Questions tagged [landing]
Questions regarding the specific part of flights, during which a spacecraft touches down on the solid ground of a celestial body.
266
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Can we use magnetic devices to anchor to asteroids?
One of the challenges about missions to asteroids is staying attached to them when you land.
Many asteroids are described as nickel/iron, and we know that both nickel and iron have magnetic ...
2
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0answers
67 views
What kept Vostok/Voskhod from tipping or rolling upon landing?
Considering that the reentry capsule of Vostok and Voskhod were spherical, what kept them from rolling or tipping after landing?
Soyuz has a flatter bottom, so I would expect this to be less of an ...
3
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0answers
98 views
Why will Russia start arming cosmonauts again?
The Phys.org article Russia to give cosmonauts guns to fend off animals on landing says:
Cosmonauts have been unarmed for more than a decade but Roscosmos agency head Dmitry Rogozin said it was ...
2
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1answer
84 views
What measures were taken to clear wildlife from the Shuttle Landing Facility?
What was done to prevent or remove wildlife such as alligators and birds from the runway at Kennedy Space Center, so the Shuttle could land safely?
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2answers
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Why a rover bumps after landing on Mars?
Sometime ago I was watching a video which showed that when a rover lands on mars surface it will keep bumping on mars surface like a ball until it gets rid of stored energy and then it becomes static.
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21
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8answers
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Is there any way to land a rover on the Moon without using any thrusters?
Is there any way to land a rover on the moon without using any thruster, with the help of Thermocol, Cotton, Bubble wrap or any other packaging material, like we can receive from online shop?
3
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0answers
34 views
Delta-v cost of longitudinal plane change correction?
In a recent question, the slow drift of a landing site on a rotating body relative to an orbiter came up.
This would sometimes require a plane change correction when one desires to recover the ...
28
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Why were contact sensors put on three of the Lunar Module's four legs? Did they ever bend and stick out sideways?
In the video Brian Eno on Apollo starting at 08:37 there is Apollo-era movie footage of a lunar module taken from the command module as it prepares for descent ...
20
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2answers
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How far off did Apollo 11 land?
Armstrong wasn't able to land exactly in the designated landing location, as far as I know it was too rocky. So he had to fly a bit farther to find a suitable spot. But how much farther from the ...
3
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0answers
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How do you calculate burns needed to land?
Assume I was landing a rocket and wanted to do calculations on how to correctly land. How do you determine at what time you fire the engine and at what power to successfully land on a predetermined ...
13
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2answers
4k views
How did the Vostok ejection seat safely eject an astronaut from a sealed space capsule?
Wikipedia's Yuri Gagarin says:
At about 23,000 feet (7,000 m), Gagarin ejected from the descending capsule as planned and landed using a parachute.
and the section Vostok_programme; Vostok 3KA ...
5
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1answer
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How exactly were solid-fuel rockets added to the parachute lines of the Voskhod capsule?
This answer notes that Voskhod:
...added a small solid-fuel rocket to the parachute lines. It fired as the descent module neared touchdown, providing a softer landing.
How exactly did they safely ...
2
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1answer
231 views
When did soviet capsules begin using retropropulsion immediately before landing?
Wikipedia's Yuri Gagarin says:
At about 23,000 feet (7,000 m), Gagarin ejected from the descending capsule as planned and landed using a parachute.
and the section Vostok_programme; Vostok 3KA ...
3
votes
1answer
219 views
How do flags behave on the Moon?
I have seen many theories and question/answers on this site touching upon this subject but no focused question. So I would like to ask this as a two part question.
Is what we saw in the Lunar ...
4
votes
1answer
456 views
SpaxeX employees on the droneship when the booster lands?
SpaceX is doing a great job in recovering the boosters from its rockets.
The Falcon Heavy has 3 boosters. 2 of which land at Cape Canaveral and 1 on a drone ship somewhere in the ocean.
Are there ...
5
votes
2answers
276 views
Could Falcon 9 take off without launchpad
As far as I'm currently aware, the Falcon 9 block 5 does not have the capability to retract it's landing legs once they're deployed, however:
If F9 landing legs had the ability to retract themselves (...
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1answer
170 views
Could a Rotary Rocket charge a super capacitor while descending on Mars?
