18 August 2008 59 views No Comment Print This Post  Email This Post

One of the primary challenges faced by our space programs is ensure that spacecraft, maned or unmanned land safely back on earth or on their destination planet.  We’ve seen some creative and successful methods such as the bouncing landing of the Mars rovers.

This new concept described as a literally a “pit stop”, would use a large tube that runs deep into the group to catch the falling space craft.  The tube and craft would be designed to take advantage of the air pressure built up in the tube to slow the decent of the craft.  More after the break.

This novel approach as several advantages and disadvantages.  It as the advantage of not having to rely on any complex parachute or air bag firing system.  This reduces the weight and complexity of the craft.  The disadvantage is that you are trying to drop a very fast moving object into a relatively small hole in the ground.  As the author points out this problem can be solved with current technology.

Signals from stationary Global Positioning System (GPS) transmitters on the ground near the landing site, in conjunction with the Orbital GPS system, would help direct the capsule’s final decent. Like a “smart bomb” the vehicle would aim for an exact spot on the earth’s surface. Ground-based vertical wind profilers would provide real-time meteorological updates for the guidance and control system. Other terminal guidance aids, for example LIDAR (light detection and ranging) or active laser tracking might also be used to achieve great accuracy.

If your interested in this type of thing I highly recommend you check out the full article, it is well written and goes into a good amount of detail.

The Space Review: “Pit Stop”: a new way to return from space