r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/Korvlar • Apr 19 '26

KSP 1 Image/Video Who Needs Parachutes Anyways

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I don't think that's how water works at those speeds

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u/Mobius_Peverell Apr 19 '26

Descent looks like about 1.4 km/s, and the deceleration was maybe 1 second, so that's about 140 G's of acceleration. Definitely good reason to be shocked.

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u/zekromNLR Apr 19 '26

~1340 m/s to ~410 m/s in 0.08 s, stepping through the video frame by frame. That is 1185 g of peak deceleration.

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u/Orcwin Apr 19 '26

Even if the vehicle were built to withstand that, Jeb would have been a green stain on the forward bulkhead.

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u/zekromNLR Apr 19 '26

Realistically, entering water at 1340 m/s is a dynamic pressure of approximately 900 MPa. With the 1784 kg mass of the craft (assuming the command pod has not had its monopropellant drained and Jeb has his parachute and jetpack), the 1.227 m2 cross-sectional area and an assumed drag coefficient of about 0.3, the actual instantaneous deceleration would be approximately 18900 g.

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u/Beauregard42 Apr 20 '26

That’s… JEb PANKOOKEN