**** Elon Says

In article ,
says...

think out of the box, just before water impact, perhaps a parachute
deploys, and some transhab bags inflate to keep most of the booster
from being submerged..

And this will cost less than the cost of the kerosene and LOX needed to
fly the first stage back to a landing pad near the launch pad?

of course the booster could be built with salt water resistant
materials.

And pray tell what materials would those be? And even if this is done,
how do you keep salt water off all the fiddly little electronic bits
which make up the main engines? Kerosene and LOX are cheap.
Waterproofing electronics against sea water, not so much.

Please note how quickly sea planes were eliminated from commercial air
travel. They were a temporary solution to temporary problems.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 9 Oct 2013 07:45:59 -0400, Jeff Findley
wrote:

You'd have to do a detailed analysis to find out what is cheaper in the
long run. But I'm guessing that comparing the relatively low fuel costs
for flying the stages back versus the cost of building, operating, and
maintaining such a mobile ocean going landing platform is going to yield
a very clear answer.

I would think fuel cost is in the noise compared to say the cost of
refurbishing components touched by salt water.

I tend to agree.

Plus, actually landing in sea water without damaging anything isn't as
easy as it seems. Designing for such a landing mode may very well make
the vehicle heavier, as added structural mass may be necessary to
prevent damage upon landing.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer

"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...


**** Elon Says (transcripts)
http://****elonsays.com/transcript


Been meaning to add, I love the fact that there's a site by that name!


There are some interesting nuggets of information in the September 29
2013 transcript.

Jeff

--
Greg D. Moore http://greenmountainsoftware.wordpress.com/
CEO QuiCR: Quick, Crowdsourced Responses. http://www.quicr.net