Could a rotary rocket entering the atmosphere collect enough energy in a super capacitor through the rotors (along with auto rotation) while descending to have a controlled landing in the last few ...
13
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1answer
2k views
Why did the Falcon Heavy center core fall off the ASDS OCISLY barge?
On the second flight of the Falcon Heavy, they successfully landed the side cores at LZ-1 and LZ-2, and the center core downrange on the ASDS Of Course I Still Love You.
Reports have come in that ...
3
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0answers
69 views
What is the physics behind a rocket landing on a celestial body with an atmosphere?
I would like to know the different physics concept I would need to land a rocket being in orbit. I know the timing is important to leave it, how can one find this out ? Then how to compute the ...
3
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0answers
187 views
Falcon 9 Landing Speed
I wanted to know what the fastest speed is that a Falcon 9 can land at and thus the max force the landing legs can withstand.
I assumed the mass when landed is 26,000 kg (I once heard that somewhere). ...
4
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0answers
107 views
How does New Shepard Crew Capsule sense proximity to trigger retropropulsion just before impact?
How does the New Shepard Crew Capsule sense proximity to the ground in order to trigger retropropulsion just before impact?
GIFs from Blue Origin NS-10: New Shepard launch & landing, 23 January ...
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3answers
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Why does this boat have a landing pad? (SpaceX's GO Searcher) Any plans for propulsive capsule landings?
The BBC News article SpaceX Dragon demo capsule set to return to Earth talks about the return of the first Crew Dragon capsule to Earth:
Four parachutes should bring it into soft contact with water ...
6
votes
2answers
197 views
Is there a practical maximum size for a space capsule returning to Earth?
Assuming I need to get a large cargo or a lot of people safely to Earth's surface in one go in a single-use capsule of the Apollo CM / Soyuz descent type but larger, and assuming that the capsule is ...
2
votes
1answer
127 views
Where is the debris in the Hayabusa 2 touchdown video coming from?
In the video of the touchdown of Hayabusa 2 (https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/06/hayabusa2-probe-ryugu-touchdown-video/) no debris is visible until touchdown. After that, there is a lot of it (though ...
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3answers
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Can the SpaceX Dragon 2 crew vehicle still use the draco and super draco thrusters to slow down when landing?
In an emergency, is it possible to use the draco and super draco thrusters alone to slow down the vehicle after re-entry? Right from the point parachutes are supposed to be released right upto touch ...
4
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1answer
103 views
What systems were used onboard Buran to determine its position during reentry and landing?
Since Buran has managed to return without crew on board, I assume computers had to know its position relatively accurately as it approached the runway for landing.
How was this achieved?
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1answer
153 views
How did Chang'e-4 hover, rotate, and then descend so gracefully? (Video)
In this incredible video we can see Chang'e-4 in it's final approach and landing on the moon from the point of view of the spacecraft.
The view is horizontal as the spacecraft seems to stop and hover ...
3
votes
2answers
249 views
Is helium used to power the Falcon 9 grid fins?
Is helium used as a hydraulic fluid to power the grid fins? Or for engine gimbaling?
What are the pros and cons of using helium instead of hydraulic fluids?
11
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2answers
1k views
Was splashing down on the USSR-controlled territory a possibility for Apollo missions?
From what I understand, the planned landing areas for Apollo command modules were pre-programmed beforehand and happened in the South Pacific.
Was there any remote possibility of an emergency ...
2
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0answers
73 views
How are Launch Ascent Trajectories and Reentry Constraints Being Implemented these days?
Historically, endoatmospheric guidance for launch ascent has been open loop and suboptimal. Recently, however, it seems as though there has been renewed interest in determining optimal endoatmospheric ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views
How many engines are restarted for landing the falcon boosters
For landing the boosters, it is clear that SpaceX is using the center engine, but I suspect that igniting one engine will not be helpful.
If they aren't igniting all the 9 engines, how are they ...
4
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0answers
96 views
Falcon 9: how much fuel is left on a booster after stage separation?
If the booster attempts either land or sea landing, how much fuel (RP-1 and LOX) is left in its tanks right after stage separation?
Recently, I have heard numbers as high as 30% of its total tank ...
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0answers
81 views
Why the big difference between NASA and ESA/Roscosmos in evaluating the Oxia Planum landing site?
