The Pod Bay

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uhoh

09:40

“The embarrassing backup is that a Crew Dragon would have to go and retrieve the astronauts,” Lembeck said. The spacecraft “could be sent up with two crew members and sent back with four — and that would probably be the way home.”

Why not send it up with zero and back with two? Don't they essentially fly themselves to the ISS regularly?

1 hour later…

uhoh

11:10

Q: Does the Earth's ozone layer play a role in maintaining the temperature of places like the arctic?

BGR's June 19, 2024 New study claims Starlink satellites may be killing the ozone links to Ferreira et al. (2024)'s Geophysical Research Letter Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry in the Era of Mega-Constellations The BGR article says: While I’m not going t...

(discusses Starlinks burning up, distributing aluminum oxide particles which hurts ozone layer; but then goes on to suggest damage to the ozone layer will raise arctic temperatures as well. Hmm...)

3 hours later…

NASA Space Flight

14:01

NASASpaceFlight.com: Rocket Lab ready to launch 50th Electron mission

posted on June 20, 2024 by Sawyer Rosenstein

Rocket Lab is set to launch its 50th Electron rocket June 20 at 2:13 PM… The post Rocket Lab ready to launch 50th Electron mission appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

1 hour later…

fyrepenguin

15:07

@uhoh I think one part is that while it is primarily autonomous it’s still better to have someone trained on the spacecraft in nominal command of it, so you’d send up a pair who have trained in it to pick up the two from the ISS

2 hours later…

Erin Anne

17:01

@fyrepenguin I bet this is the rationale, and there may even be some risk estimates that back it up, but uhoh's also right. Fully autonomous Dragon 2s dock with ISS under the CRS contract pretty frequently now. If I was in charge, an empty autonomous Crew Dragon 2 would be acceptable

I bet there's also some politicking from the astronaut office. "What do you mean you'd leave seats empty on a spaceflight that isn't a test flight?" Something like that.

1 hour later…

fyrepenguin

18:06

@ErinAnne if it’s for an immediate return, I would understand leaving them open. But if they’re gonna stay for longer, might as well bring a couple extra people along

I do agree - it’s fully capable of autonomous operation, just that the “just in case” situation you would want someone who’s more familiar. Do I think you’d need that? Not really, no

user402514

Do you think that it's possible a man will walk on Mars in this decade or the next?

fyrepenguin

I’d reckon that some point in the not-too-distant future we’re going to have a spacecraft crewed by no one capable of flying it manually

And that’ll be just fine

user402514

@XKCD These comics are unbearably pretentious, yuck.

fyrepenguin

@user402514 in this decade, maybe. In the next 16 years, between the American and Chinese lunar programs, I think it’s reasonably likely

2 hours later…

geoffc

20:29

Only 2 IDA docking ports. Currently Dragon Crew on one, CST-100 on second they will have to detach the CST-100 autonomously. Then allow the rescue Dragon to dock. So staying is an interesting question.

It is eating into the Visiting Vehicle schedule, since they were only supposed to be there a few weeks, plus all the delays tied up that docking port and Dragon Cargo V2 uses the IDA's now to dock instead o bethering... And Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser vehicle is also IDA only.

Seems like they need more IDAs!

@ErinAnne I think it is exactly that. Two seats COULD be flown, even if only for a 1 week or day mission and you leave them empty?

@user402514 Some are great. Some are terrible. You live with them.

Before the end of the decade we have 2026, 2028, and not sure when the 2030 Hohmann Transfer window is. So maybe 3 more opportunities to launch to Mars. SpaceX wants to land an all Cargo mission on Mars first, to deliver supplies, test the entry/descent/landing before humans.

But more important they need to deliver the ISRU equipment so that before the humans leave in the next window, there is a fully fueled return vehicle waiting for them. So from SpaceX's perspective (They are most advanced) they need 2 transfer windows to get to humans on Mars at a minimum. So will SpaceX be flying S…

uhoh

21:14

@fyrepenguin I see, one (trained astronaut is better then none, and two is better than one, but three is not really better than two, so two it is! It's got seven seats, right?

geoffc

21:24

@uhoh Nope. NASA only wanted 4 seaters. SpaceX offered 7 seats. Changes they made to satisfy NASA means adding the extra 3 would be tricky. The seats have more 'spring' room landing now.

fyrepenguin

21:59

@geoffc oh whoops I read “the moon” and not “mars”. I retract my earlier statements - this decade hell no, still unlikely by 2040 IMO

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