Right Now on NASA TV -- SpaceX 'Dragon' Spacecraft Approached the ISS

SpaceX's 'Dragon' Spacecraft (the first commercial spacecraft to visit the Space Station) is parked outside the ISS, waiting for the robotic arm to grab it


www.nasa.gov...
www.ustream.tv...

Thank you for sharing, this is much more interesting than reading msm articles about it. I wish it wasn't all so slowwwwww though, I like instant gratification! I looked at tickets to space a while back. Gonna have to hurry up and hit the lotto first! starred.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


19 minutes ago.......Dragon has been captured!

Well done.

We need a better solution. They had to grab it with the robotic arm.

At 10:00 E.S.T is connected.

Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
news.yahoo.com...;_ylt=A2KJ3CbpkL9P9CIAnqHQtDMD

Truly a great day for the Future of Mankind.

May we go forth speedily and safely.

Good Work Folks!

reply to post by Eurisko2012


If they don't use the arm during their current manouevers, gravity could cause Dragon and ISS to collide.

Originally posted by Eurisko2012
reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

 

19 minutes ago.......Dragon has been captured!

Well done.

We need a better solution. They had to grab it with the robotic arm.

Yeah -- I'd like to know if they ever plan on having a powered docking of Dragon in the future, or will they always use the robotic arm.

Perhaps for this first flight, they decided that the arm would be more prudent (taking "baby steps"). When I have time I'll do a little more digging around on this, but does anyone familiar with the Dragon know if they ever plan in the future to have powered docking maneuver where the Dragon self-docks?

Europe's ATV spacecraft and Russia's Progress and Soyuz spacecrafts dock to the space station without the use of the arm, as did the Space Shuttle.

Originally posted by abecedarian
reply to post by Eurisko2012

 

If they don't use the arm during their current manouevers, gravity could cause Dragon and ISS to collide.

The robotic arm will work for now but we have to come up with a better solution.

Idea: install a large hanger bay on the ISS?

Originally posted by Eurisko2012

Originally posted by abecedarian
reply to post by Eurisko2012

 

If they don't use the arm during their current manouevers, gravity could cause Dragon and ISS to collide.

The robotic arm will work for now but we have to come up with a better solution.

Idea: install a large hanger bay on the ISS?

A "better solution" may be that it docks like the Shuttle, Russian Progress, Russian Soyuz, and European EVA. Like I said, it can be done, but I don't know if the Dragon can do it. Maybe eventually it will.

Is Jim Oberg here? He may know if future plans for Dragon ever have it self-docking, just like the how the frequently-visiting Soyuz and Progress spacecrafts normally do.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Powered docking for the Dragon presently only works on the secret space station (SISS)

Thanks for sharing the links

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
When I have time I'll do a little more digging around on this, but does anyone familiar with the Dragon know if they ever plan in the future to have powered docking maneuver where the Dragon self-docks?

OK. I did a little more research, and it seems the future version of the Dragon that potentially will carry a human crew to the ISS will be able to able to perform a fully autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuver to the NASA Docking System. The NASA Docking System (NDS) is currently part of the Harmony module of the ISS.

The future plans for the crew-version of the Dragon will be much like what the Soyuz does now. It will be able to ferry humans to the ISS, and also stay attached to the ISS for 180 days at a time, to act as a return vehicle for ISS crew members, or act as an emergency return vehicle (i.e., a "life boat" that can bring the Space station crew back to earth in an emergency situation). The crew-version of the Dragon can hold up to seven people.

Originally posted by anon72
At 10:00 E.S.T is connected.
Truly a great day for the Future of Mankind.

Why?

No offense, I just don't understand your feelings in the slightest? In what way is this a great day? It seems pretty ordinary really. Some dudes with lots of cash paid to do something that takes lots of cash. There was very little innovation, I would have thought. What was invented that didn't exist before? What was done that wasn't done before?

Again, no offense, but what a load of codswallop.

Originally posted by lazernation

Originally posted by anon72
At 10:00 E.S.T is connected.
Truly a great day for the Future of Mankind.

Why?

