Elon Musk Shares SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule Test Images
Elon Musk is on twitter and he is sharing out some images of SpaceX hardware in testing. The image shows the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft undergoing testing inside of an anechoic chamber. If you are wondering, an anechoic chamber is a room described as one of the quietest places on the planet.
The room has sound absorbing qualities that can simulate the same conditions as space. That ability to simulate space means that equipment destined for space is tested here during development. This is the spacecraft that will eventually ferry astronauts into space for ISS trips and perhaps future missions to Mars.
While the testing is conducted inside a super silent room, the actual tests for the Crew Dragon spacecraft are related to electromagnetic interference. SpaceX must be sure that the electrical systems inside the spacecraft will work outside the Earth's atmosphere.
After testing in the quiet room, Crew Dragon will be shipped out to NASA's Plum Brook Station facility in Ohio where the world's largest vacuum chamber resides. The facilities that SpaceX is using were originally built to test the NASA Orion crew vehicles, but Dragon spacecraft fit in the same facilities.
SpaceX is building towards a manned flight for the Dragon Crew spacecraft and some say that test flight could happen this year. However, sources close to SpaceX say that 2019 is a more likely target for manned flights. Elon Musk has a goal of putting crew and cargo to Mars by 2024.
SpaceX Crew Dragon ship in anechoic chamber for EMI testing before being sent to @NASA Plum Brook vacuum chamber pic.twitter.com/BckUBkroLw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2018
SOURCE: Interesting Engineering