3 ms·
It's true that there is fatigue but shouldn't most of the fatigue be mitigated by the fact that they slow the rocket down significantly upon reentry? I don't se
by friedman23 10y ago
It's true that there is fatigue but shouldn't most of the fatigue be mitigated by the fact that they slow the rocket down significantly upon reentry? I don't see why a falcon 9 should suffer much more fatigue than any jet that goes faster than 2x the speed of sound
- nether 10y agoYes, mitigated compared to a full-speed descent. It's not really possible to compare it to an entirely different system though like a fighter jet. Fatigue is analyzed at a part level, like a single strut or a patch of aluminum reinforcing a small area, and is dependent on the type of loading, materials, magnitude/dir of stress, temps in some cases, frequency of cycles, and so on. Fatigue life in aerospace is a tradeoff between designing heavier, beefier, longer lasting parts and skimpier, lighter parts that lead to a lighter vehicle overall. Any part can undergo fatigue damage for a given loading if it is designed to be weak enough.
- krastanov 10y agoIt might not matter after you do the math, but on landing this rocket is plunging back into the atmosphere at supersonic velocity moving through its own rocket exhaust. This is a pretty visceral image that does sound like something causing fatigue.