A parachute being deployed
The Parachute is used for slowing down on an object with an atmosphere, such as Earth, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Parachutes are useless on objects without an atmosphere because there is no air in space.
It has its deployment sequence: partial deployment and full deployment. The partial deployment will not prevent parts from breaking on contact. Full deployment will slow down most spacecraft to below velocities that cause the rocket to be destroyed. The parachute can be cut.
Since Mercury, The Moon, Io, Ganymede , and Callisto have no atmospheres, you cannot deploy parachutes.
The parachute cannot deploy at speeds greater than 250 m/s or less than 3 m/s. It also cannot deploy in a vacuum such as space. The parachute needs to be lower than 2500 meters high (4500 on Mars or 7500 on Jupiter) to partially deploy and under 500 meters (900 on Mars or 1500 on Jupiter) to fully deploy.
Trivia[]
- A partially-deployed parachute fully deploys automatically at half the full deployment height above the ground level.
- Even though Europa has an atmosphere, the atmosphere is too thin to deploy a parachute in.
- Before 1.4, parachutes used to adapt to parts that were placed above them, such as docking ports, so you could make seamless connections. Currently, they do not adapt, and this may be due to a bug or change in the part file.
- If you deploy a parachute just after liftoff and leave it, it will stay deployed until you cut it. However, they have no effect in outer space as there is no air to bring drag.
- Parachutes also don't deploy when an object is not moving.
- A parachute auto-cuts when the rocket lands.
- Fuel tanks adapt to parachutes, thus making it possible to make fuel tanks that are 2 units wide.
A parachute that completed its deployment sequence
- Fuel tanks have a density of 0.625t/m2, and an upright and upside-down parachute on either end of a fuel tank will make it thinner on both ends. Its density remains constant, but its mass is reduced to 4/5ths of what it would be, were it about 2-wide. This means the underside of a parachute is 1.6 squares wide, but the widest point is 2 wide, as its bottom tapers, as well as its top.
- The parachute can be attached to the top of a capsule.
- Before 1.5, the parachute must be moving slower than 50 m/s to fully deploy.
- A parachute loses its cover when it is deployed.
- A player can make thin fuel tanks using the parachute’s adaption to fuel tanks feature. However, the real 2 wide tanks can be only found in blueprint editing.
- If you connect a random part above a parachute (like another parachute or structural part) and deploy it, the parachute and that part would stay in one piece.
- If you clip another parachute this time facing the downside it will have a small rectangular part, but it doesn't have much of a purpose and can only be as a decorative part or two parachutes in one space for extra deceleration.