DROP PODS | The craziest way possible to get into the fight 

Drop Pods: When it's not enough to fire bullets, missiles and bombs at a problem. they fire battle crazed lunatics that want to bite your face off and THEY fire bullets, missiles and bombs at the problem.

Tactical Tip: Your reinforcements ARE the orbital strike, Helldiver!

HellDivers players: _"OMG these pods are so intense, it even killed a charger once!"_ Planetside Vets: _"Meh, ours used to take out a whole Sky-Whale"_

Proto pods like Starship troopers are probably the most realistic. They are more reentry pods, burning up around the trooper during reentry and creating chaff that messes up anti air systems, while the armored troopers, using their boosters and parachutes to actually land safely.

What about the ones from Starship Troopers (the novel and its anime adaptation), that DISINTEGRATE HALFWAY to procure clutter and distract enemy fire?

I love the Drop Pods in The Book Starship Troopers

I like how Starship Troopers novel uses a series of parachutes that break away to slow down with explanations on the timing to avoid being a easy target or pancaked on impact

"Inertia is for cowards! I will face-tank this planet and there's nothing you can do to stop me! My forehead is my shield!" -Some Bane-of-All-Crayon's Space Marine (probably)

Battletech mech drops are interesting. An ablative heat shield to get you down into the lower atmosphere. Then they break up and act as chaff, leaving a mech with extra jump jets and or more fuel in a back pack to get the Delta V down. But the break up stage seems to have enough drag to slow down a lot.

You think drop pods are a crazy concept, but if you really think about it, the early space capsules were essentially one to three man drop pods. Granted, yes, the capsule initially get into orbit by riding on a rocket. The Soyuz pod for the ISS is/was a three-person drop pod that pulls double duty as an escape pod. In a shtf scenario that thing only goes one direction, down.

"Drop pods is fun! You can watch the ground coming up really really really really fast!" -Ogryn from Warrior Tier

Only thing sillier than a drop pod .. is the boarding torpedo in 40K 'lets shoot you into another ship in a big torpedo into the enemy ships hull!'

I think halo uses grav tech for g management. Considering there's children's games using it it's a safe bet.

I've always assumed that most droppods have some sort of shock absorption system or use inertial dampers. Most sci-fi factions tend to have some sort of artificial gravity tech anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Covenant use some sorta stasis field in their pods. I know in one of the books it's mentioned their life pods have them when one pod going rocketing around a hanger, but the crew inside were still fine. So that's another option if somewhat rarer. Btw, would you consider doing a video on the drop pod's cousin? The boarding torpedo. Both operate on sorta the same concept, but boarding torpedo aren't normally single man, almost always carry squads and have the additional minor hurdle of boring through God damn space ship hulls.

Back in 5th edition 40k, I had a drop pod army. Lots of dreadnoughts, marines and land speeders. You could own the battlefield, but once down you were down so had to play aggressively. A hilarious tactic I used against horde armies was to deploy the infantry on the field and use the drop pods to fence in the enemy. If they weren’t jump troops, the enemy would probably would lose a 2+ turns of movement whilst you kept your distance and gunned the enemy.

for the halo drop pod, if you calculate the pod terminal velocity and subtract the time it take to come to a full stop ( counting the retro rocket and the hard landing in it), the highest g force the occupant take is around 20 G. the human body in a sitting position can tolerate 25 G for a bit more that a second ( a aircraft ejection seat can go up to 25 G)

The Anime Genocide organ had a gliding drop pod that would act like a guide missiles. Pop Parachutes to slow down, use legs to catch it self and on each legs where machine guns that would clear the area directly under the pod and once landed clear the area with more machine fire before releasing the troops in side.

SKADOOSH! *TRUMPETS BLAIR*

As others have mentioned, Heinlein's Starship Troopers was one of (if not the) first. Power armoured troops are literally *fired* out of their carrier along with a myriad of dummy pods. Some immediately scream a high threat signal on entering orbit, others burst in to showers of chaff at varying altitudes. The ones with the troopers in are covered in an ablative thermal layer for re-entry, then they jettison an outer layer to act as chaff and shed some velocity, at least two chutes are used to bring them down to a survivable velocity (one of which simply makes sure they're the right way up) and then they use the suit jets to land. Best, most well thought out implementation ever.

