** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **

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Grasshopper 325m Test | Single Camera (Hexacopter)

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Uploaded on 5 Jul 2013
On June 14, SpaceX's Grasshopper flew 325 m (1066 feet)--higher than Manhattan's Chrysler Building--before smoothly landing back on the pad. For the first time in this test, Grasshopper made use of its full navigation sensor suite with the F9-R closed loop control flight algorithms to accomplish a precision landing. Most rockets are equipped with sensors to determine position, but these sensors are generally not accurate enough to accomplish the type of precision landing necessary with Grasshopper.

Previous Grasshopper tests relied on the other rocket sensors but for this test, an additional, higher accuracy sensor was in the control loop. In other words, SpaceX was directly controlling the vehicle based on new sensor readings, adding a new level of accuracy in sensing the distance between Grasshopper and the ground, enabling a more precise landing.
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Just pure awesome, can't wait for there first stage attempt in September, although it will be over water and won't be recovered. Just looks so odd, if they pull it off, this will again lower the cost of space access by a phanominal amount. Reading somewhere the fuel is only a few hundread thousand, where the rockets themselfs are 10s of millions.
 
Jokester said:
Bit lost with this, will this be used for landing on the moon?
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Nope it's a test bed for their Vertical take off, vertical landing, reusable within days falcon9 rocket.

They are hoping to recover the two stages. In September they will try "recovering" the first stage of a Falcon9. They will attempt a soft touch down over the sea and expect the first few tries to end in total failure.

Once it's perfected, the new engines are deisgn for multiple launches and as the rocket lands back on the launch pad can be flower within days and the cost is going to be tiny compared to building a new rocket.

Watch this for a good idea, apparently it's not 100% accurate according to spaceX but you get the idea.
 
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Jokester said:
Interesting, even taking into consideration the cost of the extra fuel it needs to carry?
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They think it will work.
Reading somewhere the fuel is in the region of 200k where the rockets themselfs are in the 10s of millions. So by saving the 10s of millions on multiple relaunches, is a massive saving.

I'm not sure if there payload is reduced, but the new engines are the most efficient any ones ever produced, so perhaps the efficiency over comes the extra fuel. Seeing as most are satellites/ISS missions, it's only LEO anyway.

However they are planning this same principle for the Falcon Heavy as well.
 
Glaucus said:


Just pure awesome, can't wait for there first stage attempt in September, although it will be over water and won't be recovered. Just looks so odd, if they pull it off, this will again lower the cost of space access by a phanominal amount. Reading somewhere the fuel is only a few hundread thousand, where the rockets themselfs are 10s of millions.
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Awesome, how will this reduce the costs? what fuel are they using, how is the system different to current stuff that is capable of reaching orbit ?
 
Combat squirrel said:
Awesome, how will this reduce the costs? what fuel are they using, how is the system different to current stuff that is capable of reaching orbit ?
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It's vertical landing. At the moment rockets just fall int the sea or burn up on re-entry. Meaning you have to build a new rocket. With the Falcon9-r it lands back at the launch pad, is refuelled, new payload and presumably a healthy check and relaunched again.

The cost of fuel is negligible compared to the cost of the actual rocket.

A proper f9-r engine test

Oh it's the merlin 1D engine. It's kerosean/liquid oxygen.
The Merlin 1D engine was developed by SpaceX in 2011–2012, with first flight scheduled for 2013. The Merlin 1D was originally (April 2011) designed for a sea level thrust of 620 kN (140,000 lbf).[29] At the 2011 AIAA Propulsion Conference, SpaceX's Tom Mueller[30] revealed that the engine would have a vacuum thrust of 690 kN (155,000 lbf), a vacuum specific impulse (Isp) of 310 s, an increased expansion ratio of 16 (as opposed to the previous 14.5 of the Merlin 1C) and chamber pressure in the "sweet spot" of 9.7 MPa (1,410 psi). A new feature for the engine is the ability to throttle from 100% to 70%.[5]
The design goals for the new engine design included increased reliability (increased fatigue life and increased chamber and nozzle thermal margins), improved performance (thrust design objective 140,000 pounds-force (620 kN) and 70-100 percent throttle capability), and improved manufacturability (lower parts count and fewer labor hours).[31] The engine's 150:1 thrust-to-weight ratio would be the highest ever achieved for a rocket engine.[3][4]
When engine testing was completed in June 2012, SpaceX stated that the engine had completed a full mission duration test firing of 185 seconds delivering 650 kN (147,000 lbf) of thrust and also confirming the expected thrust-to-weight ratio exceeding 150.[2] As of November 2012 the Falcon 9's page Merlin section describes the characteristics as having a sea level thrust of 650 kN (147,000 lbf), a vacuum thrust of 720 kN (161,000 lbf), a sea level specific impulse (Isp) of 282 s and a vacuum specific impulse (Isp) of 311 s.[1] The engine has the highest specific impulse ever achieved for a gas-generator cycle kerosene rocket engine. On March 20, 2013 SpaceX announced the Merlin 1D engine has achieved flight qualification. In June 2013, the first orbital flight vehicle that will use the Merlin 1D, the Falcon 9 first stage, completed development testing.[32]
The first flight of the Falcon 9 with Merlin 1D engines will be the CASSIOPE "800 pounds (360 kg) weather research and communications satellite, launched into a highly elliptical low Earth orbit (LEO) for the Canadian Space Agency." The second flight will be the geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) launch of SES-8 in July 2013.[33]
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The CASSIOPE will be the first one to try a soft landing over the sea, the launch date has been pushed back to September.
 
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A great documentary about voyager. Some absolutely stunning photos and loads of stuff I didn't have a clue about. I didn't even know about Miranda.
24mins so not to long either and upto date.

 
Glaucus said:
A great documentary about voyager. Some absolutely stunning photos and loads of stuff I didn't have a clue about. I didn't even know about Miranda.
24mins so not to long either and upto date.
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Yeah love everything about the voyager probes, been a major part of my whole life growing up when they were launched and still going when i'm a grown man is incredible :)

I see there is some news about a new Mars Rover planned for 2020.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-217&cid=release_2013-217
 
Congress to vote on moon landing national parks.

I do hope one of the google lunar x prizes goes to n apollo site

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/11/4514992/nasa-apollo-mission-national-park-on-moon
The landing site of NASA's Apollo missions may be transformed into a popular tourist destination, if a new bill in Congress is ratified. Two democratic congresswomen are seeking designate a national park on the moon, protecting abandoned Apollo artifacts, such as the landing gear, roving hardware, and the famous footprints.
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