Author Topic: ASDS support ship activities thread  (Read 56692 times)

Offline CJ

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ASDS support ship activities thread
« on: 07/24/2015 09:46 pm »
The ASDS thread is getting a bit cluttered (including by me) due to discussions of the ASDS support ships unrelated to ASDS, so I thought I'd try starting a new thread.

Examples would be Go Quest, NRC Quest, Rhea, and Elsbeth III, when they are conducting activities unrelated to ASDS (such as the search for CRX-7).   

The two Quests have been seen conducting what appear to be sonar search patterns off Florida and California. In the case of Go Quest off Florida, this seems to be part of the search for CRX-7 debris (whether from Dragon or the LV).

But what is the activity off California? Wild speculation: a test to fine tune sonar methods for locating small metallic bottom targets (such as struts from CRX-7) to aid in that search.
 
« Last Edit: 07/24/2015 10:16 pm by CJ »

Offline OxCartMark

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #1 on: 07/24/2015 10:25 pm »
....This post space reserved for the creation of a fact reference list....
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Offline OxCartMark

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #2 on: 07/24/2015 10:25 pm »
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Offline Darga

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #3 on: 07/24/2015 10:35 pm »
a test to fine tune sonar methods for locating small metallic bottom targets (such as struts from CRX-7) to aid in that search.
 

No way they will find a 24" x 1" piece of metal in 800+meter ocean especially that patch which has had spent stages dropped on it for decades among other things.

Offline CJ

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #4 on: 08/02/2015 09:04 pm »
a test to fine tune sonar methods for locating small metallic bottom targets (such as struts from CRX-7) to aid in that search.
 

No way they will find a 24" x 1" piece of metal in 800+meter ocean especially that patch which has had spent stages dropped on it for decades among other things.

Theoretically, they could find such a small object. Theoretically. Towed sidescan multispectral sonar has great resolution, enough to tell the difference between a man's bike and a woman's. However, what would a strut look like on that? a small straight line, just like a stanchion that's fallen off a boat, or all sorts of other things (including launch debris from other launches).

I'm wondering if the strut search might be easier than we assume; could part of it still be attached to something, such as the COPV or the LOX tank wall?

Offline DAZ

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #5 on: 08/22/2015 11:59 pm »
You don’t start looking for a 24” x 1” piece of metal.  The 1st thing you have to do is look for the haystack you going to be searching in.  You do that by mapping a large area looking for large and small items.  Next you’ll start looking at the larger items to identify which of those might belong to the SpaceX S2.  The parts they will be looking for of most interest is the lower part of the LOX tank.  More precisely the part they want to find is the rings where the COPV were mounted.  If they can find this relatively large part they can then send down a ROV to video and try to find the lower half of the broken strut.  Just finding and videoing this broken strut would provide SpaceX with the definitive cause of the stage failure.

Doing the above is still very difficult.  On the other hand you might get lucky.  Not until you’ve expended a minimum of effort will you be able to determine how close you are to the very difficult as opposed to how close you might be to getting lucky.  This is why SpaceX is expending at least a minimum of effort investigating the possibility.  If after doing the preliminary mapping SpaceX determines that the haystack is either too big or has too many other unrelated needles they then will then give up.  On the other hand if they find some good possible candidates they will then investigate those.  Either way it will probably continue to investigate until the weather starts to turn bad for this year.

Offline Kim Keller

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #6 on: 02/10/2016 04:14 pm »
Taken in Port Canaveral Feb. 5. The ASDS was moored across the channel, hidden behind the two.

Edit: the corner of the ASDS is just visible at far right.
« Last Edit: 02/10/2016 04:15 pm by Kim Keller »

Offline Kabloona

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #7 on: 02/10/2016 04:43 pm »
Thanks, Kim.

What do we think the purpose of the second GO ship is? Payload fairing search & recovery?
« Last Edit: 02/10/2016 04:45 pm by Kabloona »

Offline OxCartMark

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #8 on: 02/10/2016 06:52 pm »
Looks like the SpaceX recovery folks are "Go" for a landing.
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Offline bstrong

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #9 on: 02/10/2016 07:07 pm »
I can't think of any good reason to pay for two east coast support ships at this time. Maybe the lease is up on Go Quest and the owner needs to swap it out for some reason rather than just extending the lease (maintenance, etc.). Go Searcher may be tied up alongside to transfer the containers and equipment over so Go Quest can go home.

Offline dorkmo

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #10 on: 02/11/2016 04:56 am »
perhaps they wanted backup since theyre going further out from the mainland?

Offline Wolfram66

Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #11 on: 02/15/2016 09:44 pm »
Support Ship Go Quest now berthed next to OCISLY at Port Canaveral while American Champion heads out to CRS-7 Dragon splash-down area to continue mapping of fragments. Any idea why Go Quest has moved?

Offline Kabloona

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #12 on: 02/15/2016 10:57 pm »
And Elsbeth III is berthed up against GO Searcher by Fishlips Grill.

Update: American Champion has joined the EIII and GS at Fishlips.
« Last Edit: 02/16/2016 01:32 am by Kabloona »

Offline Kabloona

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #13 on: 02/15/2016 10:59 pm »
American Champion heads out to CRS-7 Dragon splash-down area to continue mapping of fragments.

Thanks for this update. Where did you get the info about CRS-7 mapping?
« Last Edit: 02/16/2016 01:33 am by Kabloona »

Offline Wolfram66

Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #14 on: 02/16/2016 02:55 am »
Scroll up in this thread

Offline Kabloona

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #15 on: 02/16/2016 03:35 am »
Scroll up in this thread

CJ mentioned that the two Quests appeared to be doing search patterns. He didn't mention American Champion.

So are you seeing American Champion doing search patterns in the CRS-7 debris area? Just trying to understand what observations you're drawing conclusions from. American Champion was back in port a little more than an hour after your post saying she was heading out, which seems rather a short time to get to/from the debris area.
« Last Edit: 02/16/2016 03:59 am by Kabloona »

Offline Wolfram66

Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #16 on: 02/16/2016 06:02 pm »
here is American Champion's latest tracks from MarineTraffic.com. Seems to going to the same area that the Go Quest/Go Searcher were searching.

Offline Kabloona

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #17 on: 02/16/2016 07:29 pm »
I don't know what they're doing, but that's far too close to shore for a CRS-7 debris search.

Offline CJ

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #18 on: 02/17/2016 01:31 am »
That course track for American Champion definitely excludes CRX-7 debris search (as mentioned above, way too close in).

Anyone have any idea on the speed during that sortie? I'm wondering if it could have been a tow test of the ASDS.

Edit: alternate theory: an engine test of the tug. It's what I'd expect to see if they'd done any sort of routine engine work, or for that matter, done any work at all that could impact seaworthiness.

« Last Edit: 02/17/2016 01:33 am by CJ »

Offline Kabloona

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Re: ASDS support ship activities thread
« Reply #19 on: 02/17/2016 01:45 am »
Quote
Anyone have any idea on the speed during that sortie? I'm wondering if it could have been a tow test of the ASDS.

It was up to 7.8 knots, which is her listed max speed, so I doubt she was towing the ASDS.
« Last Edit: 02/17/2016 02:14 am by Kabloona »

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