JF Mezei wrote on Wed, 29 Aug 2018
16:58:39 -0400:

On 2018-08-29 13:27, Fred J. McCall wrote:
SpaceX will only use brand new Dragon V2 craft for NASA crew missions.

How much work is needed to refurb a Dragon V1,0 for reflight? Do they
have to get it back to bare shell and re-insall all components? Or just
pass it through a car wash to remove salt water on the outside and refly it?


Closer to the latter. Given Dragon V1 experience, it will probably
take several months to clean up and test.


For crewed version, after splash down in salt water, will NASA insist on
extracting crews from a floating capsule, or will they lift capsule onto
deck of ship and then open hatch? (aka: salt water ingress).


I think the plan is to pick up capsule, crew, and all and open it up
on deck, but I don't find anything definitive.


Another big variable is ship's "best before" date. A Dragon that has
spent 6 months docked to ISS may require full tear down because many
components are past their "best before" dates.


And monkeys may fly out my butt. They'll need to replenish
consumables plus do cleanup from salt water immersion. There is very
little that rots after 6 months.


It becomes simpler to refit the bare shell as cargo with fewer comonents
that require less testing to recertifty for flight.


That's not how it works. There is a lot of commonality between crewed
and cargo versions.


Also need to look at flight rate. With demand split between 2 suppliers,
SpaceX may have plenty of time to build a new crewed Dragon for each
flight, and if it needs more cargo flights, it makes sense to recycle
the crewed capsule into cargo.


Since their plan is to use a new Crew Dragon for each flight they'd
BETTER have time to get a new one ready.


--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
territory."
--G. Behn