According to him, the success of the Grasshopper project in accordance with the United States government's commitment to encourage the growth of the private space industry. "It is a top priority for President Barack Obama and NASA," Bolden said. NASA itself has not been interested in using Grasshopper rocket due to not planning space mission to use this type of rocket. "But we always look at the development of their research (SpaceX)."
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| Some of the SpaceX VTVL rocket models. (Picture from: http://nextbigfuture.com/) |
Reusable rocket is not new for NASA. In 1993, NASA was ever worked on reusable spacecraft called Delta Clipper Experimental aka DC-X, which is designed to transport astronauts and cargo to the low Earth orbit. But NASA and the U.S. Defense Department was stop the project in the middle of 1996. Since then, NASA no longer continue the DC-X program and other reusable spacecraft project.
Grasshopper rocket which has a height equivalent to a 10-story building, was amazing. As the name implies, it could "jump" like locusts as it showed at the Grasshopper rocket flight test in Texas, the mid-August 2013. After sliding into the sky and leaving a cloud of thick smoke below, the rocket can brake and stop at a height of hundreds of meters in the air and shifted 100 meter to the side, then slid back to Earth.
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| The Grasshopper's single Merlin engine provides the thrust, while the four metallic legs support the rocket during launch and landing. (Picture from: http://news.discovery.com/) |
Amazingly, Grasshopper returned to the runway to land vertically. On October 7, 2013, Grasshopper is able to glide up to 744 meters (2,440 feet) and landed upright in less than 1.5 minutes. This is the highest record ever achieved by Grasshopper rocket.
The U.S. Space Agency (National Aeronautics and Space Administration / NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), or even the Russian Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) not have rockets that can "jump" and landed again such as Grasshopper rocket. Most of the body of the general rocket fell into the sea.
"These rockets can land accurately as helicopters," said Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, which is also the architect behind the success of the Tesla Model S (the best electric cars todays). With these capabilities, Grasshopper as a combination of rockets and helicopters. Vertical takeoff-vertical landing (VTVL) technology make this rocket capable of flying and landed into the Earth in an upright position.
The success of the flight test in Texas makes Grasshopper as the first reusable rocket in the world. With this concept, the rocket is projected to serve the mission of launching satellites or spacecraft into low Earth orbit (at an altitude of about 300-400 kilometers from the Earth's surface).
Grasshopper is a reusable version of its predecessor, the Falcon 9 (SpaceX disposable rocket). Musk disturbed by the use of disposable rockets, which he termed as throwing a 747 aircraft that worth U.S. $ 300 million (or around Rp. 3.3 trillion) after a one-time flight.
The rocket's key success lies in the lauching speed settings. Musk said that the Falcon 9 rocket set to glide at a speed of 10 mach (nearly ten times the speed of sound). However the Grasshopper uses only 6 mach, thereby leaving enough for every level rocket propellant to return to the launch pad on Earth. "Low speed also allows control of the rocket when it enters the Earth's orbit," Musk said further.
Merlin-1D engine that used in Grasshopper rocket is important, because it has a dual role. In addition to pushing the rocket into orbit, it serves to hold the rocket engine at a certain speed when pulled by Earth's gravity (re-entry), and prevent the rocket landed too fast and hit the ground.
To keep Grasshopper rocket remain upright, either when sliding and landing, the SpaceX rocket engineers designed a Merlin-1D which serves as a gimbal, which allows the rocket nozzle is driven in any direction to maintain the position of the rocket. The nozzle position direction is the opposite direction of rocket. If the nozzle is directed to the right, the rocket will move to the left, and vice versa.
"This technology has the difficult maneuvering control system having to keep the rocket remained upright position after re-entry into the Earth with a hypersonic speed and nose cone or the rocket nose is above," said Rika Andiarti, Head of Rocket Technology Center at Indonesian National Aeronautics and Space Institute (Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional) commenting to the Grasshopper technology some time ago.
Musk said that reusable rockets would be a perfect solution for space exploration missions are notoriously expensive. He is optimistic that the technology is able to reduce the cost of space travel up to 100 times. He targeted Grasshopper rocket capable of reaching a height of 91 kilometers (298,556 feet) at the beginning of next year. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SPACEX | TELEGRAPH | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 4386]
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