Space  

With newly released images and video, SpaceX invites people to step inside the Crew Dragon, SpaceX’s next-generation spacecraft designed to carry humans to the International Space Station and other destinations.

Elon Musk, introduced his company's new spacecraft for transporting people to the International Space Station and back to Earth last year, the Dragon V2. SpaceX recently showed off the latest pictures of the interior of its Crew Dragon capsule.

Dragon made history in 2012 when it became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the space station, a feat previously achieved only by governments. But Dragon was also designed from the beginning to carry people, and today SpaceX is finalizing the necessary refinements to make that a reality.

Related articles Elon Musk To Show Video of Iron Man-Like Design System  Planetary Resources To Launch First Spacecraft Next Year  NASA and Bigelow Aerospace Look at Private Exploration of the Moon

The capsules has seven carbon fiber and Alcantara cloth seats and touch video control panels. Perhaps more importantly, the capsules have a handful of windows that’ll offer a sweeping view of the stars.

Crew Dragon features an advanced emergency escape system (which was tested earlier this year) to swiftly carry astronauts to safety if something were to go wrong, experiencing about the same G-forces as a ride at Disneyland.

The design of the cabin looks very different from anything NASA or the Soviet space program ever made. Along with Virgin Galactic's spacecraft, we see that style alone is a big benefit of the commercialization of space.

SOURCE  SpaceX

By 33rd Square

Embed

 Elon Musk  

Although Elon Musk may have dashed Stephen Colbert's dreams of a jet-pack, the serial entrepreneur and technology creator had plenty more to excite the host and audience when he appeared on the Colbert Report last night.

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk appeared on The Colbert Report last night, where he discussed some of his recent business and technical triumphs including Solar City and the Hyperloop concept (partial interview above). "At what point do you tip over from visionary to super -villain?" joked host Stephen Colbert. The segment also touched on some of Musk’s concepts for the future, and also on what Colbert himself wants to see in terms of the advancement of technology.

Musk articulated why it’s so important that SpaceX develop re-usable rockets that can take-off, land and then be re-fueled and launch again.  "You could imagine today that if we had aircraft or cars that were single use, they would be too expensive, so no one would use it," explained Musk. They also discussed the problems that have resulted from the mounting tensions between Russia and the U.S., and how Russia’s refusal to continue sending astronauts to the International Space Station could benefit Musk’s space ferry service.

Musk and Colbert enjoy the view of a Dragon rocket test flight.

Musk showed that he thinks the future of earth-based flight might be electric. He talked about how aircraft should have vertical take-off and landing, for instance, which would be more efficient in terms of space.

"If we're all in a ship together and there's some holes in the ship, and we're bailing water out, and we have a great design for a bucket, even if we're bailing out way better than everybody else, we should probably share the bucket design."

When asked about why he opened up all of Tesla's patents, Musk responded.

If we're all in a ship together and there's some holes in the ship, and we're bailing water out, and we have a great design for a bucket, even if we're bailing out way better than everybody else, we should probably share the bucket design.

Musk turned the tables and asked Colbert what he’d like to see in the future. "What are you going to blow my mind with?" asked Colbert.

"Well, what do you wish there was?" responded Musk.

Colbert’s main request, was to get rid of all the cables and create an interface better than a keyboard and mouse. "Ya, we'll do it!" responded Musk.  Recall that Musk has worked on an Iron Man styled interface already, using the Leap Motion Controller.

The full interview is available at Hulu.

Musk (born June 28,1971) is an entrepreneur and a co-founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies. He is chairman/CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and chairman of SolarCity.

More about Musk

Musk was born and grew up in South Africa, the son of a South African engineer and a Canadian-born mother who has worked as a New York City dietitian and modeled for fun. His father inspired his love of technology and Musk bought his first computer at age 10 and taught himself how to program; by the age of 12 he sold his first commercial software, a space game called Blaster.

