Author Topic: Dragon to prepare the path for MCT  (Read 1479 times)

Offline Ionmars

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Dragon to prepare the path for MCT
« on: 09/15/2015 07:49 pm »
I recently reviewed the thread “Dragon Variants Speculation” and was properly impressed by the wide range of Dragon offshoots that could be created and the equally wide range of missions to which they could be applied.

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=37575.0

In this thread we will reverse the thinking. Given a very specific goal, how should Dragon variants be created to achieve that goal?

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Looking ahead to 2022 the billionaire CEO “Farsited1” of the Mars International
Development Corp (MIDC) plans to develop his first base on Mars. He plans to review the results from the NASA 2020 MER and other Mars probes to select a location (Site X). He intends to set up a base camp at Site X consisting of robotic equipment to accumulate water and propellants in advance of the first colonists that he will sponsor. The process will be similar to the plans of NASA c.a. 2015.

Mr. Farsited1 plans to hire SpaceX reusable MCT vehicles to haul massive loads of cargo to Site X prior to the first human landing. But his engineers have been reading the discussions in NSF forums, particularly “A Mars Launchpad for MCT.”

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=37466.0

The MIDC engineers realize that the MCT cannot launch from just any unprepared surface on Mars because debris reflected upward from the Raptor engines will damage the underside of the vehicle. This was determined by previous NASA studies as discussed in the above named thread. So they want to define a preliminary project that will have the sole purpose of preparing a landing site and launchpad for MCT.
1)   The first step is to define what method should be employed to develop the Launchpad and what equipment should be transported to Site X.
2)   The second step is to define what the standard cargo Dragon will look like in 2022.
3)   Third is to define the variants of the standard cargo Dragon that should be developed and employed.

Like any good cost-cutter, Mr. Farsited1 views the variants as follows:
(a)   A standard cargo Dragon filled with equipment requiring little or no variation in the standard model (preferred).
(b)   A variation that requires only moderate changes with low cost of conversion (begrudgingly accepted).
(c)   A variation that is absolutely necessary but requires almost a clean sheet redesign (#?!!*).

Will the NSF Gurus of Good Engineering come up with a solution?
« Last Edit: 09/16/2015 08:39 am by Ionmars »

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