Source: original article.On the ship Mr.Steven, intended for “catching” parts of the drop fairing of the Falcon rocket, the installation of the other four lifting legs of the catching system and eight telescopic supports to them radically larger in size was finally completed, and the works were carried out in just 48 hours. "Technicians need only supplement the design with an improved network, surpassing the old one by four times the area," - specifies the Executive Director of SpaceX Ilon Mask.
"Mmm, on the drawings, this thing looked not so healthy." Source: official twitter Ilona Mask .From the side it is difficult to understand the scope of work and the scale of new designs, and even photos give only a partial idea of the size of this colossus. Alas, the SpaceX staff has been too busy the last few days and was sharing information literally on the run, so we just have to wait for the next test scheduled as part of the Iridium-7 mission on July 25, where we will certainly be given all the necessary details.
Several SpaceX workers inspect one of the paws. Photo: Pauline Acalin.
Mr.Steven and the mysterious rubber ring at Jetty 240, July 10th. Photo: Pauline Acalin.Whistling paws up
No matter how hard it was to draw conclusions from only one photograph, a rough estimate of the size and span of the paws gives us a square with a side of about 65 meters, and thus, the current Mr.Steven network will be approximately 3,600 square meters - four times larger than the one used before. For comparison, the size of the landing area on the autonomous barge ASDS, the one on which the
spent steps Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy sit down is 4000 square meters with a small one, and this is only 10% more than the new Mr.Steven network.
Given these upgrades, it is highly likely that SpaceX will finally succeed in returning the
two halves of the carbon fiber fairing and will be able to reuse them. Despite the fact that both of these parts have recently been equipped with a parachute system, one can only guess whether Mr.Steven is now able to catch two halves at once, or still need to rent and rebuild at least three more ships.
New and old paws Mr.Steven in comparison. Photo: Pauline Acalin.
Even with a strong increase, it is difficult to distinguish human figures there. Photo: Pauline Acalin.
Maximum magnification. Photo: Pauline Acalin.If it still reaches the expansion of
the company's navy by another three units (that is, a total of four, two for the East Coast and two for the West), this can significantly raise the operating costs of each attempt to return the fairing, as well as complicate the task of managing everything this economy. But let's hope that this does not happen. Nevertheless, even if Mr.Steven succeeds with his 4X network and legs, SpaceX will still have to rent and upgrade one fast auxiliary ship - so that the site on the East Coast has its own, always-available unit catcher. Well, Mr.Steven, we are waiting ...
A little more stylish pictures of supports and paws, July 10th. Photo: Pauline Acalin
A little more stylish pictures of supports and paws, July 10th. Photo: Pauline Acalin
Port San Pedro or painting by Andrew Pollock? Decide for yourself. Photo: Pauline AcalinTo fit the fairing in the apple
At the moment, the mistake of getting
dropped by half compared to the estimates of the company MMIST, the developer of the landing system - during the last attempt, the fairing missed only 50 meters past Mr.Steven, while in the MMIST it was considered that the probability to please in a radius of 100 meters is no more fifty percent.
“Considering that onboard Mr.Steven it would be difficult to
install and test two separate networks for each half of the fairing , not to mention the cost of such an event, it seems to me that the updated design“ closes the last hole ”in our scheme” - jokes Ilon Musk about the fifty meters that were not enough for the fairing last time.
Yes, with an increase in the pickup area of 30 meters along each axis, the new network already reduces the requirements for landing accuracy by approximately 60%. And taking into account the fact that now it completely closes the cabin, thus allowing the ship
to maneuver more
actively at the moment of pickup, without fear of a strike, then most likely it just levels the remaining plus or minus 20 meters of a miss.
For now, we’ll estimate from whom SpaceX is going to order a network of almost four thousand square meters.
It's funny, but in the artist's view, the network of a larger size is still about twice as large as the one recently installed on Mr.Steven. Source: Reese Wilson .