If the mounting hoop that the fairing halves are hinged to has a larger inner diameter than the outer diameter of the second/final stage, you could slide the entire opened up fairing & mounting hoop down the side of the stage and jettison it at the rear of the rocket, into the plume of the accelerating stage. It would have to have clearance of the payload pedestal & payloads, as well as any exterior plumbing on the side of the rocket.
Quote from: Stan-1967 on 03/21/2016 04:47 amIf the mounting hoop that the fairing halves are hinged to has a larger inner diameter than the outer diameter of the second/final stage, you could slide the entire opened up fairing & mounting hoop down the side of the stage and jettison it at the rear of the rocket, into the plume of the accelerating stage. It would have to have clearance of the payload pedestal & payloads, as well as any exterior plumbing on the side of the rocket.You don't need a full clamshell opening to slide your fairing back.And making the cylindrical part of the fairing in a single piece, without joints, you can save a good amount of mass."Small" problem: sliding the fairing into the plume of the accelerating stage you are likely going to shred it in pieces smaller than those previously recovered.I did this animation to look at the concept some month ago, then I realized the "small" problem .
Might the future fairing be attached to the first stage and return together with it?
@Stan:Sliding the fairing before MECO you can lock it on the upper part of the interstage, and get a free ride back to earth (what hrissan wrote): I remember Jim said spacecrafts need protection also after MECO, therefore this should be carefully balanced.Throttling down second stage engine to minimum during sliding may be ok (but not a given).@Chris:A sliding fairing should have rails, therefore a straighter path & no lateral jerks on separation.@dorkmo:This means add to them complete navigation & RCS....
im not really following, but for an idea, perhaps following seperation using thrusters the two halves could quickly dock with one another to become one again.
Last I heard, FH will use FT side boosters but a v1.1 core. So SpaceX isn't averse to retaining multiple versions of the same stage for different purposes.
Sorry, when I posted, I was thinking about the interstage between first and second stage, not the nose fairing. What is wrong with dumping the fairings? You can't save everything yet.
Quote from: spacenut on 03/23/2016 08:59 pmSorry, when I posted, I was thinking about the interstage between first and second stage, not the nose fairing. What is wrong with dumping the fairings? You can't save everything yet. The fairings are hella expensive.
Has anyone considered going the other way with the Faring? By that I mean make it super cheap like the wrapping on a candy bar? I know there are aerodynamic loads and all that but just wondering if a dry nitrogen pressurized gas bag made out of some tough material could be used. After all NASA is investigating inflatables for potential reentry use, so maybe not so crazy? Just wondering.