They should call the crew version "Dragon Trampoline". He did mention it in his first tweet. It made me laugh out loud.
Can't wait to see what it will look like. I have noted down from last year Elon mentioned they would unveil Dragon 2 this year, and that it "looks like a real alien spaceship". From the CRS-2 post landing teleconference: I don't want to jump the gun too much on a future unveiling. We want to work with NASA on that unveiling because I think it would be kind-of a fun thing for the public to see the new version, kind-of up close. It is quite a significant upgrade. There are very powerful thruster pods, side-mounted thruster pods, on the new version of Dragon and quite big windows as well for astronauts to see out. There's legs that pop out the bottom. "It looks like a real alien spaceship", if you will. We started off landing in water because that was kind of the easiest thing to do. We didn't really know what we were doing, honestly, at the beginning. I think we're getting better, but we didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, but now we want to really try to push the envelope and see if we can take the technology to where it hasn't been before.
I'm sure it will have Active Cruise Control ;-) Seriously, I am really looking forward to the unveiling of the Mk 2. "Big windows"? Wow!
Hehe, be kinda cool if it's sitting on the ground and then the legs fold out and it starts walking around like a spider.... Yeah, I watched too much Johnny Quest as a kid.
I just got all giddy and excited like a 12 year old kid again! Thank you SpaceX! Seriously, every time I hear about something that they are doing it makes me want to start all over again, and go become a rocket scientist or astronaut or something haha! - - - Updated - - - Maybe they will make the parcel shelf standard? And "Oh-****" handles!
If it doesn't have at least a 17 inch touch screen control panel I will sorely disappointed. Older capsules suffer from too many buttons! Those old Apollo capsules had hundreds and hundreds of buttons.
SpaceX: Dragon V2 Unveil - Live Event - May 29, 2014 Elon will unveil Dragon 2, @7pm, watch at spacex.com/webcast. Should be a good event, Elon I believe will really enjoy this unveiling especially on the tails of all the hoopla over the Russian rocket and ULA. http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=34828.0
I'm really looking forward to this. It should be very exciting and entertaining for anyone with a passion for space flight and/or scientific advancement.
Wouldn't it be ultimately cool if they dropped the new Dragon and had it do a powered landing right in front of the reporters? It won't happen, but it would be something that would get headlines and be shown on every news broadcast.
Elon walks on stage Pulls down giant drape... huh... nothing there... "Well folks, not sure what happened but I am sorry there doesn't appear to be... wait a second... what's that over there!" Points off in the distance Ship comes flying over and lands behind the crowd "And this folks... is the MK-2, also known as the Trampoline!"
Elon does like to do such things. At the Model S debut, he had someone pop out of the frunk. During the demonstration of the battery pack swap he had a second car "pop" in for a swap. It all depends on whether Elon is in his showman mode or not.
Yes he loves a good show. But I think P.R. wise if there were even a 5% risk of a crash I wouldn't risk it. The reveal probably doesn't mean the spacecraft is cleared for flight yet.