I'm Excited About the Dream Chaser

"vicariousILive" (vicariousILive) 01/29/2014 at 12:07 • Filed to: Bowie's in Space, spaceship, spacecraft, NASA, Sierra Nevada, Dream Chaser, SpaceX

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Check out this sweet goodness! That is the Dream Chaser spacecraft developed by the Sierra Nevada Cooporation. You probably haven't heard much about SNC and it's Dream Chaser mainly because their CEO isn't a douche-bag lunatic. But do you have to be a media whore to develop a successful spaceship? Hell no!

Like SpaceX, SNC is one of the "private" companies that are developing "commercial" launching services. SpaceX and SNC, among others, have received over 100 million dollars to develop their spacecraft. But you may ask "Wait, isn't that how spacecraft was developed before...hardware built by private companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and ATK but paid for by NASA?" Yes you are correct. In addition, I'm sure that the the same heavy mission assurance requirements are going to be imposed on these designs before NASA lets their astronauts fly in them anyway. So same NASA, different guise.

Before I started on that tangential rant I was discussing the Dream Chaser. The SNC Dream Chaser is not necessarily an original design, it was conceptually design by NASA and some educational partners back in the day, the 90's, called the HL-20. HL meaning "horizontal landing." SpaceDev, later acquired by SNC, built upon that design to enter their design into the COTS program in 2004. They were not awarded any money then but later in 2010 as part of the CCDev program they were selected as one of the companies to receive some NASA fundage. Now as they further their development of the Dream Chaser, NASA has extended more awards to hopefully get this sweetness in the air.

The Dream Chaser can carry up to seven people and less people with cargo into orbit. It is designed to fly autonomously if needed. Has a reusable composite structure and is designed to work with any any launch vehicle that can handle the payload. It is slated to be launched on a man rated Atlas 5 in development by ULA.

It's main propulsion system is 2 hybrid rocket motors with nitrous-oxide and hydroxyl-teminated polybutadiene(HTPB) and the attitude control system uses corn fuel ( I hate corn fuel in any internal combustion engine but I guess for space travel it's acceptable). No monometylhydrazine or hydrogentetroxide to corrode anything it touches or kill any precious wildlife and no cryogenic liquids to store on the launch pad. These less volatile fuels will make it easier to handle before liftoff and after it lands, bonus!

The thermal protection system(TPS) will use a NASA developed carbon fiber weaved , resin impregnated ablative heatsheild which will allow better ablation characteristics (I had the opportunity to attend a workshop at NASA Ames where NASA presented their heatshield design, pretty cool stuff). This includes reduced ablation rates which will save weight by using a thinner heatshield while meeting heat transfer requirements. The TPS will be replaced after every flight.

The Dream Chaser is scheduled to do its first orbital flight in 2016 and maybe a manned flight in 2017. Since schedule is never met in the aerospace industry, it probably won't but I'm putting on my hopes on the success this spacecraft.

Brian, The Life of > vicariousILive 01/29/2014 at 12:24

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Dear Sierra Nevada Corp,

Nice copypasta jerb!

Love, NASA

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > vicariousILive 01/29/2014 at 12:34

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John Crichton is excited about this, too!

Ntovorni > vicariousILive 01/29/2014 at 12:49

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Great write up! I saw a brief thing about it on Sploid or whatever, but this was much more informative. Thanks!

Fed(oo=[][]=oo)uken > vicariousILive 01/29/2014 at 13:00

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Great article, thanks! Thought that lead picture looked familiar..

Gamecat235 > Brian, The Life of 01/29/2014 at 13:06

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Dear Sierra Nevada Corp,

Please either change your name, or start developing rocket based beers with Sierra Nevada Brewing, every time I read about you, I think "beer", and even though you design awesome things like spacecraft, it's still not beer.

Thanks,

Craft Beer Drinkers Everywhere

vicariousILive > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 01/29/2014 at 13:30

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I had to research who in the hell John Crichton was. Never watched Farscape , seemed to air during the days of my dad hogging the TV to watch CNN headline news, but a striking resemblance to the HL-20.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > vicariousILive 01/29/2014 at 13:35

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I didn't watch it originally, either.

I have gotten into it recently, since they are re-broadcasting Farscape on the Pivot channel. It is the only thing I watch on Pivot.... and they are starting to re-run the same episodes that I have already seen... but they haven't shown all the episodes.

pretty much the entire rest of the cast of Farscape is Australian/New Zealander, and it was produced by the Jim Henson company in Australia.

However, I recently found out that Ben Browder, the actor who plays John Chrichton, played an old-west marshall on a recent episode of Dr. Who, and also replaced Richard Dean Anderson in the cast of Stargate SG1... (never really got into the Stargate tv shows either.)

NaturallyAspirated > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 01/29/2014 at 19:25

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Yeah, I watched SG-1 before I watched Farscape, and I was like, "Wait, a sci-fi show with Ben Browder and Claudia Black type cast as themselves? Haven't I seen this series already?"

HammerheadFistpunch > vicariousILive 01/31/2014 at 11:37

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As a bonus, it looks like a duck going REALLY fast.

jpunk > vicariousILive 02/04/2014 at 20:27

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What really struck me about the Dream Chaser is the size, it's tiny compared to the Space Shuttle. Think of a Miata vs an eighteen-wheeler. Parked next to any sort of size reference, it looks like a space fighter from any sci-fi show.