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  SpaceX Red Dragon missions to land on Mars

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Author Topic:   SpaceX Red Dragon missions to land on Mars
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-27-2016 05:04 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
SpaceX on Wednesday (April 27) announced on Twitter:
Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018. Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details to come.
Elon Musk added:
Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the solar system. Red Dragon Mars mission is the first test flight.

But wouldn't recommend transporting astronauts beyond Earth-moon region. Wouldn't be fun for longer journeys. Internal volume about the size of SUV.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-27-2016 05:06 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The mission has NASA's participation, according to deputy administrator Dava Newman:
Among the many exciting things we're doing with American businesses, we're particularly excited about an upcoming SpaceX project that would build upon a current "no-exchange-of-funds" agreement we have with the company. In exchange for Martian entry, descent, and landing data from SpaceX, NASA will offer technical support for the firm's plan to attempt to land an uncrewed Dragon 2 spacecraft on Mars.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-02-2016 08:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A Mars mission architecture SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk will unveil in September will call for a series of missions starting in 2018 leading up to the first crewed mission to the planet in 2024, reports SpaceNews.
In an on-stage interview at the Code Conference, run by the technology publication Recode in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, Musk repeated earlier comments that he would announce his architecture for human missions to Mars in September at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

That plan would start with the uncrewed launch of a Dragon spacecraft in 2018 on a Mars landing mission dubbed Red Dragon. SpaceX announced April 27 it would fly that mission working in cooperation with NASA, who will provide technical expertise but no funding in exchange for data from the spacecraft's Mars landing attempt.

"The basic game plan is that we're going to send a mission to Mars with every Mars opportunity from 2018 onwards," he said. Launch windows for Mars missions open every 26 months, with the next opening in the spring of 2018.

"We're establishing cargo flights to Mars that people can count on," he said. "I think if things go according to plan, we should be able to launch people probably in 2024, with arrival in 2025."

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 06-10-2016 05:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Elon Musk spoke with The Washington Post about SpaceX's plans to establish a cargo route to Mars.
"But I do want to emphasize this is not about sending a few people to Mars," he continued. "It's about having an architecture that would enable the creation of a self-sustaining city on Mars with the objective of being a multi-planet species and a true space-faring civilization and one day being out there among the stars."

He said he hadn't yet figured out who would be among the first to go, or how they would be chosen. But he said they would be pioneers willing to take the risk. "Hopefully there's enough people who are like that who are willing to go build the foundation, at great risk, for a Martian city.

"It's dangerous and probably people will die — and they'll know that," he continued. "And then they'll pave the way, and ultimately it will be very safe to go to Mars, and it will very comfortable. But that will be many years in the future."

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-20-2017 07:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
SpaceX has been working with NASA to identify potential landing sites on Mars for both its Red Dragon spacecraft and future human missions, reports SpaceNews.
Paul Wooster of SpaceX said the company, working with scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and elsewhere, had identified several potential landing sites, including one that looks particularly promising.

Wooster, who is involved in Mars mission planning in addition to his "day job" as manager of guidance, navigation and control systems on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, said that site selection is based on several criteria. One is access to large quantities of ice near the surface that could, ultimately, support human settlements.

Another is to be close to the Equator and at a low elevation for solar power and better thermal conditions. "It's probably hard to find that along with ice," he acknowledged, so the focus has been on four locations at latitudes no more than about 40 degrees from the Equator.

...When SpaceX announced the Red Dragon program last year, it planned to perform the first launch as soon as the spring of 2018. Last month, however, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said it was likely that mission would shift to the next Mars launch window in mid-2020.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-19-2017 05:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Elon Musk, speaking today (July 19) at the International Space Station Research and Development conference in Washington, D.C., all but said that SpaceX has canceled its plans for Red Dragon.
There was a time when I thought the Dragon approach to landing on Mars, where you've got a base heat shield and side mounted thrusters, would be the right way to land on Mars. But now I'm pretty confident that is not the right way.
Later in the day, Musk tweeted:
Plan is to do powered landings on Mars for sure, but with a vastly bigger ship.

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