(Yesterday, 11:03 AM)FCD Wrote: Turns out if you fire off a chute above Mach 2 it will pretty much self destruct instantly once it starts to collect air. Small drogue chutes are fine, but not parachutes in the 70+ feet in diameter range. JPL managed to find solutions for most of these issues in 2019, and now they have parachutes which can operate properly at 2x these velocities with 2x+ the design strength or any payload thought to be needed on Mars for the foreseeable future. A digression here, I suppose, but I thought it a little interesting factoid because it turns out that somewhere above Mach 1.5 is the sweet spot for where you want to deploy a large main chute on the descent to Mars.
That was really it, just thought I'd share.
Great insight FCD. When talking about Mach figures, are they calculated at Mars speed of sound (about 540mph) or Earths (about 760mph). Mars atmosphere being thinner of course. Asking because I just don't know.
Kind regards,
Bally.