SpaceX Crewed Dragon Circumlunar Mission

[wannamoonbase]

Or even a lunar base with mining operations....

Now you're just teasing me.

Surface operations, 3D printed radiation shielding, Lunar Oxygen for fuel, metals for 3D printing, development of a closed loop life support system.

There is so much to do on the moon and it's 1 light second away.

But first, baby steps.

Even if this slips 2 years I have no problems.  I've been waiting 20+ years for people to leave earth orbit.

It was 1972... So 45 years for me...

I am aware.  I meant me personally, the length of time I've been obsessed with returning to the moon.

This is most exciting and will be a big indicator, one way or the other, on how capable commercial space is.

Maybe in 10 years Boeing and SpaceX will be taking people to Lunar orbit every quarter before they descend to the lunar surface.

[Space Ghost 1962]

I would love to see NASA grab one of those seats; especially with a flown veteran. That would set a great example for the future private-public partnerships. I know Chris and the gang will be busy the next few hours!

The NASA astros should be pi---d.

Why? They may not be the first ones to visit cislunar space, but the odds that they'll make it to the lunar surface in their professional lifetimes just went up 100x!

Things just got better for them.

Now, for the Orion/SLS guys ... lets see how they rise to the game of upping the ante.

I think its great because its likely the cost of space will drop with these moves, flight frequency will improve, and all my friends in aerospace and west/east ranges/pads will be doing great for another 50 years or more ...

[Ronsmytheiii]

Wonder if this will torpedo Russia's lunar tourism program:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=20311.360

[BGR Kolbeck]

Media show. Won't happen in the timeframe and putting people onboard a spacecraft without a professional crew (i.e. pilots with proper training) is a recipe for disaster. Doesn't matter if Musk wants the Dragon to be 'fully automated', it won't be safe.

Madness.

[turbopumpfeedback2]

Prediction for the flight is end of next year, that is in about 2 years.

With time dilatation factor this gives 6 years, meaning 2023.

Still very exciting!

[cebri]

Question: Is the Falcon Heavy human rated? Would the FAA allow this flight?

This seems key too. If Falcon 9 is approved for human space flight, would it be hard to get FH human rated given they use the exact same hardware?

[CuddlyRocket]

No mention of a crew, only 2 passengers?

People, who are going to spend so much money, are probaly ready to learn to push the abort button in case...

But think of a solvable problem, not nearly Apollo 13 leves of bad, wouldn't they like to have a pro who knows what to do and stay calm?

Such 'pros' are the the flight computers backed up by the people in mission control. Ways of doing things in the Apollo or even Shuttle era are a poor guide to how to do things with modern computer and control technology. (Though, one or both of these crew may be a highly qualified engineer!)

[Herb Schaltegger]

Question: Is the Falcon Heavy human rated? Would the FAA allow this flight?

That's actually an interesting question but worth noting that the applicable FAA regulations make a distinction between spaceflight activity PARTICIPANTS (e.g., the passengers) and the general public.

Participants are allowed to waive the risks of their participation; the general public is the group of people the FAA are charged with protecting.

[vapour_nudge]

I only jokingly predicted moon first in the predictions thread. Probably with even a hint of snark

Then I woke up this morning to read about this. Great news. It's great to see this is actually being put in place, not another paper proposal. Someone PAID a significant deposit. So I'm much more confident it's going to happen

[robert_d]

My prediction for actual launch date: July 16, 2019.

[Pasander]

This can mean only one thing: SPACE SEX!  (And that would be science, wouldn't it??)

Yes, the 400000 km club ...

Heheh yes, but I was actually semi-serious. If they manage to conceive a child right after TLI, how many rounds of cell divisions does the embryo go through before they're back to 1G? Does the baby develop normally?

If these people don't do it, eventually some other people will. I'm sure the results will be of scientific interest.

[Jdeshetler]

"The passengers were “nobody from Hollywood”, Musk said."

Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel?

[raketa]

To misquote Han Solo, "Doing a hypervelocity entry ain't like dusting crops, boy!" Entry heating rate goes like the cube of velocity, so an entry from a lunar free return trajectory (which is all they could do with a single FH) would be about three times as much heat as an orbital entry. There is no way they should do a crewed mission without a test flight which replicates the same entry conditions. (Also, there's the whole thing about navigation to maintain the free return trajectory with mid-course corrections and to hit the allowable entry corridor, use of the lift vector for heat and g-level modulation, and accuracy of the landing targeting.) So, unless they're planning to eat the cost of another FH launch, I would expect them to retarget the upcoming FH demo for a heat shield demo (probably with a used cargo Dragon?)

Years ago I was suggesting test initial  F9H with Dragon  fly it around Moon, to test shield.

[Space Ghost 1962]

Wonder if this will torpedo Russia's lunar tourism program:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=20311.360

Short answer - if they really can do it, they will accelerate and do it.

If they can't, they'll be some noise, and it'll gradually vanish.

These guys have always been able to reach the moon, for more than 40 years. Ask yourself why they don't bring off what clearly they are capable of doing. The answer has always been "not now".

Just like with NASA post Apollo/Saturn. "Not now".

So ... "now"?

[Wicky]

It's a ride inside an aluminum can.... Plus it's likely to be rather odorous as the flight goes on...

Artist's impression of the spacecraft with sponsor's logo...

[HighlandRay]

To celebrate my 70th birthday next year I'm taking my kids and grandkids to Florida to visit the parks and the Kennedy Space Centre. We'll be there in October 2018, now that would be some birthday present if Elon could arrange for the launch to happen within the two weeks that we will be there.

[jsgirald]

"The passengers were “nobody from Hollywood”, Musk said."

Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel?

Seriously, I think few people would benefit more (professionally speaking) from something like this than an actor.

[vapour_nudge]

Perhaps some wealthy Sheikhs from Saudi Arabia or UAE

Time for Chris Bergin to create another predictions thread regarding "who are the two customers?"

[AS-503]

Good points. This video shows how the flight computers control the entry corridor and the lift vector through skipped reentry.

[Craftyatom]

I love the name MoonDragon. His is what we have all been waiting for and more than justifies the funding of commercial flights to ISS. Well done Elon and all at SpaceX

I've always preferred "Silver Dragon" - fits with the convention set by Red Dragon (not that SpaceX has ever made themselves beholden to naming conventions), and sounds somewhat like "Selenic" (synonym for "Lunar").  But it's their spaceship and they can call it what they want.

This can mean only one thing: SPACE SEX!  (And that would be science, wouldn't it??)

If you really want that, it's best to keep to LEO, in order to keep costs down - that is, unless you need a good shot with the Earth in one of the windows.  Point is, if that isn't happening on ho-hum LEO flights right now, it's not gonna happen on the first manned flight to the moon in over 4 decades.

Anyways, regarding test flights, there are really only 4 "new" things about this mission (compared to the manned ISS demo): Dv2 riding on FH, BLEO navigation, van Allen Belts, and Re-entry heat.  SpaceX has already shown good rad tolerance on Dragon, so I don't think that's something to be worried about.  BLEO navigation will be new, but also shouldn't be a major challenge.  Dv2 riding on FH will require testing, but it's testing they were already doing for Red Dragon, and it won't be too different from riding on F9 - if it does cause problems, though, they'll be during ascent, when powered abort is possible.

This leaves re-entry heating.  I know they'll be running all the CFD they can, and watching the demo missions to make sure those heat shields perform as expected, but still...  This is the one issue that seems to me like it really would require an unmanned shakedown.  Everything else is relatively low-risk, or can be tested during demo missions, but for this reason alone, an extra test mission up front might be important.  Plus, it might send a message to NASA about crewed firsts, though the circumstances are quite different.