SpaceX's Grasshopper VTVL takes a 40 meter hop

FF7 7777 · 06-01-2015 4:57am

So the attempted landing of the Falcon is today, at 11am to be precise going by countdown on the page, spaceX will have a webcast on their site and Musk is doing a Reddit now. 50/50 for successful land.

Linkys,

spacex.com/webcast/

reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket_company_ama/

nokia69 · 06-01-2015 5:28am

if this goes to plan they will make history today, but if not I think they will get it right this year

from reddit

Previously, you've stated that you estimate a 50% probability of success with the attempted landing on the automated spaceport drone ship tomorrow. Can you discuss the factors that were considered to make that estimation?
In addition, can you talk more about the grid fins that will be flying tomorrow? How do they compare to maneuvering with cold-gas thrusters?

Musk's reply

I pretty much made that up. I have no idea

The grid fins are super important for landing with precision. The aerodynamic forces are way too strong for the nitrogen thrusters. In particular, achieving pitch trim is hopeless. Our atmosphere is like molasses at Mach 4!

FF7 7777 · 06-01-2015 5:32am

Made up 50/50, lol.

nokia69 · 06-01-2015 6:32am

FF7 7777 wrote: »

Made up 50/50, lol.

its an interesting comment from Musk, the previous landings on water must have been pretty accurate for them to try a ship landing now

so many things can go wrong but I think the chances are good, even if they fail it will help with future landings

Capt'n Midnight · 06-01-2015 5:55pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30696895

US company SpaceX has postponed an experiment to bring part of its Falcon rocket down to a soft landing on a floating sea platform.

The firm has now rescheduled the Cape Canaveral demonstration for Friday.
...

The problem responsible for Tuesday's scrub decision related to a technical issue detected in the steering mechanism of the rocket's upper stage.

The next chance to send up the vehicle will be on Friday at 10:09 GMT (05:09 local Florida time).

FF7 7777 · 06-01-2015 10:49pm

Here's a firework factory blowing up while we wait till (hopefully) Fridays launch.

youtube.com/watch?v=LyofFp2GpfU

And look at this for one mad Firework,

hobbyspace.com/Blog/?p=9535

INPUT INNPUT · 09-01-2015 5:56pm

Off again until tomorrow.

shedweller · 10-01-2015 9:03am

INPUT INNPUT wrote: »

Off again until tomorrow.

Couple of hours to go and it looks like an 80% chance of the weather playing ball. Last i heard anyway...
Apparently Mr. Musk gives it a 50/50 chance of success!

thecommander · 10-01-2015 9:17am

shedweller wrote: »

Apparently Mr. Musk gives it a 50/50 chance of success!

If the landing is successful they're going to show the replay on the web stream. Source is their staff intranet. Be great to see it.

shedweller · 10-01-2015 9:30am

So no live stream then. Hmph! Ah well, off to bed with me then. I expect great things when i get up.

And maybe a landed rocket too!

thecommander · 10-01-2015 9:55am

shedweller wrote: »

So no live stream then. Hmph! Ah well, off to bed with me then. I expect great things when i get up.
And maybe a landed rocket too!

Live stream of the launch, just not the landing.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/?utm_content=buffer6e91c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#.VLDpKsZIiBV

nokia69 · 10-01-2015 10:02am

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

should be on youtube too

weather looking OK

thecommander · 10-01-2015 10:06am

nokia69 wrote: »

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

should be on youtube too

weather looking OK

And on UStream too. Always good to have a few options, but I doubt there'll be as many watching as usual due to the time in the US.
http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

Ghost Train · 10-01-2015 10:39am

must be nearly time for this I guess

edit 8min

Ghost Train · 10-01-2015 11:03am

so did the first stage land in the water as was kind of expected, since they keep showing a watery looking video

thecommander · 10-01-2015 11:08am

Ghost Train wrote: »

so did the first stage land in the water as was kind of expected, since they keep showing a watery looking video

The blobs of liquid is the propellant inside the second stage floating around. They put a camera inside the tank.

nokia69 · 10-01-2015 11:11am

Elon MuskVerified account
‏@elonmusk Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.

oh well better luck next time

thecommander · 10-01-2015 11:23am

Wonder if it went overboard

Capt'n Midnight · 10-01-2015 1:53pm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30752515

The company CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the booster hit the platform hard.

