UP, UP AND AWAY A mockup of the Orion capsule at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston shows the space agency’s next-generation spacecraft, designed to carry humans beyond low-Earth orbit to the moon, asteroids and Mars.
Image: Orion Capsule Mockup
The pieces are coming together for NASA's newest spaceship Orion, with its first unmanned launch test scheduled for September 2014.
The Orion space capsule is designed to carry humans farther into the solar system than they've ever been by taking trips to the moon, asteroids and Mars.
It will be the first new spaceship built by NASA since the space shuttle was developed in the 1970s. The space agency is planning to outsource travel to low-Earth orbit, including the International Space Station, to the private space sector, allowing NASA itself to focus on traveling beyond.
"I think having a test flight in '14 is huge — people can see it right there," Orion program manager Mark Geyer told SPACE.com in September. "It's a really important goal."
Orion was originally conceived as a next-generation spacecraft, called the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, under NASA's now-defunct Constellation program. When that program was cancelled by the Obama administration, the Orion design was carried forward as the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
The engineering team behind the capsule has weathered political ups and downs, but say they are glad to be approaching flight time for the craft. [Photos: NASA's Orion Spaceship Test Explained]
"It's hard to put in 80 hours a week and then have somebody go, 'I don’t want to do that anymore,'" Geyer said. "We kind of went through that two years ago, but fortunately we came out on the other side."
Orion first test flight will be called the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT 1), and will include a test of more than half the systems that will appear in the ultimate finished Orion. These include its heat shield, which is a totally novel design made of a special composite material and an ablative coating deigned to burn off as the capsule re-enters Earth's searing atmosphere for the trip home.
EFT 1 will also test the capsule's primary structure design and put its avionics and computer systems through their paces.
However, for this first flight test Orion will ride to space aboard a Delta 4 heavy rocket — a proven flight vehicle from ULA (United launch Alliance) that won't be its ultimate booster. Eventually, Orion is planned to launch toward the moon and beyond on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a new heavy-lift rocket still under development. The first flight test for Orion and SLS together, called Exploration Mission 1, is slated for 2017.
Orion and SLS are set to carry humans onboard for the first time in 2021.
On the surface, Orion looks like a modernized Apollo capsule. Both vehicles are cone-shaped and launch vertically atop heavy-lift rockets. However, the similarities are only skin deep.
Where Apollo could carry three astronauts to the moon, Orion is bigger and can take four. The 1960s-era Apollo capsule featured computer technology inferior to that of a smart phone, while Orion is controlled by state-of-the-art technology. Its heat shield is composed of entirely new materials, and many other features are wholly novel.
"It's kind of like an automobile in 1905 had four tires and a steering wheel, and they still do now," Geyer said. "But none of the stuff inside is the same."
Between now and EFT 1, the NASA teams are working with the capsule's prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, to finish construction of Orion's systems and assemble them together. The primary body for that test vehicle is finished, while the heat shield still needs about six months more. Its avionics computers are undergoing testing now. Eventually, the whole vehicle will be put together in Florida at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
"I think we have a great design and we have a great plan to fly it," Geyer said. "It's time to do it, to actually put it to use and put it in the missions that are going to let us discover new things."
- Photos: NASA's Space Exploration Vehicle for Asteroids & Beyond
- Orion Capsule Test Flight: Deepest Space Since 1972 | Video
- Space Launch System: NASA's Giant Rocket Explained (Infographic)
Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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12 Comments
Add CommentIs this really really the best way to spend money? Manned spaceflights while "interesting" do not provide anywhere near the data unmanned missions accomplish.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm confused. This craft isn't going to the Moon...there isn't a trillion dollars in ifrastructure being built for a Mars mission. The Russians and private spacecraft service the ISS and satelites.....so what is the purpose?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAstronauts get blasted off in 2021 and the mission is....?
@GeojellyBrain,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan you ever be bothered to read an article before you comment on it? From the article, " Eventually, Orion is planned to launch toward the moon and beyond on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a new heavy-lift rocket still under development."
Imagine how cool it would be to have a manned flight along with a series of unmanned craft that could be sent off to collect content to be analyzed and returned to Earth. The people on board could send craft down to the surface of a planet, moon, or asteroid, and have much finer control of the unmanned craft since there wouldn't be a serious lag due to distance.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTrent..yes I can read...it is not going to the Moon...there is no planned Moon mission. It was canned.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd what exactly does 'beyond the Moon' mean?
