Dumb question I'm sure has been asked... we've been throwing stuff into the sea for awhile then going and picking it up later as it's bobbing gently in the waves. Why not just have some inflatable buoys that deploy in the water and have it float? Catching it seems pretty difficult, albeit pretty sweet.
So are the fairings passively falling, or are they guided to the ships in some way? Ships are very slow compared to even a parachuting object from the sky.
This article just links to https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1285338582849208320 and adds a bit more context, if you don't want to blindly accept the Verizon GDPR wall.
Did they ever try catching it mid air? Something like a hook to helicopter perhaps? $6 mil is big number not to try.
page is just blank for me...
This website is not trustworthy and doesn't respect GDPR as it redirects to https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId
Engadget, stop this nonsense and change the responsibilities of the team who decided to put this into production.
there were a couple guys using acrobatic parachutes and some control code to fly high power model rockets back to the pad saving an hour walk. I wonder if SpaceX could use the same technique and fly the fairings to the ships.
Don't understand why they don't just use an inflatable parachute with a radio beacon antenna sticking out the top. Then they could just drive up anytime and fish it out of the water. Would immersion in salt water for a few hours damage a fairing?
"Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, told reporters last year that the fairing costs around $6 million."
Pretty good if they can recover them and refurbish them. Could save a few million dollars per launch, even more if they can be re-used more than once.