Can I re-enter earth and land with my jetpack

[MiSSingKidNey!!]

I lost my spawn point on Earth and can only take the space entry points. My mates medical bay ran out of power so I cant use that.

I am in one of the ships which only has Ion thrusters which have an atmosphere cutoff so they will only get me re-entry.

What I want to attempt, is to jump out and land using my jetpack. Since I cannot seem to find out how to build the parachute!

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great.

Thanks

[Spaceman Spiff]

Contrary to popular believe, ion thrusters can power a ship within an atmosphere, but you've got to account for their 20% efficiency. I've built a large-grid ship with ion thrusters that even had a jump drive that could land and take off from any of the planets. However, if you want to get that respawn ship to land, you'd better first build an assembler, process some stone (I think that's all you need for the canvas), and build some parachutes.

[Valen]

You can ascend with your jetpack. So you certainly can brake on landing too. Just need to have enough H2 and brake in time. It's always a thrill to do a suicide burn by enabling dampers at just the right time. Tricky to judge though with mountains and elevation.

The 3 ion engines of the large grid space ship is probably insufficient to counter gravity on Earthlike, even when pointing butt-down. You should be able to land relatively safely with a few parachutes. Make sure to balance them around your center of gravity. There is a checkmark in the K-menu, info tab to show it.

[Spaceman Spiff]

@Valen is correct, but you could build a small-grid ship by salvaging the large-grid ship that would have plenty of ion thrusters for the descent, flying around the planet, and ascent when desired. Just sayin'...

[Jeff]

Yes, you can free fall to the planet's surface and stop yourself with your jet pack. If you are outside gravity, you can accelerate with your jet pack toward the planet and then turn off your dampeners (default key is Z) and when you get close to the surface turn your dampeners back on. If you are in gravity, you could also just turn off your jet pack (default key is X) and let gravity accelerate you down and when you get close to the surface, turn your jet pack back on.

However, make sure you remember which of these methods you started with. I did it once where I turned off my dampeners and when I got close to the surface, I hit X thinking it would turn my jet pack on but it turned it off instead. Before I realized what I had done, I had impacted with the ground. :)

Also, it would be best to start with as much hydrogen as possible and having at least one hydrogen tank gives more braking time and to readjust your landing point.

[MiSSingKidNey!!]

Thanks heaps for the comments. Helped a lot.

[ostlandr]

And if "falling with style" doesn't suit you, there is an aerodynamics mod that will let you realistically burn up on a bad reentry, a la Kerbal Space Program. You get actual aircraft wings too.

[ostlandr]

Originally posted by Jeff:

Yes, you can free fall to the planet's surface and stop yourself with your jet pack. If you are outside gravity, you can accelerate with your jet pack toward the planet and then turn off your dampeners (default key is Z) and when you get close to the surface turn your dampeners back on. If you are in gravity, you could also just turn off your jet pack (default key is X) and let gravity accelerate you down and when you get close to the surface, turn your jet pack back on.

However, make sure you remember which of these methods you started with. I did it once where I turned off my dampeners and when I got close to the surface, I hit X thinking it would turn my jet pack on but it turned it off instead. Before I realized what I had done, I had impacted with the ground. :)

Also, it would be best to start with as much hydrogen as possible and having at least one hydrogen tank gives more braking time and to readjust your landing point.

Thanks for this post. I feel much better about the times I "f@t finger" when flying. I actually d1ed the other day by flying into my solar tracking array with my jetpack. I mean, it does move- that's kind of the point. And there's always "OMG I forgot the ship is fully loaded! C'mon, baby, brake, BRAKE!" That Southern girl Delta Vee can be a real B-word.