04-04-2016, 07:41 AM
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Freeform rocketry advocate.
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Claremont, CA "The intellectual capitol of the world."-WSJ
Posts: 3,780
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Originally Posted by blackshire
But does NASA have this hardware in their sounding rocket inventory?
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NASA has a purchasing process problem not a lack of available rockets problem.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by blackshire
Also, can sounding rockets be flown safely in spaces as small as the valley where New Shepard flies (its launch complex and landing pad are within sight and walking distance of each other)?
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I have flown high performance rockets in downtown LA for FX deals. You just need a steerable parachute on all parts to land them in a designated LZ.
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Originally Posted by blackshire
Smokeless solid motors are a well-proven technology (the upper stage of the Nike-Iroquois [NIRO] was developed for that purpose), and so are rocket-cushioned parachute landing systems, but they are more operationally cumbersome (they're ordnance, and require EOD personnel to handle them, and they involve dropping unretarded spent stages onto the ground). New Shepard's engine can be cut off if it goes awry (I imagine it also has a Flight Termination System), and if its braking/landing maneuver fails, it just falls on or near its landing pad (which happened on a previous flight, while the capsule landed safely).
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As you know from your own experience, rocket motors are not "ordnance" and liquids have so many costs and problems solids should always be the first choice as they are with virtually all tactical missiles.
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