A New Dawn for NASA
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Transcript of A New Dawn for NASA
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Orion embarked on its maiden voyage inDecember 2014, putting NASA back in themanned space race. Dr Neil Ashton strapshimself in for the ride
74 Knowledge June 2015
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SPACE I SCIENCE
© Technicians and
engineers shifted
the Orion craft into position
on the service structure.
It was then lifted andmoved onto the Delta IV
Heavy rocket A
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SCIENCE | SPACE
Apollo 17 splashed into the Pacific
Oce an on 19 Dec emb er 1972 after
completing the final mission of the
Apollo space programme. It marked the
end of an 11-year effort to take humans to
the Moon. NASA had first achieved this
feat just t hree years earlier w ith Apoll o 11.
NASA's latest craft, Orion, finally gives
the space agency the ability to take humans
beyond the Earth once again. On 5
December 2014 it completed its first test
flight, dubbed Exploration Flight Test 1.
For this flight, Orion was launched by the
world's most powerful rocket, the Delta IV
Heavy, taking it 5,794km (3,600 miles)
above the Earth, more than 10 times
further away than the International Space
Station. After nearly four hours of
spaceflight, it started its descent back toEarth. On the way down it reached speeds
of over 32, 187k m/h (20,000mph) and then
attained temperatures in excess of 2,000°C
during its re-entry.
The first mission was designed to test the
top risks that Orion would face on a
mission into deep space. These included the
ability of the heat shield to protect the
spacecraft on return, the pyrotechnic-
induced separations at various stages of the
mission and the guidance, navigation and
propulsion systems. While the data from
the maiden flight is still being analysed, afirst look at the information suggests it was
a huge success for NASA. "We're ecstatic;
there aren't adjectives that describe how
well overall the spacecraft did," says Mark
Kirasich, Orion's deputy programme
manager at NASA . "O ur exploration
programme at NASA is all about re-
establishing human exploration beyond
low-Earth orbit."
The origins of Orion date back to 2004.
A new cre w modu le, service mod ule and •
© Orion undergoing
final assembly at the
Kennedy Space Center.
Technicians ensured that no
foreign objects contaminated
the spacecraft while it was
being put together
©
Orion splashed
down into the PacificOcean, 1,030km (640 miles)
southeast of San Diego. Five
balloons are used to ensure
Orion stays upright, but
only two of them correctly
inflated
76 H Knowledge June 2015
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© The Orion craft
blasted into space on
5 December 2014 aboard
the Delta IV Heavy, which
is the most world's most
powerful rocket
"BY 2021 THEFIRST MANNEDMISSION WILLBE LAUNCHED"
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SCIENCE | SPACE
"EVENTUALMANNEDMISSIONTO MARS INTHE 2030S"
LAUNCHED"
BLAST OFF!The Delta IV Heavy is the world's most powerfulrocket. It launched the Orion crew module andlaunch abort system into space
LAUNCH SYSTEMLaunch abort system
Orion crew module
rocket were planned, together with a lunar
lander. But a change in the US
administration ultimately led to the
programme being cancelled, and NASA
went back to the drawing board.
Out of this rethinking came two
objectives. First, to commercialise the re-
supply of crew and cargo to the
International Space Station. This has since
led to two private companies, SpaceX andBoeing, being awarded contracts to take
over the responsibility of ferrying
astronauts and cargo to the space station.
This capability allows NASA and its lead
contractor, Lockheed Martin, to
concentrate on the development of deep
space human exploration missions.
Blast off
This second objective resulted in the Orion
spacecraft, whose design came largely from
the previously cancelled Constellation
programme. In addition to Orion, a new
and powerful rocket called the Space
Launch System (SLS) has been developed.
The SLS will have the capacity to
eventually take Orion to Mars.
You could easily be forgiven for thinking
that the Orion spacecraft is, in fact, Apollo
in disguise. Larry Price is Orion's deputy
programme manager at Lockheed Martin.
As he explains, NASA's extensive
storehouse of knowledge came in handy
when designing Orio n. "T he shape •
Upper stage
Delta IV Heavy Rocket
78 EE] Knowledge June 2015
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ORION'S FIRST FLIGHTHours: minutes:
seconds after launch
0:00:00
On 5 December 2014, :
Orion launched on the
Delta IV Heavy rocket
from Kennedy
Space Center
0:06:10
The service module
and the launch abort
system separated -
this was a critical
part of the mission
3,000
1:57:11
The upper stage of the
system reignited after 2,00 0
completing one orbit
around the Earth
3:23:41
The Orion crew module 1
'0 0
°
separated from the
service module and the 500
upper stage
3:57:00 0The crew module fired the
control jets to orientate the
craft correctly for re-entry
into the atmosphere
1:13:41
rhe Orion crew module made
:ontact with the Earth's
itmosphere at an altitude of
505km
Time in hours from launch
HOW ORION ORBITED EARTH
4:20:22
Forward IForward bay cover separated,
starting the parachute
deployment sequence
4:24:46 fOrion landed safely in the 1 |
Pacific Ocean and was
recovered by NASA and the
ivy
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"THIS IS THE START OF A
NEW WAVE OF HUMANEXPLORATION OF OURSOLAR SYSTEM"
MSI
i&
'ail
£
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© Orion seen in the
well deck of the USS
Anchorage. US Navy divers
recovered the spacecraft
after Orion's first exploration
flight test A
SPACE | SCIENCE
june2015 EE] Knowledge 81
reduces the time and cost to develop a
system based upon the existing data
we've got from the Apollo
programmes," he says.
This mission marks the first step
towards an eventual manned mission to
Mars in the 2030s. Next year, further
test flights with updated hardware will
take place. And in 2018, Exploration
Mission 1 will launch an un man ned
Orion aboard the new Space Launch
System, sending it into orbit around the
Moon. This will be used to test the
guidance and navigation systems as well
as the radiation prot ectio n e quipmen t.
By 2021 the first manned mission will
be launched, called Exploration Mission
2. This mission is currently proposed
to send astronauts to a captured asteroid,
so they can collect samples and bring
them home.
Before any humans fly onboard
Orion, one hugely important part of the
system will be thoroughly tested. The
Launch Abort System (LAS) fits around
the crew module, with a spike housing
three rocket motors. If the main rocket
should fail, the LAS's rockets would fire
within milliseconds to pull the crew
module out of harm's way before
deploy ing parachutes for a safe landing.
Mars missionMany challenges lie ahead before the
final go al of sen din g astrona uts to Mars,
however. At present Orion is designed
to only take four astronauts for missions
lasting up to 21 days. This is because
there isn't enough space to store water
and supplies for longer missions. An
eventual mission to Mars would rely on
various oth er comp onents , such as a
habitat module.
But the need for humans to undertake
such missions is something that NASA
is convinced is necessary. Exploration
Flight Test 1 was just the start of a long
journey for NA SA , bu t it is o ne that
could ultimately mark the start of
a new wave of human space
exploration of our Solar System and will
inspire a new generation of scientists
and engineer s. US
Dr Neil Ashton works at The University of
Manchester's School of Mechanical, Aerospace
and Civil Engineering.