Video: F9R with Grid Fins - 1000m Flight - June 17 2014

[rabar10]

F9R 1000m Fin Flight | Rocket Cam and Wide Shot

 

[Vger]

Still getting used to the feeling of these rockets behaving like VTOL aircraft; looks so freaky, but so graceful at the same time!

I wonder if they were deliberately perturbing the rocket attitude on the ascent to test maneuvering, or if it was a response to wind gusts.

 

[Doug_G]

How cool is that? I've not seen that control concept before. Seems to work well.

 

[tigerade]

A guy over at NSF mentioned that these are called grid fins and have been used in precision guided bombs and missiles. And yeah, it's super cool. I love that SpaceX is willing to experiment so much, truly a treat to watch their progress.

SpaceX McGregor Testing Updates and Discussion THREAD 2

 

[Skotty]

Woah... what are they doing there? I don't know, but it looks cool.

 

[scaesare]

Interesting. It appears they can be used to invoke rotation by varying their pitch, although I'm not sure how much need there would be to make sure a rocket was oriented in a spefic manner along it's rotational axis like that.

I wonder if the ultimate goal is to counter rotational forces as it's initially descending, so that they don't have to try and do with thrusters alone... or carry as much fuel for them. Out of control rotation was one of the things that have had to work on when an earlier test on a production launch booster was not controllable.

It also seem that were varying the deployment angle as they got close to landing... I wonder if that allows for some additional stability control by vectoring any thrust "bounceback" from the ground...

(Oh, and "Moo!")

 

[efusco]

My favorite part of these videos is the shots of the totally freaked out cattle!

 

[ggr]

It seemed to me that the video from the rocket and the one from the ground might not have been the same launch? In the one from the rocket, you can clearly see the ground (well, really the rocket, but you know what I mean) rotating, and not much if any side-to-side, whereas from the ground, looking at the legs, no apparent rotation but plenty of back-and-forth.

 

[CliffG]

<sigh /> I couldn't help thinking of that quote from O Brother Where Art Thou:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a33sr9UGvo

 

[Grendal]

That was awesome. I'm wondering if they intentionally created instability on the launch to test the grid fin system. My instincts say this was just a very basic initial test. I'd think you'd want to make the fins more aerodynamic during the launch phase.

All of this just makes me love what SpaceX is trying to do even more. The old companies were so complacent in what they were doing. Any innovation was only done when the government was funding them to do so. The old companies had no goal to achieve more than what they were already doing.

 

[ecarfan]

It seemed to me that the video from the rocket and the one from the ground might not have been the same launch? In the one from the rocket, you can clearly see the ground (well, really the rocket, but you know what I mean) rotating, and not much if any side-to-side, whereas from the ground, looking at the legs, no apparent rotation but plenty of back-and-forth.

I'm sure that was the same test shown first from the top of the rocket looking down and then from a ground based camera.

That is awesome. I feel so fortunate to be living now and being allowed to see the development of the first fully reusable rocket. This is historic in every sense of the word.

For an explanation of the grid fins see Grid fin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[rsquared99]

I'm sorry guys, but I saw this in the 1950's on Captain Video and his Video Rangers. Nothing new here except the cows.

 

[Grendal]

I'm sorry guys, but I saw this in the 1950's on Captain Video and his Video Rangers. Nothing new here except the cows.

Those rockets were tiny and on strings. They did fire up my youthful imagination and the desire to see the real thing. It took 50 years but it finally seems to be happening, with no strings attached.

 

[Skotty]

I'm sorry guys, but I saw this in the 1950's on Captain Video and his Video Rangers. Nothing new here except the cows.

Uh...are you serious? -- UPDATE -- Oh, good. Apparently not. What's it in reference to? I must have missed some other somewhat goofy remark.

 

[rabar10]

Uh...are you serious? Have you seen Star Trek? So if tomorrow someone comes out and says "Look here! We have created a real version of the Enterprise, it can travel faster than light, has forcefields, transporters and everything!", you will turn around and say "I'm sorry buys, but I saw this in the 1970's on Star Trek. Nothing new here except the cows."

Guess you didn't detect the sarcasm in his post.