The most recent method of landing rovers and scientific instrument packages has been to encase them in an inflatable 'ball' and let the bounce/roll to a stop, rather than trying to land precisely by retrorocket.
The casing, when inflated, resembles a soccer ball, based on the spherical shape, first derived by Buckminster Fuller, composed of hexagonal and pentagonal panels.
The FIFA Jabulani ball, like the other World Cup balls introduced since 1996, was constructed to be as perfectly spherical as possible, with a minimum number of panels. NASA might, very well, have been looking at the construction techniques in the interest of applying them to lander design, but the aerodynamic quirks, especially those leading to a chaotic flight path in free-fall would be a deal breaker.
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Yay! Our tax dollars at work.
Hey Nasa.. don't you have some Space to be exploring or something....?
@Madcat:
Actually, this does have practical applications.
The most recent method of landing rovers and scientific instrument packages has been to encase them in an inflatable 'ball' and let the bounce/roll to a stop, rather than trying to land precisely by retrorocket.
The casing, when inflated, resembles a soccer ball, based on the spherical shape, first derived by Buckminster Fuller, composed of hexagonal and pentagonal panels.
The FIFA Jabulani ball, like the other World Cup balls introduced since 1996, was constructed to be as perfectly spherical as possible, with a minimum number of panels. NASA might, very well, have been looking at the construction techniques in the interest of applying them to lander design, but the aerodynamic quirks, especially those leading to a chaotic flight path in free-fall would be a deal breaker.
@Madcat Indeed, I want to travel through mass relays before I die...
@Madcat : http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/06/clue-is-a-renewable-resource.html