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Egg Drop From Space

15 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
Cited on HN 4 times, 2023–2025, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Used as an example of how easy homing and guidance have become, resembling precision-guided munitions.

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.

“Mark Rober et al tried to do an egg drop from space only to realize they were essentially creating precision-guided missiles.” (HN, 2025)

4 citations · Demos

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@jebarker Apr 2023 Cites it
on HN thread 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]
Egg drop from space whose guidance resembles precision missile tech
@bayindirh May 2024 Cites it
on HN thread 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]
Example of homing algorithms landing an egg from space
@mavamaarten Jan 2025 Cites it
on HN thread Celestial Navigation for Drones
Read more
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]
Weather balloon egg drop with camera-guided glider
@bikeshaving Nov 2025 Cites it
on HN thread 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]
Egg drop from space accidentally resembling guided missiles

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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