I just came back from my testing facility (ok, I just tossed the parachute from the highest window of my house), and the results seem pretty interesting: with a 500g load, the parachute slows down to about 2.5m/s, and with a kilogram, the speed is still decreased to 6-7m/s, which is slow enough to avoid major damage.

Now that I know how big the parachute needs to be, I'll fold it up correctly and size the compartment. 

I also made a small presentation video to hit the requirements for the Hackaday Prize. Gosh, listening to myself makes me realise how terrible my english actually is...