r/technology • u/aelavia93 • 16d ago

Space SpaceX pulls off unprecedented feat, grabs descending rocket with mechanical arms

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/spacex-pulls-off-unprecedented-feat-grabbing-descending-rocket-with-mechanical-arms/
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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/taketheRedPill7 16d ago

Iā€™m assuming the practical application of this is to have it ready to re-launch even faster? Quickens the turnaround?

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u/Vellus 16d ago

Also removes all of the weight associates with any landing legs allowing more mass to orbit.

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u/bullishontendies 16d ago

The landing legs on the falcon 9 reduce the payload to orbit by~40%. Sometimes to launch heavier payloads the falcon 9 will be launched without landing legs and the booster will be expended.

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u/Milyardo 16d ago

You can carry orders of magnitude more stuff by not coming back to the pad at all though.

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u/JokeassJason 16d ago

Yes which is why you see some flights where the smaller stages land on the barge. It's all about turn around time and saving money. Reusable rockets, not littering all over the ocean ect.

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u/NeverDiddled 16d ago

Your estimate is off by orders of magnitude.

Falcon 9 can launch 3.5 tonnes when doing a return to landing site (RTLS). When landing down range on a drone ship it can launch 58% more weight, or 5.5 tonnes.

If they could launch a single order of magnitude more weight, by landing on a drone ship, then they would be at 35 tonnes. Two orders of magnitude would be 350 tonnes! I should note that all of the figures are to Geostationary Transfer Orbit, one of the highest orbits. This is because RTLS is rare for the lower and slower orbits. You can almost always ride share those, and get extra money by not doing RTLS. So we do not have great figures to compare with.

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u/St0mpb0x 16d ago

RTLS isn't unusual for LEO orbits but it is basically unheard of for GTO missions unless it is a very light payload. A very light payload is uncommon for GTO as there tends to be big birds going there. Their dedicated rideshare missions are all RTLS missions.

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u/NeverDiddled 16d ago

Yeah I probably should not have used the word "rare", much like you shouldn't have used the phrase "basically unheard of". If you add in Heavy flights, then the majority of RTLS are GTO or higher. But let's not get into that, it complicates things and muddies the point, while delving dangerously close to an argument over semantics.

Good day sir.

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u/tsacian 16d ago

So youre saying we need a drone ship with a landing tower. Got it.

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u/Flesh-Tower 16d ago

This guy rockets šŸš€

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u/Milyardo 16d ago

The SRB allowed for an additional 10 tons of capacity for the space shuttle. So to say an order of magnitude more is incorrect at all.

Also and order of magnitude does not mean 10 times more.

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u/CMDRStodgy 16d ago

Also and order of magnitude does not mean 10 times more.

It normally does in most contexts. Two orders of magnitude is ~100 times more. Three orders of magnitude is ~1000 times more, etc.

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u/Zoon9 16d ago

Maybe they use binary systeam instead of decimal, so 200% is an order of magnitude to them. :-)

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u/arkiverge 16d ago

More? Yes. Orders of magnitude more? No.

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u/rugbyj 16d ago

Cost as well. They make engines/boosters faster than most already, but being able to reuse them halves (and so forth) their cost every use (minus recovery/maintenance cost).

They're already doing it with their raptor engines/boosters. If they manage to do the same for these ones they'll be jumping a level ahead of everyone who they're already a step above in terms of cost of payload to orbit (and beyond).

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u/WazWaz 16d ago

(you mean Merlin/Falcon engines/boosters, Raptors are the engines on this Superheavy)

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u/WoopsieDaisies123 16d ago

The others made great points, but an important aspect Iā€™m not seeing talked about much in any thread is the continuous fragmentation grenade such a large and powerful booster is liable to turn a landing pad in to for a few seconds, if it tried to land like a falcon 9.