Highest possible parachute opening on Eve

[UH60guy]

I'm looking to do a manned Eve expedition, but not the full return. Just think of it as dipping your toes in the water.

My plan is to launch some rocket with a good TWR and maybe about 5-6 km/s delta V capability. You may see where I'm going with this. I don't want to land and risk getting trapped on the surface- no that's for another day. I want to do a manned atmospheric exploration. I want to get that EVA report, crew report, Goo, Materials study, etc while "flying in Eve's atmosphere," and I want to return it.

I've already done the parachute landers on land and into the water, and gotten all I'm going to get from the transmitting of the land and air SCIENCE!

I want to launch a rocket into the upper atmosphere, and have it do a high altitude parachute just until I hit the upper edge of "flying over Eve" then rocket back into space while the atmosphere is still thin.

So, my question has two parts: What altitude do you start to see the "flying over Eve" biome? Is there a way to get the parachutes to open higher? The tweakables don't give me much leeway on the deployment altitude. Would I have to aim for the highest mountain, and then have the 5000 meter (or whatever the max tweakable was) AGL opening to get results?

Edited January 10, 2014 by UH60guy

[Skorpychan]

Use a drogue chute. Those open the highest, and you have a HELL of a lot of drag with them on Eve due to flying through the soup.

IIRC, 'upper atmosphere' is in the atmosphere and sub-orbital, though. So you may not need a chute at all.

Alternatively, maybe a spaceplane. That would make EVA reports difficult, but you'd be able to control your craft better than with it simply dangling off a chute.

I'm tempted to try the spaceplane idea myself, actually. Chuck a couple of probe-controlled ones through, to milk that last bit of science before I send any kerbals in.

[Sirine]

put a crew on chair. right click him for eva report.

[UH60guy]

Great tips, thanks! Will the drogues fully deploy that high up? Or maybe the reefed chutes will be enough for a short stabilization. I agree, unmanned test first will be the way to go.

Spaceplane sounds fun... then again at that altitude I may be able to "brute force" it, just shoot for a super low aerobrake, and boost prograde to get back up as soon as I quickly get all the readings. Though without the chutes, the EVA may be hard to get as the deceleration will rip them off the ladders.

The chair- does that give an EVA or crew report? If thats the case, I can do a two person crew and not have to worry about ladder grips.

[Specialist290]

Semi-deployment (i.e. "reefed" state) is dependent on atmospheric pressure, while full deployment is dependent on altitude above the surface. I believe you can adjust those figures to whatever suits your needs with the new tweakables system, however.

You might find this table helpful in that regard. (Ignore the fact that it uses "density" where it should say "pressure"; I've been meaning to fix that for a while now.)

[UH60guy]

Thanks! That chart is a huge help. I think I can reach orbit with something from 40,000 meters up, not requiring a full parachute deployment. I'll try it both ways- I'll do both the original mission now that you gave me the chart, and send my SSTO (with an extra command chair duct taped to the top for the EVA report) over there as well.