Jim McCauley wrote:

I'm still working on the Gs that would be pulled in a personal descent
system that has a high aerodynamic cross section and low mass -- the
deceleration force is pretty scary -- but this model may be the most
reliable for any manned descent, and as a bonus, it's also probably the
least expensive.

The Gs aren't scarier in a system with high aerodynamic cross section and
low mass. Such a system will decelerate higher where the atmosphere is
thinner. Typically the deceleration will be softer than with denser systems.

I have done some BOE engineering for such systems. One interesting
possibility is to have a mesh shield. You have a heat shield to protect
what you want to bring to the ground and you extend the shield out
further to increase the drag. But the part of the shield that doesn't
protect the payload from heat and is there only to increase the drag
can be a mesh. The gaps in it lets the heat flow through it and it can
have high drag for a low mass. The details of the implementation are
left as an exercise to the reader :-)


Alain Fournier