Slashdot Mirror
In Daring Plan, Tomorrow SpaceX To Land a Rocket On Floating Platform
HughPickens.com writes "The cost of getting to orbit is exorbitant, because the rocket, with its multimillion-dollar engines, ends up as trash in the ocean after one launching, something Elon Musk likens to throwing away a 747 jet after a single transcontinental flight. That's why tomorrow morning at 620 am his company hopes to upend the economics of space travel in a daring plan by attempting to land the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket intact on a floating platform, 300 feet long and 170 feet wide in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX has attempted similar maneuvers on three earlier Falcon 9 flights, and on the second and third attempts, the rocket slowed to a hover before splashing into the water. "We've been able to soft-land the rocket booster in the ocean twice so far," says Musk. "Unfortunately, it sort of sat there for several seconds, then tipped over and exploded. It's quite difficult to reuse at that point."
After the booster falls away and the second stage continues pushing the payload to orbit, its engines will reignite to turn it around and guide it to a spot about 200 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida. Musk puts the chances of success at 50 percent or less but over the dozen or so flights scheduled for this year, "I think it's quite likely, 80 to 90 percent likely, that one of those flights will be able to land and refly." SpaceX will offer its own launch webcast on the company's website beginning at 6 a.m. If SpaceX's gamble succeeds, the company plans to reuse the rocket stage on a later flight. "Reusability is the critical breakthrough needed in rocketry to take things to the next level." SpaceX announced the plan in December.
After the booster falls away and the second stage continues pushing the payload to orbit, its engines will reignite to turn it around and guide it to a spot about 200 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida. Musk puts the chances of success at 50 percent or less but over the dozen or so flights scheduled for this year, "I think it's quite likely, 80 to 90 percent likely, that one of those flights will be able to land and refly." SpaceX will offer its own launch webcast on the company's website beginning at 6 a.m. If SpaceX's gamble succeeds, the company plans to reuse the rocket stage on a later flight. "Reusability is the critical breakthrough needed in rocketry to take things to the next level." SpaceX announced the plan in December.
In all honesty, from looking around me these days ... I conclude that doing actual R&D on the leading edge of stuff is itself daring.
Increasingly, companies want to make a "me too" product or do things based on what focus groups tell them is good.
Hell, even some tech companies seem to be retreating from meaningful R&D and focusing on "leveraging and monetizing their IP portfolio".
Nobody is willing to invest in R&D any more unless it gets them a tax break. And in that case, they'll try to tell you to categorize a ton of unrelated stuff as part of the R&D effort so the accountants can maximize the write off.
So, me, I'll still stick with daring. Saying you figure you have a less than 50% chance of success these days is pretty bold.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
" I conclude that doing actual R&D on the leading edge of stuff is itself daring."
In the 1960s, companies hired you and they paid YOU to do R&D.
Today, universities are the R&D branch of corporations. Universities soak up public money (most of it funneled into textbook companies and top-heavy administration) and students pay the university,.
Then the students can get some nice debt, and go begging for the few technical jobs left out there.
Mostly random stuff.
Trying to balance a big pencil on a postage stamp that's moving unpredictably and simultaneously in 4 axises (pitch, roll, yaw, altitude) doesn't seem to have very high odds of success. And the worse the sea is running, the lower the odds.
If it works, though, count me really impressed by what would surely be a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
The shuttle was a complete failure in terms of reusability. It was supposed to cost $657 per pound to launch, and be refurbished for launch in two weeks. Instead it cost $27,000 per pound, and the speed record for refurbishment after Challenger was 88 days.
It ended up costing more than expendable launch systems.