Author Topic: Dragon reuse and refurbishment  (Read 28844 times)

Online DanClemmensen

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #40 on: 07/25/2022 03:41 pm »
A Dragon remains docked to ISS for up to six months and acts, adding volume (and other services?). Unless you want to keep the Starship docked for the duration, you need something else.
Well you could send up a new SS every two weeks.  This is absurd but might be practical if SS attains some of its stretch goals for cost and reliability.
You can also just leave the SS docked for six months. If it can go to Mars, it should be able to remain docked for that long, and it's not an expensive spacecraft.  In fact, a Dragon needs ISS resources. It cannot sustain itself for six months. An SS may have net resources to contribute to ISS.

Again, the pod is primarily useful as a counterargument to "SS is too big!"

Offline Barley

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #41 on: 07/25/2022 07:18 pm »
A Dragon remains docked to ISS for up to six months and acts, adding volume (and other services?). Unless you want to keep the Starship docked for the duration, you need something else.
Well you could send up a new SS every two weeks.  This is absurd but might be practical if SS attains some of its stretch goals for cost and reliability.
You can also just leave the SS docked for six months. If it can go to Mars, it should be able to remain docked for that long, and it's not an expensive spacecraft.
Sure, but you don't necessarily get all your capabilities all at once.  Iterative testing and verification for long endurance might take a while compared to a short duration open loop system that does not even need to deploy solar panels.

It's not necessarily better than spacecraft within spacecraft but it's another example of how big and cheap opens up the possible solutions.

Offline whitelancer64

Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #42 on: 07/29/2022 04:36 pm »
Are the main parachutes inspected, cleaned, and reused on Dragon flights? or are they new parachutes every time?
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Offline AmigaClone

Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #43 on: 07/30/2022 10:33 pm »
Are the main parachutes inspected, cleaned, and reused on Dragon flights? or are they new parachutes every time?

It appears that SpaceX has a process for inspecting parachutes.

https://www.space.com/spacex-crs-25-cargo-mission-launch-success

From the article
Quote
The senior director of SpaceX's human spaceflight program, Benjamin Reed, joined a call with press Wednesday evening (July 13), and voiced optimism for preliminary tests the parachutes have undergone. "So far, the initial results of some inspections are coming in, and the original parachutes look great," Reed said. "[SpaceX] will likely use those on a future mission if the team determines they're safe to use for flight," he added.

I speculate that SpaceX might do a rough inspection soon after landing, the chutes that pass would then be cleaned and inspected again before being prepared for reuse.

How many times a parachute could be used on a crew mission, a cargo mission, or if minor repairs are allowed are unknown.

Re: Dragon propulsive landing
« Reply #44 on: 09/02/2022 02:27 pm »
Looking for any discussions of Dragon Land-based propulsive landing data. Did SpaceX remove the h/w? Did the Draco's do it? Wondering if fight-proven Dragon with soft landing capability could be used to land on Mars? It would get there via Starship.

Offline JayWee

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #45 on: 09/02/2022 04:51 pm »
Looking for any discussions of Dragon Land-based propulsive landing data. Did SpaceX remove the h/w? Did the Draco's do it? Wondering if fight-proven Dragon with soft landing capability could be used to land on Mars? It would get there via Starship.
I believe propulsive landing involved some sliding weight in the capsule which was removed from the design.
And also, I think, the switch from valves to burst disks after the Demo-1 explosion affected the usability of SuperDracos for landing too.

Offline alugobi

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #46 on: 09/02/2022 05:07 pm »
NASA didn't like it, didn't want it, so it got axed.

Offline Robotbeat

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #47 on: 09/02/2022 05:11 pm »
NASA didn't like it, didn't want it, so it got axed.
That isn’t the full story.
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Offline Hog

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Re: Dragon propulsive landing
« Reply #48 on: 09/14/2022 05:57 pm »
Looking for any discussions of Dragon Land-based propulsive landing data. Did SpaceX remove the h/w? Did the Draco's do it? Wondering if fight-proven Dragon with soft landing capability could be used to land on Mars? It would get there via Starship.
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Offline Jim

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Re: Dragon propulsive landing
« Reply #49 on: 09/14/2022 05:58 pm »
Looking for any discussions of Dragon Land-based propulsive landing data. Did SpaceX remove the h/w? Did the Draco's do it? Wondering if fight-proven Dragon with soft landing capability could be used to land on Mars? It would get there via Starship.

