There's just enough atmosphere that you have to deal with it, but not enough atmosphere to slow you down much. Read up on the "Six minutes of terror" at Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The Mission
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
-
On today's TMC Podcast, we ask the question "What is the Tesla Cybercab?". Join us on YouTube live at 1PM and participate in the chat.
There's just enough atmosphere that you have to deal with it, but not enough atmosphere to slow you down much. Read up on the "Six minutes of terror" at Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The Mission
Thanks for the link.
Alas, only a couple seconds into the article, I spotted a serious factual mistake: "[..] Given atmospheric friction, the outside surface of the heat shield will be as hot as the surface of the sun (1,447 degrees Celsius, or 2,637 degrees Fahrenheit), [..]" . Ah, no, the sun's effective surface temperature is about 5778K or about 5500°C (as per wikipedia article). The article further states "[..] In only six minutes, the spacecraft will slow down from 12,000 to 0 miles per hour. [..]". Two paragraphs later it states: "[..] About four minutes later, the spacecraft slows to about 1,000 miles per hour and is only 30,000 feet above the martian surface. [..]" .
So, the atmospheric friction is still strong enough to slow the craft down from 12,000 mph to 1,000 mph . Referring to your statement above "[..] There's just enough atmosphere that you have to deal with it, but not enough atmosphere to slow you down much. [..]", I have to disagree to the statement made. The martian atmosphere can apparently slow down the craft by about 91.67% (as per above article) . I find that plenty
. Also, 30k feet is around 9km above ground. Together with only 38% Earth's gravity, propulsive landing should be pretty straightforward.Edit: The reason why the "airbrake" still works on Mars is, that air resistance is exponentially coupled to the speed of an object within the atmosphere. So, the atmosphere can be very thin.
Best regards
Last edited:
Norbert
TSLA will win
I suppose if the DragonV2 can land with the precision of a helicopter, it could also take off and fly around almost like a helicopter (given even the Falcon9R can do some sort of flying around). Looking forward to videos of test flights...
How about a looping?
Warning: UFO reports imminent.
How about a looping?
Warning: UFO reports imminent.
Vger
Active Member
Cnet editors realized their negativistic zeal and changed the title! :wink:
Astronaut: Musk's capsule a good addition to Soyuz (QA) - CNET
I saw Hadfield speak at TED this year. He has the right stuff, indeed. I think SpaceX would be wise to hire him. One can call him old-school, but there is no substitute for that kind of experience. It is clear he has an open, adaptable mind. I do not think he is being stick-in-the-mud here at all, he is just pointing out they have a ways to go.
gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
Bencredible
Galactic Overlord
I was the one who coordinated the live broadcast of the event (I'm a SpaceX employee who works on the video systems in the company). I have spent a lot of time in Dragon V1 and V2 but this particular event was something special. After said event I was able to get my wife (who also works at SpaceX) and myself inside for a quick photo op. It was a really cool day and I'm excited to see the vehicle launch soon!
As a quick aside, I ordered my S85 a couple months ago (SpaceX employees get the same discount that Tesla employees do! A full 0% off the entire package!) Order just changed to "Your Model S has entered the production queue at our Factory in Fremont, California" and now I feel like I'm refreshing the dashboard every 20 minutes! I know it won't make it get produced any faster, but gah! Worst part, with the latest launch slip there is a chance that the vehicle delivery and launch will happen on the same day (meaning: I'll have to delay my vehicle delivery). GAH!
As a quick aside, I ordered my S85 a couple months ago (SpaceX employees get the same discount that Tesla employees do! A full 0% off the entire package!) Order just changed to "Your Model S has entered the production queue at our Factory in Fremont, California" and now I feel like I'm refreshing the dashboard every 20 minutes! I know it won't make it get produced any faster, but gah! Worst part, with the latest launch slip there is a chance that the vehicle delivery and launch will happen on the same day (meaning: I'll have to delay my vehicle delivery). GAH!
Last edited by a moderator:
Pilot_51
Member
Oh, hey Ben! I was wondering if/when you'd join the Tesla community. Welcome!
You should try pulling some strings to host TMRO from Dragon V2.
You should try pulling some strings to host TMRO from Dragon V2.
Last edited:
chickensevil
Active Member
Seriously, thanks for sharing! one of the best pictures of the inside of the capsule
It is really cool that you are as adamant about getting a Tesla as everyone else is! Just uhhhh, call in sick that day.
- - - Updated - - -
Wait, no... I just realized if you are part of the live broadcast coordination that would possibly prevent us from watching these amazing rockets launch... so I take it back... No sick leave for you!
Bencredible
Galactic Overlord
PILOT! OMG, small world! Yeah, we changed to TMRO from SVC because, frankly, I wanted to. Hosting from inside of Dragon V2 would be complicated. It was hard enough getting audio and video in the capsule the first time. That wasn't a mockup and you'll notice that there were no umbilicals. That. Wasn't. Easy.Oh, hey Ben! I was wondering if/when you'd join the Tesla community. Welcome!
You should try pulling some strings to host TMRO from Dragon V2.
Took me a lot longer to get a Tesla than I had hoped (still waiting on delivery, which was supposed to be next week but just got pushed back). But we have a show to pay for first. Had an influx of cash that finally allowed it, and this was a no-brainer!
- - - Updated - - -
Yeah, that is correct. I'm a department of 1. So if I skip out on a launch, then everyone who wants to watch live won't get to see it....Wait, no... I just realized if you are part of the live broadcast coordination that would possibly prevent us from watching these amazing rockets launch... so I take it back... No sick leave for you!
While I'm super excited for my Model S, I am more excited about getting humanity on to Mars. I think to do that we need to get the planet excited about space and to do THAT... Live broadcasts of Falcon launches help a lot. Being able to see progress helps a great deal.
Also, if anyone is interested and the community doesn't mind the shameless promotion, I have a show about human exploration of the comsos called TMRO. It is live every Saturday at 21:00 UTC / 2:00pm PDT / 5:00pm EDT.
I gotta say, that puts to shame every sci-fi spacecraft interior I've ever seen! Hope it still looks that cool when a fully operational version is built.
Bencredible
Galactic Overlord
Elon has a way of making the final product look even cooler than the pre-released one. I have little fear.
Similar threads
- Article