I see many Starship Troopers references, remember shot out, not just dropped! If you go to vehicles, FASA's old mech drop. Like Troopers it disintegrates on the way down. Fine slowing by jump jet, strapped on if mech doesn't normally have them.

Of all the drop pods I've seen in sci-fi, I think the type depicted in Starship Troopers the book are the coolest and most reasonably designed as they're only meant to get you through re-entry and then burst open, as the mobile infantry inside them make rest of the way down with parachutes. Using the falling debris as decoys.

I can't remember which Sci-Fi series used the term but my favourite description of using a drop pod was doing a "Coffin Drop".

The Drop pods in David Weber's "Path of Fury" is my favorite. The Pods carry one power armor troop in each. The pod never reaches the ground, at some point ion the entry the troop deploy from the pod to a high-tech parachute while the pod acts as and deploys decoys.

Drop pods.... Holy hell I love drop pods!!

If you absolutely need to ensure that SOMEBODY gets to the surface, drop pods are actually far more reliable than drop ships or shuttles. Sort of like cluster munitions, the point is being incredibly difficult to intercept. As for survivability, it's actually not unreasonable to survive a drop pod landing. Realistically, they would use a classic Kerbal Space Program technique commonly referred to as the "suicide burn", which is where you only have enough fuel to slow down to survivable speed if you wait until the last second before you turn your thrusters to maximum. This makes sure you aren't easy to shoot down while darting into the gravity well, but also that you don't land at full speed and get vaporized. Performing this technique with a pod that hasn't been calibrated to the exact gravity and atmosphere of the planet or moon in question would involve significant losses even if you aren't getting shot at, of course.

I remember a proposed method to evacuate a low orbit space station like the ISS, it was essentially jumping out of the airlock with a space suit and basically a parachute, and just fall like 300k feet from orbit, somehow the falling astronaut doesn't build up enough speed to be burned by the atmosphere and the parachute automatically opens at like 5k feet. It was so outrageous that it would make sense to work.

I love how the anime Redline (2009) leans into how crazy drop pods are when JP has to take one down to EUЯPSS.

IIRC Battletech's 'Mech drop pods are ablative, disposable pods which use drag chutes to decelerate and rely on the 'Mech's crash couch, harness, and innate robustness to keep the pilot alive upon impact. The alternative is a low altitude podless drop using jump jets or a detachable jump pack.

There are drop pods in Battletech too. Fun for big stompy robots or power armor infantry. On an elevator...going down!!!

I’d be impressed if a scifi work mentioned tech to simulate suspension in a fluid to cancel out the feeling of acceleration for an occupant. What I’m talking about is portrayed in an experiment where a balloon is put in a centrifuge. When unsupported, it deforms under acceleration. But placed in a water-filled flask, it takes the acceleration without squishing.

The only thing more balls to the walls is a titanfall. The mech IS the drop pod

Honestly, the most believable drop pod explanation I found is from the channel Installation 00. His work is awesome, he uses material science to explain the fun, wacky setting of Halo. Definitely recommend.

Drop Pods was popularized by the Novel Starship Troopers which was an influence towards the Sci-fi Genre that was created by Robert E, Heinlein during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Many Famous Sci-fi Series like Halo, W40k, Starcraft, Doom, and Even Helldivers took alot of inspiration from the Original Grand daddy of Sci-fi Story.

Section 8: prejudice mentioned. I loved that game. Was sad when it died

"Express elevator to hell, going down!." I know there aren't any in that movie but I feel it applies.

Just got me thinking and I remember a Sci-Fi movie / show ( can’t remember) that dropped a gelatinous cube that the soldier/trooper drops into to breaks their fall , then dissipates

"A schoolbus full of crayon eaters" had me chortling.

