SpaceX News

[GIThruster]

Land the boost stage at Kennedy by the end of this year?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBVsw-8d8wA

[Skipjack]

Land the boost stage at Kennedy by the end of this year?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBVsw-8d8wA

I think they will try if the range and the FAA allow them to. Btw, the Superdracos will also allow the Dragon capsule to do a powered landing on earth, not just on the moon and mars. So all parts of the rocket will come back and do powered landing. The second stage as well, at some point (allegedly also using Superdracos).
Genius design for sure!

[Betruger]

Tough crowd in that video..

[GIThruster]

Dragon V2 Unveil Today at 7:00 PM PT

Join us for the unveiling of the new Dragon V2--SpaceX's next generation spacecraft designed to carry astronauts into space. SpaceX will webcast the event directly from their state-of-the-art design and manufacturing facility in Hawthorne, California.

Watch LIVE at http://www.spacex.com/webcast

[hanelyp]

Like their last webcast I tried to watch, Livestream appears to be choking under the load.

edit:
on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... RtA#t=2109

[GIThruster]

Wow. Total wow! Musk is now the official aerospace rock star of the century!

WOW!!!

Looks like the new solar panels are flexible and go from curved and tucked in against the trunk, to flat on orbit. Have to wonder what's with the trunk 2.0.

[ScottL]

Looks pretty cool.

[Skipjack]

Recording of the unveil has been posted on the SpaceX website for all that are interested:
http://new.livestream.com/accounts/1424 ... &width=640

I have to say that the new Dragon looks absolutely stunning. I wished they had left the cameras on for the Q&A with Musk after the official unveil though. Lots of great info in that one too. It will have its first unscrewed orbital flight in 2015 and its first crewed flight mid 2016. The capsule shown here is all flight hardware, btw. It is not a mockup. This is the real deal!
I was a bit disappointed by the fact that the trunk is still discarded on the way down. I guess there is no way around that, though, at least for now.

[GIThruster]

I've thought about the trunk for years. Wouldn't take much in the way of M-E thrust to keep them on orbit and collected together as a power station. Not sure the precise figure but probably only a couple hundred mN would suffice as the trunk is left in a decaying orbit. 10 Kw/trunk and one could move them around pretty easily. Would make them extremely valuable.

[D Tibbets]

Maybe it would be useful. If it is just a shell with some PVC stuck on it it is relatively cheap. It looks like all of the other equipment is on the maned module. It is not like the service module of the Apollo, so you are returning all of the expensive components already. But, if you could salvage something in this already orbital lump, the solar cells if nothing else, it might be mildly profitable, but only if you had something beyond the ISS to handle it.

As for a soft landing on Mars or the Moon, only if you don't plan to leave again. You can't escape unless you build a new booster stack (or recycle a refueled one as per Space X plans for Earth launch). On the moon with no air all of the deceleration has to be from the rocket. Even at 1/6th G and corresponding orbital speed, I suspect more thrust is needed. Most of the reentry deceleration and terminal velocity in Earth's atmosphere is due to aerobraking. Perhaps only a few hundred MPH deceleration is needed for soft landing. On Mars at ~ 0.4 G the terminal velocity would be less if the atmospheric density was the same, but at ~ 1% of the atmospheric density...
Perhaps deploying parachutes during Mars lower atmospheric transit would make it similar to the energy picture for Earth soft landing. This is essentially what the Curosity rover did. And the Dragon apparently will have backup parachutes anyway...

Dan Tibbets

[Skipjack]

Wished Elon Musk could run for president. I would vote for him in a heartbeat. He puts his money where his mouth is. He is not afraid of confronting much stronger enemies. He has ambition, idealism and success. Cant say that about any politician in Washington.

http://intercepts.defensenews.com/2014/ ... g-to-mars/

http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/06/elon-m ... -made.html

[GIThruster]

I think it would be a terrible loss for Musk to run for POTUS. Think of all of great work that would not get done as result. Even with the right person in the White House, the way politics works that person has such vast limitations on what they can get through the political process that without a Senate and House full of Reps, no Rep POTUS would accomplish much. Far better Musk opens reusable launch vehicles step by step.

[Skipjack]

I think it would be a terrible loss for Musk to run for POTUS. Think of all of great work that would not get done as result. Even with the right person in the White House, the way politics works that person has such vast limitations on what they can get through the political process that without a Senate and House full of Reps, no Rep POTUS would accomplish much.

Got a point there. I was more metaphorically speaking in order to express my admiration. Not many people that I look up to. He is one of them.

[GIThruster]

I've watched pretty much all the vids of him interviewing as are available and I'm astonished at the man. He's smart, knows how to get things done, sees life through a "first principles" approach and has a decent sense of humor. Kinda guy you'd want to have a beer with. We need more like him.

[Betruger]

How approachable he is really underlines his grip on reality. So much more free of useless baggage than almost anyone else in his position is or would be.