The SpaceX ''Red Dragon'' was a 2011–2017 concept for using an uncrewed modified

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

Dragon 2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which cons ...

for low-cost

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

lander missions to be launched using

Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core ...

rockets. The primary objective of the initial ''Red Dragon'' mission was to test techniques and technology to enter the

Martian atmosphere The atmosphere of Mars is the layer of gases surrounding Mars. It is primarily composed of carbon dioxide (95%), molecular nitrogen (2.85%), and argon (2%). It also contains trace levels of water vapor, oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nob ...

with equipment that a human crew could conceivably use. The series of Mars missions were to be technology pathfinders for the much larger SpaceX Mars colonization architecture that was announced in September 2016. An additional suggested use for a mission called for a

sample return A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission to collect and return samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as lo ...

Mars rover A Mars rover is a remote-controlled motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place them ...

to be delivered to the Martian surface. The program was conceived in 2011 as a potential NASA Discovery mission launching as early as 2022, and evolved over several years once it did not receive NASA funding from the 2013–2015 Discovery Mission program cycle. In April 2016, SpaceX announced that they had signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA, providing technical support, for a launch no earlier than 2018. In February 2017, SpaceX noted this launch date was delayed to no earlier than 2020. In July 2017,

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

announced that development would be halted and resources redirected to

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 1 ...

Development history

worked with NASA's

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

in 2011 to produce a feasibility study for a mission that would search for evidence of

life on Mars The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no conclusive evidence of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that ...

(

biosignature A biosignature (sometimes called chemical fossil or molecular fossil) is any substance – such as an element, isotope, molecule, or phenomenon – that provides scientific evidence of past or present life on a planet. Measurable ...

s), past or present. SpaceX's Dragon version 1 capsule is used to ferry cargo only, while

SpaceX Dragon 2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which consi ...

transports astronauts to and from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. The ''Red Dragon'' proposal called for modifications so it could be used to transport payload to Mars, land using

retrorocket A retrorocket (short for ''retrograde rocket'') is a rocket engine providing thrust opposing the motion of a vehicle, thereby causing it to decelerate. They have mostly been used in spacecraft, with more limited use in short-runway aircraft land ...

s, and to become a precursor to a

human mission to Mars The idea of sending humans to Mars has been the subject of aerospace engineering and scientific studies since the late 1940s as part of the broader exploration of Mars. Long-term proposals have included sending settlers and terraforming the p ...

2011 concept

SpaceX initially planned to propose ''Red Dragon'' for funding in 2013 and 2015 as the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

NASA Discovery mission #13 for launch in 2022, but it was not submitted. The 2011 ''Red Dragon'' concept was conceived to use a modified diameter Dragon module, with a mass of and an interior volume of for up to of Mars-landed payload. The instruments were proposed to drill approximately under ground to sample reservoirs of

water ice Water ice may refer to: *Ice formed by water (as opposed to other substances) *In ice climbing, ice made from flowing water (as opposed to ice from precipitation) *The alternate term for various similar frozen fruit-flavoured desserts: ** Italian ic ...

known to exist in the shallow subsurface. The mission cost was projected in 2011 to be less than US$400 million, plus $150 million to $190 million for a launch vehicle and lander. The goals for a NASA-funded mission, as originally proposed by NASA Ames Research Center, were: ;Scientific goals *Search for evidence of life (

s), past or present *Assess subsurface

habitability Habitability is the adequacy of an environment for human living. Where housing is concerned, there are generally local ordinances which define habitability. If a residence complies with those laws, it is said to be habitable. In extreme environ ...

*Establish the origin, distribution, and composition of ground ice *Understand past climate using ground ice record ;Human precursor goals *Conduct human-relevant entry, descent and landing (EDL) demonstrations *Assess potential hazards in dust, regolith, and ground ice *Characterize natural resources *Demonstrate access to subsurface resources *Conduct

in-situ resource utilization In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) that replace materials th ...

(ISRU) demonstration: water extraction and propellant production

2014 concept

A 2014 study of a potential 2021 NASA-funded ''Red Dragon'' mission suggested that it could offer a low-cost way for NASA to achieve a Mars sample return. In the concept, the ''Red Dragon'' capsule would be equipped with the system needed to return samples gathered on Mars, including a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), an Earth Return Vehicle (ERV), and hardware to transfer the sample collected by a previously landed rover mission, such as NASA's planned

Mars 2020 Mars 2020 is a NASA mission that includes the rover ''Perseverance (rover), Perseverance'', the now-retired small robotic helicopter ''Ingenuity (helicopter), Ingenuity'', and associated delivery systems, as part of the Mars Exploration Progra ...

rover, to the ERV. The ERV would transfer the samples to high Earth orbit, where a separate future mission would pick up the samples and de-orbit to Earth. NASA did not fund either concept.

