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Re: There's only one way to land a man from orbit.
Posted By: Postmortem <postmortem@forwarduntodawn.com>	Date: 2/11/13 10:07 a.m.
In Response To: There's only one way to land a man from orbit. (Quirel) : Ladies and gentlemen, please consider the following: Humanity isn't picky : about where we set up camp. If the gravity is a bit too high or the air : pressure a bit too thin, we'll live there anyway. Hard vacuum on a moon : too small to support its own atmosphere? We'll build arcologies and call : it good. : And every one of those colonies needs defending, and those pilots need a way : to survive re-entry. If they've ejected from their ship, it's a last-ditch : option. And no, I did not mean to make a pun there. : Their spacecraft is likely completely inoperable, in more pieces than you and : I can count on our fingers and toes. Hell, knowing Covenant plasma, the : ship and the pilot might even be on fire. : And they need our help. : They put their lives on the line to protect ours, gentlemen. They're probably : screaming, in pain, maybe even clutching at a limb that ain't there no : more. It is our DUTY to save them, whether or not they're in a condition : to cooperate with us. And because of the aforementioned problems with : gravity and atmosphere, parachutes ain't going to cut it. : We need rockets. : : : : Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the M-Spec Reentry Unit, the Mae West of the : twenty-sixth century. : That central bit there, usually marked with a 'RELEASE' stamp, covers the : first stage of saving the pilots life. When the onboard computer detects : that the pilot's tumble has pointed the M-Spec skyward, explosive bolts : blow the cover free of the pack. : : Yes, explosive bolts. When it comes down to saving someone's life, you don't : Mickey-Mouse your way around. Particularly not when a government contract : is paying all expenses. : Ahem. : : A secondary charge throws the first stage retrorocket unit free of the : M-Spec. If there's an atmosphere, the slipstream will straighten : everything out and the the rockets will smoothly slow the pilot's descent. : If not, the slack will be taken out of the line when the retrorockets : fire. : Don't worry, the pack can take the stress. There's been instances of chipped : teeth and whiplash on the part of the pilots though. But let's be honest : here; if the guys who designed the flight suits were doing their job, the : armor would lock up tighter than a gambler's wallet and we wouldn't have : to worry about this. : : So long as the retrorockets have fuel, they will continue to fire in order to : retard the pilot's downward motion. The object is stop the pilot's tumble, : stabilizing him for stage two. : Which, sadly, doesn't involve explosive bolts. OSHA got on our case for that : one. : : What you see before you is the M-Spec just prior to second stage firing. For : those of you who are wondering, the canisters flanking the pilot's kidneys : are fuel tanks. The central octagonal plate is a stand-in for the pilot's : harness. : Now watch carefully, because the real magic is about to happen. : : Thanks to the miracle of sodium azide and several proprietary catalysts, : nothing in the 'verse is going to stop those caps from flying off and : exposing two General Electric HTPW Vectored Thrusters. Let me tell you, : these suckers will slow a 100 kilogram load from splatter speed to zilch : in the space of a few minutes. Heavier loads might come down faster, but : we're confident that the M-Spec will never have to save more than : one-twenty kilograms, tops. : The only problem is that the pilot happens to be in the way. Don't worry : about that, because we've come up with a solution. Two, in fact. The first : happens to be what we call 'ablative protective layers', to be installed : on every flight suit in the Navy's Orbital Defense units. : The second? Skycrane. : : Just prior to releasing the first stage of retrorockets, the M-Spec pack will : begin to lower the pilot on Thermex-sheathed carbon fiber cables, placing : them out of harms way. Unless there's no atmosphere to diffuse the : exhaust. In that case, they'll be grateful for those ablative plates. : There are those who question the safety of the skycrane system. To those : people, we point out that their great great great great grandfathers : watched on TV as real men of science landed rovers on Mars this way. The : first colonists of Reach and Siberia Prime were resupplied with skycranes. : And today, four out of five engineers have signed off on the system as : safe for human transport. : Anyhow, long before the unit runs out of fuel, the pilot will be gently set : down on the surface of the planet*, and the M-Spec will maneuver to land : nearby. As soon as the pilot is able, he may retrieve the survival gear : from the upper storage compartment. Food, medication, anesthetics, even an : M6G handgun with extended magazines are stuffed in there. : *In case the surface in question happens to be the ocean surface, the M-Spec : can be used as a floatation device. : We aren't done saving the pilot's life yet, though. The spare fuel can be run : though an auxiliary power unit to run a radio, water purifier and : atmosphere recycler. Some crafty fellows have even figured out how to cook : meals on the thrusters. : There you have it, folks. Welcome to the Caterpillar Club. Awesome. I love it. :) I've included your descriptions on the site as well. People can click on the images and read more about them. I'll go back and retroactively add those to the other previous rounds.

Community Evolved

Message Index

Visualizing the Halo Universe: Round 6	Postmortem	1/27/13 11:35 a.m.
Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Round 6	TDSpiral	1/27/13 11:48 a.m.
Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Round 6	Postmortem	1/27/13 12:15 p.m.
First entry!	Quirel	1/27/13 6:07 p.m.
You win.	Postmortem	1/27/13 6:50 p.m.
Falling with style. *NM*	Ragashingo	1/27/13 7:58 p.m.
Re: First entry!	Stephen L. (SoundEffect)	1/27/13 7:59 p.m.
Ha Ha! *NM*	Bones	1/27/13 8:39 p.m.
Re: Ha Ha! *NM*	thebruce0	1/28/13 9:57 a.m.
^Wish I'd thought of that. *NM*	Quirel	1/27/13 9:00 p.m.
*headdesk* *NM*	Vincent	1/28/13 5:36 a.m.
You uncultured swine.	bryan newman	2/10/13 2:59 a.m.
Re: Visualizing the Halo Universe: Round 6	Postmortem	2/8/13 1:50 p.m.
One day remaining to submit art!	Postmortem	2/9/13 6:45 p.m.
Re: One day remaining to submit art!	Quirel	2/10/13 12:08 a.m.
Re: One day remaining to submit art!	Postmortem	2/10/13 2:07 a.m.
Re: One day remaining to submit art!	Quirel	2/10/13 2:28 a.m.
Re: One day remaining to submit art!	Postmortem	2/10/13 11:29 a.m.
There's only one way to land a man from orbit.	Quirel	2/11/13 12:17 a.m.
I'll take 4. *NM*	MoltenSlowa	2/11/13 12:25 a.m.
Re: There's only one way to land a man from orbit.	Kermit	2/11/13 12:28 a.m.
Clever	ZackDark	2/11/13 9:11 a.m.
Re: Clever	Quirel	2/11/13 3:51 p.m.
Re: There's only one way to land a man from orbit.	Postmortem	2/11/13 10:07 a.m.
Re: There's only one way to land a man from orbit.	Quirel	2/11/13 3:52 p.m.
Re: There's only one way to land a man from orbit.	General Vagueness	2/12/13 7:14 p.m.
Re: There's only one way to land a man from orbit.	Quirel	2/13/13 3:08 p.m.