The SpaceX company successfully launched its cargo to the Space Station. But they had another goal in mind and that was to see if, once the cargo capsule had peeled away, they could land the Falcon 9 booster rocket onto a floating barge because that would enable them to reuse the booster and provide a huge savings.
The idea was to have booster rockets slow its descent and then land it vertically on four legs. Alas, they got really close to success but not quite. Still, when you see the video of the landing, what they achieved was pretty impressive, since landing a 14-story high tower-like object and keeping it vertical is an enormous challenge. They got the booster to land exactly on target but failed to keep it upright. They came so close to pulling it off this time that it seems like they should be able to do it successfully within the next couple of attempts.
Looking at the white caps on the water they’d have a side wind to worry about too. I think some sort of tower and a rapidly deploying restraint would help a lot. Nice try though.
Here’s the view from the deck camera:
http://bcove.me/bs84kke6
I read Elon Musk thinks their odds of succeeding at a recovery are running 50/50 now and with the amount of launches they have lined up this year expects the odds will be 80/20 by year end at experience improves their skills.
Just wondering… why don’t they use a net between two barges? Let the rocket fall into water, where the net is waiting. Maybe because seawater can be pretty corroding?
1. Anything where there are sideways forces on the body of the stage is out because it’s not built to survive lateral stress, only vertical stress. See, for example, what happens this time when it falls down: the tanks rupture.
2. Anything which puts the stage into sea water is out: first, salt water is highly corrosive. Second, the shock of putting a recently-active rocket motor into cold water is even more destructive.
3. To get at yet another often-made suggestion: anything parachute means steering goes pretty much out of the window.
“Both stages in the early launches were covered with a layer of ablative cork and possessed parachutes to land them gently in the sea. The stages were also marinized by salt-water corrosion resistant material, anodizing and paying attention to galvanic corrosion.”
“… using the first stage from SpaceX CRS-3, led to a successful soft ocean landing, however it presumably broke up in heavy seas before it could be recovered.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_9#Reusability
So it seems that both corrosion and mechanical stress problems are solvable.
@1 Lofty
That actually might work. I hadn’t thought of such a system before, but yeah…
What I picture is a pair of towers, maybe 3 times as tall as the booster, with a cable between them that the booster snags as it descends. That would leave it hanging in the air and not crash into the ground. Then the booster could be lowered by winch. Yeah.
@1 Lofty
Maybe, once touching the towers and connected to a cable, cut the engines, deploy smaller chutes to reduce drag, and start controlling retrieve by a wrench. Also, the booster rocket had 4 legs. Increase the legs to 6 or 8 for more stability upon landing with a gyroscope sensor so if the rocket leans one way, pressure can be used to offset the lean and keep vertical.
IANAE (engineer) but, as a business major, investing in more technology on the “legs” on an reuseable booster makes a lot of sense.