Elon Musk’s list of crazy/brilliant inventions is getting pretty lengthy, but he’s decided to add to the list with the Saturday afternoon unveiling of “X-wing config” wings for the Falcon 9 rocket, and a self-piloting ship to act as a landing pad for the reusable rockets.
Testing operation of hypersonic grid fins (x-wing config) going on next flight pic.twitter.com/O1tMSIXxsT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2014
The grid fins are the small waffle-shaped wings you see on the Falcon 9 above. They give the rocket an aerodynamic surface that can be used to control the vehicle during its re-entry into the atmosphere, and steer it into the right position to relight its main engine, and land on target. They’re also retractable, so don’t add significant drag to the rocket while it’s serving its primary function of getting stuff into space.
Once the rocket is on the return leg, Musk’s second announcement of the day comes into play:
Autonomous spaceport drone ship. Thrusters repurposed from deep sea oil rigs hold position within 3m even in a storm. pic.twitter.com/wJFOnGdt9w
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2014
In a later tweet, Musk said that the width is 91.4m by 30.5m, with extra wings that extend the width to 51.8m. Combined with technology to keep the platform stable, that should provide a good landing platform for the rockets, whilst also being a long, long way away from other people in case things don’t go quite to plan. [Twitter via TechCrunch]