For many decades, the conventional parachute had problems of lines becoming tangled. Many soldiers dropped during war zones lost their lives and parachutes became entangled in aircraft propellers. Even a US Mars probe was designed for counter rotation during reentry to reduce the possibility of parachute lines entanglement and to initiate a state of detanglement.
The ISS Pioneer rocket Parachute is designed with numerous improved parameters of flight. The materials are good for hot and cold weather mission returns. When properly released, the parachute is a calibrated function of speed and unit time. There are no lines to entangle and the specific design can minimize return delta X rocket drift. The chute porosity can have adjustment during manufacturing to calibrate the amount of air spill. There are no lines to rip or tear. Minimal return drift can make tracking and recovery more easy and the parachute can have a design to function as a cross between a parachute and a streamer.
The history of the tangle free parachute dates back ten years for Prize Parachutes. These were small one piece tangle-free parachutes connected to a prize that were dropped from catwalks and overhangs to fans below. The chutes were generally 18-inch nylon diameter with a metal hook for attaching coupons and prizes with a weight limit of about 3 ounces. Later, larger parachutes with a jumbo diameter of 56-inches dropped t-shirts. The tangle-free parachute was also used as a throwing toy, manufactured and distributed in China. Research shows such parachutes are not fool-proof and if the weight ends up above the parachute, free-fall may happen, but this is true of conventional parachutes too. Therefore, deployment required added caution.
