Why not just let them glide down like the shuttle? It would be much easier on the rocket, simpler and use much less fuel.
I guess it's good practice for Mars where everything will be vertical landing/launching.
But for flying people around Earth...
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Pdub (Old Spike)
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warriorcookie (Long Spike)
GKhan,
I know little on the subject, but I've seen Musk discuss the subject a few times. These are the points I recall:
Horizontal landings for the shuttle were a leap forward in re-usable space tech but were very challenging. There's a limited number of runways they could land at, wings that produce enough lift for landing make for drag during ascent, and maneuvering from re-entry at super sonic to landing speed while making sure everything lined up with the runway was extremely technicall with not many contingency options for when things went wrong.
Vertical landings can be done in the middle of the ocean away from populations and infrastructure. If the system detects an anomaly the capsule can eject and drop into the ocean with a parachute. SpaceX and a number of other companies insist this will be the safest option to preserve human life in the event of malfunction. Also, the exact same tech can be used to land on earth, land on the moon, land on Mars, and land on asteroids. The same tech can also be used on the primary and secondary stages for almost 100% reusability.
SpaceX focuses a lot on logistics issues and they like doing R&D once to be applied to multiple situations. Hence why there was a capsule with seats in it while they were testing/developing for their contract to deliver payload to the space station. They did the R&D once to get two different contracts: one for payload and one for people.
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GKhan (Old Spike)
That's quite a bit on the subject.
Thanks
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backdraft (Dixie Normous: Image specialist)
And after 8 minutes it exploded....again
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skeptoid (Old Spike)
Yeah I was waiting for that I could clearly see that it caught fire in the wrong way right before landing. And then they were lighting up the fire suppression system and that did not look good.
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warriorcookie (Long Spike)
Yeah, also on OP's video at 6:20 you can see one of the 3 engines flame out.
Comments
(Old Spike)
Why not just let them glide down like the shuttle? It would be much easier on the rocket, simpler and use much less fuel.
I guess it's good practice for Mars where everything will be vertical landing/launching.
But for flying people around Earth...
(Old Spike)
(Long Spike)
GKhan,
I know little on the subject, but I've seen Musk discuss the subject a few times. These are the points I recall:
Horizontal landings for the shuttle were a leap forward in re-usable space tech but were very challenging. There's a limited number of runways they could land at, wings that produce enough lift for landing make for drag during ascent, and maneuvering from re-entry at super sonic to landing speed while making sure everything lined up with the runway was extremely technicall with not many contingency options for when things went wrong.
Vertical landings can be done in the middle of the ocean away from populations and infrastructure. If the system detects an anomaly the capsule can eject and drop into the ocean with a parachute. SpaceX and a number of other companies insist this will be the safest option to preserve human life in the event of malfunction. Also, the exact same tech can be used to land on earth, land on the moon, land on Mars, and land on asteroids. The same tech can also be used on the primary and secondary stages for almost 100% reusability.
SpaceX focuses a lot on logistics issues and they like doing R&D once to be applied to multiple situations. Hence why there was a capsule with seats in it while they were testing/developing for their contract to deliver payload to the space station. They did the R&D once to get two different contracts: one for payload and one for people.
(Old Spike)
That's quite a bit on the subject.
Thanks
(Dixie Normous: Image specialist)
And after 8 minutes it exploded....again
(Old Spike)
Yeah I was waiting for that I could clearly see that it caught fire in the wrong way right before landing. And then they were lighting up the fire suppression system and that did not look good.
(Long Spike)
Yeah, also on OP's video at 6:20 you can see one of the 3 engines flame out.
Ruh Roh!!