Shoes.
SpaceX now has (or will soon have), for the first time, hard data on what a successful landing does to an ASDS. My guess is there might be a few very minor changes (both physical and procedural) to the ASDS as a result - the kind of minor fine-tuning that can only come with practice.
Quote from: CJ on 04/12/2016 10:35 pmSpaceX now has (or will soon have), for the first time, hard data on what a successful landing does to an ASDS. My guess is there might be a few very minor changes (both physical and procedural) to the ASDS as a result - the kind of minor fine-tuning that can only come with practice.Like a giant hand or lobster claw that grabs the stage to keep it from toppling over or fences that come up from all sides or a swirling lassoo or welders on the tips of the landing feet (no, neodymium magnets!) or maybe super huge airbags, that's what I think the changes will be from what I read earlier in the ASDS threads and elsewhere. Or maybe stick some hydrofoils under the ASDS so that it can come back quicker.More seriously, I think they have probably known for months what their likely progression path is and wanted to see a landing to confirm that they were on the right path before investing the money. Short of the longer term refuel and flyback upgrades I think most of the revisions we see will be in the areas of capacity and speed. More ASDSs , possibly 3 ASDS (per launch site? hmm, nah) to extend FH capacity, or just 2 to cover transit times and occasional kaboom fixup, and some TBD way to get the landed stage back to shore.It seems like a long time back now that we were rooting for the barge fixers to get it done so that we had a hope of catching the CRS-8 core. Just a few days back but easy to forget with the recent happy events.
Even looking at the little tiny people on deck, it's a bit hard to get a true feel of how massive everything is when you have an ASDS with a Falcon 9 first stage landed on it. To try to put it in a little perspective, perhaps someone should post a photo of what an ASDS looks like close up...Okay, maybe that doesn't really help.
I'm still waiting for them to contract Austal to make a 400 foot cat. Much more stable and 25 knots in rough seas.
It might help, though, to get the ASDS out on station a bit quicker.
Quote from: Nomadd on 04/13/2016 04:05 am I'm still waiting for them to contract Austal to make a 400 foot cat. Much more stable and 25 knots in rough seas.I think whizzing along at 25knots with a F9 on top would be rather a foolish endeavour. It looks like they came back slower than they could have done anyway. Speed doesn't appear to be an issue.
Once they get going, a single lost stage would be considerable money.
Quote from: JamesH65 on 04/13/2016 11:30 amQuote from: Nomadd on 04/13/2016 04:05 am I'm still waiting for them to contract Austal to make a 400 foot cat. Much more stable and 25 knots in rough seas.I think whizzing along at 25knots with a F9 on top would be rather a foolish endeavour. It looks like they came back slower than they could have done anyway. Speed doesn't appear to be an issue. They didn't come back slow because they didn't care about time. They came back slow because it was a little boat towing a big barge. Empty barges tend to lift up and slam down while under tow even at low speed and mild seas. They're not made for a gentle ride. A high speed cat or trimaran type hull would be a much more stable, able to go around weather and probably increase success rate from it's greater stability during landing and greater availability from being able to get places faster. Once they get going, a single lost stage would be considerable money.
SpaceX could have Austral build a larger version of the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport ships.or like the Sea Slice demonstrator, but utilizing an updated version of Hughes Surge compensator....