Word: absorbers
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...surface, of course, it must reach the Martian surface, and that won't be easy. The 1,300-lb. spacecraft will slam into the planet's atmosphere at 16,300 m.p.h., ultimately causing it to experience deceleration forces of 20 Gs. The vehicle's cork-and-silicon aeroshell should absorb most of this body blow. Both a parachute and a retrorocket will slow its plunge, and an array of airbags will inflate to cushion the shock of landing. And finally, the spacecraft will simply drop to the surface, striking the ground like a beach ball and rolling to a stop...
...years, NASA is poised to resume exploration of the Red Planet as the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft prepares for a July 4 touchdown. Making a whimsical entry, the half-ton lander will approach the surface at 1pm EST at about 55 miles per hour, whereupon a bubble pack will absorb the brunt of the impact, sending the lander bouncing like a basketball up to the height of a four-story building until it settles safely on the planet surface. A small rover named Sojourner (24.5 inches long by 18.7 inches wide) will then emerge to study the planet's geological characteristics...
...board of directors, he can make all decisions himself: "I don't always have to listen to the government." Zhang reduced the work force to 6,400, then farmed out an additional 1,000 workers to small related industries like repair shops. He started a plastics plant to absorb 2,000 more. "Here it is illegal to lay off workers," he says, "unless I can find them other jobs...
This is not entirely his fault. The screenwriters, Randall McCormick and Jeff Nathanson, and the director, Jan de Bont, have no interest in providing their actors with stuff to act. Their job is to keep the whammos coming. Our job is to sit there, absorb the blows and pretend to like their cold expertise. With De Bont's quick wit and tense minimalism on the first Speed still fresh in mind, that's hard work...
Meanwhile, competition is heating up. Last month an FDA advisory panel recommended approval of a drug called orlistat that works on the gut instead of the brain--reducing caloric intake by blocking the body's ability to absorb fat. Orlistat has its problems--its side effects include intestinal leakage. That doesn't mean orlistat will not be a big seller, at least at first. But if folks buy it expecting weight-loss miracles, they are bound to be as disappointed next year as Redux users are today...