How many times can Space Exploration Technologies reuse Falcon 9?

Skillshare is responsible for an experience about "primitive space". Skillshare is an online learning community where you can learn anything. Click the link below to register, and it will be free for two months after the first registration. 2015.12.21,Space Exploration Technology Company made history and realized the landing of their first Falcon 9 booster. After several years of R&D and testing, Space Exploration Technology Company has taken another step in greatly reducing the cost of the space station. Since then, more than 45 boosters have landed successfully, and more than half of them have been recovered. However, how many times can Falcon 9 booster be recovered? And how to balance the booster between missions?

In this video, we will focus on how space exploration technology company can improve the reuse times of Falcon 9 booster, which parts of Falcon 9 booster are mainly trimmed, and how it is finally redeployed to the starship. On 20 18.04, Space Exploration Technology announced that the performance of a new "Zone 5" Falcon 9 had been improved. This new version has brought many upgrades, such as engine heat shield, grid wing and landing parts, to reduce the number of parts that need to be refurbished and maximize the range of each booster.

Although some necessary repairs were reduced in this version update, the average turnaround time of each booster was only reduced from 356 days to 107 days, and the fastest turnaround time was 72 days. On the other hand, in 1985, the space shuttle set a record and returned to Earth after a 55-day voyage, which reduced the turnaround time for scheduled maintenance to less than 100 days. However, after the Challenger disaster, the safety standards improved, which brought some external pressure to the finishing work. This project has become a very expensive task, which requires more than 9,000 employees to ensure the preparation of the space shuttle. The goal of space exploration technology company is to control the finishing cycle to 24 hours. They need to match the turnover process of passenger planes, and each rocket only needs to achieve rapid detection in two flights.

When the primary booster returns to Earth by land or sea, it will be hoisted to the trailer and transported back to the hangar of Space Exploration Technology Company through the trailer. Since all four landing legs of the booster need to be removed manually, this process may take several days to complete. Although the landing leg is designed to be retracted quickly, Space Exploration Technology has only done it twice. Once the booster returns to the hangar, each engine begins a series of rigorous testing and renovation processes to ensure that every component is ready. According to Musk, each Merlin engine can perform as many as 65,438+0,000 flights without major modification. The hydraulic grid wing system that failed to land last year must also be checked for cracks.

Fuel tanks and high-pressure vessels should undergo a series of ultrasonic tests to check whether there are tiny cracks, which may cause the rocket to malfunction when flying under pressure. After the booster passed the inspection, all 9 engines were tested for static ignition before loading. At this time, because it is unknown that there is a risk of multiple engines being reused, all inspections are still needed. Each mission will give space exploration technology company a better understanding of how many flights each booster can perform, and over time, the transformation process will become more perfect.

So far, three Falcon 9 boosters have completed three launches. Space Exploration Technologies currently has about eight Falcon 9 boosters, but their ultimate goal is to increase the number to 20. Although Falcon 9 can fly as high as 100 times with a little modification in theory, it is estimated that each booster can only fly about 30 times in the next 10 year. However, space exploration technology company is developing a more powerful and completely reusable rocket, and Falcon 9 may be scrapped earlier than expected.

Space Exploration Technologies is building prototypes of their first "Starship" rocket in Texas and Florida. Previously, customers had queued up, and the first commercial payload was expected to be launched in 20021year. In addition to the commercial mission of exploring Mars and satellites, Space Exploration Technology also hopes that StarCraft can be used for travel flights and can reach any other place on the earth within 1 hour. Unlike Falcon 9 rocket, Star Trek is designed to be completely reusable, with the goal of completing at least thousands of missions before large-scale reconstruction is needed.

If space exploration technology companies can build and run StarCraft rockets, then StarCraft, which can carry heavier payloads and lower costs, can completely replace Falcon 9. In the next few years, Space Exploration Technology will recruit a large number of new employees for the construction of Star Aviation. When it comes to recruitment, elon musk mentioned that he doesn't care about the qualifications of employees. In fact, in the early days of Space Exploration Technology Company, elon musk studied rocket science by reading books and communicating with employees in the industry.

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