SpaceX gives me hope

That seems like a gigantic waste of weight, fuel, money, and most importantly development time. Just go pick the damn thing up in the ocean.
 
That seems like a gigantic waste of weight, fuel, money, and most importantly development time. Just go pick the damn thing up in the ocean.

It's the recovery efforts in the ocean that actually cost more money. When you consider the cost of deployment vessels, crew costs, and fuel, along with cleanup associated with a rocket that was submersed in salt water for a few days, a land based return is a bit more financially feasible, in theory.
 
That seems like a gigantic waste of weight, fuel, money, and most importantly development time. Just go pick the damn thing up in the ocean.


Uh, if it lands, where you want it to, then you dont have to expend resources to retrieve it.

Id love to work for spacex, as they actually give a shit, but they dont have much of a presence here yet.
 
Cant help but think our only hope of continuing in space right now on a reasonable time scale is to commercialize it and let industry drive it.


Proud of JPL for curiosity, but we need more, and faster.
 
Cant help but think our only hope of continuing in space right now on a reasonable time scale is to commercialize it and let industry drive it.


Proud of JPL for curiosity, but we need more, and faster.

Imagine where we could be if the TARP bailout money went to NASA tho.
 
It's the recovery efforts in the ocean that actually cost more money. When you consider the cost of deployment vessels, crew costs, and fuel, along with cleanup associated with a rocket that was submersed in salt water for a few days, a land based return is a bit more financially feasible, in theory.

Taking a boat out to grab a hunk of metal with a GPS on it? More expensive? I'd need to see the numbers on that.