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>But it is my understanding that it has enough fuel to do a full propulsive landing from orbit and back again, without an aerobrake. Not even close. Dragon has
by zardo 9y ago
>But it is my understanding that it has enough fuel to do a full propulsive landing from orbit and back again, without an aerobrake.
Not even close. Dragon has something like 450m/s of dv to use. Getting from the surface of Mars to orbit takes 3800. Orbital capture requires around 2000m/s. Without aerobraking, it couldn't enter Mars orbit, let alone land.
- kobeya 9y agoAre you looking at the CRS dragon specs? It is absolutely the case that future designs of Dragon are able to do a direct powered ascent from Mars. That requires a lot more that 450m/s. Current dragon can't do that, but I wasn't talking about current dragon.