Geojellyroll is correct, the moon mission was cancelled. No Mars mission has been planned and this vehicle is hopelessly inadequate for it anyway. OTOH, one of NASA'a problems has been that there has always been a mission-specific vehicle. To go to earth orbit they built the shuttle. To go to the moon they build Apollo. This appears to be a first attempt at a more general-purpose vehicle that is capable of different missions to different regions of space. If we had something like this that worked, it wouldn't take decades to plan a mission. There are good reasons to be able to go to high (e.g. geosynchronous) earth orbit or out to the Lagrangian points for say, a repair mission for a telescope. Eventually, all manned spacecraft will need to be more generally capable, so this first step is justified on engineering grounds alone. Once it's ready, there will be things to use it for and a mission won't need to justify an entirely new vehicle system so many more missions will be practical.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks Bob. I was on Space.com and one of the mission architects was asked the same question. The craft is basically something to have in the can to have space capability when and if the need arises.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll is assuming that Orion would be a first choice whereas it may be like ordering a limo to take you to the corner store when a bicycle will do.
@ geojellyroll, Bob_7
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey, my first post,just because I want to make something clear. NASA and the US has a funding problem. When Constellation was conceived it was necessary to replace the Shuttle, shutting it down to bring money to bear to build the Ares V. But to complete the Rocket, it was going to be necessary to de-orbit the ISS, to bring more money to bear. All perfectly reasonable under the funding restraints.
Today, we still have the ISS as our main Space Asset. Our jumping off point if you will for a Space Architecture. This is the term used for the assemblages of Rockets, Space Craft, Space Station, Depots, Deep Space Habitate/Vehicle, Multi-Use Lunar Lander, Rovers, and many other parts, that are needed for future permanent habitats and exploration of Cis-Lunar and Inner Solar System Objects. But again we don't have the funding for a full program. So what NASA is doing, is handing off responsibility for delivering Cargo and Crew to and from the ISS, under a purchase for services contracts, to the Commercial Sector, while beginning the long term development of the Assemblage of Parts, the Architecture, with it's International Partners at the ISS.
Space is not only hard, as JFK said, but it is expensive as he found out in the early 60s, and even went so far as to invite the Russians to join in the effort to go to the Moon, together, not many months before his death. It's on YouTube. My point is, that it is not enough to simply make a quick off the cuff comment that sounds good.
Today we need an educated electorate, one that understands what is really needed, and the long term (30-40 years) projected goals, not just missions. Missions can come and go, change and vary, but the Goals can remain the same. The primary goal is to get out there and explore and learn to develop our abilities to live and work in Space. Not just in Low Earth Orbit, but beyond. 37,000 miles beyond the Moon at L2 with a DSH, and on multi-year trips to Near Earth Objects.
Secondary Goal is to become a Space Faring Species. If you are under 50, you will probably live to see men and women on Mars, or exploring the Asteroid Belt. The 21st Century will be the time when Mankind gets off the porch and goes exploring the front and back yard. The MPVC/Orion is not a limo, it is the vehicle you hitch to your motor home, for local exploration. The Deep Space Habitat will be the first of the reusable Space Vehicles to remain in Space. The Enterprises of a new generation of explorers. You'll live in exciting times.
Cheers, Gramps
Cro-Magnon. NASA is a government agency. It has a specific mandate and as such does not equate with the future goals of space exploration or lack of it. The idea of a 'space faring nation' is nice but it's up to the population to decide through elected representatives what a government agency is for. Hard choices always need to be made when spending dollars...especially when the trillions in debt keep piling up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, perhaps Orion may be useful for some project beyond LEO but there isn't anything tangible in Nasa's mandate. Right now Orion's mission seems to be to keep a space engineering infrastructure alive in the USA.
Great 40 years later and all they're doing is building a bigger soup can.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow disappointing....
Nasa's mission is whatever the US government gives it to do. If nasa is tasked with starting and maintaining a Martian colony, then that's is what it will do. If it is to confine itself to unmanned space exploration, then that is what it will do. There seems to be a consensus amongst the scientific community that there is no value in manned space projects. I think there is a value in the manned space program. The value is that having a human presence on another planet or moon is an insurance policy against some catastrophe on earth whether natural or man made.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLooks like it may have a mission after all. This week the EU is looking into investing in Orion. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/17/europe-to-decide-this-week-on-helping-nasa-build-manned-spaceship-to-travel-to-deep-space/
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