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Elon Musk Talks "X-Wing" Fins For Reusable Rockets, Seafaring Spaceport Drones
An anonymous reader writes Elon Musk sent a number of tweets recently in which he detailed a program to test the function of "X-Wing" style grid fins that could help spacecraft navigate upon re-entry. The tweets describing how it would work, also include an autonomous seafaring platform, which can hold its position within three meters even in a heavy storm, that would act as a landing pad. From the article: "The SpaceX reusable rocket program has been progressing with varying results, including an explosion over Texas back in August. While the incident didn't result in any injury or even 'near injuries,' Musk conceded in a tweet that this was evidence that '[r]ockets are tricky.' An earlier test flight from this summer involving an ocean splashdown was considered more successful, proving that the Space X Falcon 9 booster could re-enter earth's atmosphere, restart its engines, deploy its landing legs and make a touch down at 'near zero velocity.'"
No. Its not NASA, its Boeing, Lockheed Martin, et al.
When people talk about the "privatization of space" I generally laugh. Spacecraft where always made by private industry, and always operated by the government, so far nothing has changed.
Why else did the space shuttler look like an airplane? Thats not a practicle design for space. Its because it was made by boeing.
Its just that SpaceX is not a defense contractor.
No, the big difference is how the contracts are written, how the winners are selected, and how much design influence NASA and Congress exert (yes Congress).
Historically, NASA was heavily involved in the design and many decisions were forced on them by Congress to direct the money to specific congressional districts (remember those segmented solid boosters on the Shuttle? You can thank Congress for them. And they are going to use them again on the next generation SLS which is not a commercial contract.) Historically, once NASA/Congress have doled out the contracts, the work was performed on a cost plus basis. The contractors had very little financial risk, and NASA/Congress had a lot of control over the process.
The way a commercial contract works is that the companies bidding on the contracts are given requirements and they have much more freedom in how they meet those requirements. They respond with a proposal as to how they intend to provide a solution and a fixed cost. SpaceX builds almost everything in house, Orbital Sciences outsources almost everything in their rocket. Both choose exactly how they wanted to meet the requirements and NASA/Congress had no control over them which allowed them to take very different approaches.
Ideally, more than one company wins a commercial contract (SpaceX and Orbital for cargo, SpaceX and Boeing for crew). This provides redundancy in case there is a failure, unlike when the shuttle failed and our entire manned space program was grounded for years. Twice. It also allows for more competition to put some downward pressure on prices and allows for new entrants for future contracts.
Now system is perfect, but the commercial cargo/crew program is absolutely better than how we used to handle "routine" space requirements.
Some privacy policy Slashdot.