Project Underwater spaceport?

[palebluevoice]

Giant grappling hook is a good name for it. Like I said, it would have a propeller and it would be REALLY long. You would just have a spot for the grappling hook with a radio transmitter that would give the hook vectors(the hook would have an autopilot). It wouldn't be like an arrester cable where it just stops it on a dime. It would hook on at a fairly low relative speed, then the brake would activate, and would just apply friction on the cable, so that it slows it down at a half or quarter of a G. When the plane starts to stall, the cables lock(somehow) and then rotate such that the spacecraft is directly above the landing pad, then the cables simply retract slowly, and set the craft down. The pilot doesn't have to do anything other than fly a straight line.

I'm probably misinterpreting this. In layman's terms would this be (essentially) a giant flying rope+hook to catch descending spacecraft? o_o

Yes

 

[Muezza]

This is a potentially interesting idea, but before it goes too far I think some serious thought should be put into the actual reasonings behind needing a landing/launch platform in the middle of the ocean, as that is far more relevant than the method of operation.

If its purely for cool factor(which is fine) not as much thought is needed of course, but it is always nice to have at least a psuedoscientific reasoning for cool-factor situations.

One potential reasoning could be a fictional ocean planet with no landmass suitable for landing/launch operations, such as on the worlds Kamino and Manaan from the Star Wars universe. If a fictional, futuristic setting is the background I believe you could get away with using landing pads for VTOL takeoff and landing as the setting allows you lampshade powerful yet highly efficient propulsion methods.

On the other hand if its a more realistic situation, its quite possibly implausible on an Earth-like world and I cannot imagine the reasoning for a sea-based launch facility unless its for military purposes such as an ICBM, in which case you don't need to worry about landing at all, and would use a vertical launch rather than an angled tube. Though if landing of reusable crafts is required it would most likely be comparable to an aircraft carrier, though perhaps static and larger.

 

[Muezza]

Another potential solution would be to outfit the craft itself to make water landings, either by splashdown such as in the capsule programs, or by some sort of pontoon things. This would have the obvious downside of having to make sure your landing doesn't correspond with bad weather, but I suppose other landing methods do as well, even land based ones.

 

[_Designer_]

If you haven't found it yet here's a good start for a Blender beginer and plenty of tutorials for more advenced users.:tiphat:

I am already looking at these

 

[theflyingfish]

Landing tunnel? Holy freakin' Probe!

1.) You want people to fly *into* a tunnel to land?
2.) How the hell do you stop in a sloped tunnel without ramming your 2 billion dollar spacecraft into the hangar's ass...istance robotics?

So let me get this straight. Your going to catch the incoming ships with what is essentially a giant grappling hook.

How are you going to handle the dowhill landing in orbiter?

I think we should have an annual Orbiter Olympics, and the last event will be to try to survive a landing into this underwater-landing-tunnel-of-awesomeness/doom.

 

[Ghostrider]

What's the problem with landing by flying into a tunnel? Super Robot pilots do it all the time. And you should see their launches...

 

[Fozzy]

Isn't a underwater base unrealistic?