How many parachute to safely land the engine+fuel I detached?

[Euruzilys]

I am trying to see if I can land the fuel tanks safely after I eject them after tanking off, without them exploding of course.

It worked with some small tanks and engines. Is there any way to calculate how many chute I need per mass?

[Shukinen]

you putting some drone unit on em? because if u drop them and dont have some kind of control unit it will depop at like 2,5km from you, unless it changed, but for the tank thing, i would make some test flight to know how many needed to safely land it under like 6m/sec

[Rene]

This?[ksp.freeiz.com]

Originally posted by Shukinen:

you putting some drone unit on em? because if u drop them and dont have some kind of control unit it will depop at like 2,5km from you, unless it changed, but for the tank thing, i would make some test flight to know how many needed to safely land it under like 6m/sec

No matter how many people claim this, it is not tue. Anything on rails (more than 2.5 km from the active ship) moving through dense atmosphere (0.01 atm) is deleted by the game, with or without drone parts or Kerballed pods.

[Euruzilys]

Originally posted by Rene:

This?[ksp.freeiz.com]

Originally posted by Shukinen:

you putting some drone unit on em? because if u drop them and dont have some kind of control unit it will depop at like 2,5km from you, unless it changed, but for the tank thing, i would make some test flight to know how many needed to safely land it under like 6m/sec

No matter how many people claim this, it is not tue. Anything on rails (more than 2.5 km from the active ship) moving through dense atmosphere (0.01 atm) is deleted by the game, with or without drone parts or Kerballed pods.

Thanks for the calculator, will have a look at it.

So that means I cant make my staging stuff lands safely?
Im pretty sure NASA doesnt just drop the empty fuel tanks straight to the ground lol.

my small tank that I test drop near KSC works, they didnt explode. but they are within 2.5km for sure.

[Melfice]

Originally posted by Euruzilys:

Thanks for the calculator, will have a look at it.

So that means I cant make my staging stuff lands safely?
Im pretty sure NASA doesnt just drop the empty fuel tanks straight to the ground lol.

my small tank that I test drop near KSC works, they didnt explode. but they are within 2.5km for sure.

There is at least one mod that I know is updated to 0.90 that allows you to recover debris.
It's called StageRecovery. If your decoupled stage has enough parachutes, OR (and this is apparently a beta-feature, so use at your own risk...) you can have the stage do a powered landing, assuming the stage has enough fuel left and the engine is strong enough.

Of course, this doesn't actually /happen/, it's based on calculations as soon as the part leaves the 2.5 kilometre physics bubble.

If you want to recover debris, mods are your only option currently, without crazy dangerous hijinks.

[AlexMBrennan]

Originally posted by Rene:

This?[ksp.freeiz.com]

Originally posted by Shukinen:

you putting some drone unit on em? because if u drop them and dont have some kind of control unit it will depop at like 2,5km from you, unless it changed, but for the tank thing, i would make some test flight to know how many needed to safely land it under like 6m/sec

No matter how many people claim this, it is not tue. Anything on rails (more than 2.5 km from the active ship) moving through dense atmosphere (0.01 atm) is deleted by the game, with or without drone parts or Kerballed pods.

Whilst that is true, I don't think it is entirely accurate - I think you do not get your money back from parts that do not have control parts (i.e. whilst a FL-T100 with a parachute will land safely, you won't get the money owed)

[Melfice]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Originally posted by Rene:

This?[ksp.freeiz.com]



No matter how many people claim this, it is not tue. Anything on rails (more than 2.5 km from the active ship) moving through dense atmosphere (0.01 atm) is deleted by the game, with or without drone parts or Kerballed pods.

Whilst that is true, I don't think it is entirely accurate - I think you do not get your money back from parts that do not have control parts (i.e. whilst a FL-T100 with a parachute will land safely, you won't get the money owed)

While I haven't explicitly tested it, I think the game doesn't determine what's on the deleted part. It just sees that something is outside the 2.5 kilometre physics bubble AND inside the atmosphere and just goes "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE" and it's gone.

You won't get money back for something that isn't landed and retrieved. Unless you use mods.

[Rene]

Originally posted by Euruzilys:

Thanks for the calculator, will have a look at it.

So that means I cant make my staging stuff lands safely?
Im pretty sure NASA doesnt just drop the empty fuel tanks straight to the ground lol.

my small tank that I test drop near KSC works, they didnt explode. but they are within 2.5km for sure.

When you're flying one ship, the game will (normally) not calculate what's happening to the parts that are falling off it (the staged parts) if and when they get far enough. So the actualy answer is, yes you can, if you take into account the limitations of the game.

This video explains what is and what is not possible.

I'm pretty sure NASA just drops the empty fuel tanks, with the exception of the Space Shuttle solid boosters.