Related articles Elon Musk Discusses His Numerous Ventures (33rdsquare.com) Elon Musk Ups The Ante In the Race For Commercial Self-Driving Cars (33rdsquare.com) Hyperloop - What Will It Be? (33rdsquare.com)

He emigrated to Canada in June 1989 at age 17. He left Canada in 1992 after getting a scholarship to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed on another year to finish a second bachelor's degree in physics. Musk then considered three areas he wanted to get into that were "important problems," as he said later. "One was the Internet, one was clean energy, and one was space.

In 1995, Musk moved to California to enroll in a graduate program in high energy physics at Stanford, in which he stayed exactly two days before dropping out to start Zip2, which provided online content publishing software for news organizations. In 1999, Compaq's AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options.

In March 2002, Musk co-founded X.com, a financial services and email payments company. One year later, X.com acquired Confinity, originally a company formed to beam money between Palm Pilots, and the combined entity focused on email payments through the PayPal domain, acquired as part of Confinity. In February 2001, X.com changed its legal name to PayPal. In October 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion in stock. Before its sale, Musk, the company's largest shareholder, owned 11.7% of PayPal's shares.

In June 2002, Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of which he is currently the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops rockets and spacecrafts for missions to Earth orbit and beyond. Musk served as chief engineer for Falcon 1, the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit, as well as falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft. In 2008 SpaceX won a NASA contract to replace the cargo transport function of the space shuttle with Falcon 9 and Dragon. NASA decided in 2010 to also entrust the commercial sector with astronaut transport.

In addition to his business activities in entrepreneurial space, Musk is the principal owner and Chairman of the Board of Tesla Motors, which builds a high-end luxury electric vehicle. He is also the primary investor and Chairman of the Board of SolarCity, a photovoltaics products and services startup company. The underlying motivation for funding both companies is to help combat global warming.

By 33rd Square

Embed

 Space  

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, showed off his company's new spacecraft in a live webcast. The Dragon V2 marks a major milestone as SpaceX's first spacecraft capable of bringing humans to the International Space Station then back to Earth.

Yesterday SpaceX's Elon Musk unveiled the company's first manned commercial spacecraft and it looks like the spacecraft of our imagination.

The Dragon V2 is an upgrade from the first commercial spacecraft to bring cargo to the International Space Station. In addition to manned flight, it has a few big aims.

"It can carry seven astronauts for several days. It has an improved heat shield. It’s a big leap forward in technology. It takes things to next level."

First of all, the Dragon V2 is a lot cheaper to operate than what is in use now, and the past Space Shuttle program. The capsule is designed to touch down “anywhere in the world.” Musk says it is not necessary to discard the craft after each use. “If aircraft were thrown out after each flight, no one would be able to fly”.

Using the technology that is currently being tested for the SpaceX Grasshopper rocket system, the Dragon V2 will be able to land "with the accuracy of a helicopter," using retrorocket systems.

Related articles Elon Musk To Reveal Hyperloop Plans Next Month  Planetary Resource's Arkyd Almost Ready For Space Prospecting  Is Warp Drive Possible?

DragonV2 is designed to carry up to seven astronauts to space. Musk calls the ship "a true 21st-century spacecraft."

The Dragon V2 will use Super Draco engines, which will be produced via 3D printing.  Each one produces 16,000 pounds of thrust. The engine is designed with built in redundancy and protective shells for safety.

The design looks like something out of the movie Contact or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Musk says the cockpit designers went for “something very clean, something very simple”. Musk flipped down the control touch screen panels like a car visor.

The DragonV2 flight could achieve its first unmanned flight as soon as late 2015, and its first crewed flight as soon as mid-2016.

SOURCE  SpaceX

By 33rd Square

Embed

 Elon Musk  

SpaceX and Tesla Motor's Elon Musk recently sat down with TED curator Chris Anderson to share details about his visionary projects, which include a mass-marketed electric car, a solar energy leasing company and a fully reusable rocket.

