Elon Musk's SpaceX has revolutionized the rocket launch market, reigniting interest in rocketry for thousands. Rocket Lab is a company aiming to follow in SpaceX's footsteps . Like Musk, Rocket Lab also wants to revive rockets, further reducing costs. Their approach, while more rudimentary than SpaceX's, is more economical.
For years the launch of rockets into space has been losing appeal to the general public. The new approach given by SpaceX with its missions and projects, including the recovery of propellants. In addition, Musk intends to colonize Mars, something that is very complex.
[amazon box="B082MQ4QTZ"]Rocket Lab wants to compete with Elon Musk
Currently SpaceX rockets have the ability to land autonomously, allowing their use repeatedly. So far they have developed different landing modes, even being captured by ships. Rocket Lab proposes a more primitive way but that aims to be effective.
The idea is for Rocket Lab's Electron rockets to fall into the atmosphere and open a parachute, thus reducing the rate of descent. During the descent process a helicopter will capture them from the parachute using a hook before they touch the water. Once captured, it will be transported to the mainland without the rocket suffering the slightest damage.
Rocket Lab has published a video showing one of these maneuvers with resounding success. The test was carried out in March of this year in New Zealand. You can see how the test rocket makes the descent and the helicopter catches it without problems the first time at a height of 1524 meters.
As always, there are different ways to approach a problem, and they all have advantages, disadvantages, and challenges. This solution aims to be considerably cheaper than the one offered by SpaceX. Like the solution designed by the Musk team, it carries risks and challenges, but 'simplifies' other aspects.
Source: Engadget
