Parachute ‘em into the sea. Auto inflate buoyancy, activate lighting/tracking.
Go get ‘em.
Go get em.
Sounds suspiciously like the recovery method used for the Space Shuttle SRBs.
Go get em.
The point of salvaging the booster is to re-use the engines -- which aren't going to respond well to a salt water bath.
SpaceX already tried parachutes, but they considered the effort a failure. Salt water is really bad for the rockets. The space shuttle solid rocket boosters landed in the ocean and were reused, but there was so much refurbishment required due to the salt water that it really didn’t save money. This whole design is a way to avoid salt water.
Not if they plan to have people riding in them. Being flung to a semi-random part of the Earth isn’t confidence inducing, especially when it means you’re landing in the middle of an ocean.
It’s one thing to have a good shape going up, but people tend to want to return to Earth - safely. I hope SpaceX figures that out.