No offense, I just don't understand your feelings in the slightest? In what way is this a great day? It seems pretty ordinary really. Some dudes with lots of cash paid to do something that takes lots of cash. There was very little innovation, I would have thought. What was invented that didn't exist before? What was done that wasn't done before?

Again, no offense, but what a load of codswallop.

It's about Profitability. It's significant that a private company can find it potentially profitable to design, build, and launch a space vehicle (I mean a true space vehicle -- not just a satellite).

Obviously NASA is the one paying them, and if paid enough money, many companies could have done the same. However, both NASA and SpaceX feel that it is a cost-effective endeavor (for NASA) and a profitable endeavor (for SpaceX) to get private companies involved in the business of providing cargo and crew space vehicles.

You could argue it's been done before -- i.e., private firms built the Apollo space hardware. However, those were private companies working under government-run programs; it was a different sort of program structure. There may have been profitability -- say -- Grumman in building the Apollo Lunar Module, but that was a different type of program because NASA wasn't really looking at long-term cost effectiveness during the Apollo missions.

If SpaceX (and hopefully Orbital Sciences Corporation with their "Cygnus" spacecraft) can show that it is indeed a profitable endeavor for them to supply cargo services and astronaut-ferrying services, that may open the door to all sorts of private companies providing manned space services.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by lazernation

Originally posted by anon72
At 10:00 E.S.T is connected.
Truly a great day for the Future of Mankind.

Why?

No offense, I just don't understand your feelings in the slightest? In what way is this a great day? It seems pretty ordinary really. Some dudes with lots of cash paid to do something that takes lots of cash. There was very little innovation, I would have thought. What was invented that didn't exist before? What was done that wasn't done before?

Again, no offense, but what a load of codswallop.

If SpaceX (and hopefully Orbital Sciences Corporation with their "Cygnus" spacecraft) can show that it is indeed a profitable endeavor for them to supply cargo services and astronaut-ferrying services, that may open the door to all sorts of private companies providing manned space services.
Privatisation

edit on 5/25/2012 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

And that will be tragic for human exploration. Privatisation of our dreams and our future would be a catastrophe. Do you think that humans would change their past behavior and actually exhibit some responsible behavior amongst the stars because profit was involved?

Sorry, I be done being that optimistic. It ain't gonna happen.

The only way that responsible exploration will occur is if we do it together, with profit being irrelevant. .

Originally posted by lazernation

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by lazernation

Originally posted by anon72
At 10:00 E.S.T is connected.
Truly a great day for the Future of Mankind.

Why?

No offense, I just don't understand your feelings in the slightest? In what way is this a great day? It seems pretty ordinary really. Some dudes with lots of cash paid to do something that takes lots of cash. There was very little innovation, I would have thought. What was invented that didn't exist before? What was done that wasn't done before?

Again, no offense, but what a load of codswallop.

If SpaceX (and hopefully Orbital Sciences Corporation with their "Cygnus" spacecraft) can show that it is indeed a profitable endeavor for them to supply cargo services and astronaut-ferrying services, that may open the door to all sorts of private companies providing manned space services.
Privatisation

edit on 5/25/2012 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

And that will be tragic for human exploration. Privatisation of our dreams and our future would be a catastrophe. Do you think that humans would change their past behavior and actually exhibit some responsible behavior amongst the stars because profit was involved?

Sorry, I be done being that optimistic. It ain't gonna happen.

The only way that responsible exploration will occur is if we do it together, with profit being irrelevant. .

Companies profiting from providing space transportation services may have not much to do with the actual exploration -- but maybe just supply some services as a part of that exploration.

For example, it will still take huge government program to have a manned mission to mars. A Mars crew spacecraft will probably need to be built in orbit, similar to the way the Space station was built. However, instead of NASA providing 100% of the overhead and infrastructure required to build the potential future Mars Crew Vehicle, other private companies will provide that overhead and infrastructure, and NASA would only pay for the actual launch and construction services.

in a far lesser, but conceptually similar, example, companies often hire outside firms to do their accounting, or do their HR, or do their janitorial services. It is much more cost-effective to hire a company to do your bookkeeping rather than pay for the overhead, office space, and fringe benefits for their own in-house bookkeepers.

