Rocket Will Be Recaptured in Midair with a Helicopter

Re:Rocket Will Be Recaptured in Midair with a Helicopter by damon_c on Tuesday April 14, 2015 @01:19PM (#9375783)

Doesn't this mean there will need to be a dynamically detachable connector between every fuel/gas line and every electrical wire that runs between the tank and the engine?

Isn't that introducing quite a few potential points of failure? Or was this all thoroughly solved in the 60s and is boring and not an issue?

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Re:Rocket Will Be Recaptured in Midair with a Helicopter by ansible on Tuesday April 14, 2015 @01:25PM (#9375827)

Doesn't this mean there will need to be a dynamically detachable connector between every fuel/gas line and every electrical wire that runs between the tank and the engine?

Isn't that introducing quite a few potential points of failure? Or was this all thoroughly solved in the 60s and is boring and not an issue?

This happens at lift-off for all rockets. The rockets are fueled at the pad, and the connections stay attached until the last moment.

This kind of thing was also done with the Space Shuttle.

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Re:Rocket Will Be Recaptured in Midair with a Helicopter by fbender on Wednesday April 15, 2015 @05:14AM (#9379749)

No. They could add pyro separators and moving knives (as the Apollo LAM used). They just need to be able to easily replace the "last few centimeters" of plumbing/cables, but it does not have to be dynamic.

Either way, this (IMHO) adds more complexity to the stage and(!) processing compared to what SpaceX does (where complexity is mostly added in software).

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