How it all started; Lockheed Martin’s Plymouth Rock asteroid mission

when I first saw this mission design I recall the idea came to me of removing one of the service models to present a heat shield to the direction of flight as a method of aerodynamic breaking and/or EDL.

this idea could result in a capsule being used as a planetary probe, Orion has a Mass of  21,250 Kg and a second Orion capsule would be   another  8,913   Kg for a total mass of just over 30,000 Kg! This would truely be the most massive planetary probe ever and using a 23 Meter aerodynamic decelerator would be a path finder  to large landed human crew payloads. At 8 Meters tall this would be a test of the aerodynamic decelerator as well.

So there you have it Lockheed duel Orion space craft inspired my version of “Red Dragon” wich is a dual Dragon Mars aerodynamic decelerator,                                   transform the mars lander network to a rover

So Human space flight directorate should pay for this :):) why? This dual capsule Orion  capsule as an EDL/aerodynamic flight system can only be loved by the builders of the SLS . And the funds to fill to Orion capsules with science instruments would exceed the greatest flag-ship science missions

OrionAsteroidMissionBrief 

PlymouthRockasteroidmission

http://www.space.com/19292-nasa-orion-space-capsule-explained-infographic.html

Karl Tate does  best infographics of spacecraft to scale, a lot folks on nasaspaceflight.com do to! I do not have these skills,would love to have an infographic of my duel capsule EDL/ aerodynamic decelerator ( begs 🙂 )

The Geometry and volume/M3 of all of the manned vehicles cry out for study’s on their use as unmanned probes,geometry of the Soyuz and Shenzhou’s suggest the ability to survive deeper down into planetary atmospheres? In addition these two spacecraft are lighter than Dragon so perhaps these could be a part of an international unmanned science mission where spacecraft weight is of importance.

Dragon capsule and trunk docked to a Soyuz or Shenzhou’ reentry vehicle could be  that compromise planetary mission that adds in an international partnership.