Posted on 09/17/2015 1:34:59 PM PDT by Elderberry
Budget plan would send a SpaceX capsule in 2020 to get samples.
Would pick up samples left by Nasa's 2020 Rover.
Comes as Amazon's Jeff Bezos unveiled 'megarocket' to take on SpaceX
It could bring samples from Mars to Earth for the first time.
Nasa employees have revealed details of a 'budget' plan to send a SpaceX capsule to the red planet in 2020 to return samples.
Elon Musk has backed the idea - and even tweeted images of what the mission would look like.
A Dragon on Mars: The mission would grab samples collected by Nasa's 2020 rover and return them to Earth.
A Dragon on Mars: The mission would grab samples collected by Nasa's 2020 rover and return them to Earth.
A SOFT LANDING
The Dragon 2 capsule is designed to land on any surface in the solar system, SpaceX says.
It uses jets to land itself, the same system SpaceX is developing for its booster rockets.
Once the rockets bring the craft close to Earth, four extendable legs allow it to land.
The 'Red Dragon' project was developed by a team at Nasa.
It would grab samples collected by the space agency's 202 rover and return them to Earth.
The sample-return effort would keep costs and complexity down by using SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket and a modified version of the company's robotic Dragon cargo capsule, the concept's developers say.
Red Dragon is 'technically feasible with the use of these emerging commercial technologies, coupled with technologies that already exist,' Andy Gonzales, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, said during a presentation with the space agency's Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group.
The Red Dragon team has developed the concept independently, without any involvement or endorsement by SpaceX, Gonzales said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Who is going to be the sample?
Interesting
How much taxpayer money is NASA giving Musk?
A good way to release a virus on Earth when it returns, unless precautions are taken.
Can’t we just send Matt Damon?
Thanks Elderberry, extra to APoD.
I love the detail it gives when it says “and return them to Earth”!
hyperbole much: “The Dragon 2 capsule is designed to land on any surface in the solar system, SpaceX says.”
Bet it couldn’t land on the sun’s surface...nanner, nanner, nanner!
Or jupiter, saturn, uranus (they’d love that), or neptune...
geez
Why haven’t we built a magnetic rail launcher yet? Oh yeah, we’re too busy kissing allah’s butt.
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