SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 - Jason 3 - SLC-4E Vandenberg - Jan 17, 2016 - DISCUSSION

[QuantumG]

I wonder if it'd fit on the back of one of those hyperloop pods. 

[sojourner]

Mount the whole thrust structure with engines on a pedestal outside McGregor with a plaque that reads "This is why we test".

[dawei]

I do hope they hold on to at least some of the debris from past, present and future RUD's.  They can keep it under wraps for awhile if they want to.  But some day when reuse is commonplace they can display the debris next to a retired intact stage and let it be a visual reminder of the need to progress through failures in order to achieve breakthroughs. 

[MP99]

Also, did SpaceX just achieve SMART(-ish) reuse?   

Nope. Dumb reuse. :-)

Cheers, Martin

[ugordan]

Also, did SpaceX just achieve SMART(-ish) reuse?   

Nope. Dumb reuse. :-)

Dispersing Unneeded Metal Ballistically

[meekGee]

Also, did SpaceX just achieve SMART(-ish) reuse?   

Nope. Dumb reuse. :-)

Dispersing Unneeded Metal Ballistically

Acronyms much more contrived than this are used seriously on a daily basis...

[LouScheffer]

You know how public perception works - memory capacity of a fruit fly.

This is a completely unsupported assertion, since the memory capacity of fruit flies is unknown.  As part of my current research, we are investigating the mechanism(s) behind memory in fruit flies.   Different models of sparse coding of odors could potentially be distinguished by the number of different odors the fly could remember.  So just last week I asked a number of experts if the memory capacity was known.  The universal reply was that it was not in the literature, and had almost surely never been measured, since it already requires fairly elaborate equipment and experiments to get the fly to remember one odor and then act on that memory so it can be measured.   

For an overview of what is known of the memory circuitry in fruit flies, see for example this article:  "The neuronal architecture of the mushroom body provides a logic for associative learning", at http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e04577 .  There is a huge literature on this, but this article is both fairly recent and open access.

[Space Ghost 1962]

I know a scientist who works on gnats that inhabit microbial mats, and has a special balance to weight microgram gnats brains ... and correlates that with "learned" behaviors ... might that help.

I think in other words your both are optimistic ...

[kevin-rf]

I may start a poll, and am soliciting help on making a complete list.  It would be titled "I was wrong" and will read

"I posted that SpaceX needs:

1   A bigger barge *
2   A more stable barge *
3   A semisubmersible barge *
4   A seabed anchored barge *
5   A barge with a self-leveling surface *
6   A slower approach *
7   A more even approach *
8   A calmer sea state *
9   A radar altimeter *
10 More radar altimeters *
11 A hydraulic leg deployment *
12 A shock absorbing leg design * #
13 A set of heaters for the legs * #
14 Arresting wires *
15 Wheels under the legs * #
16 Brakes for wheels under the legs *
17 A barge transmitter protected from the rocket plume on descent *
18 A barge barge transmitter that points at a satellite not behind the rocket plume *
19 To turn off the FTS before landing # *
20 To stop hiding their failures *
21 A Chuck-E-Cheese ball pit *   (Thanks Tuts36!)
22 A sky-hook wire system
23 Horizontal landing with shorter legs * (I kid you not)
24 Below deck self-deploying foot grabbing devices or some such thing *
25 Roombas wielding MIG welders # *

* And I was wrong"

# which a really clever person like me can see but *

What is missing from this list?  I am sure there were more such suggestions.

edit: Already added #19, 21-25

You forgot the Roton method, big chopper blades that deploy on landing and auto-rotation into a nice soft landing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_Rocket

[Nomadd]

 So, did everybody win the bingo competition?

[ZachS09]

ScottMC was the sole winner.

[Comga]

I may start a poll, (snip)

You forgot t(snip)

Please stop.
These alternatives are not the point, which was that SpaceX will succeed in landing the stage on a barge.
There are an infinite number of alternatives that SpaceX won't use and doesn't need.
Additional methods are party thread material.
They are certainly not about the Jason 3 launch.

[Rocket Science]

Photos of JRTI returning to port via Reddit: http://imgur.com/a/WMmFd

Couple of takeaways showing the engine section. Quite a bit of engine hardware available for inspection there.

I guess SpaceX beat ULA at engine recovery only...

[Rocket Science]

I may start a poll, and am soliciting help on making a complete list.  It would be titled "I was wrong" and will read

"I posted that SpaceX needs:

1   A bigger barge *
2   A more stable barge *
3   A semisubmersible barge *
4   A seabed anchored barge *
5   A barge with a self-leveling surface *
6   A slower approach *
7   A more even approach *
8   A calmer sea state *
9   A radar altimeter *
10 More radar altimeters *
11 A hydraulic leg deployment *
12 A shock absorbing leg design * #
13 A set of heaters for the legs * #
14 Arresting wires *
15 Wheels under the legs * #
16 Brakes for wheels under the legs *
17 A barge transmitter protected from the rocket plume on descent *
18 A barge barge transmitter that points at a satellite not behind the rocket plume *
19 To turn off the FTS before landing # *
20 To stop hiding their failures *
21 A Chuck-E-Cheese ball pit *   (Thanks Tuts36!)
22 A sky-hook wire system
23 Horizontal landing with shorter legs * (I kid you not)
24 Below deck self-deploying foot grabbing devices or some such thing *
25 Roombas wielding MIG welders # *

* And I was wrong"

# which a really clever person like me can see but *

What is missing from this list?  I am sure there were more such suggestions.

edit: Already added #19, 21-25

Does this count as 14 or does it need to be added to the list?

Also I've learn from Kerbal that you don't need landing legs you can land on the engine cones just fine.
You know it's these tips that Elon should really be paying attention to. :-p

This guy ripped-off my snare idea from a year ago...

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36326.2160

[Lar]

Just no. No more Rube Goldberg landing related ideas in this thread

[Kansan52]

All the pieces of RUDs that are allowable ought to be sold as Falcon Droppings (stealing from Armadillo Aerospace that sold RUD pieces as Armadillo Droppings).

Good dust catcher for my work area.

[mvpel]

One of the executives here has a slightly-bent piece of a Delta hull, as a memento of the successful completion of the structural testing project earlier in his career. Another colleague has a dismembered SM-3 fin from an early White Sands flight test. There's a subtle yet ineffable sensation you get when you've got an engineering mindset and you're holding a piece of carefully-crafted aerospace engineering in your hands, feeling its perfect yet slightly mysterious lack of mass, and getting a close look at the nuances of its design. I'll bet if they cut up Falcon 9 scraps into hand-held pieces they could sell them all day long worldwide for $50 each, perhaps with a nice little certificate of authenticity people could frame.

[AndrewRG10]

Watching a doco and came across lots of unique never publicly seen footage, such as this angle of Jason-3 landing. A lot foggier than the other released angle. Can now understand what SpaceX meant by the camera being foggy and hard to see what was happening.



Watching clips like this get willingly released to big corporations for their doco's but not to science educators or general public is really why SpaceX needs a public library of every single uncut video they have.