Space Tech of the Week: Dragon

What is it?: "The SpaceX Dragon is a proposed conventional blunt-cone ballistic capsule spacecraft, capable of carrying seven people or a mixture of personnel and cargo, to and from low Earth orbit. The capsule is being developed by SpaceX. The Dragon capsule will be launched atop a Falcon 9 vehicle."

The Dragon will have both manned and unmanned versions of the vehicle and in its manned version it will be able to carry up to 7 passengers.

"The Dragon capsule is comprised of 3 main elements: the Nosecone, which protects the vessel and the docking adaptor during ascent; the Pressurized Section, which houses the crew and/or pressurized cargo; and the Service Section, which contains avionics, the RCS system, parachutes, and other support infrastructure.

In addition an unpressurized trunk is included, which provides for the stowage of unpressurized cargo and will support Dragon’s solar arrays and thermal radiators."

"To ensure a rapid transition from cargo to crew capability, the cargo and crew configurations of Dragon are almost identical, with the exception of the crew escape system, the life support system and onboard controls that allow the crew to take over control from the flight computer when needed. This focus on commonality minimizes the design effort and simplifies the human rating process, allowing systems critical to Dragon crew safety and ISS safety to be fully tested on uncrewed demonstration flights.

For cargo launches the inside of the capsule is outfitted with a modular cargo rack system designed to accommodate pressurized cargo in standard sizes and form factors. For crewed launches, the interior is outfitted with crew couches, controls with manual override capability and upgraded life-support."

To protect its reentry into Earth's atmosphere it uses a Phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA) heat shield. PICA was developed at NASA Ames Research Center and was the primary heat shield material used for the Stardust space craft.

The vehicle is designed to have lifting re-entry in order to achieve landing precision and low-g's for its crew. It is designed for a water landing and ocean recovery after a slow descent using parachutes.

The Dragon spacecraft project was initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005 and then was submitted as part of SpaceX's proposal for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program on March 3, 2006. COTS purpose is for commercially delivering cargo and crew to the International Space Station. In late December 2008 NASA awarded an ISS cargo delivery contract to SpaceX which calls for a minimum of 20,000 kg of cargo over up to 12 flights to ISS at a cost of $1.6 billion. In the contract there are options to increase the value of the contract to up to $3.1 billion. Included among these options is a crew capable Dragon capsule.







Sources:
Wikipedia
SpaceX

Space Tech of the Week: Falcon 9

What is it?: Rocket developed by Space Exploration Technologies Co (Space X) with the purpose of reducing the cost per kilogram to orbit. It is an Expendable Launch Vehicle and its first launch is scheduled sometime in the next few weeks.

The Falcon 9 is also the intended launch vehicle for the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon will be first used as an unmanned cargo vehicle for the International Space Station but the company hopes to use it (in its heavy launcher format) to eventually transport humans to orbiting space stations like the ISS and the Bigelow Inflatable Space Hotel.

The Falcon 9's first stage will have nine SpaceX Merlin rocket engines (125,000 lbs-f sea level thrust per engine for a total thrust on liftoff of just over 1.1 Million lbs-f) while the second stage will have a single Merlin engine modified for vacuum operation. The second stage tank of Falcon 9 is simply a shorter version of the first stage tank and uses most of the same tooling, material and manufacturing techniques. This results in significant cost savings in vehicle production.

As with the Falcon 1, Falcon 9's launch sequence includes a hold-down feature that allows full engine ignition and systems check before liftoff. If a problem is detected, the vehicle automatically shuts down and offloads the fuel.

The Merlin engine was developed internally at SpaceX. This engine is the highest performance gas generator cycle kerosene engine ever built, exceeding the Boeing Delta II main engine, the Lockheed Atlas II main engine and the Saturn V F-1. This vehicle will be capable of sustaining an engine failure at any point in flight and still successfully completing its mission.

So what are the advantages of this technology?: According to SpaceX, the Falcon 9 will offer the lowest cost per kilogram to orbit, despite providing breakthrough improvements in reliability. SpaceX offers open and fixed pricing that is the same for all customers, including a best price guarantee. Modest discounts are available for contractually committed, multi-launch purchases.

Cost per LEO mission = $36.75M
Cost per TLI mission = $46.75M
Cost per GTO mission:
less than 3500 kg = $36.75M
between 3500-4500 kg = $47.25M
between 4500-5000 kg = $57.75M

The current launching market in the U.S. is dominated by Lockheed Martin and Boeing and therefore there has not been much incentive to find ways to lower their launch costs. With the entrance of SpaceX and their low-cost rockets this could lead to lower costs across the board and makes space based solar power one step closer to reality.

Video of a simulated Falcon 9 launch with a Dragon capsule heading to the International Space Station:


Info sources:
Wikipedia
SpaceX

News: SpaceX's Falcon 9 fully integrated at Cape Canaveral, FL

"Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Falcon 9 is now fully integrated at the Cape! Today we mated the 5.2 m payload fairing to the Falcon 9 first stage (see below). This was the final step in the integration process—one day ahead of schedule.

With Falcon 9 integrated, our focus shifts to the big launch mount and erector. All the pieces have been delivered, and the coming days will see a tremendous amount of welding to join them all together.

The long hours put in by the SpaceX team over the last several weeks, particularly the folks on the ground at the Cape, are certainly paying off. Once the launch mount and erector are complete, we'll transfer Falcon 9 on to the erector and raise it to vertical early in 2009. Happy New Year!"

From: Space X Updates