An aerospace engineering team is designing landing capsules for a planetary exploration mission. The capsules must safeguard a sensitive scientific payload upon landing on a rocky surface. Both Capsule X and Capsule Y have the same mass and touch down with a vertical velocity of 15 m/s15\text{ m/s}15 m/s.
During touchdown:
Explain why Capsule X is safer for the scientific payload than Capsule Y. In your answer, calculate the average deceleration of the payload compartment in both capsules during impact and use these values to support your explanation.
27 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Physics Physics on the move. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.