NASA"s Orion Can Literally Make it Through Hell - http://clapway.com/2015/11/20/nasa-orion-can-literally-make-it-through-hell123/

Orion Gets More Missions and Shapes Up for the Part

The Orion space probe is getting a few upgrades, including one that will allow it to make it through hellish temperatures with no problem. The probe is getting a new coating shell that will allow it to withstand temperatures of up to and over 2200C.

New Thermal Protection System will Take Orion Through Hell and Back

In preparation for Orion’s EM-1 mission, NASA engineers are active making the Orion space probe challenging sufficient to withstand faster speeds and higher temperature. The point of this new system is to protect the crew members and the internal systems against the hazards of temperature the space probe goes through as it re-enters the atmosphere. The EM-1 mission will have Orion in space for three weeks, and then it’ll re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere safely.

This System Will be Crucial for Future Missions

Orion re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at about 30,000ft/second in it’s last mission, and for the upcoming EM-1 mission, it’s set to come it at about 36,000ft/second. Though the difference is speed seems slight, the temperatures will actually skyrocket because it combines heat with electrical surface charges. The team behind the new shell is planning to use 180 blocks to build the shell, as opposed to a single monolithic layer.

NASA"s Orion Can Literally Make it Through Hell

Due to budgeting issues and certain design drawbacks, #NASA has announced that it will move the launch of the #Orion #spacecraft. - http://clapway.com/2015/09/17/nasa-orion-flight123/

Due to budgeting issues and certain design drawbacks, NASA has recently announced that it will move the launch of the Orion capsule – originally set to head to launch in the summer of 2021 – to 2023. The space agency hopes that Orion, anticipated to become the first manned spacecraft to go into deep space beyond the moon, will eventually pave the way for a crew landing on Mars in the early 2030s.

NASA Delays Orion Capsule Mission by Two Years!

NASA has already made a multi-billion dollar investment into the project, but the space agency is planning on investing an additional $6.77 billion between this year and the year of the launch. The extra funds will allow NASA to produce two more capsules in order to send a crewed test flight, scheduled for April 2023, before an official manned mission.

NASA is Committed to a Mars Landing

Charles Bolden, NASA’s administrator, declared in a statement that Orion is a key piece of the flexible architecture that will enable humanity to eventually set foot on Mars. The agency is committed to constructing the spacecraft, along with the other equipment that is needed, in order to make this dream a reality. However, there are still factors that need to be straightened out, such as management issues, technical drawbacks and budgetary problems (this is the most expensive project in U.S. space exploration history) before the agency’s plan can be carried out safely and efficiently.

Orion’s Next Step

Currently, the plan is to send Orion to space in December 2018; the unmanned spacecraft will be carried by the $7 billion Space Launch System Rocket (its launch was also delayed by a year). Orion will fly in lunar orbit before moving on to meet with a boulder selected robotically from the surface of an asteroid. From there, it will be set into orbit, farther from the moon.

At the moment, there is already an ongoing debate about whether or not Orion can meet its April 2023 launch dates, prompting the agency to conduct a technical review of the capsule. NASA, however, remains optimistic and declares that its engineers are working on the possibility of launching Orion earlier rather than later.

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NASA Delays Manned Orion Flight by Two Years

The first parts of #NASA"s #Orion capsule, headed to the dark side of the #moon, are welded together. - http://clapway.com/2015/09/12/orion-nasa123/

The team at NASA, in an ever-growing state of curiosity and zealousness, is one step closer to sending humans to Mars. On Saturday, engineers at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans welded together the first two segments of the Orion crew module that will piggyback atop NASA’s future (and most powerful) rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), as it travels deeper into the solar system.

NASA’S ORION AND SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM

According to The Space Reporter, the Orion capsule, designed to “take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before,” will be used in Exploration Mission-1, which is headed to the enigmatic “dark side of the moon.”

“Every day, teams around the country are moving at full speed to get ready for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), when we’ll flight test Orion and SLS together in the proving ground of space, far away from the safety of Earth,” stated Bill Hill, the deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA. “We’re progressing toward eventually sending astronauts deep into space.”

WHAT’S NEXT FOR NASA AND ORION

During the next coming months, Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the spacecraft, will continue to piece together parts of Orion’s primary structure as they arrive to Michoud. Its complete construction will require seven primary welds that will connect the capsule’s main aluminum pieces. By opting for fewer welds, Orion will be significantly lighter. However, this also makes the welding process more difficult to carryout.

