161–170 of 497 posts
Good work! I still think that they should have some grippers on the barge, or a net, ready to spring and grasp the rocket on landing, instead of carrying flimsy legs all the way to space and back.
I remain confused about why SpaceX is getting so much fanfare and praise. What have they accomplished that NASA didn't already accomplish during the Apollo missions? I know SpaceX is doing it all more cost effectively, because we have better technology, but have they actually accomplished anything tangible that NASA didn't a generation ago?
Based on some talks the first lunar landings were way more adventurous and lucky than what SpaceX is doing. Making a snooker trick shot is nice, announcing it and doing it twice is another thing.
That's the number of times we landed men on the moon.
Let's not try to downplay NASA's previous successes as "lucky" and "adventurous" in order to make SpaceX seem more advanced in an engineering sense.
Here is the video http://www.space.com/32811-spacex-rocket-landing-jcsat-14-la... Hopefully we won't have the typical hacker news discussion about why the employees chant USA.
> Hopefully we won't have the typical hacker news discussion about why the employees chant USA. By saying this, you have now guaranteed that there will be. Well done.
(And my own, being a third-order effect, is too weak to affect the outcome.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The current legs aren't flimsy, and they seem way less complicated than a gripper system would have to be. How would a gripper system handle off-centered landings? It would have to catch the falling rocket very quickly because there's not much fuel left in the tank to hover. Your proposed system would add a lot of complexity, all for the small decrease in launch mass.
I'm still surprised there's no active system on the barge to secure the rocket. Even now they seem to be able to stick the landing with some reliability, it's always nice to have belt and suspenders. I'm thinking a system with a pillar at each corner of the barge, pairs of cables between opposite pillars, and puller cables to open out the main cables into an iris-type aperture which can be rapidly closed on the rocke…
Think of it like a very long can of soda with a ton of lead at the bottom. Any kind of attempt to keep it upright only at the top will most likely end up damaging the shell.
That's why their method of securing it after it lands is to weld the feet, the bottom of this thing is pretty much the only part that's solid, the rest is flimsy as hell in every direction but one.
There are always people on HN who love being contrarian and trying to diminish amazing things. It's like they hate seeing people excited for something and want to point out that this isn't that big of a deal.
We're literally watching things happen for the first time ever, and this person's response is "what's so great about this?" while implying that people who are excited about this are fanboys. I can understand the downvotes honestly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The center of mass of the rocket is _very_ low. According to Elon, the CRS-8 core was very stable (it needed even less stabilization than they thought it did). They may add some means to secure it if it needs to travel through rough seas on the way home, but if the conditions are calm enough to land, they're calm enough for the stage to be stable. Watch the CRS-8 landing and look at how much the barge is rolling whil…
The response crew comes and secures the legs on the barge immediately after landing. They bolt them down somehow, I think.
How are non-US space agencies and companies (like ESA, Russia, Japan, China, etc) reacting to the SpaceX and Blue Origin achievements? Are they also testing similar things but we aren't hearing? Or they aren't threatened by the advances?
The Chinese have mentioned an effort to recover and reuse first stages by landing them with parachutes.
So far, the Russians seem to think the effort isn't worthwhile.
Closer to home, ULA's new Vulcan rocket is supposed to recover the first stage engines (but again, not the fuel tanks) using a parachute and helicopter.
It remains to be seen whether any of these schemes will work or how long they'll take. They have a lot of catching up to do in any case.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Use a big funnel mesh? I'm not sure you realize just how fragile the stage is. The side walls are made of _very_ thin aluminum. Any landing support mechanism must put the impact force on the 'octaweb' structure that supports the engines. That's the advantage of the legs. They can be engineered to distribute the force exactly where they want it. A significant problem with any sort of "catching" mechanism is that the…
...or how big it is. That's a 12 storey empty beercan, on fire, hurtling in from space. Any catching hack would require the stage to slow down anyway.
I always try to watch the webcasts and I can't help but cringe so hard when they start chanting 'USA USA USA', every single time. What is up with that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwHFm3pBA90 ("TAE HAN MIN GUK!" "Great Korean People's Country")
Here's a show giving fun lessons on how to properly do the chant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wli6OrUhNU
Here's the history of it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-S-A!
I've heard a bunch of Brits chant something similar "UK! UK! UK! UK!" before.
Here it is in Uraguay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nub526rufzk
In Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiK3f-fEDdY
In Chile, I've heard the chant is something like "CHI CHI CHI! LE LE LE! EN EL MAPA NO SE VE!", here's a comedic routine around it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gigjq9GExuE
Here's the Mexican equivalent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ips57oLX0
Here's Sweden after a sports win https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkfqHCwB4aY
If France had a SpaceX equivalent that did something as amazing as this, it would be completely appropriate for the French people who spent years of their lives achieving something thought impossible to suddenly break out and start singing La Marseillaise or chanting.
If it happens for something as unimportant as a sporting goal, it's probably okay for it to happen for something that advances the entire species.
I'm kind of surprised by all the people from different countries that aren't even aware it happens in their own country or that they might have a similar national chant.
