Posted on 09/29/2011 2:08:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin
I don’t know. This thing is going to separate at altitude tens of miles away from the pad and it’s going to slow down, halt it’s forward trajectory, fly back and then do a soft touchdown? That’s going to take more than a few seconds of fuel.
bflr
LOL.. He maybe a nut, but he is smart..
It doesn’t have to “fly” all the way back — it can simply fall most of the way. It only needs enough fuel to slow it from terminal velocity to landing speed. Keep in mind that the shuttle only needed 8 minutes (480 seconds) to go from zero to 18,000 mph. When landing it will essentially be a giant, (nearly) empty fuel tank.
When a rocket launches it doesn’t go straight up, it begins a trajectory downrange almost as soon as it clears the tower. When this lower section gets jettisoned to return it will be miles out over the ocean heading away from the pad.
It’ll have to turn around, fly (fall) back to the coast and then do a controlled landing.
Good Luck but seems a waste of payload.
Wings wouldn't let you glide back either, not after you got very far down range. And you would use just as much fuel carrying them up.
Guess we will agree to disagree.
The column-like lower portion would make its way back to Earth and hover back down to land upright, in the same position from which it took off.
No truck mentioned
position or location?
You got me...
What does the video show? It’s too big to watch in my primitive location.
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