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Mystery equipment on SpaceX barge


Merc14

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Mysterious equipment spotted on SpaceX drone ship at Port Canaveral

Emre Kelly , FLORIDA TODAY Published 6:11 p.m. ET March 22, 2017 | Updated 11 hours ago

Stephen Marr had his suspicions when he photographed a mysterious piece of equipment atop SpaceX's drone ship at Port Canaveral on Monday.

"I knew there was something different there," Marr, 34, said.

So he did what any lover of space and social media would do: He posted it online. Reddit users quickly propelled Marr's clear, high-resolution photo to the top of the website's SpaceX community and so began discussion that the object was likely a highly anticipated robot that would interact with Falcon 9 first stages.

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2017/03/22/spacex-equipment-spotted-port-canaveral-florida-falcon9-reddit-drone-ship-ses10-kennedy-space-center/99457762/

Edited by Still Waters
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Have you got the right link there Merc? That's one about Erdogan. 

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22 minutes ago, Manfred von Dreidecker said:

Have you got the right link there Merc? That's one about Erdogan. 

The link has now been fixed.

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39 minutes ago, Still Waters said:

The link has now been fixed.

Thank you Still!  My bad, wrong link for sure, my wife was born there and is quite upset with how things are going in that country hence the link but I thought I had C&P'd the new one.

That said, how do you all think this thing would work?  It looks like it may drive under the Falcon and the spread those arms out to grab hold of the legs.

Edited by Merc14
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Maybe it's some kind of launch platform clamp, rather than a launch tower?

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12 hours ago, EBE Hybrid said:

Maybe it's some kind of launch platform clamp, rather than a launch tower?

Well it is on the barge, which is for landings only, so the assumption is it is something to do with the recovery of the first stage rockets.

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On 23/03/2017 at 3:18 PM, Merc14 said:

It looks like it may drive under the Falcon and the spread those arms out to grab hold of the legs.

6 hours ago, Merc14 said:

Well it is on the barge, which is for landings only, so the assumption is it is something to do with the recovery of the first stage rockets.

Currently, after landing, a work crew stationed on a nearby support ship have to board the barge and secure the Falcon 9 by welding steel hold downs to the feet of the landing legs. If the first stage could be secured remotely this would be quicker, safer and potentially cheaper. If I had to guess I would say this is what this is for.

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3 minutes ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Currently, after landing, a work crew stationed on a nearby support ship have to board the barge and secure the Falcon 9 by welding steel hold downs to the feet of the landing legs. If the first stage could be secured remotely this would be quicker, safer and potentially cheaper. If I had to guess I would say this is what this is for.

I agree,  I've watched every one of those landing and some were in fairly choppy seas  and I wondered how much list a rocket that tall could take before tipping over.  Securing it quickly and remotely would be much safer but the mechanics also interests me.  Does it lock itself down magnetically once it clamps on to the legs?   Is it battery operated of powered via a cord?  I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

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