Spacex Grasshopper 744m Test

[nettcod]

[Stankleberry]

Fail. Need more fuels to get to space.

[K^2]

Fail. Need more fuels to get to space.

Engines ran for about 70 seconds with average TWR of 1. That's about half way to space and a little under 10% of establishing orbit. Still impressive.

[goldenpeach]

I can't wait for that to go in space!

[Nuke]

the flyback stage doesn't go to space. unless they wanted to build a vtvl ssto.

[0jam3290]

I can't wait for that to go in space!

It's not. Grasshopper is a test rig "proof of concept" for the reuseability of the Falcon 9 core stage by landing the 1st stage on engines alone.

[Superluminaut]

I really wish they had posted the video of the F9 v1.1 decent.

[Ralathon]

I really wish they had posted the video of the F9 v1.1 decent.

How are they supposed to have footage of that? They couldn't exactly pinpoint where it was going to come down. And, since the thing went into a very rapid spin all footage from the stage itself would be a blurry mess that won't show anything.

[Superluminaut]

How are they supposed to have footage of that? They couldn't exactly pinpoint where it was going to come down. And, since the thing went into a very rapid spin all footage from the stage itself would be a blurry mess that won't show anything.

After the launch Musk stated in a press conference that they did recover video of the first stage decent and planned to post it by weeks end.

[nettcod]

Fail. Need more fuels to get to space.

It's not supposed to go to space. It's just a test vehicle.

[goldenpeach]

It's not supposed to go to space. It's just a test vehicle.

That's not a reason to not bring it into space

[BostLabs]

That's not a reason to not bring it into space

Jeb isn't interested. There isn't a seat that he can ride.

Now, me? This is awesome!

[goldenpeach]

Jeb isn't interested. There isn't a seat that he can ride.

So what,he will just stand on the top,chairs are overrated anyway...

This is the last scheduled flight of the Grasshoper rig:(

The next test are low altitude test of the Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) development vehicle(it will then be hight altitude)

[K^2]

That's not a reason to not bring it into space

That's a good point. If, "It's not meant to," was any sort of an argument, we wouldn't be going to space at all.

[Francesco]

This is the last scheduled flight of the Grasshoper rig:(

The next test are low altitude test of the Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) development vehicle(it will then be hight altitude)

interesting, source?

could you link any article/website/forum related to this?

[goldenpeach]

Source: Facebook status from SpaceX.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any article/website/forum saying the same thing(you can find some article on the test).

[PTNLemay]

Does anyone know the detailed specs of this thing? How heavy is that big payload it's carrying and the kind of thrust it's engine has.

I feel like recreating it in KSP using as small a rocket carrying as large a weight as I can, seeing how high I can get. It's really the landing that's tough. With parachutes? Okay. With mechjeb? Sure. But with NEITHER of those... oh that's a fun challenge.

[Bacterius]

Does anyone know the detailed specs of this thing? How heavy is that big payload it's carrying and the kind of thrust it's engine has.

I feel like recreating it in KSP using as small a rocket carrying as large a weight as I can, seeing how high I can get. It's really the landing that's tough. With parachutes? Okay. With mechjeb? Sure. But with NEITHER of those... oh that's a fun challenge.

Yeah I made one of those, no parachutes though but pinpoint landing is a pain. I was thinking of using lateral RCS to sort of hover at a few metres above the ground, perhaps using mechjeb to stabilize vertical thrust, though that can be done manually, just a bit tedious. But I don't know how well that would work on Kerbin. I'm guessing this is where something like kOS would shine to help carry out the landing maneuver flexibly. The concept is sound though.

[nettcod]

That's not a reason to not bring it into space

A good reason not to bring it to space is it doesn't have enough fuel to get to space.

[Superluminaut]

interesting, source?

could you link any article/website/forum related to this?

I can confirm it.

http://www.rocketeers.co.uk/node/3271

[Superluminaut]

Does anyone know the detailed specs of this thing? How heavy is that big payload it's carrying and the kind of thrust it's engine has.

I feel like recreating it in KSP using as small a rocket carrying as large a weight as I can, seeing how high I can get. It's really the landing that's tough. With parachutes? Okay. With mechjeb? Sure. But with NEITHER of those... oh that's a fun challenge.

Yeah I made one of those, no parachutes though but pinpoint landing is a pain. I was thinking of using lateral RCS to sort of hover at a few metres above the ground, perhaps using mechjeb to stabilize vertical thrust, though that can be done manually, just a bit tedious. But I don't know how well that would work on Kerbin. I'm guessing this is where something like kOS would shine to help carry out the landing maneuver flexibly. The concept is sound though.

I put together a vehicle like this.

http://youtu.be/JI9sv5JRAME

Also had a successful challenge going that produced several unique approaches to the launchpad landing problem.

The primary issues is the current drag model in KSP. In order to aerodynamically balance a vehicle during reentry its effective to treat drag coefficients as density coefficients, and make the top of your rocket less dense so that it will "float" in the atmosphere. Hence building a reusable rocket gets too physically bizarre for me.

The update I most desire is the one that fixes drag. Once its here I plan to build a whole fleet of reusable rockets.

[PTNLemay]

@ Superluminaut

> no parachutes

> no MechJeb

> 2 whole orange tanks

> landed on the launch pad after a full orbit

He's a WITCH! Burn him before he spreads more of his arcane wizardry.

All joking aside that was great. Those funny looking RCS thrusters, were those lateral engines bound to action groups?

[Faark]

The next test are low altitude test of the Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) development vehicle(it will then be hight altitude)

Actually, they did such a test on the Sep 29 CRS flight. The engines did properly reignite, but the rocket turned over. Its a shame they still have not published a vid of this rocket splashing into the ocean, yet

There will be no tests on the next 2 Falcon flights (2 commercial Sats on Nov1 and Dec i think), to offer maximum reliability. So the next test of landing a falcon9's first stage will be on the Feb 2014 CRS flight.

[cypher_00]

Wew that thing came close to the quadcopter when it went down again.

Stunning video.

[magnemoe]

Yeah I made one of those, no parachutes though but pinpoint landing is a pain. I was thinking of using lateral RCS to sort of hover at a few metres above the ground, perhaps using mechjeb to stabilize vertical thrust, though that can be done manually, just a bit tedious. But I don't know how well that would work on Kerbin. I'm guessing this is where something like kOS would shine to help carry out the landing maneuver flexibly. The concept is sound though.

Tried this myself back in 0.18 or 0.19, first you don't need pinpoint accuracy. +-50 meter should be enough, main issue is that trying for higher accuracy gives you horizontal speed who is an killer with an so high lander. Now mechjeb has an 2-300 meter accuracy on kerbin so if you use it and do some rcs corrections 4-8 km up is should do the needed accuracy.