ORION ARRIVES

[A Life Aloft]

Feb. 10, 2016
Orion Crew Module Processing Begins For First Mission Atop Space Launch System


The Orion crew module pressure vessel has arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is now secured in an upgraded version of a test stand called the “birdcage” inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building high bay. Orion will eventually take NASA on a journey to Mars, but first, the spacecraft is being prepared for a mission past the moon during Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).

The pressure vessel is the crew module’s underlying structure. Processing at Kennedy began Feb. 3 to prepare it for launch atop the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B in 2018.

“The arrival of Orion is very exciting for us,” said Scott Wilson, NASA Orion production manager. “This is the first mission where the Orion spacecraft will be integrated with the large Space Launch System rocket. Orion is the vehicle that’s going to take astronauts to deep space.”


Inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Scott Wilson, manager of Orion Production Operations at Kennedy, speaks to members of the news media. To his right is NASA astronaut Stan Love. To his left are Mark Geyer, deputy director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin's Orion Program manager. Photo credit: NASA/Bill White


The pressure vessel arrived Feb. 1 aboard NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft from the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility, operated by Space Florida. It was offloaded and transported to the O&C the next day.

Before arriving at Kennedy, Orion spent several months at Michoud, where its seven large segments were welded together to form the pressure vessel. At Kennedy, the pressure vessel will be outfitted with additional components and then tested to ensure it is structurally sound.

Over the next 18 months, more than 100,000 components will arrive at the center. A team of engineers and technicians with NASA and Orion manufacturer Lockheed Martin will integrate them with the spacecraft. Orion will be outfitted with its systems and subsystems necessary for flight. The module will receive its avionics; electrical power storage and distributions systems; thermal controls; cabin pressure control; command and data handling; communications and tracking; guidance, navigation and control; reaction control system propulsion; and flight software and computers.

”At Kennedy, we are going to turn the pressure vessel into a fully operational spacecraft,” Wilson said. “We have a robust test program that is distributed across key facilities in several states. After we complete testing here, Orion will be sent to Plum Brook Station at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio for additional testing.”

Wilson said there are several months of environmental testing scheduled for the Orion spacecraft.

“We want to make sure the vehicle itself is good for its mission, which is called acceptance testing,” Wilson said. “But, the larger set of testing is what we call qualifications. We qualify our design.”

Thanks to lessons learned from the launch of Exploration Flight Test-1, the first launch of an Orion spacecraft into space in December 2014, the pressure vessel is about 500 pounds lighter and has fewer parts, according to Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin Orion program manager.

“We learned a lot from the first flight test,” Hawes said. “Exploration Mission-1 will be a demanding, rigorous mission. We’re ready to start the work.”

About a year from now, the Orion crew module will be powered on and prepared for all of the tests that will confirm the spacecraft is ready for flight. Orion will be integrated with the European Space Agency-provided service module that will provide the main propulsion system and power. The spacecraft will be fueled and stacked atop the SLS rocket for its historic launch.

“It’s amazing the amount of dedication we have from former space shuttle workers who are now putting together our new spacecraft with the same dedication, care and skill that they used to keep our shuttles flying safely,” astronaut Stan Love said.

The main goal of the first integrated launch of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft will be to demonstrate NASA’s new capability to launch future crewed, deep-space missions to an asteroid and a journey to Mars.

At liftoff, the SLS Block 1 rocket on EM-1 will provide about eight million pounds of thrust, greater than any other rocket in the world today and comparable to that of the Saturn V.

Orion will travel about 40,000 miles beyond the moon over the course of a three-week mission. During re-entry, Orion will travel at speeds up to 25,000 mph, withstand temperatures of 5,000 degrees F and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the San Diego coast.

“Orion and the Space Launch System will allow us to be leaders in space,” said Mark Geyer, deputy center director at Johnson Space Center in Houston. “This vehicle will go further than any of the Apollo spacecraft.”

For more information about NASA’s Journey to Mars, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars.

NASA is testing the spacesuits being developed for Orion on the agency’s C9 aircraft, which can fly a series of parabolas to simulate a weightless environment for brief periods.

