drogue to slow down before the final chute deployment. Or use rockets to slow down before deployment

[stupid_chris]

Is that the altitude for full deployment? And is the Min. Pressure the condition were the chutes will deploy in a reefed state (assuming you press the keys to deploy them at an altitude above that Min. Pressure?

I thought I heard that there would be a tweak able for how changing the rate at which the chutes fully deploy (to reduce the deployment shock). Did I miss-hear that, or was that something that was not implemented?

Nope, that was not implemented. For now, I believe it linearly extrapolate over one second between debut drag and target drag.

One thing I have noticed is that the chutes break when you hit 0m/s.

Last night I was returning and decided to burn off the last of my fuel since I was coming in a little fast and was worried about the chutes ripping things apart. I didn't shut down the throttle after the chutes deployed and hit 0m/s a hundred meters above the ground so the chutes vanished and I slammed into the sea hard enough to destroy everything.

Yep that always happened as soon as you hit cut speed, which is default at 0.5m/s

My parachutes are still ripping the Sci. Jr's off my capsules. Only took one loss of a full load of science from minmus to make me start strutting and moar chutes

Yeah, and they probably will be for a while.

Anyway to you guys, you might want to try RealChute, link in my sig, that should fix all the problems listed above