Probably the man with the most pioneering of ideas, Elon Musk, CEO & CTO of Space X unveiled the Dragon 2.0. that would prove to be the worlds first ever manned, reusable and commercial spacecraft. Following the successful touchdown of the Dragon, a few weeks back, he said that the Dragon V2 would look like a “real alien spaceship”.
The Dragon Version Two as the man himself calls it, has a horde of new features, majorly three- soft vertical landing, autonomous docking and crew capacity. Also the upgraded, seven seater version of the previously uncrewed Dragon will have larger windows for astronauts to look outside, “landing legs that pop out of the bottom”, and “side mounted thruster pods”.
While Dragon 1 had the traditional parachute descend with an ocean landing the 2.0. can have a propulsive vertical landing anywhere on earth with the “accuracy of a helicopter”. As Musk states early in the announcement, we can never move forward in space discoveries with each launch meaning the dissipation of expensive equipment.
The vertical landing of the spacecraft will also imply lesser waste generating because of atmospheric burning of parts and the reduction in time between two launches. As Musk says, “imagine if aircraft were thrown away after each flight. No one could afford to fly.” He also claims that the Dragon 2.0. can be refueled and launched the same day. And in case of emergency the amazing space tech can land with two engines gone and has the parachute as the last resort.
The Dragon 2.0. boasts of a massive upgrade in the engine area. It might just be the first ever spacecraft to have 100% printed engines. While its predecessor was launched with an array of Draco engines the new version will feature Super-Draco engines, printed of a high strength metal, each of which can provide 16,000 pounds of thrust force. SpaceX also posted a video of the thrusters firing up:
Musk moved on to show the interior of the spacecraft and it was nothing less than pure awesomeness. The gull door opened up to show a seven seater with touchscreen pads in place of instrument panels. Even if the Dragon 2.0. has a plethora of features that it can proudly boast about the most paramount of all will be that this venture would open up space flight to a new economic bracket.
Here’s the complete video of the event: