With the Flacon Heavy maiden flight likely to occur within the next two weeks & Dragon V2 set to perform an unmanned test flight to the ISS later this year (likely in November or December) almost all the pieces for the SpaceX lunar tourism mission are starting to come together.
...All I know is it’s likely not going to occur untill 2019 or 2020 because Dragon V2 has been delayed by commercial crew again & from what I’ve read NASA wants at least 7 successful flights of Falcon 9 before they can consider launching crew on Dragon V2 atop a Falcon 9 which could cause further Dragon V2 delays.
Nothing is trivial in space flight. I would expect SpaceX to do a full trial run including sling shot past moon, testing communications, testing ECLSS, test radiation levels inside capsule and landing before sending any people on this trip.
Quote from: Roy_H on 01/29/2018 06:02 amNothing is trivial in space flight. I would expect SpaceX to do a full trial run including sling shot past moon, testing communications, testing ECLSS, test radiation levels inside capsule and landing before sending any people on this trip.Once I assumed that miden flight of FH would be used for this purpose. No, midnight cherry, instead.
I think SpaceX will be confident after they fly crew to ISS. From the reports from Commercial Crew, it looks like NASA is taking a heavy hand to Dragon 2. I expect everything will have been throughly reviewed.
The Commercial Crew program isn't certifying the Dragon for that mission duration
So what mission duration is commercial crew certifying for and for how many people?
Crew size appears to be four; although there was mention that Crew Dragon could hypothetically seat seven early on I haven't seen mention of that lately.
Quote from: Negan on 01/29/2018 05:54 pmSo what mission duration is commercial crew certifying for and for how many people?Duration is long (200+ days) but most of that is docked to the station, and all of it is in the (relatively) benign environment of LEO (benign as far as radiation is concerned). Don't know what the expected max duration crewed is but I'd guess maybe four or five days?Crew size appears to be four; although there was mention that Crew Dragon could hypothetically seat seven early on I haven't seen mention of that lately.
We know that SpaceX will host VIPs in the Exploration Tower for the FH launch. I would assume that the moon tourists will be present for the first launch of their ride. Is there a public list of the guests?If for instance Harald McPike and/or Anousheh Ansari are present, what other reason could there be?
How much better and easier could BFR do this mission? A crew version of BFS could have 100 tourists making the trip in comfort, with presumably much better viewing. Even if the BFR launch cost ends up being $50m, SpaceX could charge a nice $1m per person and still make a 100% markup on the flight. Compared to $50m per person or whatever the 2 Dragon passangers are being charged.Plus BFS could have a toilet on board, which is priceless..I guess what I'm saying is if BFR is to be ready around 2024, then it might be worthwhile to just wait for it and do this mission in style.
Quote from: M.E.T. on 02/04/2018 05:39 pmHow much better and easier could BFR do this mission? A crew version of BFS could have 100 tourists making the trip in comfort, with presumably much better viewing. Even if the BFR launch cost ends up being $50m, SpaceX could charge a nice $1m per person and still make a 100% markup on the flight. Compared to $50m per person or whatever the 2 Dragon passangers are being charged.Plus BFS could have a toilet on board, which is priceless..I guess what I'm saying is if BFR is to be ready around 2024, then it might be worthwhile to just wait for it and do this mission in style.Doing the trip in style later doesn't have the same doing it first bragging rights for the people with too much money.