SpaceX's purpose of requesting an experimental permit from the FAA is for SpaceX to test the capability of the DragonFly RLV to execute precision landings on land. SpaceX's need for the experimental permit is to conduct tests to further develop the capability for the Dragon capsule to land, so that it can be reused. One of SpaceX's goals is to reduce the cost of access to space. Being able to resuse Dragon capsule would help meet this goal by eliminating the costs associated with building another capsule
I believe the technical name for that is a brown pants landing...
Freefall, 5 sec burn at the last moment, soft touchdown.Whoever will ultimately ride aboard that kind of flight profile (obviously not during these tests) is a brave man
Quote from: Jarnis on 05/21/2014 04:33 pmFreefall, 5 sec burn at the last moment, soft touchdown.Whoever will ultimately ride aboard that kind of flight profile (obviously not during these tests) is a brave man Can anyone model the G-Force curve on that? It sounds like a rough ride.
Quote from: simonbp on 05/21/2014 04:38 pmI believe the technical name for that is a brown pants landing...Capsule might be re-usable, but the pants will be another story...
Thanks to TomNTex for finding the FAA Draft Environmental Assessment:http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32202.msg1201687#msg1201687See:http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/media/20140513_DragonFly_DraftEA(Public).pdfhttp://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/environmental/review/permits/
Sounds like they will use the Grasshopper pad unless they decide they will need a dedicated pad, which will be a 40' square pad near the SuperDraco facility. The report describes this as the "DragonRider test area".
"The proposed launch pad would be 40 ft by 40 ft located approximately 0.32 mile north of the Grasshopper launch pad."