the new SpaceX Dragon capsule has gotten a lot of attention the last few months for being the
next generation crew transportation vehicle to the international space station but it
will also be carrying cargo and it will start doing so on the crs-21 mission so
today I thought we should talk about the differences between the old cargo dragon
and the new cargo dragon along with the crew dragon let's go
Hey guys Tory here from Overlook Horizon and welcome back to two minute Tuesday we
talk about space and science every Tuesday and it's never two minutes
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and for reasons that I don't fully understand
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It's important for the ISS to have regularly scheduled resupply missions which include
supplies and science projects early on this was done using the space shuttle but more recently
commercial partners have been fulfilling this duty the first round of commercial resupply
or CRS missions was done using SpaceX's original dragon capsule and also the Cygnus capsule now
we're entering phase two of this contract which will see SpaceX utilize their new dragon capsule
along with the Cygnus capsule again and Sierra Nevada's dream chaser now for SpaceX the new
cargo dragon sometimes called cargo dragon v2 is almost an identical vehicle to the new crew dragon
capsule but there are a few differences most of which are pretty obvious to see
there will be no seats, no windows, no cockpit controls, no toilet
and no life support systems because there are no astronauts on board
Instead the inside of the capsule has an elaborate system of racks and straps for payloads the whole
design itself is full of simple little space savings that give the new dragon capsule 30
percent more usable volume for payloads compared to the dragon v1 it can also transport double the
amount of powered cargo which is super important for life science and time critical experiments
now on the outside the most obvious difference is that the cargo variant of the v2 dragon capsule
does not have any super draco abort engines because there are no astronauts that might
need to be saved in an abort scenario so it looks a little bit different the capsule will
also use a similar trunk to the crew dragon with integrated solar panels that can support
the vehicle in orbit for up to 75 days which is about double what the v1 dragon was capable of
now the first CRS-21 mission will still have a duration of about
30 days which is the same as previous missions but beginning as early as CRS-23
they may be extending those missions to remain at the ISS for up to 60 days now getting to the ISS
is just like the crew dragon capsule this variant of the cargo dragon will dock autonomously instead
of needing the robotic arm to grapple it like the dragon v1 needed one interesting drawback
of this though is that the dragon v2 docking port is smaller than the dragon v1 that means that they
can't carry big items like the NASA EVA suit since they can't fit it through the front door
A few other notable differences is that this dragon variant will splash down in the
Atlantic ocean just like the crew dragon can but different from the previous cargo dragon
which splashed down in the Pacific this is a huge benefit for researchers as it means that they can
get their hands on returning science payloads much sooner and SpaceX can begin processing the vehicle
for reuse sooner as well and speaking of reuse the new cargo dragon is capable of being flown up to
five times compared to the previous dragon capsule which only saw reuse up to three times per capsule
so those are the major differences between the dragon capsule and that
is where I'm gonna wrap up this week's two minute Tuesday and we got it we got
it right we made the timer we got it we made it yeah no no okay well there's always next time
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and I'll see you on the next video
goodbye
...to have regularly regularly who put that word in there?
capable of.... capable of.
that means that they can't carry as what does that mean it means something
do i say goodbye do I say see you see you bye