Quote from: yg1968 on 07/22/2014 09:00 pmQuote from: QuantumG on 07/22/2014 08:45 pmIf they now have pinpoint accuracy, I wonder if we could maybe see quadcopter footage of a landing in the future.What makes you think that they have achieved pinpoint accuracy? Isn't that what the grid fins are about?What makes you think I said they had?
Quote from: QuantumG on 07/22/2014 08:45 pmIf they now have pinpoint accuracy, I wonder if we could maybe see quadcopter footage of a landing in the future.What makes you think that they have achieved pinpoint accuracy? Isn't that what the grid fins are about?
If they now have pinpoint accuracy, I wonder if we could maybe see quadcopter footage of a landing in the future.
We keep talking about platforms but, what about a deserted island perhaps. Anything out in the Atlantic and within the flight profile that would meet the criteria? Another wild idea. Could you land it on the deck of an aircraft carrier? Yeah, I know the risks but planes have crashed on decks before.
Quote from: yg1968 on 07/22/2014 09:00 pmQuote from: QuantumG on 07/22/2014 08:45 pmIf they now have pinpoint accuracy, I wonder if we could maybe see quadcopter footage of a landing in the future.What makes you think that they have achieved pinpoint accuracy? Isn't that what the grid fins are about?Exactly - if they had, I would assume that we would see landing footage from a boat position very close to the intended spot. (and there certainly might be such footage, not yet released)
...And that assumes that it will be a floating platform to begin with, which is questionable. (Yes, they have raised it as a possibility, but they want to do a land landing)
Quote from: Lars_J on 07/22/2014 09:43 pm...And that assumes that it will be a floating platform to begin with, which is questionable. (Yes, they have raised it as a possibility, but they want to do a land landing)SpaceX might be trying to kill two birds with one stone. It is still not clear if the core of the FH can make it back to the KSC landing pad. The core of the FH might need a floating landing pad at all times. So might as well test the floating landing pad with a F9 flight.
Incidentally, here is the Blue Origin patent with the sea going platform:http://www.google.com/patents/US8678321
Launching Falcon 9 Heavy from the planned Texas facility: would the core have velocity/range to make it to Florida or any Gulf Coast location? I assume not all launch trajectories are going to be straight east?I'd wondered about the flyback portion--it consumes significant propellant and a floating platform should be robust enough to suffer a bad landing without much damage.
Now all we need to do is crowd-source a deconvolution of the icing effects on the lens. No sweat, right?
Quote from: Damon Hill on 07/22/2014 10:07 pmLaunching Falcon 9 Heavy from the planned Texas facility: would the core have velocity/range to make it to Florida or any Gulf Coast location? I assume not all launch trajectories are going to be straight east?I'd wondered about the flyback portion--it consumes significant propellant and a floating platform should be robust enough to suffer a bad landing without much damage. If FH flies with cross-feed, it could reach Florida. But remember that they can also choose to launch FH without cross-feed. In that case it would fly like the Delta IV-Heavy, where the core throttles down after liftoff. The DH core could in that case make it back to the launch site.I guess it all depends on how heavy the DH payload will be.
The remaining questions are whether a landed stage can be easily secured and economically returned. A RTLS does eliminate the time and trouble of a remote recovery.