Red Dragon - Unmanned Spaceflight.com

Red Dragon

Paolo View Member Profile	Aug 7 2011, 09:46 AM Post #1
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004	'Red Dragon' Mission Mulled as Cheap Search for Mars Life any opinion on this? would it really make sense adapting a manned spaceship to unmanned Mars landing? I am skeptical... if replying, please remember forum guideline 1.5

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nprev View Member Profile	Aug 9 2011, 12:48 AM Post #2
Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8790 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602	Jim, one point you have to remember about Red Dragon and SpaceX's general mindset: The objective here is to demonstrate the ability to land, uh, biological things on Mars someday. Their vested interest is to develop this capability. Test flight(s) towards that end would be a waste to do using mass simulators; why not take even somewhat kludged-together instrumentation & do some science? "Kludged-together" might well be an unjust characterization, actually. I don't think that the constraints introduced by preserving the design of the root Dragon system in Red Dragon are insurmountable barriers at all to truly innovative thinking & design. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.

Posts in this topic

Paolo Red Dragon Aug 7 2011, 09:46 AM

AndyG ...and 1.2, and 1.3! I think the best thing w... Aug 7 2011, 11:26 AM

pospa Since payload capacity of Red Dragon to Mars surfa... Aug 7 2011, 12:16 PM

ugordan QUOTE (pospa @ Aug 7 2011, 02:16 PM) Sinc... Aug 7 2011, 03:37 PM

djellison QUOTE (ugordan @ Aug 7 2011, 08:37 AM) A ... Aug 8 2011, 01:24 AM

Jim from NSF.com Full inline quote removed - ADMIN No, the capsul... Aug 8 2011, 02:27 AM

Greg Hullender Treating Dragon strictly as an unmanned vehicle, i... Aug 8 2011, 12:07 AM

ElkGroveDan My recollection from the earliest days of SpaceX h... Aug 8 2011, 12:48 AM

ElkGroveDan The Viking landers and MSL wouldn't fit in it ... Aug 8 2011, 03:20 AM

djellison QUOTE (Jim from NSF.com @ Aug 7 2011, 06... Aug 8 2011, 03:20 AM

Jim from NSF.com QUOTE (djellison @ Aug 7 2011, 11:20 PM) ... Aug 8 2011, 05:37 PM

djellison QUOTE (Jim from NSF.com @ Aug 8 2011, 09... Aug 8 2011, 05:55 PM

Jim from NSF.com QUOTE (djellison @ Aug 8 2011, 01:55 PM) ... Aug 8 2011, 08:16 PM

djellison QUOTE (Jim from NSF.com @ Aug 8 2011, 01... Aug 8 2011, 08:35 PM

Jim from NSF.com QUOTE (djellison @ Aug 8 2011, 04:35 PM) ... Aug 9 2011, 12:12 AM

djellison QUOTE (Jim from NSF.com @ Aug 8 2011, 05... Aug 9 2011, 01:21 AM

Jim from NSF.com QUOTE (djellison @ Aug 8 2011, 08:21 PM) ... Aug 12 2011, 12:41 AM

ZLD Just out of curiosity, are there any obvious appli... Aug 8 2011, 11:44 PM

ugordan QUOTE (ZLD @ Aug 9 2011, 01:44 AM) Also, ... Aug 9 2011, 08:07 AM

nprev If I'm not mistaken, I think that Red Dragon w... Aug 8 2011, 11:51 PM

ZLD QUOTE a couple of intermediate-sized rovers poppin... Aug 9 2011, 12:06 AM

nprev Jim, one point you have to remember about Red Drag... Aug 9 2011, 12:48 AM

ZLD QUOTE Driving rovers out the hatch is ludicrous, t... Aug 9 2011, 01:06 AM

centsworth_II QUOTE (ZLD @ Aug 8 2011, 08:06 PM) ...som... Aug 9 2011, 01:24 AM

nprev Yep; many ways to skin that cat. You could even pu... Aug 9 2011, 01:30 AM

centsworth_II QUOTE (nprev @ Aug 8 2011, 09:30 PM) ...Y... Aug 9 2011, 01:36 AM

ZLD Kind of like the tumbleweed idea thats been floate... Aug 9 2011, 01:49 AM

centsworth_II QUOTE (ZLD @ Aug 8 2011, 08:49 PM) Kind o... Aug 9 2011, 02:30 AM

DDAVIS I would have cameras at least pointing out the win... Aug 9 2011, 04:12 AM

djellison You sound like Mike Wolff. In a good way. Top hat... Aug 9 2011, 05:56 AM

