When the Juno V passed from Army hands to NASA, the intent to make the first stage recoverable also came along. The design got a lot more detail, and the recovery systems stayed in place… at least for a while.
This painting shows the eight braking rockets around the tail, used for sudden decelleration just before splashdown:
A display model of a Saturn C1 also showing the braking rockets:
And here are some inboard drawings and section views of the Saturn C-1 first stage showign the “Recovery Gear” (parachutes) tucked neatly in the forward end, and eight “Recruit”braking rockets near the tail.
Later designs – well into the Saturn Ib era – changed the recovery systems drastically. Rigid-keeled Rogallo wings, parafoils, even hot air balloons were studied, with ocean splashdowns, runway gliding landings, and my personal favorite, being snagged by a ship and lowered onto the deck (this being one of the ballon-borne concepts). I’m hardly dogmatic about what system should have been employed… but I do know that *some* system should have been employed. Early recovery tests with the Saturn Ib would have informed the Shuttle program… either making it better, or making it redundant. Numerous design concepts were put forward for Saturn I’s with Titan III solid rocket boosters (see the MLV-SAT-IB-11.5 series and the Saturn Ib Improvement Study) ; coupling a recoverable Saturn Ib first stage with recoverable Titan III SRMs would have produced either a seriously awesome launch system… or a seriously flawed one. Either would have been good. Instead, we plowed right ahead into the Space Shuttle program… while a seriously awesome piece of equipment, it’s a seriously flawed concept and program. And soon we won’t even have that. Had the Shuttle flaws been noticed by, say, 1970, chances are far better that a better launcher would have resulted than the chances of a good launcher emerging now.
7 Responses to “Saturn C-1 recoverability”
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Although it would have been difficult to keep it floating that way, you would have thought they would have figured out a way to land it with the engines at the top end rather than bottom, to keep them from being immersed in sea water and having their engine bells possibly bent on impact. On the recoverable S-1 stage design for Saturn V, it came down engines upwards.
That’s also how it worked on the von Braun Ferry rocket designs, which used 10 solid braking rockets, each generating 54,000 lbs thrust, two seconds before ocean impact.
IIRC, the A10 missile booster stage from WWII was also supposed to be recovered at sea, but I’ve never seen details of exactly how that was to be done.
I never heard of the hot air balloon recovery idea before, but to keep something as heavy as this stage aloft, it would have to be immense.
At the Hiller Aviation Museum, there used to be a model of a helicopter designed to snag a Saturn V first stage as it descended on parachutes.
BScCollateral Said:
“At the Hiller Aviation Museum, there used to be a model of a helicopter designed to snag a Saturn V first stage as it descended on parachutes.”
This thing: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1045/1
Can you imagine the sound of a 400+ foot rotor going around?
It would probably be like being in a earthquake.
Sticking turbojets on the tips of helicopter rotors has actually been tried; and it doesn’t work well, as the centrifugal force screws up the airflow inside of the engines, while trying to pull the compressor and drive turbine out through the side of the engine.
But that didn’t stop Hiller: http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/hiller_crane.php
Yes, that’s the same model I saw.
Definetly a unique and unexpected design. I’d be very surprised if it would ever work, but it would be fun to see them try.
I always got a kick out of Hiller’s small helicopters with ramjets on the blade-tips; those should have been good for some UFO sighting if flown at night.
Would it be possible for a company to buy the license for this booster and build it today?
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