The shell now traces S-curves through the sky, guided by four pairs of thrusters.
Only thrusters could slow the lander to its target velocity of 1.7 miles per hour.
And the new Patriots can be steered with rocket thrusters as well as fins.
The traditional way to land a large spacecraft is to give it long legs and powerful thrusters.
That is landing with its nose to the sky, thrusters on, like something out of Buck Rogers.
Another concern is that the thrusters' fuel might slosh around, causing some of them to fire unevenly.
The lander will control its descent by firing individual thrusters in rapid, precise bursts under computer control.
They feature a system of dynamic propeller thrusters that can hold the ship steady against harsh ocean conditions.
Friday's events were the first time any of the capsule's 18 thrusters have malfunctioned during an orbital flight.
The Dragon suffered a temporary glitch with its thrusters after it launched into orbit Friday from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The thrusters also are needed for Dragon's departure from the station and to position it to re-enter the atmosphere.
Every few weeks the freighter will fire its thrusters to accelerate the platform, taking it higher into the sky.
The thrusters on such probes use chemical fuels, which have a lot of mass for the thrust they produce.
The Sky Crane was a splayed, skeletal thing, with rocket thrusters for legs and cables spooling out of its belly.
And with the aid of thrusters and some dead-reckoning, the entry capsule will fly a path through the upper atmosphere.
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To power the thrusters and drilling equipment, the ship generates 37 megawatts of power, enough for a city of 35, 000.
That would leave a small, mobile craft that could maneuver on thrusters alone, hover near the surface, and lower the rover down.
The ship must stay perfectly still while drilling and does so using six thrusters with 15-foot-diameter propellers that can rotate 360 degrees.
The second propulsion technology on Strand is its pulsed plasma thrusters.
During testing on Thursday, one of the shuttle's thrusters failed to fire but Nasa said it would not be needed during re-entry.
Controllers have been forced to use thrusters in addition to the last remaining reaction wheels in order to maintain a stable attitude.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Asteroid probe 'did touch down'
Both spacecraft will fire their thrusters on Day 2 of the mission.
The thrusters which those electric motors drive, however, are anything but conventional.
And the Darmstadt meeting was presented with an array of concepts that included the use of nets, harpoons, tentacles, ion thrusters and lasers.
The craft is all but silent, the whir of its battery-powered thrusters a whisper compared with, say, the noise of a scuba regulator.
Dr Renno thinks that when the craft settled, its thrusters melted some of the ice and the resulting mud splashed onto the leg.
That could also allow commercial satellite companies to extend the life of hardware that's now written off when fuel for maneuvering thrusters runs out.
These wheels help the probe maintain its "attitude", or orientation, in space without needlessly expending fuel by using thrusters to do the same job.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Asteroid probe 'did touch down'
Linked to GPS devices and sonar positioning beacons on the seafloor, the thrusters can keep the ship in a steady position even in 95mph winds.
The drill ship is equipped with computer-controlled thrusters, swiveling propellers, that can keep it in position in any kind of inclement weather, up to a hurricane.
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