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I am so damn proud of what SpaceX has accomplished! At the same time, it just seems a bit lame to watch this whiplashing splash down in the ocean with parachut
by zaroth 8y ago
I am so damn proud of what SpaceX has accomplished!
At the same time, it just seems a bit lame to watch this whiplashing splash down in the ocean with parachutes instead of a perfectly smooth VTOL landing on a pad.
Particularly as the chutes seems to billow and twist, one seemed to trade positions with another which I’m sure is fine but in the moment seemed worrisome, and the craft bobbing and twisting at the end of the ropes...
Is the ultimate longer term plan a Dragon that can land properly under its own power?
- grey-area 8y agoThey thought about it, but no, the ultimate long term plan is that huge shining steel starships will take off and land on the same pad carrying lots more people or cargo. Some things are easier when you’re bigger.
- zaroth 8y agoApparently the SuperDracos have the necessary thrust and fuel to bring Dragon to a stop from terminal velocity, Dragon just lacks the landing gear. So then why not use that to slow down just before a splash down? Perhaps if you throttle them down to the point where the G-force is reasonable, the losses to gravity add up too quickly and you run out of thrust. Too bad :-(
- Faark 8y agoThe primary reasons they don't do this are likely economic, but the hypergolic fuel used by SuperDracos also isn't particularly healthy [0]. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/29qwj9/how_toxic_will_the_superdraco_exhaust_be/ https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/29qwj9/how_toxic_wi...