Launching a Dragonfly

[Ghostrider]

Although it's speculation, I cannot fathom the logic of flying the Dragonfly to orbit manned. I see it as purely a construction device, it has limited life support and autonomy and it probably has no seats (you don't need them in freefall) or toilets or anything fancy. You just get in, start it up, close the hatch and go out for some hours until you've done your day's job, then you dock, take a shower and that's it. Sending it up manned would be madness.
I seem to remember that it can be launched on an Ariane V but I could be mistaken. Anyway, taking it up on a XR5 seems to be the most logical way even if the Dragonfly is at least a generation before the Vanguard.

 

[Sky Captain]

And most importantly, if anything goes wrong with the Saturn, they have no way to save their lives (no parachute, no escape tower, no thermal shielding)

Well, in Orbiter rockets never explode or fail in some other way And if they die you can always think of it as a sacrifice to The Almighty

:hail:

 

[Ghostrider]

Well, in Orbiter rockets never explode or fail in some other way

Oh yes they do. In Project Mercury and Project R-7 they can fail, and then you're in trouble.

 

[N_Molson]

I love the project R7 for that. But you have a 100% reliable escape tower that works perfectly though. The cosmonauts just take 22G during less than a second.

EDIT : it really happened, and the crew was ok !

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/soyzt101.htm

 

[Andy44]

Of course you wouldn't launch it manned, but the mesh has two dudes inside the cockpit windows who won't go away when you load it on a rocket, so you have to make believe they're not there.

 

[Fixerger]

Although it's speculation, I cannot fathom the logic of flying the Dragonfly to orbit manned. I see it as purely a construction device, it has limited life support and autonomy and it probably has no seats (you don't need them in freefall) or toilets or anything fancy. You just get in, start it up, close the hatch and go out for some hours until you've done your day's job, then you dock, take a shower and that's it. Sending it up manned would be madness.

IMHO, I will choose Jupiter 120+Dragonfly+Orion. Orion performs all altitude and rendezvous management. It takes dragonfly to its destination then they all docking with target modules. Dragon performs all the work... then crew leaves it with station and comes back to Earth on Orion capsule. That's my first vision that comes to mind.

 

[Sky Captain]

Oh yes they do. In Project Mercury and Project R-7 they can fail, and then you're in trouble.

I will have to try those out.

 

[doggie015]

...
Just got rid of the 3rd stage, it was dead weight ! :lol: But the Saturn V was necessary to put the huge 33 feet fairing (I considered it weighted 15 tons). The 21-feet used for Apollo was too small, because the Dragonfly is "cube-shaped" !! :rofl:

In the real world; the dragonfly would have been launched upside-down with a launch module docked during launch so the crew are not flung into the forward window! :rofl:

But, Orbiter most likely won't allow that....
unless you define it as a payload... :hmm:

 

[Sky Captain]

In the real world; the dragonfly would have been launched upside-down with a launch module docked during launch so the crew are not flung into the forward window! :rofl:

But, Orbiter most likely won't allow that....
unless you define it as a payload... :hmm:

With Universal cargo deck it must be possible to attach Dragonfly to launch vehicle any way you like. Upside down, sideways etc.

 

[Schimz]

PackedDragon

A.K.A. The 1hour addon :shifty:

 

[N_Molson]

It's still easily can be rotated 180° on the Z-axis using Meshwizard. But managing the station-building operation with reversed controls would be an horrible headache !! :rofl: