4 ms·
Recycling a rocket isn't anywhere near as interesting as building the first rocket. Rockets are oooold technology; the rest is automated control systems, whose
by afterburner 10y ago
Recycling a rocket isn't anywhere near as interesting as building the first rocket. Rockets are oooold technology; the rest is automated control systems, whose most interesting breakthroughs came when enabling oddities like stealth planes to fly when they should tumble out of the sky under purely human control.
In short, this is more an iteration than a breakthrough. Not to take away from the effort of course.
- sqeaky 10y agoIt is an iteration than it seems many experts thought impossible. For everyone else's benefit the F-117 was that stealth airplane, it was like trying to fly bricks in the shape of an airplane and needed constant computer adjustments because it wasn't very aerodynamically stable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-117_Nighthawk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-117_Nighthawk
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoI always wondered why the F-117 looked like a low-poly CG model. It turns out that's because it was: shaping a stealth airframe takes a hell of a lot of math, and the computers available could only handle it for a small number of flat surfaces.