I tend toward a hybridized form of Drop Pod specifically intended to get the advanced units past the most dangerous part of planetary assault. Reentry! Power Armored Infantry and Combat Mechs are loaded in and deployed in a concentrated pattern toward the intended landing Zone. made of ablative coated light metals and rigged to split apart once atmospheric entry has been completed. upon opening, the shed "petals" form a sort of Chaff overwhelming ground sensors as to what is threat and what is scrap. this also applies toward aerospace interceptors. all those pieces falling make entire cubic kilometers of atmosphere a "NO Zone" of deadly as any one of those bits hitting your plane will pretty much end any pilot foolish enough to actually fly into that metallic Hailstorm. once released, the Mech or P.A. Infantry descend using Jump Jets/Retro Booster packs or the tried and tested disposable Parachute to make actual landfall and form up. my pods don't actually fall "Straight Down" but at a steep angle so when the pods break apart releasing their deadly payloads, the spent bits further slow via Atmospheric Resistance and fall short of the actual LZ where everyone else is touching down so friendly units don't have to worry about getting splattered by a chunk of spent Pod. in addition my Drop Pods have escorting Fighters to make sure they are not molested by hostile aircraft. these interceptors descend ahead of and around the Drop Corridor engaging any hostiles and keeping them busy somewhere else. once the LZ is secured sufficiently, the bigger Dropships and landers arrive bringing down those units incapable of orbital drop.

Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda has something that straddles the line between drop pod and drop ship: The Lancer Drop Pod. One-person, lightly armored pod with enough engines to re-enter safely (and return to orbit), light weapons to assist in clearing out the LZ, but lacking the range or maneuverability to do anything more.

I like the Starship Troopers (book variety) of drop pods.

Almost unrelated to the video, but you mentioned the Star Trek transporter and this fun tidbit fits the theme of the channel. The Star Trek transporter exists for one sole reason: The model for the shuttle wasn't done yet, and they couldn't wait any longer. The SFX crew asked Gene what to do, and he said, "Just make them appear there." If you ever wondered why TOS mostly used the shuttle instead of the transporter after the first few episodes, that's why. Teleportation was never part of the original plan for the series. Later on, they added McCoy's fear of the transporter to explain why they used the shuttle (might have had to wait until The Motion Picture for that, I don't remember if it came up during the series proper), but that was a use of narrative to explain decisions forced by out-of-universe factors. If the shuttlecraft model had been ready in time, the transporter would not exist.

Gravity makes entering an atmosphere easy, and leaving an atmosphere hard.

i love the Helldiver Drop Pods because they are like the drop pods described in the original Starship Troopers novel

Battletech also has drop pods for mechs on Commando raids. The gist is a cocoon that burns layers away on its way down. Also how you get to the ground intact, the mechs fire jumpjets at altitude to burn speed. If you don't have jumpjets? No problem! They strap one time use models that fall off jn landing! Just time the burn carefully or your tech chief will kill you if the fall didnt

"Drop pods don't go back up." Never heard of a Dreadclaw, I take it? *Laughs in Chaos Space Marine*

The Helldivers drop pod is probably the most scientifically safe one. It doesnt just slam into the ground, but instead drills into the ground to slow the impact. And I think some like in the novel Starship Troopers uses entry thrusters to slow the descent or a parachute breifly.

I think the description of mech droppods in battletech is the most believable to me. High ejection, narrow glidepath, suicide burn, ejection miles above ground and then use additional thrusters attached to the mech or its jumpjets to land.

Drop pod lands in enemy lines, "so you're saying we can attack in any direction."

The drop ship from Aliens is still one of the best ways to do it. From orbit fly down under power, drop of an APC then provide close air support, then reverse the process once you are done.

It Titanfall 1 you can sometimes hear a grunt ask his squad mate if he's a "Drop pod man or a dropship flunky"

I remember playing Halo 2 as a kid and it was one of the first times I looked at something like the ODST pods and thought "hmm. I can't imagine that being very practical." It was also one of the first and few times I said to myself "you know what, fuck it. It's cool enough that I don't care."

Planetside 2 still has insane drop pod action. Also a man of culture for playing section 8

I really liked the Drop Gel used by the Police Force in the "Final Fantasy Movie" - not a drop pod, but an interesting idea to consider dropping 'giant orbies full of space marines' lol

The Section 8 reference made me all warm and fuzzy. That game was awesome!

First chapter of Starship Troopers, a drop in an MI Capsule in exacting detail.

The power armor in section 8 is still my favorite design to this day.

My favorite theory about the Helldiver drop-pods is that the reason they embed themselves so deep into the terrain is specifically cuz each one is also filled with a bunch of automated systems for setting up new Super Earth colonial infrastructure and checking for useful resources.

I wrote a orbital secret agents drop pod insertion in a novel I tried to write years ago avoided most of the issues with drop pods by pretending to be a meteor and using an ablative outershell to burn up and bleed speed on atmospheric entry revealing a stealth glider core that delivered the agent and their gear into the ocean close to a pick up location.

As in so many things, we must blame Robert Heinlein.

From my understanding, the biggest failing of a drop pod is the durability of the cargo. Guns, bot, and other mechanical devices might be air droppable and functional, but humans have finite limits.

I'll add Battletech also has drop pods for its mechs. Nothing says "assault landing" like a 10-meter tall mech coming down in a ablative cocoon directly from orbit.

My first contact with drop pods was the Doomgiver's All Terrain Rapid Deployment Pod from Jedi Knight 2. 4 AT-STs and at least 30 troops (and some Reborn with them) will really make a mark on a battlefield. They have the benefit of not requiring stealth since you drop so many of them from you star destroyer sized launching platform so you can go crazy with them. I tried to make drop pods in space engineers for the fun of it, since I don't need rapid deployment. Let's say that deceleration is a problem because it requires an unacceptable "loiter" time over the target in order to not damage the pod or its cargo, or it requires an unacceptable ressource waste since you need to many thrusters and gas tanks to decelerate quickly enough that it defeats its "stealthy" purpose by being HUGE (remember, more thrusters, more gas tanks, so more weight, thus more thrusters needed, then more gas tanks, etc.). So I gave up and gave them parachutes and armor to see how it would go. It worked, well, if you put aside the fact that I now have a time over target of more than 3 minutes (by deploying the parachutes at 1 500m, more or less). Suffice to say that I didn't tested them over contested ground, they'd get shreded. Shuttles are way better, more armor, faster, maneuverable, armored and ARMED for securing or at least counter-contesting the ground, more cargo, and has a way of "nope, GTFO now" if the ground isn't suited for a deployment because of tanks or whatever.

The 40K weapon pods are great. Door falls open, and the enemy gets a las cannon to the face.

I have a sci-fi fantasy world that I keep failing to actually literally write down with a specific alien race that used "drop pods" kind of. Basically they have antifreeze blood like a species of frog (wood frog) because of this they are the only species that can Cryo sleep their people. In their spaceship I had the Cryo sleep pods double as escape pods like in the aliens movie because of this when they are frozen it is in a Jell-O kind like goo (kind of like the inside of some ice pack) for the purpose of softening impact. Granting the occupants the ability to survive rough landings which leads to military personnel using them as drop pods instead of slowing down they'll actually meant to accelerate with the intention of killing anyone nearby basically the occupants are literally free floating inside the goo and the interior of the pod is design to deflect the viscous liquid and occupants up and down the container in a circle motion until they slow down and then defrost that is why the military one goes faster, to essentially roleplay as the meteor that struck Canada

I came up with orbital drop tanks in my sci-fi universe. They are autonomous (no squishies) and use rockets to slow down. However, their heat shield fires off before impact, and is designed to clear the LZ by being a bomb.

Honestly I don't think anyone has mentioned it yet but I very much do like how 40k does their drop pods, as in lore (though we don't always ways see it in explicitly mentioned) but they have a wide variety of drop pod types. Though most only have minor changes. But if I remember correctly at least one type expressly has a number of Melta (high energy ion) cutters built into the sides so that upon landing the doors will delay opening by a second or 2 as the melts turrets upload everything into liquidfying basically all the matter around it.

