One Hell Of An Engineering Feat

[2012Bearcat]

SpaceX makes history with successful test of ‘Mechazilla arms’

Elon Musk's SpaceX achieved a world-first engineering feat, catching the returning booster of its Starship rocket with mechanical arms back at the launch pad.

www.foxbusiness.com

Video of SpaceX launch and recovery this morning. Say what you want about Elon but there is no denying his genius.

 

[GhostOfMatchesMalone]

Yep, that was flat out amazing.

 

[fatman76]

Yep, that was flat out amazing.

Remember Space Force?

I do.

 

[COWBOYintheUK]

Huge step for the future of humanity, and the exploration of our Solar System

 

[soonerinlOUisiana]

Not intending to be critical or argumentative, but how is this an advancement over what they’ve already done with landing rockets upright on a flat surface independent of the launch pad structure? Or is it the return to the precise launch site that makes this so extraordinary?

 

[DCandtheUTBand]

Not intending to be critical or argumentative, but how is this an advancement over what they’ve already done with landing rockets upright on a flat surface independent of the launch pad structure? Or is it the return to the precise launch site that makes this so extraordinary?

Margin for error is less on this capture versus landing on a pad. Quite amazing if you have any experience will controls engineering. Modern computers and probably AI make this possible now. Minute changes have to be done several times a second to thread a needle. Heck landing on a pad is always mind blowing for me. Its straight up sci fi become reality.

I talked with an engineer who worked on Apollo and the Saturn V. The cutting edge computers were ridiculously primitive. I am sure you have seen video of a rocket swinging wildly and going completely out of control. This was a problem with liquid fueled rockets. Sloshing fuel would overwhelm the computers ability to compensate and the feed back would telescope. I asked him how they fixed it. I expected some wiz bang tech breakthrough. His answer. Baffles in the tanks. LOL

 

[2012Bearcat]

Not intending to be critical or argumentative, but how is this an advancement over what they’ve already done with landing rockets upright on a flat surface independent of the launch pad structure? Or is it the return to the precise launch site that makes this so extraordinary?

SpaceX pulls off unprecedented feat, grabs descending rocket with mechanical arms

The successful capture of the returning Super Heavy rocket with giant mechanical arms is a key element in SpaceX's goal of "rapid reusability"

www.cbsnews.com

 

[GhostOfMatchesMalone]

Not intending to be critical or argumentative, but how is this an advancement over what they’ve already done with landing rockets upright on a flat surface independent of the launch pad structure? Or is it the return to the precise launch site that makes this so extraordinary?

They were already doing this? Oh. Well Musk's PR is better then lol

 

[soonerinlOUisiana]

They were already doing this? Oh. Well Musk's PR is better then lol

I’ve seen at least two prior videos where they successfully landed a tall rocket booster on a pad, similar to the lunar lander. The amazing thing with that, at least for me, was the height of the rocket in relation to the narrow width of the base.

DC provided the context to help me appreciate what they did this weekend. Threaded a needle using only gravity, rocket propulsion, navigational jets, and very high tech AI.

 

[soonerinlOUisiana]

Margin for error is less on this capture versus landing on a pad. Quite amazing if you have any experience will controls engineering. Modern computers and probably AI make this possible now. Minute changes have to be done several times a second to thread a needle. Heck landing on a pad is always mind blowing for me. Its straight up sci fi become reality.

I talked with an engineer who worked on Apollo and the Saturn V. The cutting edge computers were ridiculously primitive. I am sure you have seen video of a rocket swinging wildly and going completely out of control. This was a problem with liquid fueled rockets. Sloshing fuel would overwhelm the computers ability to compensate and the feed back would telescope. I asked him how they fixed it. I expected some wiz bang tech breakthrough. His answer. Baffles in the tanks. LOL

Thanks. A friend from OU is an engineer at Space X (also has a PhD from Berkeley in something unpronounceable). No clue what he does exactly. Only that he works with lasers and manipulation of light, and EM has him on speed dial.

I jokingly sent him a text that I was skeptical, as the rocket appears to be dangling from a string as it returns to the “chop sticks”, and the fire on the side of the cylinder looks like those out-of-scale flames from old sci-fi and Godzilla movies.

 

[DCandtheUTBand]

Thanks. A friend from OU is an engineer at Space X (also has a PhD from Berkeley in something unpronounceable). No clue what he does exactly. Only that he works with lasers and manipulation of light, and EM has him on speed dial.

I jokingly sent him a text that I was skeptical, as the rocket appears to be dangling from a string as it returns to the “chop sticks”, and the fire on the side of the cylinder looks like those out-of-scale flames from old sci-fi and Godzilla movies.

Probably an undergrad in EE with emphasis on plasma and lasers. I did ok in controls however the lab class kicked my @ss. More than half the class got caught for cheating. Probably close to 80%. They copied from the frat house files, didn't change the variables and had the exact same wrong answers. I earned a solid F but got a C while others got suspended.

I have a large minor in EE. I focused on digital while lasers/plasma interested me more. I was told back in the day lasers would always be bigger than a house. Now we can shoot down missiles with something on the back of a jeep. I would have loved to have worked on that.

I didn't EARN a single grade in most of my classes. By design most people failed their tests. Then we were given our grade based on the bell curve. Compared to the others, I was a C student. I rarely could land a class were I was in the top 20% of grades. I got tired of running into brick walls and changed to Computer Science my senior year.

I am not too bitter as my motivation for pursuing EE was to work for NASA and take a trip to Mars. Well I am getting long in the tooth and we aren't anywhere near Mars. If we were then I would probably be very bitter on my deathbed.

BTW, God used "strings" as in string theory and light to create everything in the universe. So that is some very cool stuff indeed. The Bible says light came before the stars. Well science finally caught up and confirmed that there was a "glow" aka light long before the stars formed.

 

[soonerinlOUisiana]

Probably an undergrad in EE with emphasis on plasma and lasers. I did ok in controls however the lab class kicked my @ss. More than half the class got caught for cheating. Probably close to 80%. They copied from the frat house files, didn't change the variables and had the exact same wrong answers. I earned a solid F but got a C while others got suspended.

I have a large minor in EE. I focused on digital while lasers/plasma interested me more. I was told back in the day lasers would always be bigger than a house. Now we can shoot down missiles with something on the back of a jeep. I would have loved to have worked on that.

I didn't EARN a single grade in most of my classes. By design most people failed their tests. Then we were given our grade based on the bell curve. Compared to the others, I was a C student. I rarely could land a class were I was in the top 20% of grades. I got tired of running into brick walls and changed to Computer Science my senior year.

I am not too bitter as my motivation for pursuing EE was to work for NASA and take a trip to Mars. Well I am getting long in the tooth and we aren't anywhere near Mars. If we were then I would probably be very bitter on my deathbed.

BTW, God used "strings" as in string theory and light to create everything in the universe. So that is some very cool stuff indeed. The Bible says light came before the stars. Well science finally caught up and confirmed that there was a "glow" aka light long before the stars formed.

I think the guy’s bachelors was in ME. After he finished at Berkeley, he went to work for Lockheed. I don’t know exactly what he did there, but at some point he had to travel to Cape Canaveral to supervise the loading of a satellite onto the space shuttle. Not sure how long he’s been at Space X. We only reconnected about 5 years ago after being out of touch since the early 2000s.