Well, for starters, they'll need to wash it.
Quote from: llanitedave on 12/29/2015 04:25 pmWell, for starters, they'll need to wash it.Well, is washing something they can do before loading it onto a transport and hauling it back to the workshop? Or is it best done back at the workshop?
Quote from: sanman on 12/29/2015 05:00 pmQuote from: llanitedave on 12/29/2015 04:25 pmWell, for starters, they'll need to wash it.Well, is washing something they can do before loading it onto a transport and hauling it back to the workshop? Or is it best done back at the workshop?I imagine that it would be most easily done if the core is mounted horizontally on those circular rings, rotating like a bird on a spit while a pressure washer slowly moves from one end to the other, kind of like a lathe.How much force is needed to remove the soot, anyways? You certainly don't want to use too much water pressure and accidentally damage the skin.
Why does it need to be washed in the first place?
As flight rates increase, will we inevitably see reusable rockets evolve towards designs meant for easy-swappability?
Quote from: Jim on 12/29/2015 07:56 pmWhy does it need to be washed in the first place?One reason I've seen is that rocket fuselages are painted white in order to help keep the LOX from boiling off too quickly. Black soot would defeat that purpose, by causing solar radiation to be absorbed and therefore increasing the boil-off rate of the LOX.
It seems predictable that the early period will involve more painstaking inspections, which will then later give way to more specialized inspections once you know which places experience the most wear and tear, and which places experience much less wear and tear.
Will we ever see things reach the equivalent of a Formula-1 racing pit-crew, where they can quickly unbolt the "tires", etc, and swap on fresh ones, etc, to rapidly make the vehicle ready for use again? I thought that perhaps that Formula-1 racing is a better analogy than conventional aircraft maintainenance, since the typical aircraft doesn't take as much punishment during its flight to warrant the same level of parts replacement so frequently.