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According to a tech site article, Elon Musk said it was a random name.Okay, why is the recovery vessel named "Mr. Steven"?
Nikxice
Active Member
The article I've linked sheds some light on several of the questions we've asked concerning attempted fairing recovery. A few takeaways....The PAZ mission fairing recovery was only attempting to capture one of the fairing halves. When and if this technique is perfected, two ships per launch will likely be necessary to capture each half. With a busy flight manifest SpaceX might eventually seek to lease up to four vessels, two on each coast, to catch fairings......As was mentioned here earlier, landing directly into the sea is probably not an option. The issues with corrosion are likely significant..... The ability of the recovery ship to rapidly position itself under a fairing is critical. Mr. Stevens has a top speed of almost 37mph. Initially I assumed that the fairing had more low level maneuverability. Thinking perhaps that Mr. Stevens could navigate upwind to help zero out the ground speed, while the fairing used thrusters to helped steer it toward the ship. Apparently these cold gas thrusters are probably only used prior to parafoil deployment. At that point indications are that some guidance and maneuverability are still available using the parafoil. Just speculating that the ship might sometime still have to contend with a fairing drifting with a sizable downwind component.
Kissing that net won't be easy. Doable but in some ways more difficult than a first stage booster landing. A F9 booster punches back through the atmosphere with speed and accuracy. No hang time allowed, aiding it to hit its mark. Can't wait for the next fairing catch attempt slated for the end of March with a Falcon 9 launching the Iridium-5 mission.
SpaceX’s Mr. Steven, the FSV fairing catcher – NASASpaceFlight.com
Kissing that net won't be easy. Doable but in some ways more difficult than a first stage booster landing. A F9 booster punches back through the atmosphere with speed and accuracy. No hang time allowed, aiding it to hit its mark. Can't wait for the next fairing catch attempt slated for the end of March with a Falcon 9 launching the Iridium-5 mission.
SpaceX’s Mr. Steven, the FSV fairing catcher – NASASpaceFlight.com
deonb
Active Member
Elon said the parachute line fouled and the fairing hit the water at high speed. However Teslarati got a picture of Mr. Steven with a fairing on board.
SpaceX returns intact fairing half on clawboat in post-launch surprise
In response to a tweet, Elon mentioned that he would be posting a video of a fairing recovery attempt soon.
SpaceX returns intact fairing half on clawboat in post-launch surprise
In response to a tweet, Elon mentioned that he would be posting a video of a fairing recovery attempt soon.
Having no direct knowledge of this system gives me perfect freedom to comment.
To me, it seems like, at best, a Rube Goldberg hack with the potential for a pretty catastrophic accident. Hopefully Mr Steven isn't manned when they try these catches. Perhaps it's using an Alpha version of FSD software?
To me, it seems like, at best, a Rube Goldberg hack with the potential for a pretty catastrophic accident. Hopefully Mr Steven isn't manned when they try these catches. Perhaps it's using an Alpha version of FSD software?
Having no direct knowledge of this system gives me perfect freedom to comment.
To me, it seems like, at best, a Rube Goldberg hack with the potential for a pretty catastrophic accident. Hopefully Mr Steven isn't manned when they try these catches. Perhaps it's using an Alpha version of FSD software?
Goldberg would be sad to have a net considered one of his designs. The recent Mars rover was more complicated (heat sheild, parachute, rocket, winch).
If the fairing is out of control, the ship can avoid it. If the fairing is stable, the boat can pace it and then pull under when at the right altitude or veer away (or cut throttle) if something goes wrong. Unlikely that the fairing will suddenly overtake the ship and hit the cabin.
Now a crosswind that causes the fairing to shove the masts sideways could be exciting... Guessing ship rotational inertial would prevent an upset.
Even if the faring hits hard on the ship, there will be some cosmetic damage on the deck, but nothing catastrophic. You could have people inside the cabins and they would be safe, and the ship can safely steer back to port.
The terminal velocity of a fairing of that shape and size would be much less than that of a rocket in free fall.
The terminal velocity of a fairing of that shape and size would be much less than that of a rocket in free fall.
Elon tweeted that the fairing wasn't destroyed on landing and posted a picture:
Oh yeah, forgot to mention it actually landed fine, just not on Mr Steven.
It looks in great shape. That's two that landed in water but fully intact.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention it actually landed fine, just not on Mr Steven.
It looks in great shape. That's two that landed in water but fully intact.
I wish SpaceX would share photos of the fairings with parasails deployed while gliding, that would be interesting to see.
Maybe they're holding back because they haven't figured out how to do it quite yet. Maybe they are saving up the videos for a big reveal video.
The whole ship with a big catchers mitt seems to me like an odd way to approach fairing recovery at sea.
Why not a similar ship with two helicopters? It's not something new for an aircraft or helicopter to snag a line
to secure something on a set of parachutes or parasail. Once snagged, the copter just takes it back to ship and lowers it
onto the deck.
My guesses:
First is that the fairing descends too quickly.
Second is that once a helicopter caught it (assuming it could without deflating the parasail), the aerodynamics of the down wash hitting the large fairing surface would be too unstable.
In general, this object is a lot larger and more unwieldy than a film canister.
As good as engineers at SpaceX are I've little doubt they must have found some hard to overcome problem with this type of in air recovery. However, the downward speed of the fairing is as fast or slow as the design of the parachutes/parasail they would make if this was the approach. No question the fairing is lots larger and more unwieldy than a film canister. However the technology for snagging film canisters and other objects is what, 60 years old? Each fairing while large is not all that heavy, being a composite shell designed to be strong but light.
At least one-half of the fairing from TESS was recovered from the ocean and brought back. So SpaceX has recovered four or more fairings intact but none caught in the "catchers mitt." We'll have to wait to see whether these are reusable at all. The current consensus seems to be no, that they are damaged and unusable by being in salt water.
Unusable for launch maybe, but would seem to be perfect for dropping from a helicopter for catcher practice. ;-)
I find Mr. Steven very interesting. I wish SpaceX would show more photos of it and do a story on it and how it has been used so far. I always though it was more of a storage transport system for the fairings...wonder if it will support both halves...instead of actually being able to capture one of them falling out of the sky, certainly wouldn't be able to catch both of them.
As for Rube Goldberg it does kind of remind of the Ideal's "Mousetrap Game" but in reverse--catching instead of trapping. Loved that game as a kid. Maybe we need a SpaceX gameboard complete with Roadster and StarMan. Hey why not throw in the Boring Company with tunnels as extra game board paths to zip around the board faster.
As for Rube Goldberg it does kind of remind of the Ideal's "Mousetrap Game" but in reverse--catching instead of trapping. Loved that game as a kid. Maybe we need a SpaceX gameboard complete with Roadster and StarMan. Hey why not throw in the Boring Company with tunnels as extra game board paths to zip around the board faster.
Yah, can't wait for "How Not to Catch a Fairing". My guess is that once they can catch one half, they'll outfit 3 more boats (one per half for both coasts). Will the next one be named Martin?
There is no Florida-based boat that is the equivalent of Mr. Steven, is there? I have not seen any reports of a boat like that being used for the KSC launches.
So for the TESS fairing was SpaceX likely using the same parasail/thrusters system they’ve used for Vandenburg launches just for practice?
