• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Reusable rocket test

srgalahad

srgalahad

Charter Member 2022
Space X flies "Grasshopper" rocket - lift-off, climb to 250m (820 ft), hover and land back on the pad

 
"Grasshopper, SpaceX’s vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL) vehicle, continues SpaceX’s work toward one of its key goals – developing fully and rapidly reusable rockets, a feat that will transform space exploration by radically reducing its cost. With Grasshopper, SpaceX engineers are testing the technology that would enable a launched rocket to land intact, rather than burning up upon reentry to the Earth’s atmosphere."

... quoted from release dated March 10, 2013 announcing previous 80m test flight
http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20130310

Current Low Earth Orbit satellite launches and ISS resupply missions currently have a high cost in non-reusable components. Even the reusable Shuttle's launch vehicle was not recyclable to a significant degree. If SpaceX can develop a system that launches and is recovered intact and quickly reused it should reduce costs significantly (and reduce environmental impact as well) for missions that do not require manned capability.

What other uses it might have are probably only limited by imagination. At least it seems to make more sense that the current technology which is akin to throwing away the shotgun along with the spent shell after you shoot (or miss) a duck.
 
Yes, but my main question would be is would the vehicle be able to survive a re-entry procedure with fuel on board? 80m is one thing, orbit is a completely different situation. Not to mention, there would have to be some parts that would have to be repaired or even replaced after landing. The friction of re-entry would more than likely ensure that. Just my thoughts. Kind regards, Jeremy
 
jrbirdman said:
Yes, but my main question would be is would the vehicle be able to survive a re-entry procedure with fuel on board? 80m is one thing, orbit is a completely different situation. Not to mention, there would have to be some parts that would have to be repaired or even replaced after landing. The friction of re-entry would more than likely ensure that. Just my thoughts. Kind regards, Jeremy
Click to expand...

Here, watch this ...

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jbBPughfwd4?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top