My ship consists of a pod with a parachute on top and a science lab at the bottom. Now with the new update for KSP, my ship burns and my parachute gets destroyed when entering Kerbin. How do I stop my parachute from getting damaged?
My ship is exploding on entry, what do I do
kerbal-space-program
Related Solutions
Science in Kerbal Space Program knows five corridors:
- On the Ground
- Lower Atmosphere
- Upper Atmosphere
- Near Space
- Outer Space
Note that only sub-orbital flights will be considered atmospherical, even if the altitude is inside the given corridor - aerobraking is considered "Near Space" even if below the threshold.
That said, the threshold depends on the body:
On Kerbin (left), anything below ~18km of altitude will be considered flying over (that is, Lower Atmosphere). Outer Space on Kerbin starts at ~250km. The shift from Upper Atmosphere to Near Space is the edge of Kerbin's atmosphere (~69km), and (as detailed above) may depend on the trajectory.
On the Mun (middle), there is obviously no atmosphere. Here, the Outer Space to Near Space transition is at ~60km.
And, for good measure, the same as for the Mun also applies for Minmus (right), but here the threshold is at ~30km.
In Kerbal Space Program, Science depends on the location and the type of experiment.
Altitude Corridor
In detail, for Kerbin, this makes five altitude corridors (with some caveats):
- On the Ground (0m)
- Lower Atmosphere (≤ 18km)
- Upper Atmosphere (≤ 69km)
- Near Space (≤ 250km)
- Outer Space (> 250km)
Biomes
On top of that, Kerbin knows various biomes:
- Grasslands
- Highlands
- Mountains
- Deserts
- Badlands
- Tundra
- Ice Caps
- Water
- Shores
Additionally, the Space Center also has various mini-biomes which return separate results, but only when on the ground (above ground, the whole space center counts as "Shores"):
- Administration
- Astronaut Complex
- Crawlerway
- Flag Pole
- LaunchPad
- Mission Control
- R&D
- Runway
- SPH
- Tracking Station
- VAB
Experiments
Depending on the experiment, some of these altitude corridors have per-biome results, others only have one result for the entire corridor.
In particular:
The Surface Sample is a biome-dependant surface-only experiment.
The EVA Report is biome-dependant on the surface, in the lower atmosphere and in near space; it is global everywhere else.
The Crew Report is biome-dependant on the surface and in the lower atmosphere; it is global everywhere else.
The Mystery Goo Observation (available through the Mystery Goo™ Containment Unit from the Basic Rocketry tech node) is biome-dependant on the surface; it is global everywhere else.
Storing Experiments
There can only be one crew report per part that produces a crew report (that is, per capsule), which is stored in the part. It can be transmitted, in which case it makes space for a new crew report.
Both the EVA report and the Surface Sample experiments can be stored in the capsule as well, with each combination of altitude corridor and biome once. So, you can store a surface sample from every biome, and EVA reports from every biome all at once.
Transmitting Results
Results can either be recovered by landing the craft on Kerbin and then recovering it from the Tracking Station (or from the craft view, where it's hidden at the top of the screen), or by transmitting them home.
Transmission is hardly effective this early into the tech tree - you lack the electricity to send the results back. Nevertheless, you can - for example - send back one crew report to make space for another, so here's some information about transmission as well:
Every experiment has a transmission efficiency, which reduces the Science yield on transmission (as opposed to recovery).
In the case of the Surface Sample this is 25%, which makes them an undesirable candidate for transmission.
Similarly, the Mystery Goo Observation has only 30% efficiency.
All reports (be that EVA or Crew), however, return a full 100%.
Related Topic
- How to get science from the space station to cash in the points
- How to calculate the right number/types of parachutes for the craft
- Salvage the KSP career with a single launch
- How does KSP simulate objects out of focus
- Why won’t the MK16 parachute deploy
- Kerbal Space Program – How to Determine if Parachute Will Work
- Kerbal Space Program Science – Can You Only Get the Same Science Once?
- Kerbal Space Program Science Return – Why Can’t You Send Science Back to Kerbin
Best Answer
Since Version 1.0, flying too fast through the atmosphere can damage your craft. To prevent this from happening, either try to reenter the atmosphere as slowly as possible by going into a low orbit first or place a heat shield on the bottom of your craft to prevent damage. When the rest of your craft survives the reentry even without a heat shield and only your parachute gets burnt off, wait with opening it until the craft slowed down to at least 250 m/s, which should still be far enough away from the ground to prevent a
kaboomloss of structural integrity on ground contact.But when your mission was started before 1.0 and now your craft simply can not survive reentry no matter what you try, you can edit the difficulty settings during the game and decrease reentry heating or switch it off altogether.
During the flight press Esc, go to Settings, click the Difficulty Options button and change the Re-Entry Heating slider.
Just remember to put it back to at least 100% after you de-orbited all your pre-1.0 vessels, or Jebediah Kerman will call you a coward behind your back.