ElkGroveDan Think of the weather station and seismometer you c... Aug 9 2011, 06:00 AM

Astro0 Of course thinking outside the box or in this case... Aug 9 2011, 07:39 AM

Jim from NSF.com QUOTE (Astro0 @ Aug 9 2011, 02:39 AM) OfJ... Aug 12 2011, 12:33 AM

pospa We are talking about Discovery category mission, r... Aug 9 2011, 11:09 AM

algorimancer QUOTE (pospa @ Aug 9 2011, 05:09 AM) ...w... Aug 9 2011, 12:57 PM

Drkskywxlt Although I think this proposed proposal (how's... Aug 9 2011, 12:51 PM

Mongo For a Mars mission, there are two kinds of distanc... Aug 9 2011, 05:01 PM

djellison It's not out of the question that the vehicle ... Aug 9 2011, 05:18 PM

Mongo I had a wild idea, does anybody know if it is tech... Aug 9 2011, 05:37 PM

Mongo From Emily's Planetary Society blog: QUOTE Mo... Mar 16 2012, 01:04 AM

Gsnorgathon Good call, Mongo! Now, do you have some sugges... Mar 16 2012, 06:26 AM

ZLD Drilling through the bottom is a possibility, as i... Aug 9 2011, 05:53 PM

Fran Ontanaya It may be robust enough to survive a winter buried... Aug 9 2011, 07:05 PM

lyford Delurking in this thread just long enough to say H... Aug 9 2011, 11:30 PM

MarsInMyLifetime I'm new to UMSF, but a long-time advocate of r... Aug 10 2011, 06:08 AM

ugordan QUOTE (MarsInMyLifetime @ Aug 10 2011, 08... Aug 10 2011, 08:06 AM

MarsInMyLifetime QUOTE (ugordan @ Aug 10 2011, 02:06 AM) .... Aug 10 2011, 04:08 PM

Fran Ontanaya Maybe it could orbit Mars, mapping with a big gamm... Aug 12 2011, 02:20 AM

ZLD QUOTE (Jim from NSF.com @ Aug 11 2011, 06... Aug 12 2011, 02:43 AM

ElkGroveDan QUOTE (ZLD @ Aug 11 2011, 07:43 PM) Jim, ... Aug 12 2011, 05:56 AM

Greg Hullender I hate to appear to agree with Jim, but I'm ju... Aug 12 2011, 03:33 AM

stevesliva On the other hand, NASA also has a history of desi... Aug 12 2011, 05:45 AM

nprev "A solar-powered rover lasting for over seven... Aug 12 2011, 07:15 AM

djellison Jim has been asked, in private, and publicly, by U... Aug 12 2011, 08:00 AM

SteveM "The idea is like grass, It craves light, lik... Aug 12 2011, 04:48 PM

Drkskywxlt I think people have posted several ideas of how SO... Aug 12 2011, 05:08 PM

Astro0 "...but I don't think any of that science... Aug 13 2011, 06:32 AM

Drkskywxlt QUOTE (Astro0 @ Aug 13 2011, 01:32 AM) Oh... Aug 15 2011, 12:50 PM

Oersted I imagine a snake crawling out of the hatch... ht... Aug 13 2011, 08:00 PM

Syrinx It might be worth simply emailing Elon Musk and as... Aug 18 2011, 08:42 PM

