Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail?
I can't find the reference, but I seem to recall that Elon Musk has said that human beings can't do it. It's quite a trick, landing a 135.2 foot tall and 12 foot in diameter tube, with an empty mass of 56,423 pounds, on its tail on target.
The computing challenge is simple to describe and hard to execute: Plot the optimal path down to the target without running out of fuel. That’s complicated enough, but also consider the time constraint: The rocket’s computers need to solve this problem before they run out of fuel or crash into earth—in a “fraction of a second,” according to Blackmore. He and his colleagues developed one of the first algorithms to do this in three dimensions in that 2009 paper on Mars landings, receiving a patent on their ideas in 2013.
(A visualization of the rocket booster’s path back to earth)The solution involves solving a “convex optimization problem,” a common challenge in modern machine learning. In wildly reductive layman’s terms, it involves considering all the possible answers to the question of “what’s the best way to get from here to the landing pad without running out of fuel” as a geometric shape, and uses mathematical tools developed first by John von Neumann, the father of game theory, and refined by Indian mathematician Narendra Karmarkar in the 1980s, to quickly choose the best way down from that set.
(Via qz.)
It wasn't always so apparently easy and quick; here are some of SpaceX's less successful moments:
Science fiction authors have been utilizing their imagination in advance of engineering. In Redemption Cairn, by Stanley G. Weinbaum, published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1936, we read this description of trying to land a rocket on its tail:
"Those lousy reporters!” I blazed. "All of them seemed to think landing a rocket is like settling down in bed; you just cushion down on your underblast. Yeah; they don’t realize that you have to land blind, because three hundred feet from the ground the blast begins to splash against it.
I slapped her hands hard and grabbed the U-bar. I cut the underjets completely off, letting the ship fall free, then shot the full blast through the right laterals. It was damn close, I’m ready to swear, but we leveled, and I snapped on the underblast before we lost a hundred feet of altitude.('Redemption Cairn' by Stanley G. Weinbaum)"You watch the leveling poles at the edge of the field and try to judge your altitude from them, but you don’t see the ground ; what you see under you are the flames of Hell. And another thing they don’t realize; lowering a ship is like bringing down a dinner plate balanced on a fishing rod. If she starts to roll sideways — blooey! The underjets only hold you up when they’re pointing down, you know.”
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/2/2024)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Space Tech ")
SpaceX EVA Spacesuit Tested By Polaris Dawn Crew
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.' - Otto Willi Gail, 1929.
ESA To Build Moon Bases Brick By Printed LEGO Brick
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.' - John W. Campbell, 1950.
FLOAT Levitating Train On The Moon ala Clarke
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.' - Arthur C. Clarke, 1955.
SpaceX Intros Extravehicular Activity Suit
'Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which we knew would be encountered the moment we had passed beyond the atmosphere.' - Garrett P. Serviss, 1898.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Chaffeur Robot Musashi Will Drive Your Regular Car
'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
Space Exporers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
SpaceX EVA Spacesuit Tested By Polaris Dawn Crew
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
Automatic Bot Traffic Is 38 Percent Of HTTP Requests
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
Shanghai Guidelines For Humanoid Robots
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
Desktop TARS Robot From Interstellar
What's YOUR sarcasm setting?
Robots Can Now Have Smiling Faces With Human Skin
'I am a cybernetic organism...'
Virtual Rat Predicts Actual Rat Neural Activity
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
GoSun EV Solar Charger Drapes Onto Your Car
'...six square yards of sunpower screens.'
Rizon 4 Ironing Robot
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
Cognify - A Prison Of The Mind We've Seen Before In SF
'So I serve a hundred years in one day...'
Robot With Human Brain Organoid - 'A Thrilling Story Of Mechanistic Progress'
'A human brain snugly encased in a transparent skull-shaped receptacle.'
Goodness Gracious Me! Google Tries Face Recognition Security
'The actuating mechanism that should have operated by the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell...'
With Mycotecture, We'll Just Grow The Space Habitats We Need
'The only real cost was in the plastic balloon that guided the growth of the coral and enclosed the coral's special air-borne food.'
Can A Swarm Of Deadly Drones Take Out An Aircraft Carrier?
'The border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
WiFi and AI Team Up To See Through Walls
'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
