SpaceX has postponed the start of the first mission to Mars
Source:Last year, SpaceX has talked about a bold plan: to launch the spacecraft Dragon to Mars in 2018. This must be the first ever private mission to the Red planet. But now, it seems that the company has postponed the mission for a couple of years. SpaceX President Gwynn, Shotwell confirmed that SpaceX is now considering year 2020 for Mars trip. This step will allow the company to better understand its other ambitious projects.
"We focused on 2018, but felt that we need more resources, and decided to focus more on our manned program and Heavy Falcon", said Shotwell during the pre-launch press conference at Cape Canaveral, Florida. "Thus, we are planning for 2020".
The Mission, known as "Red dragon" (Red Dragon), needs to verify the technology needed for landing heavy equipment on the Martian surface make it extremely difficult. Mars has a particularly thin atmosphere, providing very little friction to slow an incoming spacecraft. A heavy load increases the risk of collision with the ground. Even government agencies have had problems with this issue.
Unlike other re-entry vehicles for Mars vehicles, "Red dragon," SpaceX designed to fall to the surface using rocket engines built into its body — this technique is known as supersonic retro-movement. If successful, this device will be the largest of all that have ever landed on the red planet. But while we have to wait almost four years to see it. SpaceX had to postpone the mission two years, because a good opportunity to run was formed with the same interval. Travel to Mars best start every 26 months when the planet is aligned with Earth on its orbit.
Meanwhile, SpaceX now will have more time to work on his other big cases, for example, the first launch of the Falcon Heavy — a more heavy version of the Falcon 9 rocket — which is scheduled for this summer, according to Shotwell. Also SpaceX is upgrading its Dragon capsule, so she could carry astronauts to the International space station. The company intends to launch a crew aboard a spacecraft in 2018, but for different reasons this event is also can be postponed. Or rather could, if the Red Dragon mission took place according to the original schedule.
If SpaceX really launch your ship to Mars in 2020, it will have to fly shoulder to shoulder with other devices. NASA sends to Mars, the new Rover is also in 2020; also in the same year, will travel Rover mission ExoMars, a joint project of Roskosmos and the European space Agency. UAE plans to send an Orbiter to Mars, is also in 2020, while China expressed a desire to reach Mars by the end of the decade.
Recommended
The Americans on the moon: what everyone should know?
the Upcoming cosmonautics day is my favorite holiday. It marks the triumph of the human mind: in just four thousand years Homo Sapiens went from hunter-gatherers to space explorers. 12 April 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in ...
Why are some galaxies spiral shaped?
you Know what surprised me the most? The fact that we perceive the surrounding world as it is. Animals, plants, the laws of physics and the cosmos are perceived by many people as something so mundane and boring that they invent fairies, ghosts, monst...
Astronomers were able to see the death of another star system
In the cosmic ocean drifts a lot of mysteries about the existence of which we are unaware. One of these was uncovered five years ago, when astronomers have discovered a lonely star at a distance of 570 light years from Earth, the brightness of which ...
Related News
SpaceX successfully put the third Falcon 9 rocket on solid ground
Tonight, SpaceX made another successful landing of the missile — this time in daylight off the coast of Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed at the landing zone SpaceX at Cape Canaveral after the launch into space. Thi...
The dubious projects of flights to Mars and its colonization
for many decades, Mars fascinates and attracts people. Latest "the surrendered" was like Matt Damon. Our cosmic neighbor, the distance to which at a different period of time may range from 55,8 to 401 million kilometres, is of gre...
We may never know the aliens "in your face"
NASA is trying to answer a deeper question: if we ever find alien life in the Universe, as we understand this? Whatever in the cosmos, whatever it is, it can be a truly strange and unrecognizable. When robotic probe to land on a w...
Venus has a lot of problems. Temperature, two times higher than that at which the pizza is cooked in a few minutes. Acid rains, which regularly wash away everything that claims to be free will. Enormous pressure is 90 times greate...
United Arab Emirates plan to build a city on Mars
Only some 40 years ago was a small settlement, which is inhabited by the pearl divers. And today it is one of the largest and most futuristic cities in the world, decorating a United Arab Emirates. Vanish into the clouds skyscrape...
The US authorities are planning a fifth expedition to the telescope "Hubble"
the Space telescope «Hubble» watch bears in Earth orbit for many years, making great shots, and aiding astronomers with the research, but like any other device, this automatic Observatory periodically requires maintenanc...
As not to give the astronauts go insane?
"Impulsive, suicidal, sex-crazed thrill seeker". Who is it? Participant of the TV project "Dom-2"? A base jumper? The leader of a cult? Think again. So some psychiatrists of the U.S. air force, back in the early days of the space ...
Practical training Siberian "Space Odyssey" will start in late February
We have about the project «Space Odyssey», the author of which was Russian cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin. Theoretical classes started at the end of last year, and at the end of February 2017 cadets will travel to conduct ...
NASA has created a microchip that can work in hell
Camera tests GEER You may be surprised by the fact that Mars attracts "interplanetary" attention, while Venus, the second planet from the Sun, it would seem, is closer to the Ground. The fact is that this planet has the highest su...
SpaceX will deliver to the ISS the deadly bacterium
Very soon the company SpaceX is going to deliver to the International space station dangerous bacterium. Fortunately, the station crew know about it and therefore will be ready to receive cargo, after he will arrive to her next we...
representatives from the European southern Observatory recently published a series of very clear images of the nebula Cat's Paw (NGC 6334) and the lobster nebula (NGC 6357), located in the constellation Scorpio. Each image has ver...
representatives from the European southern Observatory recently published a series of very clear images of the nebula Cat's Paw (NGC 6334) and the lobster nebula (NGC 6357), located in the constellation Scorpio. Each image has ver...
China plans to test a space drone is solar powered
looks Like drones will soon be used for operations not only in the earth's atmosphere, but in space. At least, according to news Agency Xinhua, engineers at the China aerospace Academy to lay big hopes on them. In 2017 they plan t...
No one knows where black holes get information
If you «to Google», Stephen Hawking is among the most famous living physicists. His most famous work concerns the information paradox of a black hole. If you are interested in physics, it is of course well known. To Hawk...
SpaceX is going to launch a rocket every two weeks
the Company SpaceX plans to enter the super productive level of space launches. The company's President, Gwynne Shotwell said in an interview with the publisher Reuters that the company is going to make space launches every two we...
In 2019 to the ISS will install the first commercial gateway
a New commercial gateway to the American segment of the ISS NanoRacks, the company is developing jointly with Boeing. The Boeing website reports that this will be the first commercial gateway to the International space station, bu...
What was our universe before the Big Bang?
theoretical Physicists and cosmologists are searching for answers to the fundamental questions: "Why are we here?" "When did the universe?" and "How did this happen?" However, despite the obvious importance of finding answers to t...
Japanese experiment on the collection of space debris failed
the spacecraft «Konotori-6», launched by the Japanese space Agency a few days to collect space debris in orbit, so he had high hopes, but, alas, he could not cope with the task. news Agency RIA «news» with re...
WSJ: In rockets, the Falcon 9 has detected a defect
the boosters of the Falcon 9, produced by the American company SpaceX, is not always fly well. The last misfortune befell one of them in September 2016, after which SpaceX has halted the launch and began to look for defects in the...
Flight to alpha Centauri: dreams and reality
last year, the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced an ambitious plan to launch a tiny spacecraft to the alpha Centauri system. Of course, such an ambitious plan requires no less ambitious...
Comments (0)
This article has no comment, be the first!