Neither choices are "concrete" at this point, but I would hope for the use of a crewed Dragon most of all. Mostly because Dragon has an easier development path to BEO capability compared to CST-100 or Dreamchaser.
Now that we have three concrete choices for potential human-rated spacecraft and launch vehicles for LEO… How do you envision their usage? As for myself, on the near term, I see the CST-100 on station for an immediate use CRV replaced every 6-7 months stay on orbit. The Dragon for experiments, consumables and other cargo. Finally Dream Chaser for regular crew rotation and the return of delicate and time critical experiments. Any thoughts and opinions for mix…
Quote from: Rocket Science on 08/04/2011 08:49 pmNow that we have three concrete choices for potential human-rated spacecraft and launch vehicles for LEO… How do you envision their usage? As for myself, on the near term, I see the CST-100 on station for an immediate use CRV replaced every 6-7 months stay on orbit. The Dragon for experiments, consumables and other cargo. Finally Dream Chaser for regular crew rotation and the return of delicate and time critical experiments. Any thoughts and opinions for mix… I think that will be decided by the marketplace, based on supply/demand/market viability/developmental funding.And trying to predict the the usage without commenting on my four issues makes it unlikely that you can have any accuracy in predicting the outcome. Oh, and you forgot Cygnus, and the Blue Origin Space Vehicle.
Quote from: Lars_J on 08/06/2011 04:19 amNeither choices are "concrete" at this point, but I would hope for the use of a crewed Dragon most of all. Mostly because Dragon has an easier development path to BEO capability compared to CST-100 or Dreamchaser.Why would you want a capsule for BEO? You can have a bigger BEO ship using other ideas and systems
Quote from: Lars_J on 08/06/2011 04:19 amNeither choices are "concrete" at this point, but I would hope for the use of a crewed Dragon most of all. Mostly because Dragon has an easier development path to BEO capability compared to CST-100 or Dreamchaser.Er, you do realize that the CST-100 is a BEO capable design, yes?
Quote from: Downix on 08/06/2011 05:08 amQuote from: Lars_J on 08/06/2011 04:19 amNeither choices are "concrete" at this point, but I would hope for the use of a crewed Dragon most of all. Mostly because Dragon has an easier development path to BEO capability compared to CST-100 or Dreamchaser.Er, you do realize that the CST-100 is a BEO capable design, yes?No it is not. It can be evolved into one, but the currently planned version is not.
Quote from: Lars_J on 08/06/2011 05:54 amQuote from: Downix on 08/06/2011 05:08 amQuote from: Lars_J on 08/06/2011 04:19 amNeither choices are "concrete" at this point, but I would hope for the use of a crewed Dragon most of all. Mostly because Dragon has an easier development path to BEO capability compared to CST-100 or Dreamchaser.Er, you do realize that the CST-100 is a BEO capable design, yes?No it is not. It can be evolved into one, but the currently planned version is not.It depends on how you define BEO. I refer to a vehicle able to facilitate a BEO mission, which the CST-100 is fully capable of, as the crew access and return element, docked to the spaceship which does the actual mission, such as a Nautilus-X. Any capabilities beyond this are a waste in such a mission, in my opinion.
Quote from: Downix on 08/06/2011 07:14 amQuote from: Lars_J on 08/06/2011 05:54 amQuote from: Downix on 08/06/2011 05:08 amQuote from: Lars_J on 08/06/2011 04:19 amNeither choices are "concrete" at this point, but I would hope for the use of a crewed Dragon most of all. Mostly because Dragon has an easier development path to BEO capability compared to CST-100 or Dreamchaser.Er, you do realize that the CST-100 is a BEO capable design, yes?No it is not. It can be evolved into one, but the currently planned version is not.It depends on how you define BEO. I refer to a vehicle able to facilitate a BEO mission, which the CST-100 is fully capable of, as the crew access and return element, docked to the spaceship which does the actual mission, such as a Nautilus-X. Any capabilities beyond this are a waste in such a mission, in my opinion.Well sure, if you define it a BEO capable spacecraft as only needing to dock to something in LEO, sure. But I think most would agree that a BEO spacecraft should be capable of reaching GSO, L1/2, or LLO on "its own". And the very short free-flight time of CST-100 will be the major issue to address to make it capable of that.
I prefer thinking of capsules as elevators.