Apr 16, 2018 09:51 PM
(This post was last modified: Apr 16, 2018 10:01 PM by Yazata.)
In SpaceX's never-ending pursuit of total reusability, the Falcon 9's big defect is that the second stage of the rocket is lost each time.
Well, the always crazy Elon Musk has another crazy idea: Giant hypersonic party balloons!
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/985655249745592320
Assuming he hasn't gone crazy again (remember the flamethrowers?) he's probably talking about slowing the second stage's reentry using a ballute.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballute
That's going to take lots of engineering, I'd say. Apparently it's theoretically possible to recover small satellites with ballutes (nobody's ever done it), but a Falcon 9 upper stage is awfully big. But Elon and his people are engineers' engineers. If anyone can do it, they can. It's cool to see that they are still thinking outside the box.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqgYyfSD8eM
https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/adv_tech/ballu...h-4iaa.pdf
Well, the always crazy Elon Musk has another crazy idea: Giant hypersonic party balloons!
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/985655249745592320
Assuming he hasn't gone crazy again (remember the flamethrowers?) he's probably talking about slowing the second stage's reentry using a ballute.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballute
That's going to take lots of engineering, I'd say. Apparently it's theoretically possible to recover small satellites with ballutes (nobody's ever done it), but a Falcon 9 upper stage is awfully big. But Elon and his people are engineers' engineers. If anyone can do it, they can. It's cool to see that they are still thinking outside the box.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqgYyfSD8eM
https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/adv_tech/ballu...h-4iaa.pdf
