SpaceX Is Sending a Red Dragon Spacecraft to Mars in 2018

JF Mezei wrote:
Are current landing rockets variable thrust so that the final
landing on mars will use much less thrust (less gravity) ? Or would
it need totally difrerent landing engines ?

Web search is your friend:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperDraco

describes at least to a degree, the characteristics of the
landing/emergency escape engines on the Dragon2.

rick jones
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firebug n, the idiot who tosses a lit cigarette out his car window
these opinions are mine, all mine; HPE might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hpe.com but NOT BOTH...

On Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 5:21:45 AM UTC+12, JF Mezei wrote:
Question:

Dragon designed to land on earth, with higher gravity, but also much
denser air to slow it down initially.

How different would this need to be to land on Mars ?

Are current landing rockets variable thrust so that the final landing on
mars will use much less thrust (less gravity) ? Or would it need totally
difrerent landing engines ?

Or would landing on mars allow much greater cargo mass when using the
"earth rated" Dragon ?

This is a great primer on Atmospheric entry - starting at 8:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW5ozq4Tqew

Velocity: 24,500 mph - 10.90 km/sec
Altitude 400,000 ft - 122.00 km

Temp.(K) - 374.97
Density (kg/m3) 1.80 x 10^(-8)
Pressure (Pa) 2.17 x 10^(-3)
Mol. Wt. (kg/kmol) 25.9

Mars

Velocity: 5.65 km/sec

Altitude: 80 km
Temp (K) 231.94
Density (kg/m3) 1.17 x 10^(-5)
Pressure (Pa) 5.22 x 10^(-4)
Mol. Wt. (kg/kmol) 44.00

Altitude: 120 km
Temp. (K) 223.06
Density (kg/m3) 3.30 x 10^(-7)
Pressure (Pa) 1.43 x 10^(-5)
Mol. Wt. (kg/kmol) 44.0

Altitude 160 km
Temp. (K) 214.18
Density (kg/m3) 1.00 x 10^(-8)
Pressure (Pa) 3.90 x 10^(-7)
Mol. Wt. (kg/kmol) 44.0

Force = 1/2 * rho * V^2 * Cd * A

The entry altitude on Mars is approximately 135 km above the surface given the speed of entry and the rate at which the atmosphere falls in density with altitude.

If Dragon is to return to Earth it must produce, or conserve enough propellant to impart 1.8 km/sec, if returning from Diemos, or 5.8 km/sec if returning from Mars surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUKT4ulJ0S0

Its interesting how dumbed down the explanations are in the 30 years between 1969 and 1999.

In sci.space.policy message J9KdnfFfPeHtP7_KnZ2dnUU7-XXNnZ2d@earthlink.
com, Thu, 28 Apr 2016 19:53:20, "Greg (Strider) Moore" mooregr@deletet
hisgreenms.com posted:


The concept of cheap space flight.
The concept of an effective electric car.
The concept of colonizing Mars.


I look forward to seeing on YouTube, coming out from the first Red
Dragon to land on Mars, a reduced-size member of the Tesla family of
self-driving cars.

--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Merlyn Web Site - FAQish topics, acronyms, & links.

On 4/30/2016 5:22 PM, Dr J R Stockton wrote:
I look forward to seeing on YouTube, coming out from the first Red
Dragon to land on Mars, a reduced-size member of the Tesla family of
self-driving cars.

And I hope they don't forget the traditional wheel of cheese!
http://mercurypress.photoshelter.com...000YBiuUZ0b5DI

http://www.spacex.com/about/capabilities

Updated specs.

LockMart has Mars plans too:



Lockheed Martin building an orbiting Mars base to send humans to Red Planet by
2028:

"Unveiled at the Human to Mars space conference in Washington DC on Wednesday
18 May, the Mars Base Camp is a space station designed to orbit around the Red
Planet, similar to the International Space Station (ISS), only smaller.

The base camp will include a habitat with crew quarters as well as living and
working space, two Orion crew capsules containing the spacecraft's command and
control centre, as well as a laboratory for six astronauts."

See:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lockheed-ma...y-2028-1560982

On Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 5:08:18 AM UTC+12, wrote:
"SpaceX has been teasing potential Mars plans for a while now, but the
company just announced a launch date--and it's soon. They plan to hit the
surface of Mars by 2018.

Especially intriguing is that the announcement refers to the spacecraft
as the "Red Dragon.""

See:

http://gizmodo.com/spacex-is-sending...-20-1773383681

Yep!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/space...mp-reader-card

asserted that:
LockMart has Mars plans too:



Lockheed Martin building an orbiting Mars base to send humans to Red Planet
by 2028:

"Unveiled at the Human to Mars space conference in Washington DC on Wednesday
18 May, the Mars Base Camp is a space station designed to orbit around the
Red Planet, similar to the International Space Station (ISS), only smaller.

The base camp will include a habitat with crew quarters as well as living and
working space, two Orion crew capsules containing the spacecraft's command
and control centre, as well as a laboratory for six astronauts."

See:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lockheed-ma...y-2028-1560982

As does Bigelow. The _Smithsonian_ magazine currently on the
newsstands includes an article on the Man and the Company, with
artwork. Bigelow is also looking at /landing/ B330 modules on Mars.

/dps

--
Killing a mouse was hardly a Nobel Prize-worthy exercise, and Lawrence
went apopleptic when he learned a lousy rodent had peed away all his
precious heavy water.
_The Disappearing Spoon_, Sam Kean

In article mn.a0507e05631cd288.127094@snitoo,
says...

asserted that:
LockMart has Mars plans too:



Lockheed Martin building an orbiting Mars base to send humans to Red Planet
by 2028:

"Unveiled at the Human to Mars space conference in Washington DC on Wednesday
18 May, the Mars Base Camp is a space station designed to orbit around the
Red Planet, similar to the International Space Station (ISS), only smaller.

The base camp will include a habitat with crew quarters as well as living and
working space, two Orion crew capsules containing the spacecraft's command
and control centre, as well as a laboratory for six astronauts."

See:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lockheed-ma...y-2028-1560982

As does Bigelow. The _Smithsonian_ magazine currently on the
newsstands includes an article on the Man and the Company, with
artwork. Bigelow is also looking at /landing/ B330 modules on Mars.

All of this is more "inspiring" than the asteroid retrieval mission,
where astronauts wouldn't venture beyond cis-lunar space to visit an
asteroid which was previously retrieved by an unmanned probe.

Jeff
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