[T]he maximum angle of leaning is the same on Earth as it is on the moon. It would be the same on any world, large or small, because gravity cancels out of the equation.
However, the answer changes if the spacecraft is still moving. Odysseus was supposed to land vertically with zero horizontal velocity, but because of problems with the navigation system, it was still moving sideways when it hit the ground.
“Intuition that’s based on Earth is now a liability,” Dr. Metzger said.
He gave the example of trying to push over the refrigerator in your kitchen. “It’s so heavy that a slight push is not going to push it over,” Dr. Metzger said.
But you replace it with a piece of Styrofoam in the shape of a refrigerator, mimicking the weight of a real refrigerator in lunar gravity, “then a very light push will push it over,” Dr. Metzger said.
Maybe it would be better to design the spacecraft so it can do cartwheels?
Awesome to see Scott get a shoutout in a NYT article, he has so much great content. I've watched a bunch of his Kerbal videos.
Scott Manley, who provides commentary about rockets on X and YouTube, noted that Mr. Altemus had led the development of a shorter, squatter lander when he was at NASA a decade ago.
Awesome to see Scott get a shoutout in a NYT article, he has so much great content. I've watched a bunch of his Kerbal videos.
From the article (archive), based on a Twitter thread.
Maybe it would be better to design the spacecraft so it can do cartwheels?
That reminds me of how they landed rovers on mars with airbags.
Awesome to see Scott get a shoutout in a NYT article, he has so much great content. I've watched a bunch of his Kerbal videos.