[AR] Re: Falcon 9 lifetime of 5 flights?
- From: Derek Lyons <fairwater@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2020 15:14:40 -0700
On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 2:57 PM William Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
The United States Navy stands as an existence proof that it is possible to
submerge complex hardware in seawater for decades. Provided one can afford
the maintenance.
Minor nit: The US Navy goes to considerable lengths to _avoid_ submerging
anything in salt water and absolutely prefers a shirtsleeve environment for
it's equipment where at all possible. Only what must unavoidably be
submerged is exposed to the environment. But yes, you're otherwise
correct... it takes a great deal of careful maintenance to maintain
exposed equipment.
A very minor maintenance mistake on submerged equipment towards the end of
our shipyard period caused considerable operational problems for the
related equipment until we tracked down and remedied the cause. (And
resulted in a fleetwide bulletin requiring all units to inspect said
equipment and ensure they weren't in the early stages of the same
predicament.) And this was on equipment that, at the time, had been
deployed and operational for twenty five years on a large number of boats.
The sea is unforgiving.
D.
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