Elon Musk recently sat down with TED curator Chris Anderson to share details about his visionary projects, which include a mass-marketed electric car, a solar energy leasing company and a fully reusable rocket.

Musk is the chief designer for SpaceX, overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and ultimately to other planets.

In 2008, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft won the NASA contract to provide a commercial replacement for the cargo transport function of the space shuttle.

In 2012, SpaceX became the first commercial company to dock with the International Space Station and return cargo to Earth with the Dragon.

At Tesla Motors, Musk has overseen product development and design from the beginning, including the all-electric Tesla Roadster, Model S and Model X, and overseeing the rollout of Supercharger stations to keep the cars juiced up. (Some of the charging stations use solar energy systems from SolarCity, of which Musk is the non-executive chair.)

Transitioning to a sustainable energy economy, in which electric vehicles play a pivotal role, has been one of his central interests for almost two decades.

Along with Peter Thiel, he also co-founded PayPal and served as the company's chair and CEO.


SOURCE  TED

By 33rd Square

Subscribe to 33rd Square

 SpaceX

It has already been two months since SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft completed its historic test flight to the International Space Station. Now the company has released a highlight video for fans and supporters.

On May 25, 2012 SpaceX made history when the Dragon spacecraft became the first privately developed vehicle in history to successfully attach to the International Space Station.

Previously only four governments -- the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency -- had achieved this feat. In celebration of this milestone for commercial space flight,  SpaceX has released an inspiring video featuring key milestones from the mission.

The highlights include:

May 22: Launch Day: SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched the Dragon spacecraft into orbit from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

May 23: Dragon orbited Earth as it traveled toward the International Space Station.

May 24: Dragon's sensors and flight systems were subjected to a series of tests to determine if the vehicle was ready to attach to the space station.

May 25: NASA gave Dragon the GO to attempt berthing with the station. Dragon approached. It was successfully captured by the station's robotic arm.

May 26: US astronaut Don Pettit opened Dragon's hatch and the astronauts entered.

May 31: After six days at the International Space Station, Dragon departed for its return to Earth, carrying a load of cargo for NASA. SpaceX completed its historic mission when Dragon splashed down safely in the Pacific.







SOURCE  SpaceX Channel

By 33rd Square

Subscribe to 33rd Square

Update - Watch Dragon Splash Down Live


 Space

SpaceX's Dragon module has been released from the international space station, and is on its way toward the Pacific Ocean loaded with 1,455 pounds of return cargo.

After making the historic journey as the first commercial spacecraft to visit the International Space Station, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft will return to Earth today.

The return is by no means an easy operation. In fact, today, Dragon is the only spacecraft capable of returning a significant amount of cargo from the space station. The other cargo vehicles serving the space station - from Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency - can carry cargo up but all are destroyed after leaving the station.

While Dragon was attached to the space station, astronauts unloaded 1,146 pounds of cargo including food, other crew provisions and student experiments. They then packed the spacecraft with 1,455 pounds of cargo that will be returned to NASA on Earth including hardware used for experiments, spacewalks and station systems.

Astronauts have closed the hatch on the vehicle, and the module has been released from the station.

Dragon is targeted to land in the Pacific Ocean, a few hundred miles west of Southern California, at approximately 8:44 AM Pacific/11:44 AM Eastern on Thursday, May 31st. The spacecraft returns to Earth like a burning comet, protected from extreme reentry temperatures by its powerful PICA-X heat shield. The landing location is controlled by firing the Draco thrusters during reentry.

In a carefully timed sequence of events, dual drogue parachutes deploy at 45,000 feet to stabilize and slow the spacecraft. Full deployment of the drogues triggers the release of the main parachutes, each 116 feet in diameter, at about 10,000 feet, with the drogues detaching from the spacecraft. Main parachutes further slow the spacecraft's descent to approximately 16 to 18 feet per second.




SOURCE  SpaceX

By 33rd Square

Subscribe to 33rd Square