Falcon 9 - Dragon (SpaceX)

[aadeebindy]

I hope he builds his own carousel space station with artificial gravity. that would be awesome

[morton690330]

it uses japans PROX to red and dock

[rocketshipstud6]

thankyou!...space x first of 3 tests start 8 may 2010...pray it works!...or we will be just cosmonauts in interkosmos-usa!

[ti994apc]

We only need 1/2 of Orion. Ares 1 can easily be replaced by Falcon9. However, we still need the Ares V for to get out of earth orbit. Unless! Rather than have 2 rockets to combine to get to the moon have 3 rockets. 2 Falcon 9's (one for the crew, one for the LEM) and 1 Falcon9 HEAVY for the get out of earth orbit stage.

[redgd]

Cancel Orion. Get the dragon online for US access to Leo. Focus NASA on developing the tech for human travel into the solar system.

[A86]

That's the thing - you can't have human travel in the solar system without Orion. Humans need to perfect lunar flight before they can even think about interplanetary flight. The Orion design is the best design for lunar flight. The Dragon is the best design for cheap (as in low cost, not low quality) LEO missions. An American equivalent to Soyuz or a 21st century Gemini if you will.

[Dms12444]

Cheap maybe, but the Dragon has newer technology in there then NASA, the heat shielding on the dragon outperforms the shielding on the space shuttle by 3x. Now granite we definitely need to develop more if we even want to think about inter-planetary travel. But we are slowly getting there.

[mantas1111000]

21st century Gemini? Kinda weird. Dragon holds a lot more personell. But I'm with you, because not only military personell work in ISS. Civilians too. So Dragon for ISS, Orion and Ares I or V for everything else.

[A86]

Well, I compared to the Gemini because the Gemini had potential to be a space ferry. It was easy to build, cheap, quick to assemble (at one point they were launched every 6 or 7 weeks) and flexible to perform many tasks. It was actually more flexible than Apollo. The Dragon kind of reminds me of those features of Gemini, except with much more people.

I agree that Dragon should be used for the ISS and the Orion should be reserved for the non-commercial flights.

[mantas1111000]

I just noticed. We met before(Energia-Buran russian news).

So everyone, Dragon: Commercial, Orion: Moon. And when Orion ges ready, willn' they use it to service ISS?

[A86]

Lol, I remember. They might use Orion to service some things for the ISS but most likely the Dragon will take most of the US's cargo up and do most of the ISS ferry missions. Unmanned cargo ships like the Russian Progress, the Japanese HTV, the European ATV and the American Cygnus will take care of the rest.

The Russian Soyuz will be phased out by the PPTS and/or Kliper. The Japanese, Europeans and Indians are developing their own manned spacecraft. Things are about to get interesting. :)

[mantas1111000]

What do you mean by saying Soyuz will be phased out? Wasn't Soyuz the soviet equalent of Gemini? I thought it was only used in USSR.

[A86]

The Soyuz is still being used to today by Russia. You're right that it's used frequently by Russia like a Gemini but in design it's more equivalent to Apollo. Voskhod was sort of more like the Soviet Union's Gemini.

The Soyuz is again, it's been used since the late 60s/early 70s. Even with technological upgrades every 8 years or so Russia still wants a new craft. They're planning to replace it with a craft called the "PPTS" or a spaceplane called "Kliper".

[mantas1111000]

OK, I understand now. And what does PPTS mean?

[A86]

Prospective Piloted Transport System.

Here's a site all about it:

(dot) russianspaceweb (dot) com / ppts (dot) html

It's somewhat atypical of Russian spacecraft architecture but I think it looks pretty cool. It will be able to hold 4-6 people similar to the American Orion.

[mantas1111000]

It does look similar.

And remembering first 100 km, russians really like forms of word "Perspective".I mean PFI, or MiG-29 and Su-27.

[ti994apc]

This is the United State's only real chance at a low cost, safe, spacecraft that carries 7 people to space. You can launch 11 times (98 astronauts) into space for the price a single shuttle mission (7 astronauts.) NASA's new Ares I only carries 6 people and will end up costing just as much as the shuttle and may be as dangerous.

[A86]

I agree that the Space X Dragon makes a lot more sense for LEO and ISS missions than the Orion. The Dragon costs less than $100 million/flight compared to the Shuttle's $700 million-$1.2 billlion/flight and the Dragon can carry just as many astronauts. However, I'm not sure if Space X is ready for moon flights yet. The Falcon 9 Heavy isn't powerful enough to launch lunar vehicles. While the Orion costs a lot of money in development it is still less than what the shuttle and Apollo costed.

[1138thz]

@ti994apc

I agree and think of where we would be if we had never built the STS and stayed with expendable MLLV's, HLLV's and space capsules. The STS program was a mistake from day one. The cost of it has effectively choked out so many missions to the planets that its a crying shame. I hate to mention it but 2 Saturn-V launches could have put one hell of a 260 ton space station in orbit at 1/10 the cost of all the protons and shuttle missions. And solid's should never be man rated..ever!

[britandproud109]

@ti994apc but the Falcon 9 dragon (space x) is only cheap because it is only built to go in orbit, whilst Orion is built for deeper exploration

[ti994apc]

@britandproud109 what are you talking about? Dragon has the same interior room as Orion, and Dragon has better heat sheilding. Thus, it can return from Martian missions. Orion is a capsule. The rocket, Ares1 that carries Orion can NOT leave orbit. It can only go to low orbit. It requires another rocket to take it out of LEO. Ares1 uses Shuttle parts, thats why its so expensive and dangerous. Anything, Orion or Ares1 can do, Dragon and Falcon9 can do better.

[pupplesan]

The looks on their faces when they lost communication near the end says it all.... four failures and the company probably would have died.

[A86]

Is it just me or does the Space X Dragon remind anyone else of a modernized, 21st century, multi-seater Gemini space capsule?

[ti994apc]

Is is just you because the rockets have almost nothing in common.

[A86]

Not the rockets, I'm talking about the function of the crew capsule.

[TroyOi]

Very nice. When do the do-it-yourself kits go on sale?