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Elon Musk Testing ‘X-Wing’ Fins, Seafaring Spaceport Drones for Landing/Take-Off

66 points by ph0rque 12y ago

nabla9 12y ago
Folding lattice fins are old technology. Soviet N1 rocket had them. Russians have used them in ballistic missiles and air-to-air missiles since 70s.
- ceejayoz 12y ago
  They're apparently also used in the Soyuz launch escape system.
- andrewflnr 12y ago
  That's SOP for SpaceX, right? Take proven technology and actually make it work commercially.
  - stefan_kendall3 12y ago
    Given that the primary lender and customer is the government, "commercially" is a stretch there.
    - pixie_ 12y ago
      7 launches this year. 3 Nasa. 4 commercial.
  - InclinedPlane 12y ago
    Pretty much. Rocketry isn't as fundamentally difficult as many people make out, and a lot of the stagnation in spaceflight is due to bureaucracy and excess risk aversion, not fundamentals. SpaceX had succeeded due not to being absurdly better at engineering, though they are good, but at striking the right balance of innovation, pragmatism, and risk.
_almosnow 12y ago
Opening line: "Let’s face it: Elon Musk is probably a time traveller sent back to help us leave earth behind and achieve the next phase of human evolution." I wonder how much is Musk paying the media to continually publish lines like that one.
- sz4kerto 12y ago
  Nothing. He has the same 'reality distortion field' that Jobs had.
  - GuiA 12y ago
    Often, when people talk of Jobs' reality distortion field, they refer to how he made you feel when you were in the same room as him, and he was talking to you. About how even if what he was asking seemed impossible from a technical point of view, as an engineer or designer or manager you couldn't say no to him, and in the end ended up being swayed by his arguments. Or how no matter what your intentions were, he'd be able to change your mind (e.g. http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Are_You_Gonna_Do_It.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Are_You_Gonna_Do_...). The media has then completely changed the meaning of "reality distortion field" to turn it into a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts - "Steve said it and we're convinced because he has the reality distortion field". But in that case, we're just watching a video of a keynote - there is no "reality distortion field, and thus he has a reality distortion field". As humans, we like being convinced and believing in fantastic, out-of-this-workld things - the latter form of the RDF is solely in the eye of the beholder. I've never worked with Elon Musk nor do I know anyone who has, so who knows if he does have a proper RDF the way Steve did. But he definitely has a form of the latter - subconsciously, we want to see heroes conquering space just by the might of their hard work, smarts, and determination, and Elon is the perfect person to project that on to. Hence why journalists write glorious introductions like the one above without anyone having to ask them to.
  - threeseed 12y ago
    Which is amazing given that Jobs' story is filled with so many achievements, disappointments, dramas etc. I am surprised no one has written about the PR machine behind Musk. Because it is truly masterful.
jccooper 12y ago
The post-Grasshopper "F9R" testbed has flown with these before. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLBIdVg3EM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLBIdVg3EM
andrewflnr 12y ago
And these fly-swatter fins work. I guess I needed a reminder of just how weird aerodynamics is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_fin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_fin
zobzu 12y ago
Funny how the article implies Elon designed all this and engineers employed there have nothing to do with it. It's all him.
- jfoster 12y ago
  Same thing with Steve Jobs. The interesting thing is that there's an element of truth to it. Elon Musk's companies always seem to achieve amazing things. It doesn't mean he's doing the bulk of the work, but he is playing a role that is irreplaceable, and it may not matter so much who the other people are so long as they are competent. It seems he is able to achieve similar results each time.
  - shetter 12y ago
    >Employ talented and inspired people >Give them meaningful objectives There
    - twhitney 12y ago
      I would agree with this. That is the way to success... as well as finding people who share the goals that you'd like to accomplish. The thing I like about Space X is their balance that was referred to earlier in these comments. Risk vs. profitability vs. engineering cool things. They also take the position of mitigating risk through USING their engineering and technology skills. At the heart of it, using repurposed thrusters from oil rigs to make a seafaring landing platform isn't "difficult" per se... but there certainly is ingenuity there. Not only did they make something cool with their engineering skills and ideas, but they made something that makes their development of "spaceships" safer.
    - zobzu 12y ago
      Yeah pretty much. Not only inspired, but also inspire them through meaningful objectives. I'd love to work for spacex or tesla. I don't care how much they'd pay. I'd just love to work on projects similar to what they've already done. Heck if I could otherwise feed myself i'd just happily work for free.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
001sky 12y ago
This article is sachharine. Checkout one of the other several HN submissions. (no disrepsect to the OP, just the sad state of TC)

