There are so many things that you can land on land that will absolutely ruin your day when going for land. A large boulder, a large tree, a cliffside, a building, something flammable, near an angry hungry bear… The open sea is seen as safer in the American school of thought.
Comment on Land where
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
I’m not really sure that’s the main reason. In case of a chute failure you’re going to have a bad time in either case.
Russian capsules land on land.
I think it’s just a lot more easier to recover, when there’s no landscape around that you need to traverse
DaddleDew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
0ops@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
I read that as “safer than an American school” and I’ll like well yeah, low bar
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Did you see the Principal that tackled a shooter the other day? Bravo!
Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a school administrator
ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Russians would actually send their cosmonauts to space with a gun in case they encountered a bear before rescue while in the wilderness.
ilinamorato@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Or if they encounter space-bears before reentry
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Moon’sHaunted.jpeg
cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
I just had to look this up and it did not disappoint. It was apparently a triple barrel gun with a machete for a stock and only went out of service in 2006.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Tbf, USAF pilots generally got the same thing
TheFogan@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
I imagine a lot of factors… but yeah that’s a big one, no mountains, no buildings, no population centers, you can miss by 100 miles and just add some time to the recovery.
mkwt@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The capsules can do a water splashdown with parachutes alone.
The capsules that land on land all seem to have some additional system to slow down in addition to the parachute. Boeing Starliner has airbags that deploy around and below the heat shield. Soyuz has a braking rocket system that fires immediately before impact.
megopie@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
So, the issue does come down to the chutes. A chute capable of reducing decent speed to 10m/s is significantly larger than one capable of getting the speed to 60 m/s. Impractically large on a weight constrained thing like a space capsule.
The Soyuz uses a small set of retro rockets to reduce speed in the last few seconds before touch down, and even then it’s like being in a car crash.
On the Vostok capsules the astronauts didn’t even land with the capsules, they just bailed out and parachuted down.
Landing in the ocean is significantly more comfortable and less complicated.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Sounds good at first, it’s just that they splash down in water at 7.5m/s.
megopie@beehaw.org 3 weeks ago
The nasa blog on the final day said. “At 5,400 feet, Orion’s drogue parachutes were cut and the three main parachutes deployed, reducing velocity to less than 200 feet per second and guiding Orion on its final descent and splashdown.”
Which is to say “less than” roughly 60 meters per second. Somewhere else on the site I couldn’t find again they mentioned it being a touch down speed of 20 miles per hour, which is a fair bit slower at about 9 meters a second, but that’s still a car crash if you’re hitting a solid surface.
The point remains. Getting a large object like that down to a soft, non injurious, speed is not practical with just a parachute. Other techniques must be employed.
14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
and except for the nonsensical idea that water is soft and bouncy and it is more comfortable to land into it… it is not.
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Starliner also lands on land, and I believe Dragon has that option or at least was gong to at some point in its design.
mercano@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Russian capsules launch from the Kazack steppe. In the event of a launch abort, like there was in October 2018, you need to have a capsule that can land on land.
American capsules launch from Florida and fly over the ocean. In the event of an abort, they need to be able to land at sea.
They both took their abort modes and just made it the standard way to land after a mission.
victorz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sounds like the real reason right here. The sea landing surely is a lot easier and quicker to recover as well.
Krzd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s also much easier to hit what you aim for
water -> water Land -> oops, that’s a tree, and that’s a boulder, and that’s a lake.
ferrule@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Also where they are taking off and landing in Russia is a big flat wasteland. It’s the ocean of the land. There isn’t a lot of empty space in the US unless you are either in the desert or in the places we grow corn and wheat. Less shit to crash into when it’s water in the US.
victorz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Makes perfect sense.
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Also, water is bouncy and land is hard. There’s no way it’s not easier on the crew and capsule.
14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
This seems to make the most sense, so no matter whether it is true or not, i decided to trust this