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SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

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Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#101

Post by nickik »

rplnt wrote: post #74
achamayou wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they haven't got a lander for one thing. The Apollo LM had its design finalised in '63, and only flew in '65. SpaceX would surely do it quicker now, with the benefit of experience, but from scratch to operations in a year for such a unique vehicle is quite unrealistic.

Dragon is only capable of crash-landing using its engines? I.e. there is not enough propellant, legs, etc... to do a soft landing? (not even considering take-off right now)

Depends on the rocket. With some modifications and the right rocket it should be possible to land a Dragon 2 on the moon. However, there it will be for a very long time. No chance to come back.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#102

Post by jfoutz »

coryfklein wrote: post #98
solidr53 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same! I also think that spending money on a roundtrip to the moon is way better for humanity than spending it on champagne, caviar and cars.

Not sure everyone will see it that way. One could look at it as taking the whole "wasteful private jet" to the extreme. Think of the sheer amount of fuel burned in the earth's atmosphere so a rich guy can fly in space. At least, I expect many will spin it that way.

Isn't the exhaust just water?!?

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#103

Post by dragonwriter »

nickik wrote: post #96
gravypod wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's gravity and a rock. Ignoring all the differences these still two extremely hard things to solve first before you start thinking of anything else.

Sure, if you ignore all the other problems. Why not fly to the Venus and test there? Why not on Saturn? The reason is simple, the cost of doing so outweighs the benefits of doing so. Look, its simply almost as expensive to make such a test on the moon, as it is on mars. If mars is your goal, then testing on the moon makes absolutely no sense. People seem to believe that because the moon is closer, it means its much e…

OTOH, if you are "rapidly" (insofar as that is possible in space technology) iterating on some aspect of the system that is relatively insensitive to the differences between the Moon and Mars, the Moon being closer shortens your cycle time considerably. Delta-V isn't the only cost you might be concerned with.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#104

Post by mozumder »

Udik wrote: post #76
_ph_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are going to test the rocket later this year, and the rocket is based on the F9 design, so nothing done from scratch. The crew capsule is also just an enhancement of the capsule which travelled to the ISS and back again several times. It also is going to be tested with flights to the ISS before this planned moon mission. Once you exchange the F9 for the F9 Heavy, going to the moon is not really anyhow more diffi…

Ok, let's put it like this: how much are you willing to bet that they'll be sending two passengers around the Moon on board of Falcon Heavy/ Dragon 2 next year?

Plus they've had 2 rockets go explody over the last two years.

This is really premature. I'd be surprised if they do this by 2020.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#105

Post by nickik »

hackuser wrote: post #95
marcofloriano wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's an incredibly aggressive timeline Sometimes i wonder if that's an strategy from the management team to put pressure in the engineers.

> Sometimes i wonder if that's an strategy from the management team to put pressure in the engineers. Or simply a way to generate press and attention, including on Hacker News.

The get attention because the incredible things they already do. If they were some random company that had not done much nobody would care. However with SpaceX its actually reasonable to believe that they will actually do it in the next couple years.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#107

Post by daeken »

jfoutz wrote: post #102
coryfklein wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure everyone will see it that way. One could look at it as taking the whole "wasteful private jet" to the extreme. Think of the sheer amount of fuel burned in the earth's atmosphere so a rich guy can fly in space. At least, I expect many will spin it that way.

Isn't the exhaust just water?!?

Not with the fuels used by the Falcon rockets. They use LOX + RP1 (kerosene), rather than LOX + LH (which does produce water).

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#108

Post by iklos55 »

Finally. I am so so hyped for SpaceX's development. Hopefully they can stay afloat to experience stability and a stage where they can sit on funding and provide credit for fusion and/or antimatter research. Glad they're here to give us a glimpse into the future of space travel.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#109

Post by netcraft »

coryfklein wrote: post #98
solidr53 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same! I also think that spending money on a roundtrip to the moon is way better for humanity than spending it on champagne, caviar and cars.

Not sure everyone will see it that way. One could look at it as taking the whole "wasteful private jet" to the extreme. Think of the sheer amount of fuel burned in the earth's atmosphere so a rich guy can fly in space. At least, I expect many will spin it that way.

Or you can look at it like someone is bankrolling a significant trial of several potentially species saving technologies. (I understand you're playing the devil's advocate, just trying a response)

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#110

Post by gravypod »

ceejayoz wrote: post #88
gravypod wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's gravity and a rock. Ignoring all the differences these still two extremely hard things to solve first before you start thinking of anything else.

The Moon has no atmosphere to use to shed speed. Very different animal than a Mars landing, to the point where it'd need a totally different landing vehicle than Mars. Think heavy, shielded Apollo command modules versus the spidery lunar landers.

There's about .7kPa of atmos on mars. I'd have a hard time seeing how that would meaningfully influence escape or entrance velocity. In fact it should make entry easier because you'll have a higher resistance coming in meaning you'll have to do a lower deceleration burn.

Could you provide a source, of someone with experiance in this sort of work, telling me why this is the case? Why does this completely change the game? Why is a moon landing not the eaisiest "we know basically what we're doing"?

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