Similar in concept to that, NASA may find it cheaper to hire companies to provide launch services and orbital construction services, rather than paying and training their own in-house staff to do so. This "getting-the-forces-of-business-involved" approach may make a mission like a Manned Mars mission cost-effective enough for the Government to pursue.

There was a time when NASA was the only people in the commercial satellite-launching business. However, since the 1990s, many private firms have begun to provide launch services for commercial satellites, and NASA now only provides a small percentage of those services. Private companies could launch a satellite more cost-effectively than NASA, and this cost-effectiveness has led to a huge boom in other private compnaies being able to afford having their own satellites in space.

A mission briefing will be televised at 1:00 PM eastern time, 17:00 UTC (which is real soon)


www.nasa.gov...
www.ustream.tv...

kind of overwhelm someone got this crazy idea of space travel guess who? mean no disrespect
www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by YodleAjax
kind of overwhelm someone got this crazy idea of space travel guess who? mean no disrespect
www.youtube.com...

These ideas aren't crazy, they are in theory very possible however they are also very far beyond our technical capabilities now, and probably will be for centuries if not millennia. For instance, a ship such as that described in that video could theoretically be powered by a matter/anti-matter reactor -- such a device is the probably the only known means that could provide the kind of power such a ship would require -- however, such a device requires an equal amount of anti-matter fuel as fuel made of matter, and we are talking VAST quantities of the stuff. At present we have only ever been able to synthesize a scant few atoms of anti-matter at any one time and it takes a huge amount of energy to do so, so unless and until we figure out a way to produce huge amounts of anti-matter cheaply, and then figure out how to store it safely (and failure to do so is a prospect so dangerous it boggles the mind), such a journey won't be possible.

Then there's the whole business of containing and utilizing the energy produced by controlled matter/anti-matter reactions, which are far, far more energetic than atomic explosions...again, no easy technical feat and far beyond our means currently.

Originally posted by LifeInDeath

Originally posted by YodleAjax
kind of overwhelm someone got this crazy idea of space travel guess who? mean no disrespect
www.youtube.com...

These ideas aren't crazy, they are in theory very possible however they are also very far beyond our technical capabilities now, and probably will be for centuries if not millennia. For instance, a ship such as that described in that video could theoretically be powered by a matter/anti-matter reactor -- such a device is the probably the only known means that could provide the kind of power such a ship would require -- however, such a device requires an equal amount of anti-matter fuel as fuel made of matter, and we are talking VAST quantities of the stuff. At present we have only ever been able to synthesize a scant few atoms of anti-matter at any one time and it takes a huge amount of energy to do so, so unless and until we figure out a way to produce huge amounts of anti-matter cheaply, and then figure out how to store it safely (and failure to do so is a prospect so dangerous it boggles the mind), such a journey won't be possible.

Then there's the whole business of containing and utilizing the energy produced by controlled matter/anti-matter reactions, which are far, far more energetic than atomic explosions...again, no easy technical feat and far beyond our means currently.

Lets bring on the artificial gravity before we start building matter/antimatter reactors.

reply to post by lazernation

And that will be tragic for human exploration. Privatisation of our dreams and our future would be a catastrophe.

Arent you a little hard to please? Privatised exploration by an "evil" corporation is still orders of magnitude better than no space exploration at all.

And with SpaceX it is not only about profit. I believe Elon Musk does it because he loves it, and wants to push humanity further. Profit is secondary with that man.

Originally posted by Eurisko2012
Lets bring on the artificial gravity before we start building matter/antimatter reactors.

Don't really need to, actually. If you accelerate constantly at the rate of about 1G, you'll get up to relativistic speeds within a couple of years. All you need to do is make sure the decks of the ship are pointed in the right direction so that the ship is constantly accelerating head-first and you have what amounts to 1G of gravity on the ship.

I've played around with these numbers and read a lot about these potential technologies because I've written a screenplay about just such a trip to a distant star. Here's a tool that lets you play with relativistic rocket computations:

www.oocities.org...

You can see for yourself how the numbers work, for instance if you accelerate at the rate of 1 Gravity for two years straight, you get yourself up to almost 97% the speed of light.