Recovering Snoopy

[Gargamel]

Scott brings us another great video:

I can see Elon getting a bug to go get it if we ever locate it. 

[Nightside]

30 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

...I can see Elon getting a bug to go get it if we ever locate it. 

I think Bezos is more of a collector, remember he scavenged those F1s out of the Atlantic.

[magnemoe]

An fun idea. 
But how do you stop something from rotating? It might rotate pretty fast. It might not be anything in the center of rotation to grab on to. If it was you could spin your self up grab it with robot arm, and slow rotation down, optionaly have an rotating joint on the arm. 
They has handled some rotating objects before. 

If no points to grab an cold gas truster can be used to change its rotation but this will take lots of mass. 

[tomf]

3 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

An fun idea. 
But how do you stop something from rotating? It might rotate pretty fast. It might not be anything in the center of rotation to grab on to. If it was you could spin your self up grab it with robot arm, and slow rotation down, optionaly have an rotating joint on the arm. 
They has handled some rotating objects before. 

If no points to grab an cold gas truster can be used to change its rotation but this will take lots of mass. 

The grabbing point doesn't have to be near the axis of rotation. If you could line the COM of the grabbing spacecraft up with the LM's axis and rotate at the same rate then the LM will appear to be stationary and you can grab it wherever it provides a handhold.

[magnemoe]

1 minute ago, tomf said:

The grabbing point doesn't have to be near the axis of rotation. If you could line the COM of the grabbing spacecraft up with the LM's axis and rotate at the same rate then the LM will appear to be stationary and you can grab it wherever it provides a handhold.

Obviously  So you only need an hardpint somewhere.  

[Geonovast]

Could a powerful enough electromagnet eventually slow it down?  Surely something on there is magnetic.

[Mikki]

Catch Snoopy with a net?

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

3 hours ago, Mikki said:

Catch Snoopy with a net?

Might damage it, but it COULD work.

Alternatively:

 

[Nikolai]

22 hours ago, Geonovast said:

Could a powerful enough electromagnet eventually slow it down?

I think so, but I also think that it's possible that it will create more difficulties than it solves; neither Snoopy nor the retrieval craft can be considered a fixed platform.

I'd love to see a real in-depth analysis of what it would take to make this work, though.

[Racescort666]

If the docking port became unviable, I would think the next best place to grab would be the engine. That’s probably got the most structure of any piece on the LEM.

[ZooNamedGames]

With time, I don't see why they can't try to use a laser or something weaker. It would take a while to slow down, but the thrust generated by the laser could be easily dampened out by reaction wheels and still allow the LM to slow it's rate of roll.

[satnet]

On 5/22/2019 at 8:44 AM, Racescort666 said:

If the docking port became unviable, I would think the next best place to grab would be the engine. That’s probably got the most structure of any piece on the LEM.

As part of the tests they ran on snoopy the docking port was ejected, so it wouldn't be an option.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, satnet said:

As part of the tests they ran on snoopy the docking port was ejected, so it wouldn't be an option.

Some fallback mechanism if the docking port would not undock I assume. 
 

You will also need an decent stage for an complete lander but they are at known locations on the Moon. 

[razark]

Why not just send some guy with a jetpack to catch it by hand?

[Racescort666]

9 hours ago, satnet said:

As part of the tests they ran on snoopy the docking port was ejected, so it wouldn't be an option.

I thought the docking port was ejected from the CSM side and still attached to the LEM? Regardless, the docking port was designed to have load going through it so it might still be a reasonable place to try and grab with "the klaw"* if the docking port had been jettisoned.

*I know "the klaw" isn't real but some sort of grabbing or attaching mechanism. 

[Gargamel]

1 hour ago, Racescort666 said:

I thought the docking port was ejected from the CSM side and still attached to the LEM?

Yes, but the CSM port is still attached to the LEM port, so we basically have this scenario in real life:

 

 

[magnemoe]

20 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Yes, but the CSM port is still attached to the LEM port, so we basically have this scenario in real life:

 

 

Or rather two docking ports connected and an decopler on top. 
I assume this was an fallback mechanism if the docking port failed 

Has used that setup on some builds like an Tylo crashing stage who I dropped before landing, Science ship could then take up and dock with another crashing stage to explore another area, granted here was the decopler on the stage and I was left with the port who I dropped then landing. 

I assume it should be posible to either get an solid hold on this decopler, optionally is it posible to opperate the docking port freeing the stub with an robotic arm?