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A rocket landed vertically

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ASPartOfMe
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22 Dec 2015, 7:29 pm

Here's Why the SpaceX Rocket Landing Is Such a Big Deal


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24 Dec 2015, 10:31 pm

and ppl cheer as men hit small white balls into holes dug into really short grass.... :roll:

Science does something truly impressive and only nerds care :roll:



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24 Dec 2015, 10:58 pm

If you need to be a nerd to understand how impressive something is, only nerds will find it impressive, and finding it impressive will mark you as a nerd, so anyone caring for popularity won't want anything to do with it.


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24 Dec 2015, 11:41 pm

:D


Spiderpig wrote:
If you need to be a nerd to understand how impressive something is, only nerds will find it impressive, and finding it impressive will mark you as a nerd, so anyone caring for popularity won't want anything to do with it.



MDD123
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28 Dec 2015, 12:46 pm

Either way, this vertical landing is a huge deal for the spacex because it proves they can use their $60 million rockets from start to finish without having it break off in stages or crash land.

I know Elon Musk wants to go to mars eventually, but if he makes space access cheaper across the board, there might be a lot of companies interested in a lot of aspects of space exploration.


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frenchmanflats
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29 Dec 2015, 2:48 am

MDD123 wrote:
Either way, this vertical landing is a huge deal for the spacex because it proves they can use their $60 million rockets from start to finish without having it break off in stages or crash land.

I know Elon Musk wants to go to mars eventually, but if he makes space access cheaper across the board, there might be a lot of companies interested in a lot of aspects of space exploration.


But there is always a catch.Reusability implies weight penalties such as non-ablative reentry shielding and possibly a stronger structure to survive multiple uses, and given the lack of experience with these vehicles, the actual costs and reliability are yet to be seen.Reusable launch systems require maintenance, which is often substantial.The weight of a reusable vehicle is almost invariably higher than an expendable that was made with the same materials, for a given payload.



UrchinStar47
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29 Dec 2015, 8:04 am

frenchmanflats wrote:
MDD123 wrote:
Either way, this vertical landing is a huge deal for the spacex because it proves they can use their $60 million rockets from start to finish without having it break off in stages or crash land.

I know Elon Musk wants to go to mars eventually, but if he makes space access cheaper across the board, there might be a lot of companies interested in a lot of aspects of space exploration.


But there is always a catch.Reusability implies weight penalties such as non-ablative reentry shielding and possibly a stronger structure to survive multiple uses, and given the lack of experience with these vehicles, the actual costs and reliability are yet to be seen.Reusable launch systems require maintenance, which is often substantial.The weight of a reusable vehicle is almost invariably higher than an expendable that was made with the same materials, for a given payload.

Reentry shielding is only relevant to spacecrafts flying at orbital speeds, first stage of Falcon 9 can simply use boostback because the engines, structure and the leftover fuel is a lot less massive than the rest of the spacecraft.

Also, when it comes to actual shielding the materials have advanced, these aren't the Space Shuttle days any more.

One other thing, rockets are not designed for each individual payload, and Falcon 9 (v1.1 in particular) was designed from the start to have a lot more capacity than required by the average payload in it's grade, so they took it into account early in the design process. Even with all that, unreusable Falcon 9 is a lot cheaper than compeating launchers.