Egg Drop From Space
Why Hacker News recommends it
Used as an example of how easy homing and guidance have become, resembling precision-guided munitions.
What it is
Mark Rober and Joe Barnard drop an egg from a high-altitude balloon, using a camera-guided glider to steer it to a safe landing.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2023 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites jebarker · 2023-04 · on “Second IC – Homemade 1000 transistor array chip”
There's a whole sub-genre here of projects that would be (wisely) dismissed because they would land you in jail rather than their technical difficulty I suppose. I recall recently seeing a rocketry hobbyist realize their landing guidance tech is essentially the same as precision missile guidance and best not to make open source. EDIT: I just remembered, it was Mark Rober's egg drop from space [1] [1] [this video]
Cites bayindirh · 2024-05 · on “OpenAI: Model Spec”
Because some information is multi use. You can use Aspirin precursors to make heroin. You can use homing algorithms to land an egg [0] or a bomb. I also want to set all information free, but not everyone will be ethical or responsible with it. Because while the idea (of setting all the information free) is nice, unfortunately the idea involves humans. [0]: [this video]
Cites mavamaarten · 2025-01 · on “Celestial Navigation for Drones”
I remember watching a video about a dude who was building a mothership-launched glide drone that could land using camera vision. The idea was something like "the highest egg drop" or something like that. He was speaking with academics about his idea, who quickly told him to stop whatever he was doing because that would effectively be a forbidden military device. Guided artillery, basically. Sadly I don't remember who it was, it was a fun story. I thought it was maybe Mark Rober or Joe Barnard but I really can't find it anymore. Edit: found it! It was launched from a weather balloon, and it was both Mark and Joe. [this video]
Cites bikeshaving · 2025-11 · on “The overengineered solution to my pigeon problem (2022)”
It’s funny when engineers accidentally create/recreate weapons of war to scratch an itch. Like when Mark Rober et al tried to do an egg drop from space only to realize they were essentially creating precision-guided missiles. [this video]