66 points by ph0rque 12y ago

Folding lattice fins are old technology. Soviet N1 rocket had them. Russians have used them in ballistic missiles and air-to-air missiles since 70s.

ceejayoz 12y ago
They're apparently also used in the Soyuz launch escape system.
andrewflnr 12y ago
That's SOP for SpaceX, right? Take proven technology and actually make it work commercially.
- stefan_kendall3 12y ago
  Given that the primary lender and customer is the government, "commercially" is a stretch there.
  - pixie_ 12y ago
    7 launches this year. 3 Nasa. 4 commercial.
- InclinedPlane 12y ago
  Pretty much. Rocketry isn't as fundamentally difficult as many people make out, and a lot of the stagnation in spaceflight is due to bureaucracy and excess risk aversion, not fundamentals. SpaceX had succeeded due not to being absurdly better at engineering, though they are good, but at striking the right balance of innovation, pragmatism, and risk.

_almosnow 12y ago

Opening line: "Let’s face it: Elon Musk is probably a time traveller sent back to help us leave earth behind and achieve the next phase of human evolution." I wonder how much is Musk paying the media to continually publish lines like that one.

sz4kerto 12y ago
Nothing. He has the same 'reality distortion field' that Jobs had.
- GuiA 12y ago
  Often, when people talk of Jobs' reality distortion field, they refer to how he made you feel when you were in the same room as him, and he was talking to you. About how even if what he was asking seemed impossible from a technical point of view, as an engineer or designer or manager you couldn't say no to him, and in the end ended up being swayed by his arguments. Or how no matter what your intentions were, he'd be able to change your mind (e.g. http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Are_You_Gonna_Do_It.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Are_You_Gonna_Do_...). The media has then completely changed the meaning of "reality distortion field" to turn it into a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts - "Steve said it and we're convinced because he has the reality distortion field". But in that case, we're just watching a video of a keynote - there is no "reality distortion field, and thus he has a reality distortion field". As humans, we like being convinced and believing in fantastic, out-of-this-workld things - the latter form of the RDF is solely in the eye of the beholder. I've never worked with Elon Musk nor do I know anyone who has, so who knows if he does have a proper RDF the way Steve did. But he definitely has a form of the latter - subconsciously, we want to see heroes conquering space just by the might of their hard work, smarts, and determination, and Elon is the perfect person to project that on to. Hence why journalists write glorious introductions like the one above without anyone having to ask them to.
- threeseed 12y ago
  Which is amazing given that Jobs' story is filled with so many achievements, disappointments, dramas etc. I am surprised no one has written about the PR machine behind Musk. Because it is truly masterful.

jccooper 12y ago

The post-Grasshopper "F9R" testbed has flown with these before. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLBIdVg3EM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLBIdVg3EM

andrewflnr 12y ago

And these fly-swatter fins work. I guess I needed a reminder of just how weird aerodynamics is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_fin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_fin

zobzu 12y ago

Funny how the article implies Elon designed all this and engineers employed there have nothing to do with it. It's all him.

jfoster 12y ago
Same thing with Steve Jobs. The interesting thing is that there's an element of truth to it. Elon Musk's companies always seem to achieve amazing things. It doesn't mean he's doing the bulk of the work, but he is playing a role that is irreplaceable, and it may not matter so much who the other people are so long as they are competent. It seems he is able to achieve similar results each time.
- shetter 12y ago
  >Employ talented and inspired people >Give them meaningful objectives There
  - twhitney 12y ago
    I would agree with this. That is the way to success... as well as finding people who share the goals that you'd like to accomplish. The thing I like about Space X is their balance that was referred to earlier in these comments. Risk vs. profitability vs. engineering cool things. They also take the position of mitigating risk through USING their engineering and technology skills. At the heart of it, using repurposed thrusters from oil rigs to make a seafaring landing platform isn't "difficult" per se... but there certainly is ingenuity there. Not only did they make something cool with their engineering skills and ideas, but they made something that makes their development of "spaceships" safer.
  - zobzu 12y ago
    Yeah pretty much. Not only inspired, but also inspire them through meaningful objectives. I'd love to work for spacex or tesla. I don't care how much they'd pay. I'd just love to work on projects similar to what they've already done. Heck if I could otherwise feed myself i'd just happily work for free.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

001sky 12y ago

This article is sachharine. Checkout one of the other several HN submissions. (no disrepsect to the OP, just the sad state of TC)