SpaceX founder Elon Musk has unveiled the company's latest wonder, an ocean-going drone ship that will operate as a landing pad for the firm's reusable Falcon 9 rockets returning to Earth.
On Twitter, the commercial space company's CEO revealed an unmanned drone ship, featuring a landing pad 300 feet by 100 feet and equipped with underwater thrusters, similar to those used on deep-sea oil rigs, to keep it within yards of its intended position even during rough seas.
"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."
The company says the first attempt to safely land a returning Falcon 9 on the sea-going platform will take place December 16, with another test in January 2015.
The rockets, used to send Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station, have been redesigned to include thrusters that will fire as the rocket fall back toward the Earth, keeping it vertical and slowing its speed sufficiently for a soft landing.
They will also deploy a set of landing legs that need an area of at least 18 feet of the ship's landing area, which has been sized to give the landing rockets plenty of room, Musk tweeted.
"Base is 300 ft by 100 ft, with wings that extend width to 170 ft. Will allow refuel & rocket flyback in future. - Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2014."
GPS will guide the barge into position awaiting the returning rocket. Following a successful landing, the rockets could be refueled on the landing pad then transported back to the mainland for another launch.
Any new technology has its risks, Musk acknowledged while speaking at a symposium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in October, where he said the chances of a successful landing in the December test might be just 50 percent.
Future launches should perfect the technology, he said.
"There's at least a dozen launches that will occur over the next 12 months," he said. "I think it's quite likely -- probably 80 to 90 percent likely -- that one of those flights will be able to land and re-fly."
The goal of a reusable launch system, if achieved, would dramatically lower the cost of going into space by eliminating the need for manufacturers to build a new rocket for every liftoff, Musk says.
