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  [Discuss] SpaceX Dragon XL spacecraft

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Author Topic:   [Discuss] SpaceX Dragon XL spacecraft
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 45849
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-27-2020 05:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Please use this topic to discuss SpaceX's Dragon XL lunar cargo spacecraft and its missions to NASA's Gateway in lunar orbit.

Headshot
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From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 03-27-2020 05:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Did NASA or SpaceX give the mass of the payload Dragon XL can bring to the lunar Gateway?

Robert Pearlman
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From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-27-2020 05:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
SpaceX provided the mass (via Twitter):
SpaceX will launch a variant of Dragon, optimized to carry more than 5 metric tons of cargo to Gateway in lunar orbit.

Aeropix
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From: Houston
Registered: Apr 2010

posted 03-29-2020 02:38 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aeropix   Click Here to Email Aeropix     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Not much mass?

The Apollo CSM/LM combination was 30 metric tonnes, and Falcon Heavy can only boost 5 tonnes up there? I thought the lifting capacity of the Falcon Heavy was much better than that?

Saturn V could lift 118 tonnes to LEO, vs. Falcon Heavy 64 tonnes (just quick figures from the internet, feel free to correct). Since Falcon Heavy can lift about half what Saturn V could to LEO, shouldn't the same be true for the moon? Shouldn't Falcon Heavy be able to lift therefore about 15 tonnes to lunar orbit?

Maybe they are withholding performance in order to allow recovery of the boosters?

oly
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From: Perth, Western Australia
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posted 03-29-2020 07:02 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for oly   Click Here to Email oly     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Is the more than 5 metric tons the mass requirement of the NASA contract or the mass capability of the SpaceX launch system? I suspect the former but have not seen a copy of the contract requirements.

Additionally, does this story found in SpaceNews have any impact?

A revised plan for returning astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2024 will no longer rely on the use of a lunar Gateway, although NASA’s human spaceflight head says the agency is still committed to eventually developing it.

Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 45849
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-29-2020 10:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Aeropix:
Not much mass?
NASA's call for proposals specified the mass requirements, as reported by SpaceNews:
Companies had to propose spacecraft capable of carrying at least 3,400 kilograms of pressurized cargo and 1,000 kilograms of unpressurized cargo to the Gateway, and be able to dispose of at least as much cargo from the Gateway.
As described, the Dragon XL meets and exceeds NASA's requirements.
quote:
Originally posted by oly:
...does this story found in SpaceNews have any impact?
Citing the same SpaceNews story as linked above:
How many missions SpaceX will fly, and when, were not disclosed, but a shift in NASA's lunar exploration strategy could mean fewer opportunities in the near term...

[Doug Loverro, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations] emphasized that the Gateway remained important for NASA's long-term "sustainable" lunar exploration plans, which will also feature contributions from international partners.

Robert Pearlman
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From: Houston, TX
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posted 03-30-2020 11:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ars Technica spoke with Dan Hartman, NASA's Gateway program manager, who provided some more details about the Dragon XL, its configuration and use:
We're going to put payloads on the inside, and we've got quite a bit of power allocated from the Dragon XL for that. We've got upmass allocated for payloads inside and then we can also fly payloads on the outside with power and tied into their communication systems so we can get some research back done, real time on the way to the Moon, and while attached at the Moon.

And then quite honestly, we don't need the logistics mission up there for six months or a year just to support a lunar mission. But we wanted to take advantage of the extra volume, the extra research accommodations, where we could keep it attached, and we could run science. Dragon also has got the automated rendezvous and docking system that they will be using on their CRS-2 vehicles, very similar to their Crew Dragon.

And so, the docking system, you can come and go. We were planning to do that remotely without crew in there. And so, we think we're set up for a really good platform to conduct research for the long haul.

Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 45849
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-17-2021 04:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
New NASA concept art of Dragon XL servicing Gateway:

SkyMan1958
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From: CA.
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posted 03-17-2021 06:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SkyMan1958   Click Here to Email SkyMan1958     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Does anyone know what will become of the XL spacecraft after they have finished their Gateway missions? Will they be deorbited to hit the Moon?

Certainly once seismometers are again installed on the Moon's surface this could prove useful, like the S-IVB impacts and LM ascent stage impacts in the post Apollo 12 missions.

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