5 ms·

Seams to me that a braking parachute could help enormously with the fuel economy of the landing.

• JshWright 13y ago
  Not really... you'd still have to do the earlier burns to slow the stage down enough that it doesn't break up in the atmosphere, and the burn to boost it back to the launch site. The parachutes would just save the final 'hover slam' burn, but the terminal velocity of a practically empty first stage is already pretty low, and the complexity of a parachute system wouldn't be offset by the minimal savings in speed reduction.
  • bronson 13y ago
    Plus, if you're aiming for a target on the ground, the atmospheric effects (wind) on a parachute would be severe. You'd probably burn as much fuel recovering from the parachute's meandering miles off target as you would just slowing the ballistic final leg. (not sure though, -ENOMATH)
    • rbanffy 13y ago
      IIRC, they actually considered it, but the parachute, plus its pyros and extra equipment were heavier than the extra fuel for braking. Parachutes are very useful when you don't have engines powerful enough to slow you down, but the whole purpose of this is the controlled landing of nine very powerful engines.
• astrodust 13y ago
  Just as realistic would be having a giant butterfly net that could catch it. It doesn't have to be a gentle landing, there's never going to be any people on board. It just has to not come apart in the process. A very high-g hard-stop could be cheaper in terms of weight than a giant parachute.
• yaur 13y ago
  KSP knowledge is both a plus and a minus here. If you have played it you know that once the chutes open you are going to land pretty much wherever they take you. OTOH in real Earth there are winds that are going to make it difficult to predict exactly where that is and there aren't hundreds of miles of open space where you can just oopsy your landing.