If a space ship crashes on a planet, is it realistic that things from that space ship could be rescued afterwards?
The situation I'm considering is as follows:
A space ship (a transport ship operated by two people) crashes onto a planet on which a swing-by was planned. The crew could escape using an escape capsule and land on the planet, while the space ship crashed on it. The escape capsule lands not too far from the crashed ship.
The planet has only a very thin atmosphere, so one can assume that the space ship did not burn up in the uncontrolled fall (however, I don't know how thin the atmosphere has to be to allow that, but since the planet is very hostile and the crew will need space suits outside anyway, I can make is as thin as needed).
Now my idea is that the crew will rescue some things from the ship wreck (like food reserves). But that of course assumes that anything could actually have survived the crash.
Therefore my question: Could such a crash realistically happen in a way that things could be rescued from the ship afterwards? Note that the things don't have to be in a particularly good shape, just good enough to be useful at all.
1 answer
I think another defining factor is how large the ship is to begin with. If you have more components (more engines, wings (for a spaceplane), landing gear, etc.), there's a greater chance that something will be damaged, but a smaller chance that everything will be damaged. If you take 10 engines and spread them out along a spaceship, the craft would have to be totally obliterated for none of them to work. Chances are, you'll get a couple that are okay. And if one of the crew is mechanically adept (I hope!), a few more could be salvaged.
That said, you won't be able to rebuild the original ship. A lot of crucial components will be damaged or destroyed. But you can probably make do. If an X-wing fighter crashes on a planet, the upper (or lower, depending on the angle) two engines could be intact. You might also have damage to one set of wings (again, it depends on the approach angle and, in this case, if the wings were spread out or bunched together). You won't be able to re-build the X-wing, but you might be able to cobble together some two-engine craft that can get off the planet.
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