Paolo there is an article on Red Dragon on this week... Nov 9 2011, 07:45 PM

Drkskywxlt Usually teams that are proposing Discovery or NF m... Nov 9 2011, 08:46 PM

djellison QUOTE (Drkskywxlt @ Nov 9 2011, 12:46 PM)... Nov 9 2011, 09:50 PM

vjkane ADMIN - Full inline quote removed. You should know... Nov 9 2011, 10:25 PM

Phil Stooke True! But nobody else is likely to steal this... Nov 9 2011, 09:26 PM

djellison And someone else could also propose a Red Dragon p... Nov 9 2011, 10:36 PM

Drkskywxlt Dragon is a platform, Red Dragon is a specific mis... Nov 10 2011, 11:26 AM

djellison QUOTE (Drkskywxlt @ Nov 10 2011, 03:26 AM... Nov 10 2011, 02:45 PM

nprev Well, let's redirect by all means, then! ... Nov 10 2011, 03:46 PM

vjkane QUOTE (nprev @ Nov 10 2011, 07:46 AM) Any... Nov 10 2011, 03:54 PM

Drkskywxlt I would definitely expect foreign instruments (or ... Nov 10 2011, 03:59 PM

nprev Hmm. All that terrific payload capacity... What d... Nov 10 2011, 04:08 PM

Paolo this presentation of Red Dragon has been posted on... Dec 13 2011, 07:04 PM

Kaputnik It's been interesting to figure out how Red Dr... Sep 16 2012, 03:03 PM

Mongo That's the big question -- whether it would be... Sep 17 2012, 05:17 PM

Kaputnik A 'nearly stock' Dragon would be aiming to... Sep 17 2012, 08:39 PM

Mongo Acording to SpaceX, the dry mass of a Dragon is 3,... Sep 17 2012, 09:30 PM

Kaputnik A 3180kg Dragon does not have, as far as I am awar... Sep 17 2012, 11:29 PM

dtolman A few days ago Space.com posted a speculative arti... Sep 17 2015, 12:45 AM

sittingduck I have a question concerning the CGI used to showc... Sep 18 2015, 09:38 AM

eoincampbell Just beyond Dingo Gap sol 528 Sep 18 2015, 03:33 PM

sittingduck Thanks eoincampbell! By my reckoning that p... Sep 18 2015, 04:22 PM

anticitizen2 I am hearing that Red Dragon is more likely to get... Jan 4 2016, 04:40 AM

stevesliva QUOTE (anticitizen2 @ Jan 4 2016, 12:40 A... Jan 4 2016, 04:49 AM

mcaplinger QUOTE (anticitizen2 @ Jan 3 2016, 08:40 P... Jan 4 2016, 05:17 AM

vjkane QUOTE (anticitizen2 @ Jan 3 2016, 08:40 P... Jan 4 2016, 01:13 PM

Phil Stooke Phil Apr 27 2016, 04:12 PM

Seryddwr We're gonna need more wheels... Serio... Apr 27 2016, 05:11 PM

dtolman The article at Gizmodo has more details than the t... Apr 27 2016, 07:58 PM

Explorer1 Things are starting to heat up! (no pun intend... Apr 27 2016, 10:15 PM

elakdawalla Red Dragon could enable some exciting future robot... Apr 27 2016, 10:53 PM

acastillo I suspect, and would encourage NASA to propose and... Apr 27 2016, 11:10 PM

Stratespace In this techno-oriented mission, I imagine more pa... Apr 27 2016, 11:17 PM

nprev I would expect this initial mission to be almost p... Apr 28 2016, 02:06 AM

dtolman NASA's statement on their partnership with Spa... Apr 28 2016, 03:01 AM

nprev If they're smart--and there's no doubt tha... Apr 28 2016, 03:40 AM

climber When exactly will be 2018 launch window? Apr 28 2016, 05:09 AM

Paolo launch window should be around May +/- one month Apr 28 2016, 05:11 AM

tanjent This is an issue that has arisen recently in Schia... Apr 28 2016, 05:28 AM

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