Airplanes have passive stabilizers. On the other hand, passive stabilizers on rockets have limited effect while they are descending for recovery. I thought of a passive stabilizer which would double as the interstage ring.
Interstage rings are usually discarded after stage separation to save weight. My proposition is to utilize interstage rings on the first stage while the stage is being recovered. The interstage ring would have a springy design. After stage separation and the first stage approaches the atmosphere, the springy mechanism would be released. As the air hits the interstage it would expend like an inverted umbrella. This would have a parachute-like effect on the falling rocket. Additionally, large conical structure would double as passive stabilizer for the rocket. The down side would be the wind would have more effect on the rocket. However, compared to the weight and size of the rocket the negative effect wouldn’t be that much.
The expended interstage might also have controlled vents to control the descent direction reducing the gimble angle requirement on the descent engine.
Overall, this design change would slightly reduce the fuel needed to recover the stage and decrease the failure rate on recovery. Passive stabilizers are ideal self-correcting mechanisms assisting the complex and error prone software driven control mechanisms.
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