To ensure the installation would run smoothly, engineers refined their techniques by welding together a full-scale version of the current design of the spacecraft:

“We used the pathfinder to make sure we weren’t being too ambitious with our design changes,” said Mike Hawes, the vice president of Lockheed Martin.“It allowed us to verify the process would work before we used it on actual flight hardware.”

Prior to the welding, each segment was thoroughly cleaned, coated with a protective chemical and then primed. Following its assembly, the structure will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where other elements of the spacecraft will be constructed before its launch.

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First Pieces of NASA"s Orion are Welded Together

NASA Sends Orion 35,000 Feet Through the Sky #nasa #orion #space - http://clapway.com/2015/08/27/nasa-orion-35000-feet123/

On August 26^th, 2015, NASA’s test version of the Orion (Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle) plummeted nearly 35,000 feet, as part of a “drop test” that took place over the Arizona desert this Wednesday.

NASA TESTS ITS ORION SPACECRAFT TO PREPARE IT FOR FLIGHT

According to The Verge, two of the capsule’s parachutes were “intentionally made to fail” in order to see if Orion could execute a safe landing regardless of potential mechanical failures. To prepare for the drop, the Orion prototype was carried by a C-17 military transport aircraft into the atmosphere. From there, NASA engineers programmed the parachutes to only partially deploy.

In a press release, C.J. Johnson, the project manager for Orion’s parachute system, stated that these tests are necessary because “Orion’s parachute performance is difficult to model with computers.”

When it isn’t being put to the test, Orion regularly features two sets of parachutes, as part of its breaking system. According to SpaceDaily, the initial two parachutes are deployed at a higher altitude in order to first stabilize the craft upon its re-entry. The three main parachutes kick in afterwards in order to slow the craft down to a speed that allows it to safely land on the ground.

In this particular test, one parachute from each system was intentionally made to fail. The Orion prototype, which features the same dimensions and weight as the original spacecraft, managed to pass the test, touching down onto the ground after a 6.5 mile drop through the atmosphere.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR ORION?

Following this test, the parachute system will continue to undergo eight more airdrops beginning early next year and spanning over the course of a three-year period. If and when it passes this phase, Orion, designed for four people, will be ready for long-distance space travel.

The successful test drop only marks the forward progression of deep-space exploration, which will ultimately allow scientists to learn about asteroids and astronauts to eventually visit Mars. If all goes as planned, you can except to see the vehicle heading to space by 2021. For the mathematically inept, that’s six years from now. In the meantime, you can follow Orion on Twitter for its latest space-capades.

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NASA Sends Orion 35,000 Feet Through the Sky

Can NASA"s New Rocket Design Get Us to Mars? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/14/nasa-new-rocket-design-orion-102/

Recently NASA successfully completed a 9 minute test of the engine slated to preside at the heart of the US Space Agency’s next gen super rocket, which will launch the next generation of astronauts to asteroids, Mars and other deep-space locales.

The rocket, called the RS-25, was engaged at Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.

NASA’S ROCKET TO LAUNCH NEW MANNED SPACECRAFT

The next major manned spacecraft, dubbed the Orion, will be powered by four of these RS-25 engines during its core launch stage of the Space Launch System (SLS). This new system is said to be capable of carrying astronauts to Mars.

The RS-25 fired its payload for 535 consecutive seconds, which is roughly the same amount of time the engines are expected to fire during a real SLS launch.

“There are probably some people in the control contre high-fiving, because that was a very successful test,” mentioned Gary Benton, RS-25 test project manager at Stennis Space Center once the engine’s performance had come to an end.

WHERE IS THIS ROCKET FROM?

The recent test was the sixth of seven hot-fire tests for the RS-25, which was formerly used as the main engine for NASA’s new-mothballed space shuttle fleet, noted ‘Space.com.’

OLD ROCKET, NEW DESIGN

This seven-test series is “designed to put the upgraded former space shuttle main engines through the rigorous temperature and pressure conditions they will experience during a launch,” explained NASA officials. They went on to clarify that “[t]he tests also support the development of a new controller, or ‘brain,’ for the engine, which monitors engine status and communicates between the vehicle and the engine, relaying commands to the engine and transmitting data back to the vehicle.”

“The controller also provides closed-loop management of the engine by regulating the thrust and fuel-mixture ratio while monitoring the engine’s health and status,” they added.

Orion and SLS are to be united in stellar pursuits for the very first time in 2018, on a flight dubbed Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1).

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Can NASA"s New Rocket Design Get Us to Mars?