A net for space rockets

Patent number: 2740525

Authors: Grigory Shokhov, Sergey Nazarov

Patent owner: Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering

One way to reduce the costs of space rocket launches is to set up a system where the first rocket stage can be safely returned back to earth and reused.

Some of them have already been developed. The most efficient so far has been the following. After separation from the launch vehicle, the first stage passively glides for a while along the ballistic trajectory; then the built-in propulsion system is activated, which assists in landing on a dedicated site or a marine platform. This technical solution has a major drawback: the first stage has to be equipped with landing posts. This results in a significant increase in the total mass of the first stage, which means an increase in the cost of launching.

The new invention is a landing pad for the first stage which solves this problem (see the figure).

The landing pad consists of a heat-resistant mesh structure and a mechanical manipulator. The structure is made in the form of a truncated cone and is mounted on hinged supports. Above them, the “hands” of the manipulator are located. Upon landing, the first stage falls into a kind of “net” that protects it from damage, and the mechanical manipulator helps to take a pre-programmed correct position.