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New Post has been published on http://misguidedchildren.com/technology/2014/12/spacex-sets-bar-higher-carrier-landings-seem-simple/35034
SpaceX Sets The Bar Higher – Carrier Landings Seem Simple
SpaceX has plans to ‘land’ their booster rocket on a barge at sea. Under power, the booster is to make a vertical landing onto the barge.
the landing platform for the Falcon 9 rocket
Since the Mercury program, NASA has cast away rockets to the sea after a single use. Until the Space Shuttle, all were abandoned to the deep. Only the shuttle’s 2 booster rockets were designed to be recovered after splashing down via parachute into the Atlantic.
The Shuttle’s boosters were to be refitted and reworked for use on future shuttle missions. During the shuttle era, the booster rocket recovery program was not cost efficient.
Elon Musk is not a wasteful man. The inventor/founder of Tesla Motors is not afraid of trying something new. Unlike previous electric cars, his Tesla design performs and looks more like a Ferrari than a college engineering experiment. Musk brings that same ‘new thinking’ approach to SpaceX.
After great many successes in the private enterprise space venture, including obtaining contracts to fly unmanned supply missions to the International Space Station, SpaceX will attempt the most challenging feat in the history of space exploration, government or private. Musk and SpaceX plan to recover their Falcon 9 rocket, upright, in a controlled recovery aboard their autonomous floating space port.
The Falcon 9 is nearly 14 stories tall. When launched it will be climbing at over 3500 mph. According to SpaceX recovering the used Falcon 9 booster will be,
“like trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm.”
SpaceX has attempted a controlled re-entry of the booster twice before. Both times had a ‘target area’ roughly 10 kilometers by 10 kilometers or approximately 6 miles by 6 miles. Now the target or 300 feet by 170 feet, and albeit slight, moving.
The autonomous space port is not anchored to the ocean floor. Instead its engine and positioning system are to keep it steady for the recovery.
Recently speaking at an M.I.T. forum, referring to an earlier vertical recovery effort, Musk said,
“Unfortunately, it sort of sat there for several seconds then tipped over and exploded. It’s as tall as a 14-story building. When a 14-story building falls over, it’s quite a belly flop.”
A vertical rocket landing is the vision many first saw in 1950s Buck Rogers comics and 1960s SyFy movies. But at sea splash downs became the norm as we watched Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules return from space.
But what SyFy first envisioned has not yet been achieved. Right now, it costs $2,000 plus to send a pound of anything into space. Musk has plans to drop that figure to $1000 or less. Creating a reusable rocket is necessary to achieve the reduced cost of space travel.
If successful, SpaceX will be one step closer to realizing the dream of reusable spacecraft. One of the main reasons that space launches are so expensive is that most of the rocket is disposable, falling into the ocean.
Eventually SpaceX wants to bring both the first and second stages all the way back to the original launch pad, refit & refuel them, ready to be sent back up into space again.
When asked about the chances for success, SpaceX gives themselves 50-50 odds for success. Not great odds, but failure is a part of success. When questioned about his numerous failures when trying to invent a working electric lamp, Thomas Edison is often recited as saying,
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
The launch originally planned for December 19th, is scheduled for January 6th or 7th. If the landing fails, they will try again, and again. SpaceX says it plans to test the maneuver over a dozen times in 2015.
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