In article ,
Gallery Neolithica wrote:
Imagine if this payload contained a viable pathogen from Mars. Would we have
had to nuke the valley in a cheap remake of The Andromeda Strain? Dugway's
containments are useless if the capsule ruptures BEFORE getting there. As a
helicopter pilot I can tell you that entire scenario is UNSAFE for
biopotential sample returns.

This was obvious from the start, and the mission planners don't need you
to tell them so. There was never any intention of using this method for
sample returns in general. Different requirements yield different
solutions.

The recent concepts I've seen for Mars sample capsules simply don't *have*
a parachute. They have relatively high-drag shapes that will have fairly
low terminal velocities, and they just do a hard landing. When you start
with a non-negotiable requirement that the sample container must remain
intact and sealed despite a parachute failure, you quickly conclude that
there's little point in bothering with the parachute at all...
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |