A Look at SpaceX’s Systems for Launching and Landing Falcon 9 Rockets

SpaceX的Falcon 9火箭如何使用传感器系统垂直着陆？

SpaceXsuccessfully launched and landed another Falcon 9 rocket on August 24th and have plenty更多任务in the works.

The Falcon 9 rockets are reusable and can land the rockets, themselves, vertically. In fact, SpaceX celebrated theworld’s first re-flight of an orbital class rocketback in March 2013. You can watch a Falcon 9 rocket successfully land in the video below.

How did they accomplish this vertical landing technology? And why is it so important for the future of space exploration?

SpaceX公司的设计理念

太空探索很昂贵。NASA任务成本传统上可以是以数十亿美元衡量。

但是SpaceX的目标是使可重复使用的火箭大幅度降低太空飞行的成本。

“If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred. A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space.” -Elon Musk

The launch and landing trajectory of a Falcon 9 rocket. Diagram courtesy ofZsladesign。该网站的所有者乔恩·罗斯（Jon Ross）制作了太空飞行信息图表。

令人印象深刻的是，SpaceX实现了许多目标。我发现最有趣的是，通过找到一些新的金属合金或元素来制作燃料化合物（就像电影中的始终发生），无法实现这些进步。取而代之的是，Falcon 9火箭依靠复杂的系统来用于通过机械和电气工程进行燃料分配和导航。该开发项目可能不像科幻电影那样性感，但是SpaceX工程师正在通过调整和改进现有技术来削减太空旅行的成本。

Therocket enginesthat SpaceX has developed, like theMerlin rocket engines在Falcon 9火箭中使用，其设计的许多方面围绕减少可能导致火箭故障发生的失败点的总数。这些是电气连接，燃油管道中的关节，以及单独的胶囊相遇的点。

Although these systems are incredibly complex, it seems that SpaceX engineers’ ultimate goal is simplicity. As they say in electronics, a device can be fast, cheap, or dependable—but not all three. SpaceX has put their eggs in the “cheap” and “dependable” baskets.

How Do the Falcon 9 Rockets Land Vertically?

Obviously, SpaceX can’t give away all their secrets, but—between the information released by SpaceX and some work from internet sleuths—we can get a basic understanding of how these rockets do what was once thought to be impossible.

有一个系统图对于不断更新到的猎鹰9火箭enthusiasts online。

A section of the Falcon 9 system diagram (there aremany更多的）。A bigthanks to/u/wclark07在reddit上for putting these together.

You probably already know that the landing systems are automated, but it requires a lot of sensors in different compartments to make all of this happen. At a basic level, the rocket has饰品推进器，根据扭矩和火箭的重心调整云台的角度。尽管示意力的推进器已经存在了一段时间，但传统上它们用于起飞，而不是降落。

Before the gimballed thrusters come into place for landing, the rockets use态度控制系统, which are a system of spouts that expel high-pressure gasses at different points around the capsule to reorient the rocket while in space so it can begin its descent with the thrusters facing downward.

它也使用grid fins, which are little flaps that deploy when the rocket is closer to its landing point, operating similar to the flaps on airplane wings. This, of course, requires a ton of math to be computed by the rocket’s systems based on the data collected from its sensors in order to release pressure, divert fuel, and open various flaps and chambers.

I counted 16 different sensor systems for things like AHARS, detaching modules, GPS, fuel pressure, inertia, and likely many more that can probably be flushed out as people make updates to the layout. I am by no means a rocket scientist, so please let us know in the comments if you would like to elaborate on the Falcon 9s’ sensors or electronic systems!

特色图像由SpaceX。