From: vince@offshore.ai (Vincent Cate) Newsgroups: sci.space.tech Subject: Re: Landing a capsule on a huge airbag? References: <9186edb5.0309190722.5848cb75@posting.google.com> <9186edb5.0309250822.18253903@posting.google.com> <200310011147 32.318152c9.smithm@SPAMBLOCK.com.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.88.68.33 Message-ID: <9186edb5.0310012151.60bad91a@posting.google.com> Michael Smith wrote in message news:<20031001114732.318152c9.smithm@SPAMBLOCK.com.au>... > I think a capsule is going to land moderately hard whatever you > do to cushion the landing. Fully reusable may be impossible to > achive, particularly because you won't have much control over the > landing site so it is likely to sustain some damage on landing. I am looking at the case where the capsule has some L/D (say 0.4) and you have a parafoil with some L/D (say 4). With these I think you could control exactly where you land. Note that a parafoil can flare just before landing and kill almost all of the speed. If you land on a huge airbag (think bigger than any stuntman ever got) I don't think you need to damage anything. > When landing on top of an airbag the CG is always going to be > high _unless_ the airbag collapses under load. If you bounce back > up after landing you are likely to come back down in a bad > attitude. Yes, in the same way that you don't want to bounce a stuntman back up and maybe off the airbag. You want to design for this. > Have you considered a water landing? I think a reusable capsule will last better if we keep it away from salt water. -- Vince