SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon COTS Demo (C2+) GENERAL DISCUSSION

[manboy]

I disagree because by the time they are posted there will be very few news agencies still covering the story. And I'm just getting kind of annoyed because I bet the crew has already downlinked them and someone just couldn't be bothered to upload them to the web.

It doesn't matter if you disagree, you are in the wrong.
So what?  That doesn't matter about the news agencies.  It is a holiday weekend and for that matter, they don't even need to be posted until after the mission because there is no urgency.

Jim, the public's attention does matter.

[clongton]

I disagree because by the time they are posted there will be very few news agencies still covering the story. And I'm just getting kind of annoyed because I bet the crew has already downlinked them and someone just couldn't be bothered to upload them to the web.

It doesn't matter if you disagree, you are in the wrong.
So what?  That doesn't matter about the news agencies.  It is a holiday weekend and for that matter, they don't even need to be posted until after the mission because there is no urgency.

Jim, the public's attention does matter.

Ideally that's true but practically it's not. There is not enough of the public interested to matter. Don't mistake the interest on this site to being equivalent to public interest; they are vastly different. In most cases public interest doesn't even show up as a blip on radar. You couldn't fill even 1 football stadium with the people on earth who *really* care. We are a pretty exclusive group. Public interest is a flash in the pan. It flares during a particularly exciting event and is then gone again, as if it never existed.

[psloss]

I disagree because by the time they are posted there will be very few news agencies still covering the story. And I'm just getting kind of annoyed because I bet the crew has already downlinked them and someone just couldn't be bothered to upload them to the web.

It doesn't matter if you disagree, you are in the wrong.
So what?  That doesn't matter about the news agencies.  It is a holiday weekend and for that matter, they don't even need to be posted until after the mission because there is no urgency.

Jim, the public's attention does matter.

Ideally that's true but practically it's not. There is not enough of the public interested to matter. Don't mistake the interest on this site to being equivalent to public interest; they are vastly different. In most cases public interest doesn't even show up as a blip on radar. You couldn't fill even 1 football stadium with the people on earth who *really* care. We are a pretty exclusive group. Public interest is a flash in the pan. It flares during a particularly exciting event and is then gone again, as if it never existed.

Kind of like posts on previous pages in threads here.

Thursday will be another prominent mainstream news day with the entry, descent, and landing...it wouldn't be a bad thing for some spectacular imagery to come out after that, as a reminder.

[Jim]

Jim, the public's attention does matter.

Spacex doesn't need the public's attention.  They are a private company.  NASA does PR because of its charter and to sustain itself.

[manboy]

Jim, the public's attention does matter.

Spacex doesn't need the public's attention.  They are a private company.  NASA does PR because of its charter and to sustain itself.

This is really going off-topic. Both private companies and government agencies need the public's attention. SpaceX needs it because without it the public won't become more accepting of the commercial cargo and crew programs. NASA needs it because if people don't see that NASA is accomplishing things then they won't care if the budget gets cut, not to mention that many people don't realize NASA hasn't already been shut down.

I disagree because by the time they are posted there will be very few news agencies still covering the story. And I'm just getting kind of annoyed because I bet the crew has already downlinked them and someone just couldn't be bothered to upload them to the web.

It doesn't matter if you disagree, you are in the wrong.
So what?  That doesn't matter about the news agencies.  It is a holiday weekend and for that matter, they don't even need to be posted until after the mission because there is no urgency.

Jim, the public's attention does matter.

Public interest is a flash in the pan. It flares during a particularly exciting event and is then gone again, as if it never existed.

I agree that public's attention is like a flash in pan but I think they still retain a brief memory of the event like of headlines, blurbs and pretty pictures. And the first two seem to be more remembered when accompanied by the third.

[psloss]

This is really going off-topic. Both private companies and government agencies need the public's attention. SpaceX needs it because without it the public won't become more excepting of the commercial cargo and crew programs. NASA needs it because if people don't see that NASA is accomplishing things then they won't care if the budget gets cut, not to mention that many people don't realize NASA hasn't already been shut down.

Wrong audience.  Not the (American) public, but their elected representatives.  (And they are aware and don't need to see the imagery immediately.)

Getting public attention is overvalued; with a broad brush, the public attention span continues to shrink.  When one gets that attention, they won't have it for long (as clongton already noted).

What people are doing here in the forum, early in the morning on a U.S. holiday, goes way beyond paying attention.  Expecting or demanding that level of devotion is overkill for policy.  People can support/applaud what SpaceX and/or NASA are doing without being as interested as we are in the details on a moment-to-moment basis.

[VatTas]

The problem is not with the packing that was carried out on the ground -- the problem is packing the trash and other downmass back into the vehicle.

