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SpaceX is attempting a huge feat in spacecraft engineering. It is seeking to land the first stage of its Falcon 9-R rocket on a floating platform at sea. Normally this would end up at the bottom of the ocean. If successful, SpaceX will shake the rocket launch market, by shaving millions of dollars off launch costs.
Today’s rockets are one shot wonders. They burn up fuel in a few minutes and splash down into terrestrial oceans, having put their payload on the right trajectory. This is wasteful and that is why scientists have dreamed of building reusable launch vehicles.
The holy grail of rocket launchers is a concept referred to as the single stage to orbit (SSTO) vehicle. The idea is to use a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) which has the capability to deliver a payload to orbit, re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and land, where it can then be refuelled. The process can then be repeated with a short turnaround.
https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-reusable-rockets-are-so-hard-to-make-36036
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday January 11 2015, @10:02PM
Something interesting to consider about the design costs, is $0 was spent on reuse design work on the Falcon 1 which puts it at a competitive advantage over a theoretical 1-R where money was spent on re-use.
In the NASA world, things change very slowly, but spacex has already stopped using the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 V1.0, and is almost done launching the Falcon 9 V1.1 and the 9-R will fly "soon ish". Having to keep "antique" reusable Falcon 1's, 9 1.0s and 9 1.1s around for 20 years until a mishap or whatever would be very problematic in the development cycle of the 9-R.
Its interesting that the model T was not the first car, not by any means. It was the first mass produced car in the USA, thats all. Might be that the tech level isn't quite ready for the model T of the space booster world. There were cross country car races 30 years before the first model T rolled off the line.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday January 13 2015, @12:03AM
Hell, for that matter there were electric cars competing in races almost 70 years before the model T was designed.
The model T's claim to fame was that it was cheap and reliable enough to be a good investment for members of the middle class. Something that the previous mass-produced Models A, B, C, F, K, N, R, and S had not achieved (and those are only the previous models produced by the Ford Motor Company, which was hardly without competitors)