In november 2018 ESA announced that the Oxia Planum region is favoured for the ExoMars surface mission.
The figure above from this answer about the 21 potential landing sites for the Mars 2020 ...
4
votes
1answer
218 views
Could SpaceX's grid fins be controlled by electric motors instead of hydraulics?
There have been a few instances of landing failures related to the grid fins and their hydraulic control - one where the hydraulic fluid ran out, and the latest one where a hydraulic pump stalled.
...
4
votes
1answer
302 views
Why did they not use the Flight Termination system on CRS16 booster?
All US boosters (I assume other nations as well) have flight termination systems. The goal is to try and stop an out of control booster (Big vehicle, full of explosives/fuel/oxidizer) from causing ...
27
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5answers
5k views
Falcon 9: engines stabilize spin
On CRS-16, the landing Falcon 9 booster entered a spin rotation due to a stalling grid fin hydraulic pump.
According to Musk, the engines stabilized the spin. How is this possible? The main engines ...
5
votes
2answers
255 views
If the CRS16 booster was out of control, how did it abort to water?
The CRS-16 missions first stage, seems to have had a stuck grid fin. Apparently a hydraulic pump failed.
It was spinning fairly wildly and clearly did not try to land at the pad as it was scheduled. ...
4
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2answers
108 views
Propellants used for different Mars landers [till 2018]
What propellants have been used by lander to land on Mars surface?
3
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0answers
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How was the landing site decided to land InSight?
From this article
The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter plays an important role in evaluating candidate landing sites on Mars. HiRISE ...
10
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3answers
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Won't the heat sensor probe interfere with the seismometer?
I've read that the Mars InSight Seismometer will be deployed before the HP3 probe. Won't the digging interfere with the seismometer? Or the shock produced will be small enough to be dissipated by the ...
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3answers
2k views
Why does the Mars InSight Lander look wet like a cardboard box that came in contact with water? [closed]
NASA has just released a photo showing a part of the InSight Mars lander wet, like a cardboard box that came in contact with water (see the picture). What is that liquid?
The Instrument Deployment ...
35
votes
3answers
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Why was it necessary to program InSight with an ability to land in dust storms?
If the entire event of EDL (Entry - Descent - Landing) is going to take only 7 minutes and if the command to begin could be signalled based on ground weather conditions, why was it necessary to take ...
4
votes
1answer
129 views
How do Mars spacecraft control attitude on final descent and landing?
When I watch videos of probes landing on Mars after cutting the parachutes off, they show the lander doing final orientation adjustments before touching down.
The engines don't seem to have a ...
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vote
0answers
139 views
Details about the BFR abort procedures?
What kind of emergency procedures will the BFR have during landings? I can see an abort to an alternate landing zone but what about when you have a an emergency ten seconds after engine shutdown?
11
votes
5answers
712 views
Is it possible to navigate space travel with no computer?
From launch to land could a person travel in space with only mechanical devices like a sextant? With enough experience what would be the minimum devices needed? Which vehicle currently would be easier ...
5
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0answers
105 views
Purging process of a rocket engine
Does spacex purge Falcon 9 engines after landing ? If so, which gas is used for purging?
3
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1answer
91 views
Nadir sensor for a spacecraft attempting to land
Is it possible theoretically for a sensor to detect Nadir? This could actually be of extreme value as generally spacecraft attempting to land need to maintain certain heading w.r.t Nadir as a function ...
1
vote
1answer
196 views
Could an inflatable heat shield be used on the SpaceX Mars Lander?
Could light weight inflatable heat shields be used like parachutes from NASA to increase surface area for the SpaceX Mars lander further decreasing velocity? Where would be the best placement of them? ...
10
votes
1answer
690 views
Can Stratolaunch land with the rocket still attached?
Is the Stratolaunch plane able to land with the rocket still attached, if a malfunction is detected – and the plane has to return without having launched its load?
Is there a known emergency ...
0
votes
1answer
220 views
Could a reentry powered monorail and flywheel make a kinetic engine for lift?
On reentry could a flywheel spin on a magnetic bearing creating a centrifugal force to keep the ship level whilst creating a plasma air pocket from the pits in the rotating heat shield? This would ...
