
Elon Musk's biggest worry is the spaceship's return to Earth - ryzvonusef
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-nasa-astronaut-mission-biggest-concern-reentry-danger-2020-5
======
ryzvonusef
Musk added that while the threat was low, his "biggest concern" about the new
spaceship was the capsule's asymmetric design, which is driven by its
emergency escape system. While screaming back to Earth at 25 times the speed
of sound, the capsule's heat shield will deflect and absorb the energy of
superheated plasma — but the forces of atmospheric reentry have a slim chance
of causing catastrophe.

"If you rotate too much, then you could potentially catch the plasma in the
super Draco escape thruster pods," Musk said, adding this could overheat parts
of the ship or cause it to lose control (by wobbling). "We've looked at this
six ways to Sunday, so it's not that I think this will fail. It's just that I
worry a bit that it is asymmetric on the backshell."

Musk expressed the same concern about a roll instability, as the issue is
called, during a press briefing after the company's Demo-1 mission — an
uncrewed test flight of its spaceship to orbit and back — lifted off in March
2019.

He also noted a concern about the ship's parachutes, which must deploy to slow
down the Crew Dragon as it falls through thicker atmosphere.

"The parachutes are new. Will the parachutes deploy correctly? And then will
the system guide Dragon 2 to the right location and splash down safely?" Musk
said at the time, though he said he sees "hypersonic reentry as probably my
biggest concern, just because of the asymmetric back shell."

