movement involved and a much larger booster but at least comparable as a final move the chopsticks move inwards maybe even slightly pushing the booster and grabbing it that's it booster caught then the mentioned alignment system kicks in centering the booster in the perfect position now here's what i talked about in the beginning there is one question i hear a lot from you why risk it why not just build legs and land it normally why risk all this in the first place build a complicated megazilla and enter completely uncharted and new territory with the largest rocket ever built by trying to catch it out of mid-air it's a valid question legs would undoubtedly be easier to answer the question we have to look at the main goals of the starship launch system full reusability and rapid reusability as we discussed earlier in this episode full reusability is hard to achieve with legs it's the rocket doing the landing on its own it's the leg taking the beating and they need to be checked and parts need to be replaced on every landing so getting rid of the legs all together is one possible solution but in theory you could come up with a leg design that doesn't need checking after every flight a leg that doesn't need crush blocks or maintenance so what about the second reason rapid reusability by landing the booster and later even the starship itself on the chopsticks and catching it with mechazilla the super heavy booster and the starship are instantly back in the launch process pipeline maxilla can just lower it back down onto the orbital launch mount making it ready for refueling in theory this way it would be prepared for the next launch in an incredibly short amount of time now this won't work with a prototype but later on if spacex actually manages to design a rocket booster that doesn't need maintenance after each flight which is the current goal it would speed up the launch cadence exactly to what musk has been proposing for a long time three launches per day and per booster over and over again at day and at night so fast that right now this sounds like science fiction working similar to a modern airliner landing being refueled and launching again right after that last flight that's the goal and mechazilla might just be the missing element if it works that's the reason for taking the risk since there is no rocket in the world right now capable of performing such a fast launch cadence of multiple launches per day spacex is forced to go new ways to achieve it if it was possible with current designs other launch providers would already do it and if that doesn't satisfy your need for knowledge yet maybe today's sponsor can help you out if you've heard me talk about brilliant before then you know that it's a website and app built of the principle of active problem solving because it takes more to learn something than just watching it to really learn something you have to do it i use brilliant for my own research and to learn difficult topics i'd otherwise have trouble understanding want an intuitive introduction to the essentials of geometry or do you want to double down and focus on the core ideas at the heart of calculus you won't need to memorize long messy formulas and endless facts just pick a course you're interested in and get started open your eyes to the world around you by solving puzzles with science feeling stuck or made a mistake you can read the explanations to find out more and learn at your own pace if you'd
START_SPONSOR_TOKEN if you've heard me talk about brilliant before then you know that it's a website and app built of the principle of active problem solving because it takes more to learn something than just watching it to really learn something you have to do it i use brilliant for my own research and to learn difficult topics i'd otherwise have trouble understanding want an intuitive introduction to the essentials of geometry or do you want to double down and focus on the core ideas at the heart of calculus you won't need to memorize long messy formulas and endless facts just pick a course you're interested in and get started open your eyes to the world around you by solving puzzles with science feeling stuck or made a mistake you can read the explanations to find out more and learn at your own pace if you'd END_SPONSOR_TOKEN