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> NASA could not do that decades ago because then we didn't have good enough computers to [...] control the engine to land vertically. Autonomous propulsive la
by catalogia 7y ago
> NASA could not do that decades ago because then we didn't have good enough computers to [...] control the engine to land vertically.
Autonomous propulsive landing isn't something SpaceX invented. Besides the DC-X in the mid-90s which is often cited in these discussions, there are the Soviet Luna probes. In 1966 the Luna 9 lander used retrorocket thrusters to arrest its descent to the lunar surface to 6 m/s at 5 meters above the lunar surface (airbags handled the rest.) This is not quite as impressive as what SpaceX does today for a few reasons, but it seems to me that a concerted effort to iterate on this tech could have been a lot more successful decades ago than you think.
(I believe in 1970 Luna 17 landed on the moon with no airbags, but I don't know much about Luna 17)
- chr1 7y agoLanding rocket on low gravity lunar surface, or test rockets that did not go to space is a much easier task, which is evidenced by multiple failures of early spacex rockets, despite grasshoper landing every time.