Dragon V2

Dragon V2 (aka Crew Dragon or Dragon 2, and formerly DragonRider) is the second version of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft which will be a human-rated vehicle capable of making a terrestrial soft landing.^[8] It includes a set of four side-mounted thruster pods with two SuperDraco engines each which can serve as a Launch Abort System (LAS) or be used for propulsive landings. In addition, it has much larger windows, landing legs which extend from the bottom of the spacecraft, new computers and avionics, and redesigned solar arrays, all packaged in a spacecraft with a changed outer mold line from the initial cargo Dragon that has been flying for several years.^[9]

The spacecraft was unveiled on May 29, 2014 during a press event at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.^[10][11][12] Designed to ferry astronauts to space, the capsule differs considerably from the cargo-carrying Dragon, which has been operational since 2010. Dragon V2 is scheduled to make its first flight in December 2016 and to carry its first astronaut crew in April 2017.^[13] SpaceX completed a launch pad abort test of the spacecraft on 6 May 2015^[14] and a hovering test on 24 November 2015.^[15]

NASA has signed a contract to procure up to six crew-carrying flights to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Development.

Dragon V2 development history

2012 DragonRider mockup, showing the LES engines mounted on the outside of the capsule, when the design was not yet final.

Manned version of Dragon CRS with powered vertical landing capability

The crewed variant of Dragon was initially called DragonRider.^[16] It was intended from the beginning to support a crew of seven or a combination of crew and cargo.^[17][18] It was planned to be able to perform fully autonomous rendezvous and docking with manual override capability; and was designed to use the NASA Docking System (NDS) to dock to the ISS.^[19][20] For typical missions, DragonRider would remain docked to the ISS for a period of 180 days, but would be designed to be able to do so for 210 days, the same as the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.^[21][22][23] From the earliest design concepts which were publicly released in 2010, SpaceX planned to use an integrated pusher launch escape system for the Dragon spacecraft, claiming several advantages over the tractor detachable tower approach used on most prior crewed spacecraft.^[24][25][26] These advantages include the provision for crew escape all the way to orbit, reusability of the escape system, improved crew safety due to the elimination of a stage separation, and the ability to use the escape engines during the landing phase for a precise solid earth landing of the Dragon capsule.^[27] An emergency parachute system will be retained as a redundant backup for water landings.^[27]

As of 2011, the Paragon Space Development Corporation was assisting in the development of DragonRider's life support system.^[28] In 2012, SpaceX was in talks with Orbital Outfitters regarding the development of a spacesuit that would be worn during launch and re-entry.^[29]

At a NASA news conference on 18 May 2012, SpaceX confirmed again that their target launch price for crewed Dragon flights is $160,000,000, or $20,000,000 per seat if the maximum crew of 7 is aboard, and if NASA orders at least four DragonRider flights per year.^[30] This contrasts with the 2014 Soyuz launch price of $76,000,000 per seat for NASA astronauts.^[31]

In October 2014, NASA selected the Dragon spacecraft as one of the candidates to fly American astronauts to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program. SpaceX plans to use the Falcon 9 launch vehicle for launching Dragon V2.^[32][33]

SpaceX intends to certify their propulsive landing scheme in parallel with the parachute-to-water-landing method for Dragon V2, with the goal to hold to the development schedule and "ensure U.S. crew transportation safely and reliably in 2017. Land landing will become the baseline for the early post-certification missions" while precision water landing under parachutes was proposed to NASA as "the baseline return and recovery approach for the first few flights of Crew Dragon."^[34]

Following the successful test of the launchpad abort system in May 2015, Elon Musk indicated that the Dragon capsule platform, launched on a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, could be used to transport robotic science payloads across much of the solar system, including the Jovian moon Europa, Mars, or Earth's Moon.^[35] Musk indicated that Dragon could transport 2 to 4 tonnes (4,400 to 8,800 lb) of useful payload to the surface of Mars.

