Jump to content

Blue Origin Thread (merged)


Aethon

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, mikegarrison said:

Yes, a nice sunny day is too much to ask for.

Things to remember:

1) The point of the mission is to safely launch the payload. Landing the rocket is only a bonus.

2) Launch windows are very tight. In order to hit the right orbital inclination, you must launch when you hit the window or else wait for the next window.

3) It's winter. The weather may be worse the next window.

1) landing the rocket increases profit

2) nothing to say here

3) this is California were talking about, "winter" conditions barely made it to February last year

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Rakaydos said:

Last year wasnt an El Nino year. (apparently that's spanish for rainy year)

Not sure if you're joking, but el nino has different effects on the weather depending on where you are. The typical effects of el nino and la nina on the weather where I live are almost the mirror of their effects on SoCal. http://www.elnino.noaa.gov

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, insert_name said:

1) landing the rocket increases profit

Not yet. If anything, it is costing SpaceX a lot of money (and reducing profit) because they are going to all the expense of landing them but they aren't yet reusing them. Eventually, once they do start reusing rockets, it will save them money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

@insert_name is right, @wumpus. From what it sounds, the ice formed while the rocket was sitting on the pad in visible moisture (fog) while full of cryogenic liquids a couple hundred degrees below freezing. 

If you'll think back to the recovered F9 last month, much of the rocket was not covered by soot probably because of ice still clinging to it. We're not talking a full-on, ionized plasma reentry here, either. Once the rocket gets a few km up there's very little heat transfer in the short time before landing to melt any ice build up. 

The fog at the launch site just exacerbated an expected condition into a real problem, one that's been faced in the air travel industry for decades but no one had ever thought to apply to rockets, since this is all so new. 

If the landing gear is anything like an aircraft landing gear, there's a latch it has to snap into on deployment to lock it into position. Ice can be quite strong under compression so depending on the design, either it might not take that much ice to foul the mechanism, or there was simply that much ice. 

While fog might only occur at Vandenburg during winter, the Falcon typically launches in Florida.  Dealing with humidity has to be normal operation.  I'd still expect ice to have issues with direct contact with flames (although it doesn't work quite as well as you would think.  In that situation the ice needs to go all the way to a gas to leave, requiring two phase conversions.  Expect a lot of heat transfer required for even a little bit of ice).

I still think that requiring the latch to work to avoid excess travel on the legs was the real cause of this failure.  Not sure how much it will weigh to avoid it, and how many other places ice could cause similar problems (mostly with keeping the legs from extending at all).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, fredinno said:

Not yet, the rocket is still technically expendable right now.

I wouldn't be too surprised if they couldn't retrofit a 1.1 falcon9 right now (all the tooling being changed to 1.2).  They might be able to launch the thing as planned (gas and go), but there is no way that anyone would buy a launch it for even half the going rate of a 1.2.  Landing the thing was an R&D exersize.  February's* booster might possibly be re-used, but that is likely pushing it.

* One of the next launches goes back to land, and I think another one is simply expended.  Not sure which is which.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, gooddog15 said:

Spaceflight Now has pictures of the wreckage at port: Link

SPACEX-LAUNCH-AFTERMATH-4.jpg

.At least they did recover the engines..

Lest not forget that the engines are the most expensive parts...:D

1 hour ago, AngelLestat said:

that stage seems in good condition.. let's reuse it.. 

PD: The barge should be one of the spacex workers best paid considering its task.

How can you pay a machine?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

Where? 

I know it would be possible to get the fuel/engine setup pretty close to reality, but come to think of it I don't think it would be possible to make the landing system without mods.

well you could make the landing legs with some stock hinges the main problem really is that the rocket will be OP for stock KSP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...