SpaceX has had plenty of successes and failures with landing its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on a drone ship at sea, but one hobbyist has managed to re-create the scene in his back yard with a special drone that looks just like the Falcon 9 rocket, and a floating "boat" in his pool.
The drone is actually rocket-shaped, and the propellers of the drone help the rocket hover just like it would via rocket boosters in the real landing procedure. The drone ship is tethered to the center of the pool with some string to keep it stationary, and the hobbyist is then able to command the drone, via remote, to land on the model drone ship.
This is a very impressive scale model of the Falcon 9 landing site in the Atlantic Ocean and clearly required a lot of practice and trial and error to perfect. Nevertheless, the little scale models you see are really impressive as well, with the model Falcon 9 rocket even having its own landing struts that kick out for a landing.
No, it's not rocket science. At this point it's more of drone and aviation science, but it's still cool to see the Falcon 9 re-enacted as a scale model.
Okay, so am I the only one who wants to make a 12-inch tall Falcon 9 rocket that uses real booster rockets and land it on a drone ship in my own pool now?
Calling all rocket scientists!
