SpaceX will probably give up the plan to bring the Dragon spacecraft to Mars

In a tweet on a personal page a few hours ago, Elon Musk suggested the possibility that SpaceX would give up the plan to bring the Dragon spacecraft to Mars - a mission once expected by the company to be at the beginning. in 2020.

For this reason, upcoming SpaceX will not continue to develop landing techniques that they intend to use so that Dragon can land on Mars's surface. As a key element of the Red Dragon mission, "Dragon ship" is said to be able to slowly land down the surface of the Red planet thanks to the dynamics installed around the hull, then gently landing through the legs. anti. However, Musk said the company now decided to offer another way to land their vehicles on the Martian surface.

"There was a time when I thought that Dragon's approach was the right way to go to Mars," Musk said at a conference in Washington, DC today. "But now I am quite confident that it is not the right solution. There is a much better approach. And that is the task that SpaceX's next generation of missiles and spacecraft will be. undertake". Musk does not reveal what approach he refers to or what means the company will put on Mars in the future.

Later, Musk added on Twitter that SpaceX will still attempt to complete its intention to land on Mars at some point, but with a larger vehicle.

Elon Musk's announcement.

Although it will not be on Mars, Dragon continues to complete its missions in space, before returning to Earth through parachutes. This is the method used by SpaceX to land Dragon back on the ground after the ship delivered supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).Dragon 2 - another upgrade has been developed by SpaceX for the ultimate purpose of bringing people up and down the ISS station, perhaps not participating in the Mars mission. Safety concerns have caused SpaceX to abandon the idea of ​​Dragon 2.

Specifically, Musk said that "NASA took a lot of efforts to meet all safety conditions" . However, it is unclear whether safety is the reason Musk decided not to land Dragon on Mars. The push-down technique may be too difficult for a spacecraft to carry a crew, so SpaceX decided to use it only but it certainly cannot apply to landing on Mars. Even so, Musk said Dragon 2 still has the ability to land under push techniques.

It is possible to imagine how this landing is similar to what Falcon 9 did when landing on Earth."Landing push" is considered the most effective way to land something large on the surface of Mars, which even the US Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has yet to find out. The spacecraft on the way back to Earth has a thick atmosphere (acts as a cushion) to help it slow down, but Mars's atmosphere is thinner, only 1% of the pressure of Earth. , reduce the thickness of the " cushion" while increasing the likelihood of an accident.

"You will have to land it on a soft landing , " Musk said. Although difficult, Musk insists that SpaceX will not completely give up the idea of ​​landing, but "it doesn't seem to be the right way to apply now." In addition, Musk disclosed that he may update more information about the plan to settle on Mars at the upcoming International Aeronautics Conference in Adelaide, Australia next September. One of the most anticipated Musk is the stronger Falcon Heavy missile generation is expected to perform its first mission later this year.