Why is catching the SpaceX booster in mid-air considered much better and more advanced than just landing it in some launchpad ?
In: Planetary Science
Nobody mentioned the rocket equation.
Imagine you have a toy rocket, and to get it into space, you need fuel. But here’s the tricky part: the more fuel you add to go higher, the heavier the rocket becomes. And because the rocket is heavier, it now needs even more fuel to lift all that extra fuel! It’s like a cycle where adding more fuel makes the rocket heavier, so you need even more fuel to lift the rocket.
This is where the rocket equation comes in! It tells us how adding weight (like more fuel) makes a big difference in how much fuel you need.
For every pound you save on the vehicle, you gain A LOT OF POUNDS in lift capabilities.
The legs don’t help it fly better, it’s dead weight and another thing that “could break in flight”.
This way it does not need legs.
There’s an engineering principle called KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) and this is like the definition.
Removing legs, is removing a failure point while adding more performance (Payload to Orbit)
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