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Winged stage will not have enough kinetic energy at cutoff to allow it turn around and fly back to launch site, and landing it at the ocean takes building and o
by anovikov 10y ago
Winged stage will not have enough kinetic energy at cutoff to allow it turn around and fly back to launch site, and landing it at the ocean takes building and operating a whole aircraft carrier - too expensive (and probably harder to safely automatically land than the way they do it now). So, that winged stage would have to redirect back to launch site the way SpaceX does it now - using fuel. And, it will have to always do it, not having the option of ASDS launch, severely cutting the payload on GTO and other high energy trajectory missions.
For RTLS launches, it would do approximately as good as their current approach, the fuel for landing burn+legs will approximately weight as much as wings and wheels. But would definitely cost more to develop.
A winged stage also having a jet engine, allowing it to fly back as a powered airplane, not a glider, would solve both issues, and will whole lot more efficient than current SpaceX approach for RTLS, and about as good as ASDS, but a lot, a lot more expensive to develop. They would have to become an aircraft company in addition to being a rocket company.
- kirrent 10y agoDo you have any references at all for a winged stage being feasible in any way? Considering that there are plenty of rocket stages out there that can't even be moved horizontally unless they're pressurised I doubt anything vaguely resembling the Falcon 9 could ever be retrofitted in the manner you describe. What form would these, presumably retractable, transonic capable, necessarily light wings even take? How would they ever be as light as the remaining fuel load in an ASDS landing, especially when wheels are added?
- anovikov 10y agoRussians played with exactly such a stage, that had wheels from Mig-29 and engines from Yak-40. It was called Baikal and was feasible, but eventually never flew.
- anovikov 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikal_(rocket_booster) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikal_(rocket_booster) Here is a Wiki article on it. Reverse: it was supposed to use engine from Mig-29 and wheels from Yak-40 :) Anyway, it never went anywhere beyond mockup stage.
- danielsamuels 10y agoYou also have to remember that these rockets are going to land on Mars, and we're not going to be able to set up a runway before they arrive, so landing vertically is a necessity.
- ygra 10y agoWell, this one won't land on Mars unless it launches from there (which is unlikely to happen). But they're gathering experience and knowledge about how to do propulsive landings and the technique as such doesn't care much about an atmosphere. Dragon v2 and the ITS spaceship will both use propulsive landing and those will end up on Mars.
- larrydag 10y agoWinged stage is not practical because SpaceX wants to immediately relaunch (after refueling) for their Mars missions. SpaceX ITS video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA