Stop it
Developing a parachute-type system to slow a landing spacecraft.
When spacecraft and jet aircraft land on the ground they are travelling very fast. Can you develop a method of reducing their speed so they can stop safely?
In this activity learners will make use of the theme of the future of flight to develop a parachute type system that will help a spacecraft to land and stop safely. They will be able to make design decisions contributing to the performance of their solution. They will then test their prototype to see how well it works.
You will need:
- Pencils
- A3 or A4 paper
- Thin fabric e.g. rip stop nylon
- Thin string or thread
- Marker pens
- Weights or pieces of clay
- Scales
- Scissors
- Sewing needles
- Rulers
- Somewhere high to safely drop the parachutes when testing
Download the activity sheets for free below!
All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable, so you can tailor them to your students’ and your schools’ needs.
The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, useful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in each of the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Please share your classroom learning highlights with us @IETeducation.
Available Downloads
Related resources
We’re upgrading our systems, and this includes changes to our customer and member account log in, MyIET. It’s part of our big picture plan to deliver a great experience for you and our wider engineering community.
Whilst most of our websites remain available for browsing, it will not be possible to log in to purchase products or access services from Thursday, 17 April to Wednesday, 30 April 2025. Our Member Relations team is here to help and for many of our services, including processing payments or orders, we’ll be able to support you over the phone on +44 (0)1438 765678 or email via membership@theiet.org.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.
For further information related to specific products and services, please visit our FAQs webpage.