Knowing the waste associated with space exploration, the millions of dollars invested in early flight stages merely shelled off into space, private-sector rocket company SpaceX has decided to rework how the space exploration game is played. Developing reusable pieces, that if brought back with a spacecraft could be used on yet another mission, the company not only intends to change their role in the rocket industry, but the way our tax dollars are spent as well.
Ever wonder why they call space the "final frontier"? Well it isn't because it's the last place for us to explore or expand. As it so happens, space is often thought of as the final frontier because most of what leaves our Earth in search of exploration never comes back. In fact, it's the reason why Mars One's newest plans for colonization on Mars is only planning one-way trips. But what if we could reuse rockets and reclaim the several-million-dollar investments that our space agencies, and our tax dollars, invest each and every year?
"Reaching Earth orbit [alone] typically costs between ten- to twenty-thousand-dollars per kilogram" spokesperson for the Scientific American, Lee Billings says. "That's because rocketry is the only form of transportation where you throw away your vehicle once you've reached your destination."
"But that might change as soon as [this Tuesday, Jan. 6], when Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, plans to launch a rocket into space, then bring the rocket's first stage back for a precision landing."
Though often, until this point, discarded and left in space after their rocket fuels are exhausted, the SpaceX's newest mission plans to hang onto its stage 1 thrusters and will return them home with the newly designed Falcon 9 model space capsule, both of which will potentially be reusable to the company at a later date. SpaceX plans to test out its newest model of the remotely-piloted space capsule with a mission to resupply the International Space Station this week with experiments, food, tools and other necessities. Though the company has made many of these previous missions before, this is the first time in the company's, and the world's, history that a spacecraft will return from outer orbit with its emptied stage 1 rockets attached.
After the resupply mission is complete, the Falcon 9 will enter the far more precarious stage of the mission, wherein, it will return back to Earth. But it won't be a crash landing like others of its kind. Instead, with plenty of luck and the help of four engine bursts, SpaceX plans for a precision landing on a robotic barge, akin to an oil rigger, floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Should the company be able to make its precise landing, especially without any damage incurred in flight or in re-entry, SpaceX may change the spaceflight game forever. In fact, if the company is able to land and reuse its rockets, not only will SpaceX created millions of dollars in future revenue for itself, by setting itself in a class above all other competitors, but it will also reduce launch costs of future space missions by tens of millions of dollars with the potential for freeing up funds for so many more missions after that.
