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    A new pyramid-like shape always lands the same side up

    (www.quantamagazine.org)
    596 points robinhouston | 15 comments | 25 Jun 25 20:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.997s | source | bottom
    1. boznz ◴[25 Jun 25 20:26 UTC] No.44381514[source]▶
    maybe they should build moon landers this shape :-)
    replies(7): >>44381714 #>>44381776 #>>44382826 #>>44382939 #>>44383625 #>>44384863 #>>44385036 #
    2. tgbugs ◴[25 Jun 25 20:52 UTC] No.44381714[source]▶
    That is indeed the example they mention in the paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.19244.
    3. orbisvicis ◴[25 Jun 25 20:59 UTC] No.44381776[source]▶
    Per the article that's what they're working on, but it probably won't be based on tetrahedrons considering the density distribution. Might have curved surfaces.
    replies(1): >>44382256 #
    4. gerdesj ◴[25 Jun 25 23:39 UTC] No.44382826[source]▶
    Or aeroplanes. Not sure where you put the wings.

    Why restrict yourself to the Moon?

    replies(1): >>44383225 #
    5. weq ◴[25 Jun 25 23:58 UTC] No.44382939[source]▶
    Just need to apply this to a drone, and we would be one step closer to skynet. The props could retract into the body when it detects a collision or a fall.
    6. Cogito ◴[26 Jun 25 00:52 UTC] No.44383225[source]▶
    Recent moonlanders have been having trouble landing on the moon. Some are just crashing, but tipping over after landing is a real problem too. Hence the joke above :)
    replies(1): >>44383405 #
    7. gerdesj ◴[26 Jun 25 01:26 UTC] No.44383405{3}[source]▶
    Mars landers have also had a chequered history. I remember one NASA jobbie that had a US to metric units conversion issue and poor old Beagle 2 that got there, landed safely and then failed to deploy properly.
    8. emporas ◴[26 Jun 25 02:11 UTC] No.44383625[source]▶
    They could do that, but a regular gomboc would be totally fine. There are no rules for spaceships that their corners cannot be rounded.

    Maybe exoskeletons for turtles could be more useful. Turtles with their short legs, require the bottom of their shell to be totally flat, and a gomboc has no flat surface. Vehicles that drive on slopes could benefit from that as well.

    replies(3): >>44383833 #>>44384079 #>>44385327 #
    9. waste_monk ◴[26 Jun 25 02:56 UTC] No.44383833[source]▶
    >There are no rules for spaceships that their corners cannot be rounded.

    Someone should write to UNOOSA and get this fixed up.

    10. nextaccountic ◴[26 Jun 25 04:00 UTC] No.44384079[source]▶
    Note that a turtle's shell already approximate a Gömböc shape (the curved self-righting shape discovered by the same mathematician in the linked article)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6mb%C3%B6c#Relation_to_a...

    But yeah a specially designed exoskeleton could perform better, kinda like the prosthetics of Oscar Pistorious

    replies(1): >>44384129 #
    11. fruitplants ◴[26 Jun 25 04:14 UTC] No.44384129{3}[source]▶
    Gábor Domokos (mentioned in the article) talked about this on one QI episode:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggUHo1BgTak

    12. ErigmolCt ◴[26 Jun 25 06:53 UTC] No.44384863[source]▶
    "If tipped, will self-right" sounds like exactly the kind of feature you'd want on the Moon
    replies(1): >>44386045 #
    13. mihaaly ◴[26 Jun 25 07:24 UTC] No.44385036[source]▶
    They will only need to ensure that the pointy end does not penetrate the soft surface too much on decent, becoming an eternal pole.
    14. voidUpdate ◴[26 Jun 25 08:20 UTC] No.44385327[source]▶
    > There are no rules for spaceships that their corners cannot be rounded

    If the inside is pressurized, its even beneficial for it to be a rounded shape, since the sharp corners are more likely to fail

    15. shdon ◴[26 Jun 25 10:39 UTC] No.44386045[source]▶
    And for cows