[AR] Re: "How Hard Can It Be" rocket episode
- From: Bill Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:43:20 -0500
The RRS used to use a 5" diameter foam filled GRP nosecone to recover rocket
mail covers, which worked fine for a fall from about 2500 feet.
On a couple of occasions the rocket failed to separate from the mail package
and drove into the packed envelopes, which allowed the damaged ones to be sold
at a premium. The packed envelopes seemed to stop the rocket in about one
foot, as I recall.
Foam or envelopes; both seem to work....
Bill
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 17, 2013, at 11:27, Henry Spencer <henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Nov 2013 johndom@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>> As chutes often fail I wonder if it would be possible to design an
>> impact resistant payload bay, just in case. OTOH, none of the (lunar)
>> Ranger impact probes made it. Bad omen?
>
> Not really -- none of the Ranger hard-landers got a chance to try.
> ("Impact probe" is a bit of a misnomer -- the Ranger landers had solid
> retros that decelerated them to fairly low velocity before impact.)
>
> Only Rangers 3-5 carried the hard-lander. Ranger 3 missed the Moon due to
> launcher misbehavior, and Rangers 4 and 5 had major electronics failures
> in the main spacecraft that prevented both the midcourse correction and
> the lander deployment. Rangers 6-9 carried cameras only.
>
> Ranger 10 was going to make the next hard-lander attempt, but it and its
> successors were canceled -- Ranger had hit so many problems and delays
> that by the time Ranger 9 flew, Surveyor 1 was almost ready to attempt
> the first controlled soft landing, so further attempts with the Ranger
> hard-lander seemed pointless.
>
> Henry Spencer
> henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> (hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
> (regexpguy@xxxxxxxxx)
>
>
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