Slashdot Mirror
Amazon's Bezos Seeks Spacecraft Patents
An anonymous reader writes "Design News reports that Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos is seeking patents related to his 'Blue Origin' commercial space venture. Blue Origin was recently in the news when Bezos quietly admitted that its second test capsule launch in August went out of control at 47,000 feet. The head scratcher with the patents, according to Design News, is that one is for a two-stage rocket, which doesn't seem particularly novel. What is unique, and questionable as to whether it will work, is patent application 20110017872 for 'Sea Landing of Space Launch Vehicles and Associated Systems and Methods.' This one has a reusable rocket going up into suborbital flight, then the booster stage reenters the earth's atmosphere in a tail-first orientation and lands upright on a ship (boat)."
The bit that's missing from the summary is that you can trigger the sea landing with one click.
Azural - instrumentals
Maybe the patent is under Method for "Sinking a large ship with a container of rocket fuel."
Landing a rocket on a boat doesn't look like the wisest way to move rocket technology forward.
How about landing the rocket in the water next to the boat.
Actually, you have it backwards re Goddard.
The government was developing missiles and rockets, and Goddard thought they infringed, so he filed for royalties (or rather, his widow did, since he died during WW2).
The government, as is its nature, dragged its feet.
But when Sputnik flew, the government shat its pants and expedited paying Goddard's estate for the patents so that it could accelerate its rocketry programs.