Why don't they use vacuum packing for soft items? As I understand, most of the cargo capacity is volume-limited, not weight-limited.
They have plenty of it (vacuum) up there...

[robertross]

The problem is not with the packing that was carried out on the ground -- the problem is packing the trash and other downmass back into the vehicle.

Why don't they use vacuum packing for soft items? As I understand, most of the cargo capacity is volume-limited, not weight-limited.
They have plenty of it (vacuum) up there...

Too dangerous to deal with on a regular basis for that type of activity.

But a good thought, perhaps worth the investment of a vacuum sealer up there.

[MP99]

The problem is not with the packing that was carried out on the ground -- the problem is packing the trash and other downmass back into the vehicle.

Why don't they use vacuum packing for soft items? As I understand, most of the cargo capacity is volume-limited, not weight-limited.
They have plenty of it (vacuum) up there...

To utilise that vacuum they would need to discard the air inside the bag, which would then need to be replaced by shipping more air up.

Doesn't apply if you use a vacuum to remove the air, just like down here.

cheers, Martin

[Toner Soprano]

Will Spacex launch two Orbcomm satellites from the Dragon trunk on this mission? 

[manboy]

Will Spacex launch two Orbcomm satellites from the Dragon trunk on this mission? 

It was bumped from the mission. CRS-1 (the next ISS cargo mission) will carry one of them.

[Lars_J]

Will Spacex launch two Orbcomm satellites from the Dragon trunk on this mission? 

It was bumped from the mission. CRS-1 (the next ISS cargo mission) will carry one of them.

I thought they were going to be launched from the 2nd stage (after Dragon departure), not the trunk.

[FinalFrontier]

Will Spacex launch two Orbcomm satellites from the Dragon trunk on this mission? 

It was bumped from the mission. CRS-1 (the next ISS cargo mission) will carry one of them.

I thought they were going to be launched from the 2nd stage (after Dragon departure), not the trunk.

Same thought they required different orbit (2nd stage restart).

Also, are they even small enough to fit in the trunk?

[ugordan]

Also, are they even large enough to fit in the trunk?

Nope, too small.


(sorry, couldn't help myself.)

[manboy]

Will Spacex launch two Orbcomm satellites from the Dragon trunk on this mission? 

It was bumped from the mission. CRS-1 (the next ISS cargo mission) will carry one of them.

I thought they were going to be launched from the 2nd stage (after Dragon departure), not the trunk.

I believe it is from the 2nd stage but I didn't comment on it because I wasn't sure.

[aero]

No

http://www.spacenews.com/civil/122911-revised-orbcomm-launch-schedule-drops-satellite-from-space-station-bound-spacex-flight.html

[darlyn]

Does the heat shield on the Dragon capsule have a hatch to the cargo pod/trunk? Wouldn't this compromise it's integrity since the aim is for it to be sealed? Or is that proprietary material they're using good enough that this isn't a problem?

Also, I've been searching everywhere and can't find a picture of said hatch or even what the cargo hold looks like inside.

[FinalFrontier]

Does the heat shield on the Dragon capsule have a hatch to the cargo pod/trunk? Wouldn't this compromise it's integrity since the aim is for it to be sealed? Or is that proprietary material they're using good enough that this isn't a problem?

Also, I've been searching everywhere and can't find a picture of said hatch or even what the cargo hold looks like inside.

Welcome to the forum.

The trunk carries external hardware only IE unpressurized. There is no pressurized access to that section, cargo there is removed by the SSRMS and placed outside the station as needed. No internally needed cargo is carried in the trunk section.

There is no hatch in the bottom of dragon.

As an aside, the soviet TKS had a hatch in the bottom where the heat shield was. But IMO it was not a safe design and the soviets never used it for manned missions as originally intended.


All internal hardware, IE stuff you need inside of ISS as opposed to things like solar panels and pump modules, is carried inside the dragon itself (pressurized section). Dragon is accessed by the forward CBM hatch.


cbm hatch as seen on the front of the spacecraft prior to berthing with harmony nadir

[Jason1701]

1. The trunk is only for unpressurized cargo and therefore requires no hatch into the pressure vessel.

2. There are loads of pictures on the update thread of the compartment, and a recent one of the inside of the trunk.

3. Big Gemini was an interesting design that included a hatch in the heat shield.

[darlyn]

cargo there is removed by the SSRMS and placed outside the station as needed. No internally needed cargo is carried in the trunk section.
and the soviets never used it for manned missions as originally intended.

So what is carried in the trunk if it's just going to be placed outside the station? Does that mean that the trunk doesn't have a hatch at all, or is it accessible after it's berthed to the station? And what about the extended trunk design, what's the point if it's only there for support systems that already fit in the regular design?