You left out the solo pods from deeprock when you join an online game in progress. Also the deathwind and dreadnaught pods from 40k!

Hello Sci. I noted that you only mentioned video game sources for drop pods. I feel this was a mistake, since the best description of the use of drop pods for soldiers was done by Robert Heinlein back in the 60s. Starship Troopers, to be exact. The pod ablates during re-entry to slow the pod, and several drogue chutes are used as well. Finally, the trooper is in a thin pod used mainly to resist air friction at lower than supersonic speeds. This thin pod can be explosively stripped from the soldier, who, then uses 'jump jets' in his backpack and legs to descend to the surface. I have played a LOT of video games over the past 5 decades. And no one has done Heinlein's dropship troopers right. The descent of the trooper in his pod is designed to fill the sky with reflective surfaces to confuse enemy sensors. Giving the soldier the greatest chance to survive his drop to the surface. This is what all those ablative panels were for. First, to slow the 'craft', and second, to fill the sky with debris. Several dozen pods are also launched with 'dummy' cargo, that act in the same manner as the 'manned' pod. Also filling the sky with junk, and eventually just either, slamming into the surface and exploding,, or deploying some mechanized device. Oh, yeah... deployment for the pods is via a 'rail gun' arrangement. And descent is fairly shallow, although the final approach is probably vertical.

Wow, I remember Section 8. Only played it a little (it was rented) but I loved the cinematics that is started with.

Even the Whateley Academy series (which is a Superheroic 'verse rather than Sci-Fi proper, with both magic and explicitly superpower-driven hyper-tech in the mix) has both drop ships and drop pods, though only in small numbers given that they are ludicrously expensive to field and operate. It is mentioned that in 2006 most major nations field about a brigade of drop troopers, as does the Mutant Commission Office, and even some supervillains manage to as well (most notably Dr Diabolik and Lord Paramount). In the Halloween Invasion story, a _private research facility_ (Arkham Research Center) inserts a couple of squads worth into the fight at a critical moment. Note that they tend to refer to any flying troop transport as a 'dropship', even if it isn't meant to go to orbit, so long as it flies by some sort of hyper-tech VTOL propulsion system rather than jets or rotors, but actual orbital dropships do exist in-universe.

In my own pod capable universe i used them generally for ship boarding, in those cases pods are basically a grenade with an egg in their core, your spaceship passes close enough to the target ship and burst fires them into any CIWS they have just fast enough to not give it enough time to destroy the pod, tactically usually there are decoy pods going in ahead of the file, soaking up the damage, bursting into shard and cluttering the sensors point zero some seconds before troop carriers come through, inside the inner egg, your augmented trooper floating in a none newtonic liquid and their bodies full of a less toxic version of it come through, almost at the speed of a subsonic ASM on its final leg, bash into the target superstructure and let the friction deal with breaking, outer pod explodes to clear a landing zone for them, carrier liquid vaporises in room pressure or the vacuum if the target lack proper damage control equipment, and so does the one injected into their system, through respiration, it will take about half an hour under duress or a bit over one in calm condition, but it's not anymore toxic than most of the junk food a trooper gulps on a daily basis... For planet entry i drove the way sensei Heinlein decided to go, the purpose of pod is not to land you through enemy anti orbital fire, it is there to protect you from burning to fine space duat at reentry until you are slow "enough" to leave the pod rather safely, i quote " what kind of idiot will wish to stay in a pod a second longer, what do you think a radar can pick up easier, a metal coffin the size of your dad's delivery van, or a single dude..." the pod itself peels off and shatters and creates a lot of debris to clutter the sensors looking up for target, there is also electronic countermeasures and decoy pods dropped ahead of the actual troops in the case of direct combat entry, the 8nfilteration pods do what any good honest mini meteor does, the trooper at the end just leaves the pod and super HALO deploys into the AO... and this HALO is the actual military term of it for High Altitude jump and Low Opening of chute method of troop deployment... Just as the drill sergeant said:" remember son, it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at its end..."

