{"id":14461,"date":"2017-07-19T17:46:55","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T09:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/propulsive-landings-nixed-from-spacexs-dragon-spaceship\/"},"modified":"2017-07-19T17:46:55","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T09:46:55","slug":"propulsive-landings-nixed-from-spacexs-dragon-spaceship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/propulsive-landings-nixed-from-spacexs-dragon-spaceship\/","title":{"rendered":"Propulsive landings nixed from SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spaceship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Artist\u2019s concept of SpaceX\u2019s Red Dragon spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX\u2019s upgraded Dragon capsules will not return astronauts to Earth for powered landings as originally envisioned, company boss Elon Musk said Wednesday, a design change that raises questions about the space transport firm\u2019s plans to send commercial landers to the surface of Mars.<\/p>\n

Musk cited safety concerns for eliminating plans for propulsive Dragon landings in remarks at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Washington. He also said the original Dragon landing concept, in which four landing legs would extend from the base of the capsule\u2019s heat shield as throttleable SuperDraco thrusters slowed the craft\u2019s speed for touchdown, was not as useful as he initially thought for SpaceX\u2019s plans to send humans to Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a tough decision,\u201d Musk said in response to a question on the matter. He added that the human-rated Dragon, which SpaceX is developing with mostly NASA funding, is \u201ctechnically\u201d still capable of propulsive landings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough you\u2019d have to land it on some pretty soft landing pad because we\u2019ve deleted the little legs that pop out of the heat shield,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

SpaceX unveiled the design of the next-generation spacecraft in May 2014, when Musk predicted the capsule should be ready to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station by the end of 2016. Musk said Wednesday that the spaceship is now scheduled to launch crews by mid-2018, and he described the crew capsule effort as SpaceX\u2019s \u201cprimary focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.6 billion contract later in 2014 to finish development of the upgraded Dragon spacecraft \u2014 called Crew Dragon or Dragon 2 \u2014 and fly up to six crew rotation missions to the space station. Boeing won a similar contract worth $4.2 billion for its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Both programs have been delayed and will miss NASA\u2019s goal of having the vehicles certified for piloted missions by the end of 2017, ending U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to carry astronauts to the space station and return them to Earth.<\/p>\n

Boeing says the CST-100 Starliner\u2019s first orbital test flight with a two-person crew in August 2018.<\/p>\n

SpaceX officials said in 2015 that the Crew Dragon\u2019s first few missions would end with parachute-assisted splashdowns at sea, similar to the way the current Dragon cargo capsules come back to Earth. The crew-capable version is heavier, requiring four main chutes instead of the three flying on station resupply flights.<\/p>\n

But engineers continued to plan for propulsive landings once NASA certified the powered descent approach. The Crew Dragon will already have the SuperDraco thrusters needed for a powered descent. The same rocket packs act as the capsule\u2019s escape booster to whisk astronauts away from a failing launcher.<\/p>\n

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A still from an animation illustrating how SpaceX intended the Crew Dragon spaceship to land with the aid of rocket thrust. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat is how a 21st century spaceship should land,\u201d Musk said in 2014, describing the crew capsule\u2019s ability to land \u201canywhere on Earth with the accuracy of a helicopter.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX now favors another type of recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason we decided not to pursue (powered landings) heavily is it would have taken a tremendous amount of effort to qualify that for safety, particularly for crew transport,\u201d Musk said. \u201cAnd then there was a time when I thought that the Dragon approach to landing on Mars, where you\u2019ve got a base heat shield and side-mounted thrusters, would be the right way to land on Mars, but now I\u2019m pretty confident that is not the right way, and that there\u2019s a far better approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk did not elaborate on the new concept for landing on Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what the next generation of SpaceX rockets and spacecraft is going to do, so just the difficulty of safely qualifying Dragon for propulsive landings, and the fact, from a technology evolution standpoint, it was no longer in line with what we were confident was the optimal way to land on Mars,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re not pursuing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be something that we bring back later, but it doesn\u2019t seem like the right way to apply resources right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The redesign of the next-generation Dragon\u2019s landing system will affect SpaceX\u2019s plans to send the first in a series of robotic Dragon spacecraft to Mars in 2020. Musk did not address the status of the first so-called Red Dragon mission Wednesday, but the concept involved dispatching a Dragon capsule similar to the ship built for crews to the red planet on top of a huge Falcon Heavy booster.<\/p>\n

The Red Dragon would have descended to a powered touchdown on landing legs in a sequence similar to the one envisioned for Crew Dragons on Earth.<\/p>\n

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer, said in February that the first Red Dragon flight was delayed to mid-2020 from 2018, pushing its arrival at Mars back to early 2021. Launch opportunities to Mars come approximately every 26 months when the planets are favorably aligned.<\/p>\n

The Red Dragons would have delivered cargo and experiments to the Martian surface and tested supersonic retro-propulsion in the planet\u2019s rarefied atmosphere for the first time. NASA engineers say a rocket-braking mechanism like the Dragon\u2019s SuperDraco thrusters is needed to safely land heavy supply ships and crew vehicles on Mars.<\/p>\n

The space agency signed up to support the privately-developed Red Dragon project to gather data on supersonic retro-propulsion officials said NASA would be unable to obtain until at least the late 2020s with a government-managed mission. NASA said it would spend more than $30 million on the effort by providing advisors, navigation, communications and tracking services, and technical analysis.<\/p>\n

Musk wrote in a tweet that SpaceX has not abandoned supersonic retro-propulsion at Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlan is to do powered landings on Mars for sure, but with a vastly bigger ship,\u201d he tweeted Wednesday after his remarks in Washington.<\/p>\n

Musk said his team at SpaceX is refining how the company could send people to Mars, eventually to settle there. He revealed a Mars transportation architecture in a speech at the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, last year, but the outline has since changed.<\/p>\n

A vision for gigantic interplanetary transporters Musk presented last year has been downsized, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little smaller, still big, but I think this one\u2019s got a shot at being real on the economic front,\u201d Musk said, adding that he might present more details at this year\u2019s International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia.<\/p>\n