Look up Red Dragon.  The capability was never developed.

Why use Dragon, when Starship can do it itself?

Offline Bob Shaw

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #50 on: 09/14/2022 06:16 pm »
Why use propulsive landing for Dragon?

As a demonstration of the capability to do so, thereby increasing confidence all round. Also, landing cargo Dragons 'on the runway' rather than out at sea would be a real coup. Should the technology prove reliable then it would be directly applicable to a Starship escape system too, using the capsule descent engines to get away from a Starship which is having a bad day (and BO has already twice demonstrated that at the very least you don't need hypergolics to just get a bulky capsule away from a booster). Recall, too, the discussions about whether the Apollo parachutes might have melted after deploying if there had been a pad abort - a powered landing system would not be subject to that set of worries.

Of course, SpaceX will have thought all this through already. They will do what suits their purposes and their finances as well as whatever their engineers propose. I'd wager, however, that after the fatal Virgin crash and the Blue Origin incident the idea of exploring active safety measures will be getting discussed.

Offline kevinof

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #51 on: 09/14/2022 06:37 pm »
Propulsive landing of a Dragon gets Spacex nowhere and will never happen.  Its a dead end, waste of $$, time and resources. And they already know how to land.

Ain't going to happen and ain't needed.

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #52 on: 01/25/2023 04:33 pm »
From NASA briefing today:

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1618300152267128832

Quote
SpaceX director of mission management Sarah Walker notes that the Crew-6 mission, flying with capsule Endeavour, will be the first time that the company reuses a Crew Dragon for a fourth mission.

NASA and SpaceX are targeting Crew-6 launch on Feb. 26.

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #53 on: 09/04/2023 06:35 am »
From Crew-6 return press conference:

Benji: New Dragon capsule is coming along well. No mission targeted yet. Confirms that 15 flights per capsule remains the SpaceX target. All data so far indicates that is possible.

Edit to add:

Responding to a subsequent question Steve Stich confirms that currently NASA has approved capsules for 5 uses

https://twitter.com/spaceflightnow/status/1698581699079053477

Quote
6/ Stich says five to six months is achievable for a turnaround time for another flight of a Crew Dragon (in reference to its reflight on Crew-8).

Both Reed and Stich said the drogue and main parachutes appeared to perform nominally. They will be recovered and studied further.

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #54 on: 09/04/2023 11:10 am »
Nice graphics on current state of Dragon fleet

Quote
#SpaceX's #Dragon2 fleet lifetime chart as of Sep 4, 2023

https://twitter.com/_rykllan/status/1698651805645689132

Quote
#SpaceX's #Dragon2 fleet overview as of Sep 4, 2023
« Last Edit: 09/04/2023 11:13 am by FutureSpaceTourist »

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #55 on: 02/13/2024 12:03 pm »
Crosspost:

Quote
Are Parachutes on Dragon ever re used ? Or is it new ones every time? Thanks

https://twitter.com/turkeybeaver/status/1756765005595251187

Quote
Cargo Dragon and Fairing parachutes are reused, Crew parachutes are not at this time.

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #56 on: 02/26/2024 07:10 am »
During Crew-8 FRR press conference Steve Stich confirmed NASA are working with SpaceX on Dragon certification for 15 flights. They may not get to 15 on all subsystems, working through them. Some have already achieved certification for 15 - including some additional qualification tests - others in progress.

Offline wannamoonbase

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #57 on: 02/26/2024 05:17 pm »
During Crew-8 FRR press conference Steve Stich confirmed NASA are working with SpaceX on Dragon certification for 15 flights. They may not get to 15 on all subsystems, working through them. Some have already achieved certification for 15 - including some additional qualification tests - others in progress.

I saw that, it's a huge step forward.  Imagine what it could be if you were't landing in salt water.

I think it bodes well for HLS too.
Wildly optimistic prediction, Superheavy recovery on IFT-4 or IFT-5

Offline FutureSpaceTourist

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Re: Dragon reuse and refurbishment
« Reply #58 on: 03/01/2024 12:29 pm »
https://twitter.com/_rykllan/status/1763513398359175487

Quote
#SpaceX's #Dragon fleet overview as of Mar 1, 2024

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