2016 concept

Over time, the ''Red Dragon'' concept changed but the basic idea was: use a modified Dragon capsule to test developmental technologies with an

uncrewed An uncrewed vehicle or unmanned vehicle is a vehicle without a person on board. Uncrewed vehicles can either be under telerobotic control—remote controlled or remote guided vehicles—or they can be autonomously controlled—autonomous vehicl ...

mission to Mars. The launch vehicle would be the

, and the capsule would be a

. In April 2016, SpaceX announced that they were proceeding with the robotic mission for a 2018 launch and NASA would be providing technical support: a departure from the original NASA-funded mission. SpaceX was planning the

initial In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter (books), chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means '' ...

rocket launch for late 2017, and Dragon 2 was scheduled to undergo flight tests in mid to late 2017. In April 2016, SpaceX reiterated their plan for a 2018 launch. The first ''Red Dragon'' mission was intended as a technology demonstrator and no payload was announced. NASA would have been involved in the mission at the level of technical interchange. In exchange for Martian entry, descent, and landing data from SpaceX, NASA offered technical support and telemetry for the ''Red Dragon'' mission. In 2016, NASA anticipated spending about $30 million of its public budgetary funds for employees and equipment to be used to monitor the mission. In May 2017, NASA revealed that SpaceX would launch twin ''Red Dragons'' to assure mission success with redundant spacecraft as insurance, one at the beginning of the 2020 launch window and one at the end, so that the second arrival can learn from the first's arrival, however, the mission was canceled a year later.

2017 cancellation

SpaceX announced in 2017 that propulsive landing for Dragon 2 would no longer be developed and landing legs would not be added to the Dragon 2 capsule. The end of propulsive landing development means a Dragon will not be able to land on Mars, and the ''Red Dragon'' program has been put on the back burner. Musk stated on Twitter that a "vastly bigger ship" would be used to test a different landing method now thought to be better than the concept of heat shield on the bottom and thrusters on the sides. By mid-2017, SpaceX redirected engineering development resources to develop the propulsive landing technologies for the much larger

design.

Landing system

Because of its design integrating a robust heat shield and powerful thrusters, a modified

capsule might, with further development, have been able to perform all the necessary entry, descent and landing (EDL) functions in order to deliver payloads of or more to the Martian surface without using a

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

; the use of parachutes is not feasible without significant vehicle modifications. After

direct entry The Australian financial system consists of the arrangements covering the borrowing and lending of funds and the transfer of ownership of financial claims in Australia, comprising: * authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs) or financial insti ...

into the atmosphere at it was calculated that the capsule's own

aerodynamic drag In fluid dynamics, drag, sometimes referred to as fluid resistance, is a force acting opposite to the direction of motion of any object moving with respect to a surrounding fluid. This can exist between two fluid layers, two solid surfaces, or b ...

may slow it sufficiently for the remainder of descent to be within the capability of the SuperDraco retro-propulsion thrusters. It could be designed with a center of gravity (CG) offset to enter with a

lift-to-drag ratio In aerodynamics, the lift-to-drag ratio (or L/D ratio) is the Lift (force), lift generated by an aerodynamic body such as an aerofoil or aircraft, divided by the aerodynamic drag caused by moving through air. It describes the aerodynamic efficie ...

of 0.24 (like

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity (rover), Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale (crater), Gale Crater on Augus ...

). The CG offset could be removed by ejecting 120 kg of ballast mass. It would transition directly from atmospheric flight to powered descent at Mach 2.24. The

s would slow the craft as it descends into Mars' upper atmosphere at

supersonic Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...

speed. 1900 kg of propellant would provide the Δv required for soft landing at 2.4 m/s.Red Dragon-MSL Hybrid Landing Architecture for 2018
Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration, held June 12–14, 2012 in Houston, Texas. LPI Contribution No. 1679, id.4216 This approach was expected to allow the capsule to land at much higher Martian elevations than could be done with a parachute, and within landing accuracy. the SpaceX engineering team was developing options for payload integration with the Dragon capsule. Potential landing sites would have been polar or mid-latitude sites with proven near-surface ice. In July 2017, Musk announced that development of propulsive landing had ceased in favor of a "much better" landing technique for Starship.

References

External links

*
Red Dragon: Low-Cost Access to the Surface of Mars Using Commercial Capabilities
Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration, held June 12–14, 2012 in Houston, Texas. LPI Contribution No. 1679, id.4315
Red Dragon-MSL Hybrid Landing Architecture for 2018
Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration, held June 12–14, 2012 in Houston, Texas. LPI Contribution No. 1679, id.4216 {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Dragon mission Cancelled space probes Missions to Mars Cancelled astrobiology space missions SpaceX Dragon 2 SpaceX spacecraft