The second-generation Dragon can carry seven astronauts for several days, and land on solid ground.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Thursday lifted the curtain on his company's latest innovation, the Dragon V2 spaceship.
The second-generation Dragon offers huge advances from its predecessor, Musk said during a live webcast from the SpaceX's design and manufacturing facility in Hawthorne, Calif. While the original Dragon had a "relatively conventional" landing approach — it throws out parachutes to land in the water — the Dragon 2 can land on solid ground.
"You'll be able to land anywhere on Earth with the accuracy of a helicopter," he said.
The Dragon 2 is capable of carrying seven astronauts for several days — a major upgrade from the original Dragon, which had a more basic life support system that couldn't last for very long or carry as many people.
"It's all around a big leap forward in technology," Musk said. "It really takes things to the next level."
Unlike V1, which relied on the International Space Station's robotic arm for docking, V2 can dock autonomously without the use of the arm, a "significant upgrade," Musk said.
The new spacecraft still has parachutes to ensure a safe landing if there are any problems with the engine, or if the propulsion system isn't working and it can't manage a targeted landing. Apart from the added convenience of being able to land on dry ground, the new system allows for "rapid reusability" of the spacecraft — all you have to do it re-load propellant and you can fly again.
"This is extremely important for revolutionizing access to space," he said. "As long as we continue to throw away rockets and spacecraft we will never have true access to space, it'll always be incredibly expensive."
From a propulsion standpoint, the biggest change in Dragon V2 is the addition of so-called "Super Draco" engines, a "super-powered version" of the engine used in V1. The original Draco engine produced 100 pounds of thrust, while the each Super Draco produces 16,000 pounds, "hence the 'super,'" Musk quipped.
The next-generation Dragon also boasts an improved version of SpaceX's PICA Heat Shield, which can protect the spacecraft from thousand-degree temperatures during reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Musk admitted that when SpaceX originally set out to build Dragon version 1, it didn't exactly know how to design a spacecraft. The spaceship famously made a successful trip to the International Space Station back in 2012 before landing safely in the Pacific Ocean.
"It showed us what it took to bring something back from orbit, which is a very difficult thing to do," Musk said of the first Dragon. "Usually when something comes in from orbital blast it blows up in a big fireball."
For more on the Dragon V2, check out the video below.
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/SYOt4J
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