SpaceX tests parachutes for manned Dragon
The competition heats up: SpaceX last Friday successfully tested the parachute system for its manned Dragon capsule.
A video of the test can be seen here. They did not use an actual Dragon for the test.
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The competition heats up: SpaceX last Friday successfully tested the parachute system for its manned Dragon capsule.
A video of the test can be seen here. They did not use an actual Dragon for the test.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Here’s NASA trying to do the same thing with Orion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVl6lCr1vCo
:-D
Localfluff: I’m not sure of the accuracy of this footage. It is dated in 2008, which is only a short time after Lockheed Martin got the contract to build Orion. I’ve done a web search and was unable to find anything from 2008 that matched. Can you get more info to confirm this is real?
This was several years before I became a space nerd, so unless my Google is better than yours, I have no sources.
The Universe Today blog, which is super pro-Orion hysterical, posted this in December:
http://www.universetoday.com/17118/nasa-releases-images-and-video-of-orion-failed-parachute-test/#
The Ares I drogue parachute test appeared to perform flawlessly on July 24th, but the July 31st Orion test drop was a different story. Very early on in the parachute test, the “programmer parachute” (the first small parachute to be deployed, righting the descending crew module, setting Orion up for drogue deployment) failed after not inflating in the turbulent wake of the vehicle. This event set in motion complete parachute failure, ultimately forcing a hard-landing (crash) into the Arizona desert.
A bit off-topic, but I found not better to adress the fact that not every idea of Elon Musk is brilliant!
The Hyperloop: BUSTED!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNFesa01llk
Alex: You are right of course. Not every idea coming from Elon Musk is right. Not only is Musk’s concept of a hyperloop train not very practical or affordable, his Tesla car company leaves me very cold.
The solar-panel company Musk is having Tesla buy from his cousin= pure Cronyism is their business-model. Eliminate the subsidies & mandates on solar-panel derived electricity and Solar City just doesn’t work.
The hyperloop was of course just an exercise in vacuum engineering. Never seriously meant. Just like his car and solar power companies. Everything Elon Musk does is about colonizing Mars. None of his businesses make any sense other than as pieces in that puzzle. If it isn’t useful for his Mars mission, he won’t do it. And he fools the stupid politicians to pay for most of it “because it is environmentally friendly”. Elon Musk is seriously going to Mars.
Localfluff: ” Elon Musk is seriously going to Mars.” Maybe, but this will not ensure success automatically. I do not see that Musk undertakes real R&D measures to achieve that what is necessary to survive at Mars over a long period of time. As it seems, his “exercise in vacuum engineering” (Hyperloop) as you call it, is going to fail. What should be learned from that for Mars?
Alex wrote: “I do not see that Musk undertakes real R&D measures to achieve that what is necessary to survive at Mars over a long period of time.”
Musk does not need to put too much effort into this, as there are plenty of other people already working on these studies. We must also consider the possibility that one of the purposes of sending craft to the surface of Mars sooner, rather than later, is to begin taking along the technology being developed (not necessarily Musk-developed) in order to evaluate its performance on Mars.
In September, Musk is expected to present details of SpaceX’s Mars missions, and perhaps this will be one of the topics discussed.