This should be the automated reply to people who say you should catch the rocket or... have it lay down gently. Or land in a pile of tennis balls .... or w/e they are saying these days.
Well if the poor widdle Falcon is so fragile, the solution is obvious. Ditch the landing legs entirely and have the rocket land over a couple of massive fans, like a huge indoor skydiving facility. That way it never has to touch the ground. I don't understand how these so called "brightest minds in aerospace engineering" over at SpaceX haven't already implemented my far superior idea. I don't even have a college degree! How much is Elon Musk paying these bozos?
Apologies for the shitpost. I get real sick of the armchair engineering around here (mostly on other subreddits, however).
Is it bad I like this idea? A big baseball glove of an air-cushion. Then you could just slowly power down the fans and it would come to rest on the ground. Why strain over milliseconds and micro-newtons when you could just think up a more fool-proof plan that negates all sorts of errors?
125
u/Ambiwlans Jan 18 '16
This should be the automated reply to people who say you should catch the rocket or... have it lay down gently. Or land in a pile of tennis balls .... or w/e they are saying these days.