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Honda conducts successful launch and landing of experimental reusable rocket

(global.honda)
1355 points LorenDB | 2 comments | 17 Jun 25 15:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.669s | source
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whatever1 ◴[17 Jun 25 16:02 UTC] No.44300677[source]▶
Question why is it so easy today to build reusable rockets? Is it because the onboard cpu speed of the chips can solve more granular control problems with low latency?
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roshdodd ◴[17 Jun 25 16:41 UTC] No.44301068[source]▶
As someone who actively works in the field, it was a culmination of:

- Advances in rocket engine design & tech to enable deep throttling

- Control algorithms for propulsive landing maturing (Google "Lars Blackmore", "GFOLD", "Mars Landing", and work through the references)

- Forward thinking and risk-taking by SpaceX to further develop tech demonstrated by earlier efforts (DC-X, Mars Landing, etc.)

Modern simulation and sensor capabilities helped, but were not the major enabling factors.

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1. czbond ◴[17 Jun 25 17:27 UTC] No.44301524[source]▶
@roshdodd - Is there a modern reference/book that covers the design of such systems?
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2. softfalcon ◴[17 Jun 25 18:33 UTC] No.44302280[source]▶
> Google "Lars Blackmore", "GFOLD", "Mars Landing", and work through the references

They linked details to look into in their original post.