4 ms·
mass != momentum. I'm sure the thinking was that they wouldn't be able to slow the rocket down enough and that the speed of impact would punch through the barge
by DougWebb 10y ago
mass != momentum. I'm sure the thinking was that they wouldn't be able to slow the rocket down enough and that the speed of impact would punch through the barge. The autonomous control needed to get the rocket to slow down and stop at just the right time, while accounting for the movement of the barge, the movement of the rocket (eg: unpredictable wind impact), and the difficulty of gathering telemetry through the rocket engine exhaust, is pretty amazing.
- mikeash 10y agoThey initially aim the rocket to the side, then correct over to the barge after the engine lights, so a failure there doesn't cause a high-speed crash. Either way, the relative masses matter. It takes a lot more effort to punch a hole through something much more massive than your projectile! It doesn't make much sense that a light, nearly spent rocket stage would punch all the way through a massive barge. And even if it did, the hole still wouldn't be big enough to sink it.
- cdash 10y agoAlso the fact that if the rocket has actually lost control its unlikely it would hit the barge anyway at least at any significant amount of speed. The only time that would be likely is if it loses control right at the end where is velocity is low.
- grecy 10y ago> I'm sure the thinking was that they wouldn't be able to slow the rocket down enough and that the speed of impact would punch through the barge. Would any "expert" really believe SpaceX didn't run the numbers millions of times, and do millions of simulations to confirm they could slow it down before actually spending the money to buy and outfit drone ships, build landing legs onto their rockets, etc. etc. ? I mean, honestly, while the devil is in the details for an actual landing, they must have been pretty damn sure they could at least slow the thing down sufficiently.