SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon CRS SpX-1 MISSION GENERAL DISCUSSION

[StephenB]

I see from the recovery pictures of Dragon being hoisted off the boat that it has cables attached to it. I take it these power among other things the freezer inside?

[corrodedNut]

I see from the recovery pictures of Dragon being hoisted off the boat that it has cables attached to it. I take it these power among other things the freezer inside?

AIUI, those are hoses for conditioned air. The powered cargo was removed ASAP after Dragon was recovered.

[Comga]

I see from the recovery pictures of Dragon being hoisted off the boat that it has cables attached to it. I take it these power among other things the freezer inside?

AIUI, those are hoses for conditioned air. The powered cargo was removed ASAP after Dragon was recovered.

When was ASAP?  Was it on the boat at sea?  Was it when it arrived on the dock?  If the latter, they probably would have needed to supply external power to Dragon.

[corrodedNut]

I see from the recovery pictures of Dragon being hoisted off the boat that it has cables attached to it. I take it these power among other things the freezer inside?

AIUI, those are hoses for conditioned air. The powered cargo was removed ASAP after Dragon was recovered.

When was ASAP?  Was it on the boat at sea?  Was it when it arrived on the dock?  If the latter, they probably would have needed to supply external power to Dragon.

At sea. Powered cargo (in this instance, GLACIER) is running on battery power after trunk sep. The sooner it's out the better. Then the hatch is replaced with an acrylic door that has connections for the hoses.

[MP99]

"Ben the space Brit" complains that Dragon looks "reallly beat-up at EOM".

I assume this was the heaviest of the Dragons at re-entry, due to the down-mass it carried - a significant percentage of the empty mass.

ISTM this implies a lower rate of deceleration and a longer re-entry phase, which would increase the ablation?

cheers, Martin

[woods170]

"Ben the space Brit" complains that Dragon looks "reallly beat-up at EOM".

I assume this was the heaviest of the Dragons at re-entry, due to the down-mass it carried - a significant percentage of the empty mass.

ISTM this implies a lower rate of deceleration and a longer re-entry phase, which would increase the ablation?

cheers, Martin

Beat up? A Soyuz at EOM looks beat up. Half of Dragon looks near pristine. The blackening on the other side is not much different from C2+.

[Ben the Space Brit]

For crying out loud! I was only saying that the Dragon's white colour scheme makes the ablation soot look worse!

[BobCarver]

Spaceships only stay white in B-SciFi-movies.

[Robotbeat]

Spaceships only stay white in B-SciFi-movies.

Also, Dragon uses ablative TPS. It's going to be black every single reentry.

[cambrianera]

Spaceships only stay white in B-SciFi-movies.

Also, Dragon uses ablative TPS. It's going to be black every single reentry.

Not necessarily ablative means charring, some ablative protections not using carbon or carbonium based resins could give less charring (SLA-561 or SIRCA for example are silicon based ablators).

Well, perhaps I agree with you that Dragon is going to be black every single reentry: Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator says it all....

[Comga]

But Ben's point was that it looks beat up, not only with the blackening but seeing how easily that layer rubs off in spots during handling.  My point was wondering what it would look like if SpaceX has someone take a Mr Clean Eraser Pad to it. It might return to all white like BobCarver's Grade B SiFi movies.

[Chris Bergin]

I assume the fact the paper is claiming it as "their view" means something (like presidential adorsements), but @NASA tweeted this to their millions of followers, as if it's something fascinating.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-spacex-mission-110212-20121101,0,3042092.story

It's six paras that probably took someone 10 mins to write.

I don't know, maybe I'm missing something here, but it's not even the Wash Post. It's a paper that covers the Space Coast.

NASA acting a bit desperate for any type of mainstream coverage it seems. I find that a bit sad.

[IRobot]

Spaceships only stay white in B-SciFi-movies.

Also, Dragon uses ablative TPS. It's going to be black every single reentry.

