I made a 'science bomber' but i think it's flawed?

[jadeskye]

hey guys, allow me to unveil my latest masterpiece!

The problem i have is when i drop the modules the parachute deploys then i think the module despawns as i fly away. Is there a way of fixing this or is my idea doomed to failure?

Thanks!

Edited April 20, 2014 by jadeskye

[Sirrobert]

If a craft that you don't control is in atosphere, lower than 21km on rails, it will despawn

Anything further away than 2,1km from your current craft will go on rails

So yes, that won't work

[jadeskye]

Aww! just when i thought i had a good idea Thanks Sirrobert

[G'th]

I think what you'll have to do is fly around in the area until the modules hit the ground. The modules are likely being automatically classified as debris when you eject them, and debris de-spawns if you don't stay close to it while its still in the air. Its the same thing that happens to boosters and such, and the reason why we all don't have massive debris fields surrounding KSC.

Once they hit the ground, they should persist, presuming your debris limit is sufficiently high.

[cantab]

Any craft that's below a certain level in an atmosphere (around 21 km for Kerbin), not landed, and not within physics range (about 2.5 km) of the active craft will be destroyed. Doesn't matter if it's denoted debris or not. So you have two basic solutions:

Stay within 2.5 km of the package from when you drop it to when it lands. You could do this by flying low and slow before dropping, or by circling, or some combination. Or even by landing and taking off again if you like.

Drop from around or above 21 km up, and put your bomber onto a high suborbital trajectory after the drop. You'll probably want plenty of rocket thrust for this. Switch to the science package (with [ and ]), fly it down to landing, then switch back to your bomber before that gets below 21 km.

[Boomerang]

A third option would be to hunt down the mod that extends the physics loading distance. Haven't used it myself, but I've seen it recommended frequently for situations like this.

[Capt. Hunt]

by the way, I would put some landing feet on those probes, the science modules are rather fragile.

[jadeskye]

Thanks for all the help guys! I tried to circle in my plane as i dropped the probe but my aircraft doesn't like to stay airbourne so such circling unfortunately turned into a flatspin

I've resorted to a mod that doesn't unload probes. hopefully this works!

[Vigelius]

I was pointed towards TT NeverUnload, which seems to do the trick for this sort of thing