"Close, but no cigar," he added. "Bodes well for the future tho'. Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced." And he continued: "Didn't get good landing/impact video. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and... actual pieces."

...
The barge is less than 100m wide, and all previous experiments had been working on a landing accuracy of some 10km.

nokia69 · 10-01-2015 3:23pm

hitting the barge is pretty good IMO

they will try again at the end of the month

I bet they get it right at some stage this year

shedweller · 10-01-2015 4:08pm

I wonder what the swell was like? Still though, thats a very good result and bodes very well for the next effort. I cant wait for pics!

Hmmzis · 10-01-2015 10:53pm

From Musk's tweets it looks like the rocket ran out of hydraulics fluid for the fins, about 10% short. Aparently they use an open system to save weight. Not sure is the fluid is shared with the landing legs' system.

shedweller · 11-01-2015 1:24am

Hmmzis wrote: »

From Musk's tweets it looks like the rocket ran out of hydraulics fluid for the fins, about 10% short. Aparently they use an open system to save weight. Not sure is the fluid is shared with the landing legs' system.

He said there is already 50% more fluid on the next one so theres plenty in reserve.
They were out by only 10% this time. A simple thing like turbulence or crosswind would have used up the hydraulics quicker. A closed system would have kept on doing its thing but the weight penalty was deemed too much. As usual with rockets, they ride a knife edge and sometimes things go wrong.
I was actually thinking about the weight thing the other day. Not my weight, the rockets. Given that it will be reusable, wont they have to beef up the structures to cope with metal fatigue? This will be a weight penalty in itself so theres going to have to be a balancing act done with all that. Interesting work!

Capt'n Midnight · 11-01-2015 12:36pm

*put's on Devils Advocatehat*

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30752515

they would also have to get satellite operators comfortable with the idea of launching their precious hardware on what would essentially be second-hand rockets.

"The customer doesn't ask for reusability; they ask for reliability at the cheapest cost possible," said Rachel Villain, with the space intelligence company Euroconsult.

"Reusability is the problem of the supplier, not of the client. A satellite operator has basically three demands - on time, on quality and on price," she told me.

The launch vehicle weighs 500 tons and has a payload of 1.3%

India's GSLV Mark III weighs 630 tonnes , and a suborbital test without the finals stages cost $24m ,( the full thing can put 10 tones in to LEO or less than half that to GEO )
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/science/2014-a-year-of-technological-advancement-for-india-in-space/articleshow/45591930.cms
so a Payload of 1.6%

So he non reusable one might be 23% more efficient ?
But what matters is the cost and reliability.

Remember some of the SRB segments from the shuttle were reused up to 7 times.

from http://www.actmaniac.com/india-to-launch-gslv-mark-iii-satellite-vehicle-by-the-mid-of-december/

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%28spacecraft%29

_Jumper_ · 11-01-2015 5:36pm

Videos of the latest launch are up.

thecommander · 11-01-2015 8:25pm

Pic of the barge returning to Jacksonville.
B7F8I4dCMAITxoP.jpg:large

Hmmzis · 11-01-2015 11:29pm

Looks like there are some bits and pieces on the barge and some minor fire damage. But where is the rocket stage wreck itself, did it fall into the ocean and that on the barge is all that's left?

shedweller · 12-01-2015 5:22am

Hmmzis wrote: »

Looks like there are some bits and pieces on the barge and some minor fire damage. But where is the rocket stage wreck itself, did it fall into the ocean and that on the barge is all that's left?

Looks that way. Those tarpaulins seem to be covering some rockety bits. I really hope the next attempt will be done in daylight so we can see it.

thecommander · 12-01-2015 4:42pm

Some serious sleuthing going on over on Reddit. Seems there was a video feed of the landing, only one clip thats cropped out of a tv screen in mission control. It's of the deployed fins. http://imgur.com/ANumpHA

I reckon we'll eventually see something from the barge.

SpaceX's Grasshopper VTVL takes a 40 meter hop

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