SpaceX Red Dragon: 2020 Dragon 2 mission to Mars (updates)

[Dr Mordrid]

It's OFFICIAL!!

Precursor missions before BFS missions in the mid-2020's. Very likely will include piggy-backed NASA payloads.

SpaceX ‏@SpaceX
Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018. Red Dragons will inform overall Mars architecture, details to come.

[Dr Mordrid]

NASA is likely to provide a hosted payload(s) and support from the centers since JPL and NASA Ames have been working on Red Dragon concepts since 2012.

An experiment laden Dragon 2 will be about 2.5x heavier than Mars Science Laboratory at launch, and 10-12x the landed mass of Curiosity. About 3/4 of Falcon Heavy FT's expendable capacity to Mars.

[Dr Mordrid]

NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman,

Among the many exciting things we’re doing with American businesses, we’re particularly excited about an upcoming SpaceX project that would build upon a current “no-exchange-of-funds” agreement we have with the company. In exchange for Martian entry, descent, and landing data from SpaceX, NASA will offer technical support for the firm’s plan to attempt to land an uncrewed Dragon 2 spacecraft on Mars.

As the saying goes, “spaceflight is hard.” Sending astronauts to Mars, which will be one of the greatest feats of human innovation in the history of civilization, carries with it many, many puzzles to piece together. That’s why we at NASA have made it a priority to reach out to partners in boardrooms, classrooms, laboratories, space agencies and even garages across our country and around the world.

[Dr Mordrid]

Sept. 9, 2015 Gonzales-Lemke (NASA Ames) Red Dragon sample return proposal, timed for after the arrival of the 2020 Rover.

Presentation: PDF....

Phone conference: MP3....

[Dr Mordrid]

Full plate + time to develop some payloads. One rumor is the atmospheric extraction of water. Mars atmosphere does have water, and a NASA experiment showed significant amounts of water can be extracted using a zeolite reactor.

Jeff Foust @jeff_foust
Wooster on slip of Red Dragon from 2018 to 2020: have a lot of things on our plate at SpaceX; nothing specific to this mission. #LPSC2017
6:39 PM - 18 Mar 2017

Jeff Foust @jeff_foust
Paul Wooster, SpaceX, on Mars landing site selection: looking at sites at latitudes < 40Ëš, elevation as low as possible. #LPSC2017
6:35 PM - 18 Mar 2017

Jeff Foust @jeff_foust
Wooster: identified several candidate sites, but many likely too rocky. Arcadia region looks promising. #LPSC2017
6:36 PM - 18 Mar 2017

Arcadia Planitia is top left