Re-entry

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**mondo80**

Could a space marine or equivalent survive re-entry from orbit to a planet surface intact without a drop pod or jump pack?

Could something with a force-field do the same?

Long story short I have an idea for a story were a necron lychguard crash lands on an alien world and I would like to think it would survive it realistically.

**War Kitten**

Probably not. Coming in from orbit to the planet usually means impact at terminal velocity. Not even a Marine could survive that. There would have to be something that slows his fall or otherwise cushions the impact, and it would have to be a VERY good cushion

**Wyzilla**

I'm pretty sure it happened once in a story, but the Marines in question landed in water and needed Apothecary mending after it.

**HoundsofDemos**

No, Vulkan did this in a recent HH novel and died but regenerated due to being a perpetual. If a primarch couldn't do it a normal marine certain can not.

**Vitali Advenil**

Come to think of it, with all that armor, can Space Marines actually swim? With their pauldrons, I can't imagine they can do anything close to freestyle. They'd have to do something like the breaststroke, but their armor would make it incredibly difficult. Then again, they can breathe underwater IIRC, so that may not be a problem- unless of course they go too deep and get crushed by the pressure.

**HoundsofDemos**

5th edition wolves codex had them fighting an under water battles. Not sure if that required modifications but considering spacemarines can breath poison, you would only need a proposions system.

**Wyzilla**

HoundsofDemos wrote:
No, Vulkan did this in a recent HH novel and died but regenerated due to being a perpetual. If a primarch couldn't do it a normal marine certain can not.

Vulkan also died to a spork.

**Unit1126PLL**

Most likely not.

**Wyzilla**

Unit1126PLL wrote:
Most likely not.

IIRC at some point of the HH books Curze grabbed a utensil and shoved it into Vulkan's breast, causing him to respawn.

**HoundsofDemos**

so a primarch (one of the more crazy ones), drove a piece of metal through one of his brothers in a weakened state and momentarily killed him.

Again we have a clear example of Vulkan falling from orbit, burning and then healing because he is a perpetual.

**Wyzilla**

HoundsofDemos wrote:
so a primarch (one of the more crazy ones), drove a piece of metal through one of his brothers in a weakened state and momentarily killed him.

Again we have a clear example of Vulkan falling from orbit, burning and then healing because he is a perpetual.

The point being that Vulkan is by no means a demonstration of durability for anybody. Because he respawned from reentry does not mean an Astartes wouldn't because Vulkan is all over the place when it comes to dying.

**Unit1126PLL**

Wyzilla wrote:
Unit1126PLL wrote:
Most likely not.

IIRC at some point of the HH books Curze grabbed a utensil and shoved it into Vulkan's breast, causing him to respawn.

I meant about the reentry thing. My 30k armies are Reductor and Auxilia, so I don't care about the whole primarch thing. Afaik, spoiled brats can indeed be killed with sporks. All 18 of them.

I killed one with an Auxilia bayonet once so I know it is true!

**locarno24**

Can a marine in powered armour survive a fall from orbit?

Answer unclear. Maybe, maybe not. The heat he's encountering will be worse than a heavy flamer, probably not as bad as a plasma weapon. I'm gonna point at flamestorm cannon and say 'too much for power armour'. Terminator plate - being originally designed for operation inside operational plasma reactors, can probably take the burn.

Can he survive landing after a fall from orbit?
No.

And no, marines in armour can't swim. They do a good line in sinking. That said, as long as their armour isn't compromised, they can just walk along the sea bed. The underwater battle mentioned was fought at the sea bed over underwater dome facilities - it's a long walk to the coastline and the surface but that's not an issue for astartes.

**jhe90**

Plus even minus armour, they from one book can do 15-20 minutes before dying diving wise. Maybe less under combat conditions though

**Furyou Miko**

Triarch Praetorian could do it. Lychguard maybe not - it all depends on how badly damaged his core components are and if it trips his recall failsafes.

Assuming he doesn't phase out on the spot, the Lychguard could probably self-repair given enough time.

**Engrenages**

I can't remember if it is in Halo or in 40k that power armour can be completely sealed and joint-hardened so the wearer can survive an atmospheric fall (I know it's scientifically silly).

**Wyzilla**

jhe90 wrote:
Plus even minus armour, they from one book can do 15-20 minutes before dying diving wise. Maybe less under combat conditions though

That's bs and the author clearly didn't research gak. Space Marines can breathe indefinitely underwater- the multi-lung acts like a set of gills.

**Frozen Ocean**

Engrenages wrote:
I can't remember if it is in Halo or in 40k that power armour can be completely sealed and joint-hardened so the wearer can survive an atmospheric fall (I know it's scientifically silly).

It's Halo, but they still need to be wearing a "Reentry Pack", a device that has no explanations attached to it. All we know is that it works. Master Chief fell far without one at the beginning of Halo 3, but it wasn't from space.

EDIT: As for Marines underwater - I'd expect the power armour helmet to contain a rebreather. It's silly not to.

**KharnsRightHand**

Wyzilla wrote:
HoundsofDemos wrote:
so a primarch (one of the more crazy ones), drove a piece of metal through one of his brothers in a weakened state and momentarily killed him.

Again we have a clear example of Vulkan falling from orbit, burning and then healing because he is a perpetual.

The point being that Vulkan is by no means a demonstration of durability for anybody. Because he respawned from reentry does not mean an Astartes wouldn't because Vulkan is all over the place when it comes to dying.

