I'd have been a lot happier if SpaceX had gone ahead with a crewed Dragon v.1. This second model strikes me as a time- and money-eater. I'll probably get flames for this but one part of me wonders if Musk has already been warned he won't get commercial crew funding, so he's offering a high-spec final model to interest other potential customers that he'll work towards on SpaceX's own dime and schedule rather than a simpler and quicker-to-deploy model to fit into NASA's budget and schedule.
I'd have been a lot happier if SpaceX had gone ahead with a crewed Dragon v.1. This second model strikes me as a time- and money-eater.
I'll probably get flames for this but one part of me wonders if Musk has already been warned he won't get commercial crew funding, so he's offering a high-spec final model to interest other potential customers that he'll work towards on SpaceX's own dime and schedule rather than a simpler and quicker-to-deploy model to fit into NASA's budget and schedule.
...combined with negative rumbles about getting the CCrew contract,<snip>
Quote from: Ben the Space Brit on 08/25/2014 01:50 pm...combined with negative rumbles about getting the CCrew contract,<snip>I too am curious. What "rumbles". If anything, there was a feeling that SpaceX were hot favourites.
Who says that V1 is "simpler" than V2? As Elon has stated, V1 was their first stab at a spacecraft, and minimizing risk was more important than the simplicity and manufacturability of the design. V1 is a battleship. The V2 design is a substantial refinement incorporating numerous lessons learned. A more refined design may be more advanced yet also simpler, with lower part counts and easier assembly processes.
But will it be quicker to reach flying status? I've a feeling that schedule will be a hard constraint on commercial crew.
Do we think Dragon v2's first flight will be 'full-up' with propulsive landing?Or will the SuperDracos be only for abort at first, with landing integrated later as Dragonfly testing progresses?
Quote from: Garrett on 08/25/2014 03:00 pmQuote from: Ben the Space Brit on 08/25/2014 01:50 pm...combined with negative rumbles about getting the CCrew contract,<snip>I too am curious. What "rumbles". If anything, there was a feeling that SpaceX were hot favourites. If you check back on my original post on this discussion, you will see that I was speculating that one possible motive for v.2 was SpaceX not getting commercial crew, thus removing a major time constraint on developing crewed Dragon.
Well, I suppose it would have really been 'v.1.5' as it would have had the LAS motor pods and an ECLSS added as originally intended. My speculation is that the list of things to do to get v.1 crew-ready was getting longer and, combined with negative rumbles about getting the CCrew contract, Elon decided it would be more cost-efficient to build an optimised crew variant rather than a modified cargo version used for crew.
-DragonFly testing program for propulsive landing will possibly go through to 2016. Four testing profiles and over 30 actual tests within that time.
I think that's 30 test flights per year... for two years.http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=34800.msg1245372#msg1245372
Quote from: Ben the Space Brit on 08/25/2014 01:50 pmWell, I suppose it would have really been 'v.1.5' as it would have had the LAS motor pods and an ECLSS added as originally intended. My speculation is that the list of things to do to get v.1 crew-ready was getting longer and, combined with negative rumbles about getting the CCrew contract, Elon decided it would be more cost-efficient to build an optimised crew variant rather than a modified cargo version used for crew.How do you know that the v2 isn't "really" a v1.5?It has Super Dracos with fancy fairings (which are not part of the pressure vessel), life support, seating, flight controls, new hatch, docking adapter...But all of these are on the minimal-change list from 1.0 to "1.5" anyway.What pushes it over the edge to becoming "totally new"?The only thing I can see that makes it a v2 is that they've decided to present it as such.There was a long argument 1-2 years ago about what the crewed Dragon would look like, and this is pretty much along the mid-range of the opinions. It does not have wings, it still has a drop-off trunk...It's all a matter of perception.