This may have been asked elsewhere, but if NASA is not going to reuse the CST100 and Dragon V2's they purchase, can they be sold back to the vendor somehow for further commercial use with, for instance, Bigelow?
So SpaceX is free to re-use the Dragon for some other customer who is not so picky.They could end up with half a dozen re-usable Dragons at NASA's expense out of thisone contract.
Quote from: ThereIWas3 on 09/18/2014 04:02 pmSo SpaceX is free to re-use the Dragon for some other customer who is not so picky.They could end up with half a dozen re-usable Dragons at NASA's expense out of thisone contract.Yes and this was true for the cargo Dragon v1's as well. However none of those have been re-used yet. There is a picture floating around this site somewhere of them sitting in a warehouse.
Be patient people, rockets are hard.
I do wonder how the lunar buildings will land vertically when the engines are horizontal.
Quote from: A_M_Swallow on 10/02/2014 09:45 pmI do wonder how the lunar buildings will land vertically when the engines are horizontal.Step 1: Circularize to very low orbit.Step 2: Kill orbital velocity.Step 3: Assume step 2 is instantaneous.Step 4: Extend legs.
Quote from: Nindalf on 10/02/2014 09:50 pmQuote from: A_M_Swallow on 10/02/2014 09:45 pmI do wonder how the lunar buildings will land vertically when the engines are horizontal.Step 1: Circularize to very low orbit.Step 2: Kill orbital velocity.Step 3: Assume step 2 is instantaneous.Step 4: Extend legs.Very very low. I doubt the legs can take a drop of more than a few feet.
Shiny.Does anyone know if BEAM is on track for its SpaceX CRS-8 flight?
Quote from: A_M_Swallow on 10/02/2014 09:45 pmI do wonder how the lunar buildings will land vertically when the engines are horizontal.When comes to landing on moon the bulk of DV required is for deorbit burn which is horizontal. The actual energy and propulsion required for final vertical landing is quite small. Google ULA DTAL and Masten Xeus landers. Using these concepts you could land a BA330 by using a large propulsion stage at one end and small propulsion stage at the other end. The large propulsion stage would to do the deorbit burn with its main engine eg RL10. The small vertical thrusters (can use storable propellant) on each stage would do the final landing.There are variations on this idea. Use a standard Centuar upper stage to do bulk of deorbit burn, then separate and return to orbit. Leaving 2 small stages for final landing. Allows you to reuse the expensive Centuar stage.Using storable propellant for vertical thrusters would allow you fly BA330 to different location close by. Eg into lava cave.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 10/03/2014 12:48 amQuote from: A_M_Swallow on 10/02/2014 09:45 pmI do wonder how the lunar buildings will land vertically when the engines are horizontal.When comes to landing on moon the bulk of DV required is for deorbit burn which is horizontal. The actual energy and propulsion required for final vertical landing is quite small. Google ULA DTAL and Masten Xeus landers. Using these concepts you could land a BA330 by using a large propulsion stage at one end and small propulsion stage at the other end. The large propulsion stage would to do the deorbit burn with its main engine eg RL10. The small vertical thrusters (can use storable propellant) on each stage would do the final landing.There are variations on this idea. Use a standard Centuar upper stage to do bulk of deorbit burn, then separate and return to orbit. Leaving 2 small stages for final landing. Allows you to reuse the expensive Centuar stage.Using storable propellant for vertical thrusters would allow you fly BA330 to different location close by. Eg into lava cave. How long is a Centaur stage going to last in orbit?
Quote from: A_M_Swallow on 10/02/2014 09:45 pmI do wonder how the lunar buildings will land vertically when the engines are horizontal.The engines are not horizontal they are vertical. They are not even pictured in the cited models unless they are the "quad" around the forward end of the attachments to the modules? IIRC the slide shown of the procedure those modules had side mounted vertically orientated rockets for de-orbit and landing the modules as a whole unit.Randy