Vulkan is the Kenny of the 40k universe.

**LethalShade**

Frozen Ocean wrote:
Engrenages wrote:
I can't remember if it is in Halo or in 40k that power armour can be completely sealed and joint-hardened so the wearer can survive an atmospheric fall (I know it's scientifically silly).

It's Halo, but they still need to be wearing a "Reentry Pack", a device that has no explanations attached to it. All we know is that it works. Master Chief fell far without one at the beginning of Halo 3, but it wasn't from space.

EDIT: As for Marines underwater - I'd expect the power armour helmet to contain a rebreather. It's silly not to.

Master Chief fell from 4 or 5 kilometers and almost died from it.

Actually I highly doubt a power armour can survive re-entry heat, and even if it does, the Space Marine inside would be baked. A Jump Pack's fuel would probably explode because of the heat.

**jayko657**

LethalShade wrote:
Frozen Ocean wrote:
Engrenages wrote:
I can't remember if it is in Halo or in 40k that power armour can be completely sealed and joint-hardened so the wearer can survive an atmospheric fall (I know it's scientifically silly).

It's Halo, but they still need to be wearing a "Reentry Pack", a device that has no explanations attached to it. All we know is that it works. Master Chief fell far without one at the beginning of Halo 3, but it wasn't from space.

EDIT: As for Marines underwater - I'd expect the power armour helmet to contain a rebreather. It's silly not to.

Master Chief fell from 4 or 5 kilometers and almost died from it.

Actually I highly doubt a power armour can survive re-entry heat, and even if it does, the Space Marine inside would be baked. A Jump Pack's fuel would probably explode because of the heat.

The Chief was also using a piece of a ship as a heat shield, which probably helped with the being baked problem.

**Wulfmar**

Space Marines - no

In Know No Fear a dreadnought does in a stasis crate (not designed for that sort of punishment)

**Flinty**

Re the swimming question... It's power armour. They probably just need to set it to a repetitive thrash with the legs and leave the thing to it.

**Mr Morden**

Mere humans have survived stupidly high falls - life is wierd

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-fall-survived-without-parachute/

Vesna Vulovic (Yugoslavia) was 23 working as a Jugoslavenski Aerotransport hostess when she survived a fall from 10,160 m (33,333 ft) over Srbsk, Kamenice, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), on 26 January 1972 after the DC-9 she was working aboard, blew up.

In January of 1943, Magee was a ball turret gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress on a bombing run on the Atlantic coast of Nazi-occupied France. During the raid, his plane, called the "Snap! Crackle! Pop!", took enemy fire and broke up over the U-boat yards of St. Nazaire. Acting quickly, Magee escaped his turret and jumped from the flaming bomber without a parachute. Because of the altitude, Magee lost consciousness mid-fall before smashing through the glass roof of St. Nazaire's train station. Hours later, he awoke to find German doctors putting him back together. His injuries included a broken right leg and ankle, a nearly severed right arm, and 28 shrapnel wounds from shards of glass. Dr. Seth Izenberg, a trauma specialist at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland, Ore., says that while a fall from 20,000 feet sounds incredible, the extreme height makes little difference. "Anything above 10 or 12 stories and you've reached terminal velocity. So a fall from 20,000 feet sounds dramatic, but there's really no difference from a 500-foot fall."

**Psienesis**

Well, there was that guy who recently did a, what, ionoosphere drop for a Red Bull challenge or some such thing? Baumgartner, is that his name? Of course, he had very specialized equipment for doing this.

That said, it wasn't a free-fall into terminal velocity that ended with an abrupt stop at the bottom which, face it, if a bolter can punch through power armor, the Marine so dropping is going to leave a really big crater and be a ceramite pancake in the center of it.

**A Town Called Malus**

No. No living thing can survive re-entry from space without some spacecraft designed to protect it.

All it would take is a single dent or crack in the marines armour, even if it is only minor and the frictional forces would rip it apart, like what happened to Columbia.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mr Morden wrote:
Mere humans have survived stupidly high falls - life is wierd

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/highest-fall-survived-without-parachute/

Vesna Vulovic (Yugoslavia) was 23 working as a Jugoslavenski Aerotransport hostess when she survived a fall from 10,160 m (33,333 ft) over Srbsk, Kamenice, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic), on 26 January 1972 after the DC-9 she was working aboard, blew up.

Problem with that is that someone falling from orbit is going to have a very fast initial velocity straight down, whereas falling from a plane generally means your initial velocity straight down is zero and you just accelerate to terminal velocity.

So the Space Marine is going to be coming in at well over his terminal velocity and if the time of flight isn't long enough for air resistance to slow him down adequately, he may hit the ground at a velocity greater than his terminal velocity.

**Psienesis**

... without an external means of acceleration, such as a jet-pack, it isn't possible to go faster than terminal velocity. That is why they call it "terminal velocity", it is the maximum speed an object will reach under the pull of gravity alone.

**Wulfmar**

It's never possible to go faster than terminal velocity!

**Unit1126PLL**

Yes it is.

In orbit, there is no air resistance, so your terminal velocity is effectively infinite.

So if your terminal velocity is 2m/s (because you're a feather) but you're travelling in orbit at 2,000,000 meters per second, then you might hit the ground at, say, 30 m/s (15 times your terminal velocity!) depending on how much air resistance slowed you down.

That is, if the friction did not simply burn you up.

**Wulfmar**

No, it is NOT. EVER.