On Mar 4, 6:28 pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
Henry Spencer wrote:
Nothing "crash" or "square" about it -- a carefully-controlled entry at a
very shallow angle, using body lift to shape the path and hold the capsule
down in the atmosphere until it had lost enough speed that it wasn't going
to skip back out.

Which brings up the question: What would happen if it did skip off the
atmosphere?
Does it go into some odd orbit around Earth, or does it go clean out of
orbit and into solar orbit?

Pat

Pat

Pat,

At the risk of sounding like a smart aleck, I think the answer is
yes . . . or perhaps more accurately, it depends. It probably
depends on the angle at which the reentry had been attempted, vechicle
velocity, and the weight of the vehicle, which increased as more and
more samples were brought back. I suspect that it would be a funny-
shaped earth orbit, but maybe someone more proficient at orbital
mechanics can tell us for sure.

Take care . . .

John