SpaceX test engine for launch abort and propulsion landing

[YellowSubmarine]

SpaceX updates

Hopefully they have put the NASA funding to good use and the engine does what it promises to do. This means that it would have to make Dragon flights extremely safe and allow precision landing on the Moon, Mars and other solar system bodies.

SpaceX Testing - SuperDraco Engine Firing
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUUnYgo1-lI[/yt]

I just recently saw the Falcon Heavy press conference where Elon Musk was still claiming that they aren't planning a propulsive landing for the Dragon, but if they ever added one, going to the Moon would be a piece of cake. It looked funny in retrospect, and that wasn't even a year ago.

I like the propulsive landing option, like the one seen in the VTVL/stage recovery animation, much more than parachutes. It looks cooler and it lands everywhere.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

And that "land everywhere" feature is going to be the real game changer since it would effectively eliminate most of the recovery costs for manned spaceflight; you can park the capsule right at the space port, climb out and debrief and then move the capsule right into an assembly building to be refurbished. No recovery ships, no cross-country transport.

A propulsive landing on the moon might be a bit difficult since the capsule can't aerobrake down to terminal velocity first; with its onboard propellant the ship only has about 400m/s Delta-V and a moon landing should require at least 1,600 (though probably closer to 2,000). It's alot easier to slow a descent from the 130m/s terminal velocity of the lower atmosphere.

 

[DanCPA]

With a little bit of luck, I'll be able to go to one of their launches sometime. My uncle works there and just got promoted!

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

And that "land everywhere" feature is going to be the real game changer since it would effectively eliminate most of the recovery costs for manned spaceflight; you can park the capsule right at the space port, climb out and debrief and then move the capsule right into an assembly building to be refurbished. No recovery ships, no cross-country transport.

A propulsive landing on the moon might be a bit difficult since the capsule can't aerobrake down to terminal velocity first; with its onboard propellant the ship only has about 400m/s Delta-V and a moon landing should require at least 1,600 (though probably closer to 2,000). It's alot easier to slow a descent from the 130m/s terminal velocity of the lower atmosphere.

Yeah, the handy diagram at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deltavs.svg shows 1.6 km/s - a back of the envelope calculation gave me 1.75 km/s. The delta-v achievable by the Apollo Lunar Module descent and ascent stages was 2.5 km/s and 2.2 km/s respectively.

If I were ever to travel in a Dragon capsule (unlikely as that is), I think I'd still like a backup parachute system - just in case.

 

[sojourner]

^And they will. Just in case.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

The final assembly of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft for the next launch has been completed.



The launch is scheduled for some time at the end of April after the additional delay. So we'd finally have the first private spacecraft docking to the International Space Station in a couple of months.

I hope there won't be more delays on this one.

Source: Elon Musk's lolcat log
Also worth mentioning: One of the earlier meows claims “Design completed for bringing rocket back to launchpad using only thrusters.” If this is really happening...

 

[sojourner]

"Design completed" is nice, hopefully it will reach "implementation completed" without too many problems.

And damn, I hope they finally start getting a their launch rate above 1 every 2 years.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Well, their launch manifest speaks for the launch rates. They'll launch when there's demand for it, provided that they can meat it by producing the rockets on time. They have at least 4 rockets arriving at the launch pads this year, whether they will launch this or the next one, it's still roughly 4 launches a year. Don't forget that they were in a heavy R&D phase so far, getting their first rockets and capsules working, and they are still in it for the improvements, including the VTVL capability and launch abort, and for the development of Falcon Heavy. You can say that they are just starting.

I've been starting to wonder about the Falcon 9 prices and Falcon Heavy prices on their website. If those are real prices with the current technology, as they claim, the stage recovery cutting them significantly would be next to unbelievable. Sometimes I'm getting suspicious, it almost feels that they are counting on the stage recovery to meet them.

 

[sojourner]

Well, their launch manifest speaks for the launch rates. They'll launch when there's demand for it, provided that they can meat it by producing the rockets on time. They have at least 4 rockets arriving at the launch pads this year, whether they will launch this or the next one, it's still roughly 4 launches a year. Don't forget that they were in a heavy R&D phase so far, getting their first rockets and capsules working, and they are still in it for the improvements, including the VTVL capability and launch abort, and for the development of Falcon Heavy. You can say that they are just starting.

yeah, their launch manifest needs to be taken with a grain of salt the size of Rhode Island. If it had held up they would have been on about their 12th launch by now.

The manifest doesn't speak to their launch rates, their launches do.

They really need to get things in gear before they start losing customers to companies that actually can get close to a listed launch rate.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

We're on the pad already!

If these were the Russians, it would be already launching with a faulty software and hardware!

 

[sojourner]

Channel 14 on this page.