 

[A Life Aloft]

Orion's ride:


NASA's Space Launch System Design 'Right on Track' for Journey to Mars

For the first time in almost 40 years, a NASA human-rated rocket has completed all steps needed to clear a critical design review (CDR). The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) is the first vehicle designed to meet the challenges of the journey to Mars and the first exploration class rocket since the Saturn V.

SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built and, with the agency’s Orion spacecraft, will launch America into a new era of exploration to destinations beyond Earth’s orbit.

NASA says the planned 2018 inaugural flight of its new and powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will test the performance of the SLS and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system before it can be used to send humans into space.

This initial flight, called Exploration Mission-1 or EM-1, will also carry 13 CubeSats (miniature satellites) on the Orion.

The space agency says that the EM-1 mission will provide the rare opportunity for the CubeSats to reach deep space destinations, since most current launch opportunities for the little satellites are from low-Earth orbit.

The CubeSats will be deployed from dispensers on the Orion spacecraft with spring mechanisms after it separates from the SLS’ upper stage and is a safe distance away.


Artist conception of the Lunar Flashlight one of 13 CubeSat experiments that will fly on the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System, will examine the moon’s surface for ice deposits and identify locations where resources may be extracted. (NASA)

The mini-satellites will conduct a variety of studies the space agency says will help open the way for future human exploration of deep space destinations including Mars.

Once deployed, transmitters on the CubeSat’s will be switched on and their signals will be monitored by ground stations on Earth.

“The 13 CubeSats that will fly to deep space as secondary payloads aboard SLS on EM-1 showcase the intersection of science and technology, and advance our journey to Mars,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman in a NASA press release.

Some of the experiments that will be carried out by the CubeSat’s include low moon orbits to gather information about its surface and look for water, ice and other lunar resources.

Others will include a photographic and observational trip near to an asteroid as well as one that will use yeast to investigate the effect of deep space radiation on living organisms over the course of a long journey into deep space.

According a NASA spokesperson, after being launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the SLS will travel to the moon, then use lunar gravity to help propel it thousands of kilometers beyond the moon and make a return trip to earth.

For the EM-1 mission, the SLS will be powered by four RS-25 engines and two boosters which NASA says will provide a lift capability of at least minimum 70-metric-tons.

 

[Finny]

So cool!!!

 

[fholbert]

Before I volunteer for that mission I'm going to run up my credit cards. Let the banks come after me!

 

[pilotmg1501]

Am I the only one that looks at that and says "there is no way 4 people are going to live on that for 2+ years on a mission to deep space." Maybe I've seen too many sci-fi movies, but that looks like the size of a pop-up camper" I mean, a month or two, maybe, but I just don't see it for deep deep space.

 

[derg]

Too little "Apollo Program", too much "Buck Rogers"

 

[BEEF SUPREME]

Am I the only one that looks at that and says "there is no way 4 people are going to live on that for 2+ years on a mission to deep space." Maybe I've seen too many sci-fi movies, but that looks like the size of a pop-up camper" I mean, a month or two, maybe, but I just don't see it for deep deep space.

I thought the exact same thing. It would smell pretty ripe after the 2 year haul to Mars.

Also how is it shielded from radiation?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Stryker172]

This is amazing. From what I read years ago before Constellation was cancelled was the Orion spacecraft would dock with a larger ship with more living space and that whole structure would go to Mars. Not sure if thats still the plan though.

 

[Blackhawk]

I signed my wife and daughter up for the Mars mission. Fingers crossed.

 

[A Life Aloft]

These photos are of the mock-up Orion capsule (unlike the actual capsule in the photos above) that is used for various testing and training. It's the bare bones version and missing a lot of features/equipment that is in the actual Orion capsule.

"If the spacecraft looks a little cramped for a 6- to 9-month trip, that's because the capsule won't be going to Mars alone. The plan is to launch Orion from Earth and, once in space, have it dock with a larger habitat module before beginning its journey to Mars.

Plus, Orion engineer Stuart McClung says the spacecraft is not all that small compared to what we use to send astronauts to the International Space Station. “If you walk over to the Soyuz capsule on the other side of the building, this is like a big stretch limo compared to that Soyuz capsule.”

The engineers at the Johnson Space Center use the Orion mock-up (see photos above) for designing, training, and testing--for example, deciding on a seat layout and crew interfaces.

