SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say

"SpaceX's Dragon cargo vessel smells like a new car, said
astronauts at the International Space Station after opening
the hatches Saturday following the spacecraft's landmark
mission to the orbiting lab.

The California-based SpaceX on Friday became the first
commercial outfit to send its own unmanned cargo capsule
to the ISS, heralding the start of a new era for private
spaceflight after the end of the 30-year US shuttle program.

The Dragon capsule delivered about a half ton of supplies
and science experiments for the ISS, and aims to return a
slightly larger load of gear to Earth on May 31."

See:

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/...say_99 9.html

On May 27, 4:21*pm, wrote:
"SpaceX's Dragon cargo vessel smells like a new car, said
astronauts at the International Space Station after opening
the hatches Saturday following the spacecraft's landmark
mission to the orbiting lab.

The California-based SpaceX on Friday became the first
commercial outfit to send its own unmanned cargo capsule
to the ISS, heralding the start of a new era for private
spaceflight after the end of the 30-year US shuttle program.

The Dragon capsule delivered about a half ton of supplies
and science experiments for the ISS, and aims to return a
slightly larger load of gear to Earth on May 31."

See:

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/...new_car_smell_...

could this capsule be reflown again?

On 5/28/2012 12:52 AM, Fred J. McCall wrote:
The capsule itself is supposed to be reusable. The nosecap and power
trunk are not. This seems a reasonable compromise for a reusable
system. The pressure vessel and most of the expensive avionics bits
are reusable. The unpressurized trunk and the solar arrays are
jettisoned to burn up (because it would be really hard to refold the
solar arrays, this makes sense) and the nosecap that protects the
docking adaptor is jettisoned as well.

Hi Fred,

I was also impressed by the design trade-offs SpaceX has chosen for Dragon.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears all of the propulsion and RCS is contained within the reusable Dragon capsule and the
discarded trunk is used mainly for on-orbit power generation. Are there other expendables contained in the trunk? Like extra O2 or
fuel for the capsule? Or is is about electrical generation? Just how gas-n-go is the Dragon? Anyone seen any specs on Dragon
refurbishment? Can't wait to see if/when they get the mods in for powered decent and landing on a hard surface.

We need a good write-up on Dragon ala Av Week. Has such been written? If so who can provide links?

Dave

PS: I love that line about the 'new car' smell!

David Spain writes:

Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears all of the propulsion and RCS
is contained within the reusable Dragon capsule and the discarded trunk
is used mainly for on-orbit power generation. Are there other
expendables contained in the trunk? Like extra O2 or fuel for the
capsule? Or is is about electrical generation?

AFAIK there're no tanks or any other consumables in there. From photos
it looks like there's only a rather small tunnel for electrical
connections routed around the heatshield up to the capsule from the trunk.

Just how gas-n-go is the Dragon? Anyone seen any specs on Dragon
refurbishment? Can't wait to see if/when they get the mods in for
powered decent and landing on a hard surface.

I'm pretty sure that "gas-n-go" is more of an ideal here. There are 18
OMS/RCS engines with all their plumbing and tanks with hypergolic fuels
and lots of other things. You will definitely want to have a very close
look at these before reusing the capsule. It looks like the RCS modules
are self-contained and easily switched for refurbished or new ones
though. Anyway, Dragon seems to be much easier to work on than the
Shuttle with its confined spaces and cramped compartments. The only
confined space in Dragon is the pressure vessel which basically isn't
much more than an empty vessel. Everything else is on the bottom/outside
and easily accessible from all sides.

We need a good write-up on Dragon ala Av Week. Has such been written?
If so who can provide links?

Don't know of anything concise. nasaspaceflight.com has some interesting
and detailed articels.

One point to keep in mind: Don't expect technical information etc. to be
publically available as it is/were with NASA. SpaceX is a private
company. What you get is PR stuff and press releases and a spiffy photo
or animation now and then, not more.

Even with this ISS mission everything open and live was supplied through
NASA, which was (obviously) deeply involved here. Even the webcast on
the SpaceX site was just re-streaming NASA-TV. If you look for
information about the first short Dragon flight in which NASA was not
involved (but which was historic in itself, the first round-trip of a
private craft into orbit and back!) you won't find much more than a
press release and three photos or so. There's not even a video of Dragon
splashing down.

Elon Musk once said that SpaceX didn't bother with patents much. Patents
can protect your IP (for the price of documenting it for all the world
to see) only when you can enforce IP laws and since the main competitors
seem to be in China and Russia where you can't IP laws anyway SpaceX went
the good old trade secret route instead. Which means that you *don't*
publish technical details and play with your cards close to the chest.

Private spaceflight has lots of advantages; having lots of deeply
technical information publically available for us to study is not one of
them.

Dave

PS: I love that line about the 'new car' smell!

That smell is materials outgassing stuff. You want to have a close look
here also...


Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

On 5/31/2012 9:13 AM, Jochem Huhmann wrote:
All good points. That's why I'd mentioned Av Week and the like.
I realize that tech details won't be forthcoming from SpaceX.

Thanks for the info about nasaspaceflight.com I will take a closer look at their website soon.

Also I agree with you on the patent front. When your competition is international in scope they don't help much. Trade secret is the
better way to go.

That smell is materials outgassing stuff. You want to have a close look
here also...


Well that doesn't concern me as much. As the owner/occupier of 8 new cars over my lifetime I can safely say I'm still here! ;-) I do
remember many years ago a company selling an aerosol spray with the scent of "new car smell". Don't remember them being sued for
selling hazmats.

Dave