Neuschwanstein: From a Photometric Entry Mass to Three Stones, the Survival Budget of an Instrumented Fall

This paper computes a complete entry budget for the Neuschwanstein fall, working only from published values and stated assumptions. The nominal body has a diameter of 0.462 metres at a bulk density of 3.40e+03 kilograms per cubic metre, giving an incoming mass of 0.175 tonnes. At the published entry speed of 22 kilometres per second its kinetic energy is 0.0101 kilotonnes of TNT equivalent. At the characteristic altitude of 30 kilometres the exponential atmosphere has a density of 0.019 kilograms per cubic metre, the ram pressure on the body is 9.19 megapascals, the stagnation heating flux is 1.01e+05 megawatts per square metre, and the aerodynamic deceleration is 896 times terrestrial gravity. The ram pressure first reaches representative material strengths at computed altitudes of 62.6, 46 and 34.4 kilometres for the weakest, intermediate and strongest cases examined. The recovered material, the three recovered stones found in the Alpine foothills, amounts to 6 kilograms, which is 3.43 percent of the computed incoming mass. The largest recovered piece, at 2.84 kilograms, has a characteristic diameter of 11.7 centimetres, a terminal velocity of 95 metres per second, a fall time of 232 seconds from the end of the luminous path at 22 kilometres, and a wind drift of 2.32e+03 metres under a representative wind. All values are computed by the deposited program from the stated inputs; scenario calculations accompany every headline figure so that the sensitivity of each conclusion to its inputs is visible in the same record.