News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket seems to be a hit with satel... by foxyv on Thursday October 25, 2018 @01:40PM (#18302776)
Spinning rockets are extremely hard to control due to precession/conservation of angular momentum. Any change in attitude would introduce a wobble. Unless you make your tanks spherical and rotating independently of the rocket motors on a gimbal you will have trouble with changing orientation and compensating for minor offsets of thrust.
Re:SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket seems to be a hit with satel... by tomp on Thursday October 25, 2018 @01:49PM (#18302872)
Ah, you're right. You'd need to spin until just the moment when you start the engines, and then stop pretty much instantaneously, which in practice would cause all kinds of instabilities and problems...