Quote from: iamlucky13 on 04/04/2017 03:13 amVery cool to see they recovered a half, even if visibly quite damaged.Unfortunately we have no way of knowing how the damage in the pictures was sustained. On descent? On contact with the water? While in the water floating waiting to be picked up? While bringing aboard? Note they don't have the proper lifting equipment on the vessel to lift it out of the water. As others noted, it was probably dragged aboard likely resulting in significant damage.
Very cool to see they recovered a half, even if visibly quite damaged.
Any form of moving target would either require precise pre-planning, which doesn't work if you don't compensate the effects of winds, or require real time communication between the target and the fairing. Comms means more weight, and the risks of communication failiures. They already avoid doing that for the first stage and use a fixed rendez-vous point instead. My bet is they will use the same strategy for the fairing, as it removes a lot of requirements and additional failiure modes: fixed predetermined rendez-vous point.
Landing on the "Bouncy Castle" Is not that hard, I do this without instruments,with instruments and a 360 overhead even a computer can do this.
Quote from: JJB on 04/05/2017 09:45 amLanding on the "Bouncy Castle" Is not that hard, I do this without instruments,with instruments and a 360 overhead even a computer can do this.Can you do it so accurately when flying downwind? You clearly turned in to the wind for the final landing approach.
Why not put the "bouncy castle" in the fairing?
Quote from: JamesH65 on 04/05/2017 09:55 amQuote from: JJB on 04/05/2017 09:45 amLanding on the "Bouncy Castle" Is not that hard, I do this without instruments,with instruments and a 360 overhead even a computer can do this.Can you do it so accurately when flying downwind? You clearly turned in to the wind for the final landing approach.Thats why you do a 360 turn overhead the target, gps derived wind speed and direction.
Ah ha, thanks for the explanation. That's the missing information. Question is now -does a falling fairing have enough time to do a 360 loop round the target to assess wind speed/direction. Which is a question we don;t have an answer for without knowing the glide ratio.
Quote from: JamesH65 on 04/05/2017 11:27 amAh ha, thanks for the explanation. That's the missing information. Question is now -does a falling fairing have enough time to do a 360 loop round the target to assess wind speed/direction. Which is a question we don;t have an answer for without knowing the glide ratio.It doesn't need it - there are various ways of getting live wind data from the landing platform, up to and including a dozen $1K drones standing off 500m and reporting live windspeeds and gusts 10s before they hit.
It also has onboard thrusters that could assist with positioning/trajectory.
Quote from: cppetrie on 04/05/2017 01:49 pmIt also has onboard thrusters that could assist with positioning/trajectory. I'm not sure using RCS thrusters while hanging from a parafoil is the best of ideas. At best, I would expect it to send you spinning. Also idoubt they have very significant margins on the fuel used. If the system is designed to help for stability and attitude before and during reentry only, expect thet there won't be much propellant left after reentry has occured.
Shotwell: did recover one half of payload fairing from this launch, not sure about the other. One we did “looked pretty good” #33SS
More fairing recoveries to come from @SpaceX in 2017 #SpaceSymposium #33SS
Quote from: deruch on 04/04/2017 03:27 amI haven't seen any info on how close they came to hitting their target. I'm trying to get an estimated accuracy for this first attempt. Clearly they were close enough so that the recovery boat could still get to it before it sank. Which seems a significant achievement in addition to the feat of it just surviving to sea level, but maybe they are quite buoyant in salt water and this isn't so incredible. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-34941462It indeed floats long-term.This is a fairing which bobbed along just under/on the surface all the way to the UK.Though this method of recovery is probably not useful for reflight
I haven't seen any info on how close they came to hitting their target. I'm trying to get an estimated accuracy for this first attempt. Clearly they were close enough so that the recovery boat could still get to it before it sank. Which seems a significant achievement in addition to the feat of it just surviving to sea level, but maybe they are quite buoyant in salt water and this isn't so incredible.
Quote from: speedevil on 04/04/2017 01:18 pmQuote from: deruch on 04/04/2017 03:27 amI haven't seen any info on how close they came to hitting their target. I'm trying to get an estimated accuracy for this first attempt. Clearly they were close enough so that the recovery boat could still get to it before it sank. Which seems a significant achievement in addition to the feat of it just surviving to sea level, but maybe they are quite buoyant in salt water and this isn't so incredible. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-34941462It indeed floats long-term.This is a fairing which bobbed along just under/on the surface all the way to the UK.Though this method of recovery is probably not useful for reflight That's a bit of the interstage, not the fairing. Though we have also seen fairings washed up in the Bahamas, IIRC. I know they don't necessarily sink to the bottom of the sea. The question was more along the lines of how long it will stay on the surface to allow them to be spotted and then recovered.
SpaceX Verified account @SpaceX 16m16 minutes agoView from the fairing during SES-10 mission. #EarthDay pic.twitter.com/zPYQRQ3BkR
QuoteSpaceX Verified account @SpaceX 16m16 minutes agoView from the fairing during SES-10 mission. #EarthDay pic.twitter.com/zPYQRQ3BkR