“The inside layout of the mock-up is very accurate to what the vehicle design looks like,” says McClung. “It's probably 90 percent accurate. The layout is right. It doesn't have all the cushions and all the devices in there."

Unlike today's spacecraft, which are designed to go to the International Space Station and back, Orion will be outfitted for long-term space travel. Mars-bound crews “have to be much more autonomous, and the vehicle's got to allow them to be autonomous,” McClung says.

Finding a lightweight material that can shield astronauts from space radiation is another big challenge, which McClung says they haven't quite solved yet. The trick is to add protection without adding too much mass or volume. One solution may be to wrap the capsule in a soft layer, similar to Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable habitats, that absorbs radiation instead of scattering it the way metal does. The computers and avionics equipment will also need to be hardened against the constant bombardment of radiation in space.

Orion has already flown to space and back in a test flight last December. Those were unmanned tests, designed to test the design and see how the spacecraft components performed under conditions of high temperatures and radiation. Since then, McClung says, the engineering team has implemented a few subtle changes to reduce weight, make the capsule easier to manufacture, and add a bit more thermal protection."

 

[A Life Aloft]

This is amazing. From what I read years ago before Constellation was cancelled was the Orion spacecraft would dock with a larger ship with more living space and that whole structure would go to Mars. Not sure if thats still the plan though.

That is exactly the plan.

NASA has already been working with Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed and Orbital ATK on habitat designs. Bigelow and Boeing already have mock up units built.


"At Kennedy Space Center, a crew of astronauts climb into an Orion capsule and launch into space atop SLS. They arrive at lunar DRO, dock with a habitat module, and depart for Mars. They zip through interplanetary space as fast as they can, minimizing their exposure to radiation. In Martian orbit, they meet up with more cargo and equipment. During the first trip, the crew might orbit without landing, Apollo 10-style. Another mission might land on Phobos. But eventually, a crew will plunge into the Martian atmosphere.

NASA estimates 15 to 20 tons of equipment will be needed on Mars for a human surface expedition. This includes food, water, air, habitats, rovers, and an ascent vehicle. The biggest thing to land on Mars so far is the one-ton Curiosity rover, which made a harrowing, rocket-powered descent during NASA's highly publicized "seven minutes of terror."

Once on Mars, the crew spends up to a year exploring the surface. They return to Martian orbit and depart for Earth. Their transit habitat gets dropped off at lunar DRO for refurbishment, while the crew careens back into Earth's atmosphere aboard Orion and splashes down into the Pacific. There are ticker tape parades for the astronauts. It is a watershed moment for humanity—the end of 60 frustrating years following the last time we dared to do something so staggeringly bold."

The Orion spacecraft that will drive astronauts to Mars has a diameter that's about the length of a pickup truck. That's not a lot of space when you consider the astronauts' journey to Mars will take at least 6 months.

In order to not go totally bonkers, Mars-bound astronauts will need a larger place to live, complete with private quarters and exercise equipment. NASA envisions the Orion capsule could link up to a habitation module in space, but right now they have no idea what that module could look like. And who knows what the astronauts will live in once they get to Mars.

Now SpaceNews says that a report attached to the recent omnibus spending bill has allocated funds for NASA to figure it out. The bill orders NASA to spend at least $55 million to develop a habitation module for deep space exploration, and to have a prototype ready by 2018.

 

[Murdoughnut]

That thing is going to smell so much like sex when it gets back.

 

[Maurus]

I find the Mars mission very interesting mainly because of what they will need to do in order to make such a mission possible with living people on board.

Due to launch windows (every 780 days for the most economic ΔV) and travel time they will likely need to send over 3 years worth of supplies with the crew that goes to Mars. They could brute force their way to Mars for their supplies but that would take a much larger rocket or better propulsion tech.

 

[Murdoughnut]

I find the Mars mission very interesting mainly because of what they will need to do in order to make such a mission possible with living people on board.

Due to launch windows (every 780 days for the most economic ΔV) and travel time they will likely need to send over 3 years worth of supplies with the crew that goes to Mars. They could brute force their way to Mars for their supplies but that would take a much larger rocket or better propulsion tech.

Or just use the Rich Purnell maneuver.

 

[Cptnchia]

Or just use the Rich Purnell maneuver.

He's a steeley eyed missle man!