Technical characteristics

Dragon V2 includes the following features:^[10][11]

• Reuses: partially reusable; capable of being flown multiple times, resulting in a significant reduction in the cost of access to space. SpaceX anticipates on the order of ten flights are possible before significant refurbishment of the space vehicle would be required.
• Capacity: seven astronauts
• Landing: supports both propulsive-landing "almost anywhere in the world" with the accuracy of a helicopter with four extendable landing legs, plus a backup parachute-enabled landing capability.
• Engines: eight side-mounted SuperDraco engines, clustered in redundant pairs in four engine pods, with each engine able to produce 71 kilonewtons (16,000 lbf) of thrust^[10] Each pod—called a "quad" by SpaceX—contains two SuperDraco engines plus four Draco thrusters. "Nominally, only two quads are used for on-orbit propellant with the Dracos and two quads are reserved for propulsive landing using the SuperDracos."^[34]
• the first fully printed engine, the SuperDraco. Engine combustion chamber is printed of Inconel, an alloy of nickel and iron, using a process of direct metal laser sintering. Engines are contained in a protective nacelle to prevent fault propagation in the event of an engine failure.
• Docking: capable of autonomous docking to space stations. Dragon V1 utilized berthing, a non-autonomous method of attachment to the ISS that was completed by use of the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Pilot capability to park the spacecraft using manual controls if necessary
• Reservoirs: composite-carbon-overwrap titanium spherical tanks for holding the helium used for engine pressurization and also for the SuperDraco fuel and oxidizer
• Shield: updated third-generation PICA-X heat shield
• Controls: tablet-like computer that swivels down for optional crew control by the pilot and co-pilot
• Interior design: tan leather seats
• the spacecraft is capable of being operated in a complete vacuum, and "the crew will wear SpaceX-designed spacesuits to protect them from a rapid cabin depressurization emergency event". However, the spacecraft will also be capable of safe return "in the event of a leak of up to an equivalent orifice of 0.25 inches in diameter."^[34]
• a movable ballast sled to allow more precise attitude control of the spacecraft during the atmospheric entry phase of the return to Earth and more accurate control of the landing location.^[34]
• a reusable nose cone—the second structural element of the spacecraft, "which protects the vessel and the docking adaptor during ascent and reentry"^[34]—which pivots on a hinge to enable in-space docking, and returns to the covered position for reentry and future launches^[12]
• a trunk—the third structural element of the spacecraft—which contains the solar arrays, heat-removal radiators, and will provide aerodynamic stability during emergency aborts.^[34]

The landing system is being designed to accommodate three types of landing scenarios:

• propulsive landing
• parachute landing, similar to previous American manned space capsules
• parachute landing with propulsive assist, similar to that used by the Soyuz (spacecraft)

"The whole landing system is designed so that it’s survivable if there’s no propulsive assist at all. So if you come down chutes only with the landing legs, we anticipate no crew injury. It’ll be kind of like landing in the Soyuz."^[36]

The parachute system was totally redesigned from the one used in the Dragon V1 capsule, due to the requirement to deploy the parachutes under a variety of launch abort scenarios.^[36]

Planned space transport missions

Dragon has been designed to fulfill a set of mission requirements that will make the capsule useful to both commercial and governmental customers. SpaceX and Bigelow Aerospace are working together to support round-trip carrying of commercial passengers to low Earth orbit (LEO) destinations such as the planned Bigelow Commercial Space Station. In that use, the full passenger-carrying capacity of seven passengers is planned to be used.

SpaceX competed for a contract with NASA to deliver some number of specific crew-transport missions to the ISS under the third phase of the Commercial Crew Development program.^[10]

In an August 2014 presentation, SpaceX revealed that if NASA chooses to use the Dragon V2 space capsule under a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, then only four of the seven possible seats would be used for carrying NASA-designated passengers to the ISS, as NASA would like to utilize the additional payload mass and volume capability to carry pressurized cargo. In addition, all NASA landings of Dragon V2 are planned to initially use the propulsive deceleration capability of the Super Draco engines only for a propulsive assist right before final touchdown, and would otherwise use parachutes "all the way down."^[36]

On September 16, 2014, NASA announced that SpaceX, together with Boeing, has been selected to provide crew transportation capability to ISS. SpaceX will receive $2.6 billion under this contract.^[37] NASA considers Dragon to be the cheapest proposal.^[33]

In a departure from previous NASA practices during the first five decades of the space age—where NASA contracted to commercial companies to build spaceflight equipment and then NASA operated the spacecraft directly—NASA is purchasing space transport services from SpaceX with the Dragon V2 contract, and will leave the launch, transit, and operation of the spacecraft to SpaceX.^[38]

According to Elon Musk in a question and answer session at the May 29, 2014 unveiling of the Dragon V2, Dragon V1 will be used in tandem with Dragon V2 as a cargo ferry for coming years.