Also chiming in to endorse the Mobile Infantry from the Starship Troopers novels. I'm not sure if it was the first use of it, but it was definitely one of the earlier uses of the concept in a story. The pods didn't make it to the surface except as chaff, I guess. They were there to get a power armor equipped MI deep enough to deploy a parachute and I think the suits had thrusters that could assist on the landing as well.

"Lawn dart" as a verb is among the best analogs for the practicality of drop pods. Sounds like a tactical entry for martyrs and forlorn hope.

6:00 ODST armor has built in fall absorbers in the legs.

Ben Prutney made some great music for FTL

Yes, considering the technology that goes into a drop pod and is usually needed for the occupants to survive the 'landing' you could just build a armoured troop shuttle that can additionally give air cover for the troops or be used as a mobile base and/or medic station. On top of it they can be used to redeploy the troops more quickly.

I remember reading a space fiction book (sorry don't remember the name). The troops in drop pods are Time Locked, thus keeping the person safe till the released or the tech was destroyed.

My favorite drop pods have to be from C&C Tib Sun. They look super flimsy but somehow deliver their occupant from orbital space station to ground.

There is a drop pod from a sc-fi universe where the occupant has a lot of control over it, as well as being pretty damn slow compared to pretty much all other universes: The Tiberium universe! Specifically the Westwood timeline of Tiberian Sun. The GDI drop pods are quite weird compared to those of any other sci fi setting, where they even have guns built into them to soften up any ground target they may be flying towards. And because they are single occupant pods, they also have quite a bit of control over their flight path for whatever reason. It's quite cool imo. The shape of it may be a bit weird, but they land on their...belly? And they seemingly don't ditch their friction breaks at all, at least until they hit the ground.

"THEY NEED TO BE GOING MACH JESUS"

I enjoy all of SCIENCE INSANITY videos

Chad Section 8 soldier to virgin OSDT: "I face-tank a planet's crust, we are not the same"

my favorite "drop pod" is one from a not so well known game called steampunk tower it doesnt exactly drop from orbit instead from an airship way high up in the sky but instead of a small pod that can carry 1 person or a squad it drops a whole *war tower* it is quite literally like dropping a mini fortress into enemy territory and that fortress carries enough firepower to decimate anything that the enemy throws at it it is by far from what i know the absolute largest "drop pod" i know and it isnt even from sci fi it's a god damn *steampunk tower* it is technically reusable but it doesn't come up by itself instead the humongous that dropped it in the first place just rips it back up and hauls it to the next mission or back to base

DRG mention, obligatory rock and stone and we're rich meme added. This is one of the many reasons I love SCI

Section 8 is awesome. I would enjoy seeing it talked about more.

My favorite drop pod is a humble golf cart known as the Greycat PTV. Yes yes, I know there is no rhyme or reason as to why one can can usually survive a drop from space with both its occupants and its mechanics in perfect working condition. And I know that someday the more realistic effects of that fall and landing will be added to the game. But until then I shall enjoy the view as my golf car peacefully plummets into the thin atmosphere of a moon, delivering me completely undetected to the conflict zone for whatever clandestine operations I have planned.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Battletech drop pods.

For the Algorythm!!! Also: I loved the way you tangentially mentioned DRG and it was a laugh with the model doing the thing^^

Holy hell I had forgotten about Section 8. I also really enjoyed that game. It was fantastic.

There are a few design considerations that could make it possible. First off there where military acceleration/deceleration studies in the cold war where they actually strapped men to rockets on chairs which brought up some interesting results. If you turn the chair around, facing same way as the rocket nozel, the rider can withstand about three times more deceleration than facing forward. Another thing, and this done by nascar, to have restraining harness that restricts the neck and head moving, Much of the deceleration trauma is due to a whiplash effect that causes the front plate of the skull to try to separate from the head. How the shock wave of a speed landing is distributed is also important. The human is actually capable of surviving a terminal velocity, providing the fall correctly of course. Thus distribution of force is key to a successful deployment. Another technology thats actually used right now, by the us military in particular is honey combed cardboard shock absorbers that shave of a couple Gs on an airdrop keeping supplies safe. While theres not so much "wow" factor just remember thats just paper, imagine what aluminum or some other strong and springy material can do. The seating arrangement should also promote an even distribution of of energy and how quickly the shock is transfered, ideally around the pod more than the contents are important engineering challenges.

