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pecika OP t1_itkus3m wrote

"We think we could go to more treacherous areas, where we wouldn't want to risk trying to place a billion-dollar rover with our current landing systems," said SHIELD's project manager, Lou Giersch of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "Maybe we could even land several of these at different difficult-to-access locations to build a network."

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ItsTheNapkinMan t1_itllxex wrote

I love this idea and project. The thought of future projects being hurled at planets and crash landing is amazing. When we getting odst?

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dingo1018 t1_itmj4wt wrote

Ever since I was a kid I've thought of this kind of thing, just my mind wondering. I even devised a human version for use in Earth! Well it only works at sea! Imagine a lance like a medieval jousting lance that curved taper to a wider conical cross section at the handle end, well turn that vertically and have a skydiver riding this thing like a pogo stick! So I thought that if you can get that curvature right and the whole thing scaled up the tip can hit the surface of the water at full terminal velocity and the whole thing will rapidly reduce velocity as more of the lance enters the water as both the resistance due to friction and floatation will increase from almost nothing (all determined by the curvature and dimensions of the lance) it will take a certain amount of 'commitment' from the skydiver!

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they_have_no_bullets t1_itncbv4 wrote

That sounds like a pretty good idea actually. Of course, it would only work on a planet with surface water

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UserInside t1_itmemuh wrote

NASA finally learnt how to make lithobraking manoeuvre from Kerbal Space Program ?

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Willinton06 t1_itmz3us wrote

Throw so shit and see what’s sticks, humans never change, the shit just gets shinier

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