Come on people, have a go at it yourselves: http://moonlander.seb.ly/
Or even better:
Space X CR6 First stage landing
201–205 of 205 posts
Re: Space X CR6 First stage landing
#202Re: Space X CR6 First stage landing
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mean thrust vectoring? It's intentional, it's how the rocket steers itself.
You mean it's not pixie dust? ;-P
Naah, pixie dust is what the rocket is covered with before launch; you can see it falling off during lift-off. Check out the launch videos. ;).
Re: Space X CR6 First stage landing
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the final stage of landing only a single Merlin engine is lit. They're also limited in how much they can control the throttle on it. Even at minimum throttle, it's not possible for it to hover.
Odd responses. I guess I shouldn't have phrased my response in the form of a question. Here's another try: > When near fuel exhaustion, the Merlin engine has a thrust to weight ratio above 1. The rocket will always have a thrust to weight ratio well above 1.
While your statement is technically correct in isolation, you are ignoring the context: "the rocket will have a thrust to weight ratio of greater than what is needed to hover and land safely as the Grasshopper demonstrated. Instead the F9R is limited to using the overpowered Merlin as a braking engine with the intent of reaching 0 soeed at 0 altitude with 0 lateral or rotational motion."
Re: Space X CR6 First stage landing
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Odd responses. I guess I shouldn't have phrased my response in the form of a question. Here's another try: > When near fuel exhaustion, the Merlin engine has a thrust to weight ratio above 1. The rocket will always have a thrust to weight ratio well above 1.
While your statement is technically correct in isolation, you are ignoring the context: "the rocket will have a thrust to weight ratio of greater than what is needed to hover and land safely as the Grasshopper demonstrated. Instead the F9R is limited to using the overpowered Merlin as a braking engine with the intent of reaching 0 soeed at 0 altitude with 0 lateral or rotational motion."
Yeah, it's easy to be a little too conversational sometimes in these comments, which leads to misunderstanding. In retrospect I get the feeling everyone understands the limitations of the hardware here.