12-20-2013, 10:25 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
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Originally Posted by Ironnerd
I don't think "Dragon" will have a tower either. If their system goes to plan, the Dragon will have eight 120,000 lb thrust side-mounted liquid-fueled engines for abort. As an added bonus they can be used for powered descent in the event of a parachute failure, or as the primary means of deceleration with the parachutes available in the event of an engine failure.
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The article is a little odd in that it shows Dragon performing a powered landing on Mars. But it does not show any way to get back off of the planet. Maybe it's just the supply ship... |
That's Red Dragon landing on Mars...
I haven't followed all that very closely, because it's really a lot of "gee whiz" type stuff at this point-- sorta like flying car concepts and ideas in the 50's...
Not sure it's even supposed to be manned-- just filled with instruments. IF they DO have a manned version, pretty sure they planned a separate ascent vehicle for leaving Mars...
Later! OL JR 
PS. Correct, Dragon won't have a tower. Orion nearly didn't... back when Mike Griffin's people were desperately trying to shave every ounce off Orion to make up for Ares I's lousy performance, they looked at a pusher type escape system... even did a test flight of it... it's called "MLAS"... Quest even came out with a model of it...
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