Hard landing again. Ah well. Next time.
Practice makes perfect.
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.
They did last time:Hmm, maybe next time. They'll keep trying.
Will footage of the attempted landing be released? (e: ^I guess it will?)
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.
I was a lot closer than I thought. Unfortunately, my Galaxy Tab S was not up to the task.
SpaceX Engineer ‏@SpaceXEngineer 2m2 minutes ago
We falcon punched the barge... @SpaceX CRS-6
edit:
launch live stream is over
Looks like Falcon landed fine, but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post landing
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.
Does "excess lateral velocity" mean "it fell"?
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.
No, going sideways, i.e. slided a bit and then waggled and tipped overDoes "excess lateral velocity" mean "it fell"?
lat·er·al
ˈladərəl,ˈlatrəl/
adjective
1.
of, at, toward, or from the side or sides.
It means it came at an angle, or it had a lateral drift component. Looks more like the first.Does "excess lateral velocity" mean "it fell"?
Does "excess lateral velocity" mean "it fell"?
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.
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'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
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.
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.
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.
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.
What? Who's they? You mean RTG, right? Private sectory is by and large moving to methalox engines on large rockets with Raptor & BE4.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.
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.
If this works, I'm treating myself to a volcano lair. It's time.