Following the Dragon V2 pad abort test in early May 2015, Musk revealed plans to use variant of the Dragon 2 spacecraft—in conjunction with the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle—to transport science cargos across much of the solar system, in cislunar and inner solar system regions such as Mars but also to outer solar system destinations such as Jupiter's moon Europa. Details include that SpaceX expects to be able to transport 2,000–4,000 kg (4,400–8,800 lb) to the surface of Mars, including a soft retropropulsive landing using SuperDraco thrusters following a limited atmospheric deceleration. For destinations with no atmosphere, the Dragon variant would dispense with the parachute and heat shield and add additional propellant.^[39]

Flight testing

SpaceX is planning a program of four tests for the Dragon V2 that will include both a "pad abort" test, and an in-flight abort test, plus both an uncrewed robotic orbital flight to the ISS, and finally a 14-day crewed demonstration mission to the ISS in 2017.

SpaceX Dragon V2 Pad Abort Vehicle, assembled and stacked on the Dragon trunk in a test chamber, January 2015.

An infographic of the SpaceX Dragon 2 Pad Abort Test for the May 2015 test, produced by SpaceX

Pad abort test

In August 2014, it was announced that the pad abort test would take place in Florida, at SpaceX's leased pad at SLC 40. While a flight-like Dragon V2 and trunk were used for the pad abort test, they rested atop a truss structure for the test rather than a full Falcon 9 rocket. A crash test dummy embedded with a suite of sensors was placed inside the test vehicle to record acceleration loads and forces at the crew seat, while the remaining six seats were loaded with weights to simulate full-passenger-load weight.^[36][38][40] The test objective was to demonstrate sufficient total impulse, thrust and controllability to conduct a safe pad abort.

The pad abort test was conducted successfully on 6 May 2015 at approximately 0900 EDT. The vehicle splashed down safely in the ocean to the east of the launchpad 99 seconds later.^[14] A fuel mixture ratio issue was detected after the flight in one of the eight SuperDraco engines, but did not materially affect the flight.^[41] More detailed test results were to be subsequently analyzed by both SpaceX and NASA engineers.^[42]

Crew Dragon Pad Abort Test Launch

Hovering test

On November 24, 2015, SpaceX conducted a test of Dragon 2's hovering capabilities at the company’s rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. In a video published by the company,^[15] the spacecraft is shown suspended to a hoisting cable and igniting its SuperDraco engines. The capsule hovers in equilibrium for about 5 seconds, kept in balance by its 8 engines firing at reduced thrust to compensate exactly for gravity.

This video shows the second test of the two-part milestone under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The first test—a short firing of the engines intended to verify a healthy propulsion system—was completed two days earlier on November 22.

Uncrewed orbital test

As of February 2016, SpaceX intends to complete an orbital test flight of the Dragon V2, with no crew on board, in 2017 ^[43]

In-flight abort test

An in-flight abort test is, as of February 2016, planned to occur from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A in Florida in 2016 prior to the first uncrewed orbital test flight.^[43][44] The flight is designated "SpX-DM1."^[38] The test had previously been planned to take place from SpaceX's California leased launch pad: Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 4E but plans have remained flexible as to whether it will happen before or after the first orbital test flight.^[45]

The test will utilize a Falcon 9 launch vehicle to ascend and accelerate the capsule into the troposphere where the abort will occur in the transonic velocity region at the point of maximum drag.^[46] The test objective is to demonstrate the ability to safely get away from the ascending rocket under the most difficult atmospheric conditions of the flight trajectory.^[36][47] SpaceX brought the three-engine Falcon 9 that will be used for the in-flight abort test to the launch pad at Vandenberg for the first time in April 2015 in order to conduct a tanking test. It was erected on the revised and rebuilt transporter erector (TE) and fully loaded with propellants to test both the vehicle and ground support equipment on 9 April 2015.^[46]

Crewed orbital flight tests

Following the in-flight abort test,^[44] SpaceX plans to launch a crewed orbital test flight (designated "SpX-DM2") tentatively manifested for April 2017.^[13][38]

See also

• Comparison of manned space vehicles
• Comparison of space station cargo vehicles
• Automated Transfer Vehicle – a single-use, expendable cargo vehicle that was in use by the ESA from 2008 until retirement in February 2015
• Blue Origin orbital spacecraft – an American private biconic nose cone design vehicle.
• Crew Exploration Vehicle
• CST-100, a capsule crew-carrying spacecraft being developed by Boeing
• Dream Chaser, a spaceplane being developed in the early 2010s by Sierra Nevada Corporation
• Orion (spacecraft), a spacecraft being built for NASA by Lockheed Martin
• Private spaceflight
• Federation (spacecraft) - a new-generation, reusable capsule, manned spacecraft proposal in Russia in the late 2000s

References

External links

• Media related to Dragon V2 at Wikimedia Commons