Not necessarily ablative means charring, some ablative protections not using carbon or carbonium based resins could give less charring (SLA-561 or SIRCA for example are silicon based ablators).

AFAIK, silicon based ablators have cork, which turns black with heat.

[dcporter]

NASA acting a bit desperate for any type of mainstream coverage it seems. I find that a bit sad.

Maybe the twitter feed is being run by the interns today.

[Antares]

I assume the fact the paper is claiming it as "their view" means something (like presidential adorsements), but @NASA tweeted this to their millions of followers, as if it's something fascinating.

It's six paras that probably took someone 10 mins to write.

NASA acting a bit desperate for any type of mainstream coverage it seems. I find that a bit sad.

My interpretations FWIW.

1) Short op-eds, especially on a local rah-rah topic, aren't unusual.

2) The Orlando Sentinel endorsed Romney, a flip from 2008.  Many papers have done that, and there is horse trading going on within the editorial boards.  This piece is supportive of the President.

3) NASA HQ and many inside the Beltway PAOs are supporters of the President.  It doesn't surprise me that it would be retweeted for that reason.

[BobCarver]

Everybody should understand that it is critical for NASA that a commercial spaceflight industry is healthy. As they have repeated many times, NASA's limited budget requires them to refocus government efforts to BEO and they simply must have a healthy and affordable private industry to back them up in ISS cargo and crew (NASA simply doesn't have the budget anymore to blow on maintaining an expensive alternative while trying to move beyond LEO). It's not surprising that they would re-tweet anything that backs them up in achieving that goal, especially when you consider that the average reader has no idea that's what the goal is. It's an ongoing process of repeating from as many sources as possible that this is the path which has been chosen for NASA by the Executive and Congressional branches of government.

[billh]

It's been over a month, and I was really hoping we'd have heard something by now from the investigation into the engine failure. Not necessarily a final report or even a definitive answer, but at least some indication that they were making good progress by narrowing the search. I hope they are just being tight lipped and that they actually have a pretty good idea by now what happened. Have I missed anything in the last couple of weeks? Has some information been trickling out?

[ugordan]

It's been over a month, and I was really hoping we'd have heard something by now from the investigation into the engine failure.

I was hoping there wouldn't have been any failure in the first place, but that didn't pan out, did it?

The fact this issue (whatever it was) wasn't picked up by extended engine burns on the ground and subsequent inspections suggested from the start that this isn't going to have a quick resolution. I wouldn't be at all surprised if no smoking gun is found in the end and that it ends up being something everyone's scratching their head over.

[guckyfan]

It's been over a month, and I was really hoping we'd have heard something by now from the investigation into the engine failure.

I was hoping there wouldn't have been any failure in the first place, but that didn't pan out, did it?

The fact this issue (whatever it was) wasn't picked up by extended engine burns on the ground and subsequent inspections suggested from the start that this isn't going to have a quick resolution. I wouldn't be at all surprised if no smoking gun is found in the end and that it ends up being something everyone's scratching their head over.

If that would be the case, how would they proceed? Permanent grounding and cancellation of the Falcon program seems not an adequate response to me.

Maybe some additional sensors to pick up more data if it ever happens again?

[woods170]

It's been over a month, and I was really hoping we'd have heard something by now from the investigation into the engine failure. Not necessarily a final report or even a definitive answer, but at least some indication that they were making good progress by narrowing the search. I hope they are just being tight lipped and that they actually have a pretty good idea by now what happened. Have I missed anything in the last couple of weeks? Has some information been trickling out?

You would be well adviced to remember that Falcon 9 is not a NASA rocket. SpaceX is not required to unveil any information about the investigation or any measures taken to correct the problem to the general public. They are a private company. SpaceX does have an obligation to inform NASA. But NASA can not subsequently release the things they learned to the general public. Simply because the information might hold proprietary information.
The fact that no information about the investigation is coming out can not be used by anyone on this forum to conclude that no fault cause has been identified. In fact, the absence of information can not be used to pull any sort of conclusion.