USIF 8th Armored Infantry Division aka 'Section 8'. Where other poor mortals need drop pods, they literally dive in head first or as they call it: 'Burning In'.

Honorable mention: Gundam. Gundam drop pods are meant to deploy mobile suits into atmo, not to the surface. They open mid air, and the mechs then deploy mid air. Theyre only meant to get the mech through reentry. The mech itself handles the descent.

I'm also trying to learn animation stuff as well. Going through the absolute hell that is Blender. Thankfully there's a lot of tutorials, but GOD DAMN does it take a lot of time. Best of luck learning to animate, Sci! Cool work on the posing so far, hope things work out for you!

I'd argue that if you want a stealth insertion, it's better to use a some sort of stealth-shuttle, than a thing that burns as a plasmsa ball in atmosphere. Where drop pods are actually be useful, is full on assault operations, you first drop some 'elite' units, that clear out neares surface-to-air and surface-to-orbit installations and prepare a beachhead, then use conventional dropships to land the bulk of assault force.

I kinda like the Quake 2/4 version. Sure it's literally a flying coffin, but it has at least a little maneuverability, horizontal range, and a reputation to landing by punching into structures like a belligerent tandem charge.

Meanwhile in Halo and WH40K- "So the ship wasn't very accommodating of my presence anymore and I jumped." What like in an escape pod? "Nope." Feet first in a drop pod? "Nope." Face first with a re-entry pack? "Does a slab of airlock bulkhead count?" There is in fact a more balls to the wall way down from orbit to dirt. (And special mention to Da Boyz. 40K Orkz have developed the largest, dumbest, most metal drop pod tech in all of Scifi, Da Rok. Hollow out an asteroid, strap as many rokitz to it az ya kan, fill it wiff sum skrappy lads, point it at da nearest fite, an skreem 'WAAAAAGH!!!' all da way down.) And I don't think there's really much if any stealth element to their respective pods. They just go in pods ablazin in the hope that they get through the AA fire in good enough shape to climb out on the dirt and get to work. Astartes aren't intended for stealth if the 8' giants in 1 ton bright blue and gold power armor armed with fully automatic micromissile launchers didn't give it away, and ODSTs are shock troopers, it's in their name. If either one of them has any intention of stealth they're either dropping in so far away from the action they could take a dropship down or they're going into a hotzone and plan on utilizing _Heavy Stealth_ to shake enemy detection and pursuit.

Ahh, Space Marine doctrine is the first "wave" of drop pods are the unmanned ones full of auto firing gunz. Then the troops/dreadnaughts. They also send a few extra to make targeting them harder. The really big dreadclaw drop pods or the other very large one are rather cool (not as big as the titan ones!). Battle tech drop pods, there sweet, basically an egg that gets dropped from a low orbit dropship, one per mech. There armoured shell ejects before impact and the 'bolt-on' rockets slow the machine to the point it can take the impact. At least its considered 'an elevated risk', and often used to get scouts down. Never heard of them used directly into combat. On a side note, most droppods I have seen are aimed when launched, and can manuver a bit on the way in, or in the final deceleration. Are drop-pods silly? - yea probably for manned ones most of the time, good way to get supply's down or an area denial weapon.

If you slow the descent too much you become A target. The pod should have the option to "Pre-Prep" your LZ with anti-personnel munitions and every other pod should have A support turret.

I'm a bit late but in case nobody mentioned it the ODST suits have a fluid pressure system in the legs that allows them to survive jumps like the Rookie. I would imagine this was intentional seeing as there's a fair chance the average drop pod ends up in as precarious a position as his.

I think the more realistic use in droppods are for robots or drones that meant to take out air defences and weakened the enemy troops before the friendly dropships that dropped real soldier as they arrived in less danger risk entry.