Will SpaceX repaint ASDS's?

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

There's pretty clearly a large scorch mark below the engines, and now that SpaceX will be recovering F9s regularly, ASDS's will need to be constantly repainted.  Any thoughts?

[Scotius]

I bet they will. Otherwise rust will soon become a problem.

[HebaruSan]

Well, it's better than patching giant holes in the deck. Yes, I'm sure there will be a full clean-up pass of the barges between uses, especially if they continue to livestream the landings.

[Robotengineer]

If it's purely cosmetic, I don't see the point in repainting it. 

[Kerbart]

At SEA?! That's not even a question...

[Findthepin1]

That being said, why did they paint the thing in the first place?

[GeneCash]

12 minutes ago, Findthepin1 said:

That being said, why did they paint the thing in the first place?

If you don't paint metal exposed to seawater, it's not metal for very long.

It's interesting to see how dark the booster is. I wonder how much of that is from re-entry heat, and how much is from exhaust blowback?

[pincushionman]

Paint is cheap.

[Nibb31]

I think they'd better just paint the lower part of the first stage black.

[Elrond Cupboard]

1 hour ago, Nibb31 said:

I think they'd better just paint the lower part of the first stage black.

Is the LOX at the top or the bottom?, Black wouldn't be good for boil-off.

[Frozen_Heart]

4 hours ago, Elrond Cupboard said:

Is the LOX at the top or the bottom?, Black wouldn't be good for boil-off.

LOX is at the top, which is why it stays white.

[sevenperforce]

10 hours ago, GeneCash said:

It's interesting to see how dark the booster is. I wonder how much of that is from re-entry heat, and how much is from exhaust blowback?

Re-entry heat. If you watch the landing videos it is already scorched black from re-entry before it nears the ASDS.

 

[kerbiloid]

They would paint 3d graffiti for better spectacularity

 

[InsaneDruid]

Of course they will re-paint. They don't just gonna "fuel it up again and let it go again."

This booster is re-usable, which doesn't meant it doesn't need to be (extremely carefully) serviced.

Edited April 11, 2016 by InsaneDruid

[sojourner]

6 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

Re-entry heat. If you watch the landing videos it is already scorched black from re-entry before it nears the ASDS.

 

Most of it is soot from the engine burns, not re-entry heat. Remember, it does a boost back burn as well as a re-entry burn to slow the stage and prevent it from re-entering too fast. The landing burn is the last of (a possible) 4 times the engines are fired during a mission.

 

The stage never attains enough speed on the way down for re-entry heating to char it.

Edited April 11, 2016 by sojourner

[Dkmdlb]

6 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

Re-entry heat. If you watch the landing videos it is already scorched black from re-entry before it nears the ASDS.

 

You're forgetting the supersonic retropropulsion it does in the upper atmosphere. 
 

[fredinno]

On 4/11/2016 at 11:48 PM, Nibb31 said:

I think they'd better just paint the lower part of the first stage black.

They probably want to put insulation over the Lox tank for boil-off prevention (due to the nature of the F9FT) so I'd paint the entire rocket orange to keep the colour consistent

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

2 hours ago, fredinno said:

They probably want to put insulation over the Lox tank for boil-off prevention (due to the nature of the F9FT) so I'd paint the entire rocket orange to keep the colour consistent

I would be very sad if they did that.  All my favorite-looking rockets are white and sometimes a bit of black.

[EVA_Reentry]

Hope this isn't a necro or anything, but I thought LOx was at the bottom... I've never seen a diagram/cutaway of any F9 variant indicating LOx on top. Thinking about it, I can see why it would make sense, but is that a constant with all rockets?

[sojourner]

Lox is at the top on the F9 first stage.