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SpaceX Attempting 1st Stage Landing After Rocket Launch (AKA Crazy Space Stuff)

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blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/588076749562318849

elonc5swo.png
Practice makes perfect.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Shame the landing wasn't a success. Wording makes it sound like it was close - just didn't slow down enough. An improvement over last time.
 
Another awesome launch, I love watching these live streams. It always gets me so hyped to play some Kerbal. Bummer on the hard landing again. I look forward to the drone barge footage. Last time it was pretty spectacular.
 

Zynx

Member
Hmm, maybe next time. They'll keep trying.

Will footage of the attempted landing be released? (e: ^I guess it will?)
 

andycapps

Member
Sounds like it was accurate but set down at too high a rate of speed. These things can be worked out, and I'm sure they will.
 

Norml

Member
They should test the drone ship with a huge support structure so the rocket is much harder to tip over.You would just have to thread the needle a lot better.
 
They should test the drone ship with a huge support structure so the rocket is much harder to tip over.You would just have to thread the needle a lot better.

It sounds like it was accurate, but coming in too fast.

Still, not bad for what, hitting a tiny target in a big ocean with a flying bomb. Just need to stick the landing.
 

hipbabboom

Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
The solar arrays provide power for the electronics on board.

IIRC Solar panels are still used to generate electrical charges, to be used for generating electricity for engines needs. In the near future, they want to use nuclear power to generate those electrical charges, instead of relying on solar.

Thanks for the answers, I had the feeling that's what it would be. Hearing chatter about ion drive and the impossible engine over the years, I began to wonder if some alternate form of propulsion had been perfected.

So their going Nuclear in the future huh? It makes me a little sad only because I was hoping that space exploration would be a driving force in improving solar power production... I guess there's no reason why it would stop being. It is insane how long nuclear energy can power something though.
 

Blizzard

Banned
I wonder if there's a way to use the rockets to slow down the descent until the barge is near, then deploy a parachute with some sort of tiny steering motor to land the rest of the way without the rocket firing? It feels like parachuting the rocket down on its side would be easier than trying to land 100% vertically without tipping over.
 
I wonder if they can still fire the horizontal thrusters post landing if they detect a tilt. Or if once it drops, that's it because the outlets are too close the barge surface.

Does "excess lateral velocity" mean "it fell"?

It fell because its momentum was probably still going sideways when it landed.
 
Elon Musk said:
All we have right now is low frame rate video (basically pictures). Normal video will be posted when ship returns to port in a few days.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/588084593552596992
clipboard01mlkco.png


Does "excess lateral velocity" mean "it fell"?
No, going sideways, i.e. slided a bit and then waggled and tipped over

lat·er·al
ˈladərəl,ˈlatrəl/
adjective
1.
of, at, toward, or from the side or sides.
 
I wonder if they can still fire the horizontal thrusters post landing if they detect a tilt. Or if once it drops, that's it because the outlets are too close the barge surface.



It fell because its momentum was probably still going sideways when it landed.

They need wider landing gears!

Trust me, I've played Kerbal
 

hipbabboom

Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
I wonder if they can still fire the horizontal thrusters post landing if they detect a tilt. Or if once it drops, that's it because the outlets are too close the barge surface.



It fell because its momentum was probably still going sideways when it landed.

Okay, so it was already on the lading surface but just became unstable from moving sideways (sliding?) along the surface.

It still blows my mind that something like a rocket can basically reverse-takeoff. Its hard enough to get a pencil placed on a table on its flat side, doing the same thing with a controlled explosion happening on its backside is witchcraft. Amazing stuff.
 
They'll probably nail it eventually, but I think a "helper" system on the barge itself needs to be added that will "assist" with the landing.

Maybe some mechanism that will gently "hug" the rocket once it's x feet above the barge surface, so that lateral movement is minimized.

As it stands (see what I did there) right now the whole thing seems to want to tip over.

Wouldn't strong winds still tip the rocket over even if it touched-down successfully?

Then again they are the experts, I'm sure they explored all possibilities.

Back to Kerbal :p
 

DBT85

Member
Nice attempt. Hopefully the next one goes a bit better.

Lateral velocity means it was moving left or right still, even if it was pointing straight up. Could be a wind based issue or just them not neutralising all of that lateral velocity enough on the approach to the pad.

Maybe put some huge airbags on the pad that inflate at touchdown so that it can't tip too far.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
They'll probably nail it eventually, but I think a "helper" system on the barge itself needs to be added that will "assist" with the landing.

