Have you heard of the Magnus Effect? Do you see a military application for it?

I believe at some point in our future we will be doing orbital insertions of individuals. While the upper atmosphere is probably to little to make an effect, once you drop into thicker atmosphere (say 120,000 feet), have shed most of the ablative stuff that saw you through re-entry friction, your pod could have an outer shell free to rotate to help "drive" you to your target. Computer (semi-AI) controlled of course.

That's a really interesting thought, you made my mental gears turn on that one, I'll reflect on it somewhat. I'm just curious, if yupou might be able to elaborate, so far as possible, what piqued your interest in that whole aspect of the topic? I'd just been wondering, if you might be able to say, in realize you might just possibly stumbled across it, however, I was just eager to know if you had your own thoughts about it, I'd just be most interested to hear them, if you might be able to elaborate somewhat, while I mull my own thoughts over, I do recall the famous dam busters bouncing bomb of ww2 in the missions the usppppuk RAF wing CDR guy gibson, I can't recall the scientist at the moment who developed it, he's quite famous, I'll look him up, I know he'd be on Wikipedia, or easy to find using Google. However that variety of bomb, though a cylinder, not a ball, was launched with spin, I've seen the films in the famous film on the raids to destroy the Ruhr river dams, an did actually see the bomb involved spinning. Obv there would have been considerable aerodynamic and hydrodynamic interaction, though as with any fluid or fluids I'd expect the magnus effect would most likely have been highly relevant in such an instance for what I hope are fairly obvious reasons, I'd be most eager to k ow your thoughts, many thanks, let me give the whole concept more thought, it is a thought provoking problem, certainly, I'd also read the answers here, there also fueling my mental gears turning likewise, many thanks.

Very interesting. I've never even heard about the magnus effect. I feel like we could come up with something that uses it to our advantage idk what but I'm sure it's been brought up before.