It seems strange that a civilization capable of interstellar travel might have trouble flying near a planet. Are those really the same kind of challenge?
If a spacecraft could cross space, how could it crash here?
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velcrohalo
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Not really. Traveling through space and operating inside an atmosphere are different problems. A route through space can be planned around large, predictable objects, while a planet brings air resistance, weather, gravity, and changing conditions close to the ground. A craft might be excellent at one kind of flight without being immune to failures in another.
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Even very capable technology can have weak points. A navigation error, damaged component, unexpected environment, or bad decision could matter during arrival. That only makes a crash conceivable, though. It does not establish that any alleged crash happened, or that a supposed craft could actually make an interstellar journey.
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I think the bigger issue is the assumption in the question. There is no confirmed evidence here that extraterrestrial spacecraft have crashed on Earth, so we do not know whether this is a real engineering puzzle. If a crash claim comes up, first ask what evidence supports both the crash and the claim that the vehicle was alien.
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