Maybe some mechanism that will gently "hug" the rocket once it's x feet above the barge surface, so that lateral movement is minimized.

As it stands (see what I did there) right now the whole thing seems to want to tip over.

Wouldn't strong winds still tip the rocket over even if it touched-down successfully?

Then again they are the experts, I'm sure they explored all possibilities.

Back to Kerbal :p


Tall rocket + wind + heaving ship platform = bloody difficult to stay upright. They need some kind of capture mechanism, or even a trampoline netting around the edge of the platform.

Of course eventually they want to land on land, which will help.
 
Okay, so it was already on the lading surface but just became unstable from moving sideways (sliding?) along the surface.

It still blows my mind that something like a rocket can basically reverse-takeoff. Its hard enough to get a pencil placed on a table on its flat side, doing the same thing with a controlled explosion happening on its backside is witchcraft. Amazing stuff.

I imagine is probably landed and slided. While sliding, the normal force applied by the barge probably caused the rocket to then rotate. I am not a mechanical engineer, but I bet this created a moment of intertia which then cause the rocket to rotate (aka tip over).
 

Norml

Member
Nice attempt. Hopefully the next one goes a bit better.

Lateral velocity means it was moving left or right still, even if it was pointing straight up. Could be a wind based issue or just them not neutralising all of that lateral velocity enough on the approach to the pad.

Maybe put some huge airbags on the pad that inflate at touchdown so that it can't tip too far.

Was thinking the same thing. Have them in a ring shape that deploy at touch down to grab it. I just don't know if it's possible to inflate something that big and fast.

0x0YY.jpg
 

commedieu

Banned
Thanks for the answers, I had the feeling that's what it would be. Hearing chatter about ion drive and the impossible engine over the years, I began to wonder if some alternate form of propulsion had been perfected.

So their going Nuclear in the future huh? It makes me a little sad only because I was hoping that space exploration would be a driving force in improving solar power production... I guess there's no reason why it would stop being. It is insane how long nuclear energy can power something though.

I'm doing research on VASIMIR and Fusion Rockets, thats the only reason I knew the answer. Look into these technologies, I believe the nuclear yeild isn't anything grand, its just more than they can get from solar, which means we will be able to travel much further.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbK9DTMhyns

Seems that the private sector is going to be who takes us there.
 

Melon Husk

Member
Was thinking the same thing. Have them in a ring shape that deploy at touch down to grab it. I just don't know if it's possible to inflate something that big and fast.

0x0YY.jpg

The goal is a soft ground landing so you must solve this issue. And it's not an impossible task now with 2 failed attempts worth of data. Accuracy is pinpoint and all that needs to be solved is horizontal drift in the final meters. BTW the video will go public on the weekend so we will see just how much drift there was.

IIRC Solar panels are still used to generate electrical charges, to be used for generating electricity for engines needs. In the near future, they want to use nuclear power to generate those electrical charges, instead of relying on solar.
What? Who's they? You mean RTG, right? Private sectory is by and large moving to methalox engines on large rockets with Raptor & BE4.

OT: You're doing research on VASIMR? Plasma physics? That's awesome. CFRs in space is a pie in the sky daydream but they could provide electric thrusters with crazy amounts of thrust for sure. You'd still need large chemical rockets to get them into orbit.
 

Norml

Member
The goal is a soft ground landing so you must solve this issue. And it's not an impossible task now with 2 failed attempts worth of data. Accuracy is pinpoint and all that needs to be solved is horizontal drift in the final meters. BTW the video will go public on the weekend so we will see just how much drift there was.


What? Who's they? You mean RTG, right? Private sectory is by and large moving to methalox engines on large rockets with Raptor & BE4.

OT: You're doing research on VASIMR? Plasma physics? That's awesome. CFRs in space is a pie in the sky daydream but they could provide electric thrusters with crazy amounts of thrust for sure. You'd still need large chemical rockets to get them into orbit.

Yeah,but having some safety measures in place, can't hurt.
 
That is a hell of a lot of drift to deal with at the end there. Presumably wind shear for a tall-ass (empty-ass) hunk of metal.

Might need to get some more spin on that bad boy to keep it truer...
 

lednerg

Member
Even though the two landings have been 'failures', they still provide SpaceX loads of valuable data needed to perfect the technology. We're talking about stuff they can't just use a computer model for; they need this real world information in order to iron out the kinks. That said, the fact that a rocket going in reverse has successfully found its target 2 out of 2 times is pretty amazing.
 
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