NASA Orion: Readying for Flight

The NASA team at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans has completed the final weld on the first space-bound Orion capsule.

The Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) Orion will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center for final assembly and checkout operations.

The EFT-1 flight will take Orion to an altitude of more than 3,600 miles, more than 15 times farther away from Earth than the International Space Station.

Orion will return home at a speed of 25,000 miles, almost 5,000 miles per hour faster than any human spacecraft.

It will mimic the return conditions that astronauts experience as they come home from voyages beyond low Earth orbit.

As Orion reenters the atmosphere, it will endure temperatures up to 4,000 degrees F., higher than any human spacecraft since astronauts returned from the moon.

Image Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon.

NASA Orion Vehicle: Animated video shows spacecraft in orbit

NASA may have pushed back the Orion spacecraft's test flight to 2014, but you can get an early glimpse of the capsule in orbit thanks to this animated video from Full Werks studio.

You'll see the capsule circle the planet before touching down in the Pacific, all with a much better view than you can expect when that actual launch date rolls around.

The animation features audio clips from the original Apollo and, as any NASA-related video worth its salt should, includes a vintage voiceover from space sage Carl Sagan.

NASA Orion: Testing the Orion Crew Vehicle's Parachutes

On April 17, 2012, NASA conducted a test of the Orion crew vehicle's entry, descent and landing parachutes high above the Arizona desert in preparation for the vehicle's orbital flight test, Exploration Flight Test-1. 

The primary objectives were to determine how the entire system would respond if one of the three main parachutes inflated too quickly and to validate the drogue parachute design by testing at a high dynamic pressure that closely mimicked the environments expected for Exploration Flight Test-1.

Image Credit: NASA

Tile Makers Creating Orion Shield

Workers recently began cutting and coating the first thermal protection system tiles - part of the heat shield that will protect an Orion spacecraft during an upcoming flight test which will simulate the re-entry speed and heating of returning from deep space.

The tiles are made of the same material and coating as those used on the space shuttle's belly.

On Orion, however, the tiles will be placed along the sides and top of the conical spacecraft.

A separate heat shield akin to the ablative design used during Apollo is being developed to protect the bottom of the spacecraft, which will encounter the highest temperatures.

The manufacturing work at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., marks an important time in the progression of the spacecraft following the shuttle's retirement in 2011, said Thermal Protection System, or TPS, engineers Joy Huff and Sarah Cox.

"We're making something that's going to fly again, which is what we were doing for years," Huff said.

There are about 40 people involved in the tile work: 20 to make the tiles and 20 to install them.

"We're at the starting line," Cox said. "It's going to take some time to get all the parts fabricated."

The same shop that manufactured space shuttle tiles will make the 1,300 tiles needed for the Orion flight.

It is not fast work. In fact, workers will spend about 11 months shaping the insulating blocks and laying on a heat-resistant, ceramic coating.

They use a 5-axis mill loaded with precise dimensions to cut blank tiles to their shapes. So far, the shop has finished 33 tiles.

Many of the tiles will have special cutouts for instruments to collect data during the flight test. Many fewer cutouts will be needed for future missions.

In an advancement from the shuttle days, each tile's dimensions are sent over digitally from Orion builder Lockheed Martin and the final tile is photographed with a 3-D camera so computers can fit the pieces together virtually before they are placed together physically, Huff said. The details are far more exact than in the past.

"They've had such good success that (technicians) are going to eliminate one pre-fit step," Huff said.

The comparisons with the tile work for the space shuttles are plentiful. For example, the smaller Orion uses tiles that average 8-inches by 8-inches compared to the shuttle's 6-inches by 6-inches.

Also, Orion's design allows for many of the tiles to be the same dimensions with the same part number, but each shuttle tile was a unique configuration unto itself, with individual part numbers.

"That's a huge improvement over shuttle," Huff said. "Even having nine or 10 of the same part is a big improvement."

Perhaps the biggest comparison, though, is the sheer number of tiles involved. A space shuttle heat shield required more than 23,000 tiles to the Orion's 1,300.

"It's smaller, so there's less parts," Cox said.

NASA Orion Crew Vehicle Mockup

A mockup of the Orion crew vehicle is prepared in Yuma, Ariz., for another in a series of parachute drop tests. 

This particular test model will be used to study Orion’s wake, a disturbance of air flow behind the vehicle. 

This test will be the first conducted with the representative Orion wake that mimics the full size vehicle and complete system.

Photo credit: NASA

NASA's Orion MPCV Completes second splash test - video

After six months of testing, an 18,000 pound (8,165 kg) Orion mockup took its final splash into NASA Langley Research Center's Hydro Impact Basin on Jan. 6.

Orion, the next deep space exploration vehicle, will carry astronauts into space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel, and ensure safe re-entry and landing.

The testing, which began in July 2011, simulated different water landing scenarios and took into account different velocities, parachute deployments, entry angles, sea states and wind conditions that Orion could face when landing in the Pacific Ocean.

The January 6 test represented worst case landing for an abort scenario in rough seas.

The test impact conditions simulated all parachutes being deployed with a high impact pitch of 43 degrees.

The capsule traveled approximately 47 mph (75.6 kph) before splashing into the basin and rolling over into the Stable 2 position.

This type of landing scenario isn't likely to occur during actual vehicle operation, but is essential for the validation of analytical models.

As was the case with Apollo, the Orion flight design will feature an onboard up-righting system.

NASA Langley: Preparing for Orion Drop Test

Getting prepared for the last Orion splash test at NASA Langley

NASA's Orion MPCV faces a second splash test - video

Engineers conducted the first test as part of Phase 1 of the Orion MPCV boilerplate test article at NASA's Langley Research Center, on Oct. 18.

The 18,000-pound (8,165 kg) test article, representative of the Orion Crew Module, was drop tested at a 43-degree relative pitch angle and a 30-degree roll angle and travelled at 27 mph (43 kph) horizontal velocity before splashing down in the Hydro Impact Basin.

NASA Budget Minibus: Congress Poised To Approve $178Bn

Returning from recess today, the US Congress and White House is set to consider the $128 billion “minibus” approved by the Senate on November 1, HR 2112.

It covers FDA, NSF, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and sets their respective budgets at levels approved earlier this year by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Minibus” is a cute take on “omnibus,” the traditional all-agency budget bill that Congress hasn’t seen since FY 2010 when the House, Senate, and White House were in Democratic hands.

NASA Budget
NASA stands to receive $17.8 billion for 2012 under a $1 trillion compromise spending measure House and Senate budget negotiators released Nov. 14.

The NASA funding, which is $684 million below the agency’s 2011 level and $924 million less than the White House requested, is part of a must-pass spending package Congress is poised to adopt by Nov. 18.

The package, a so-called minibus combining three previously separate spending bills into one, was hammered out during a legislative conference committee House and Senate appropriators convened Nov. 3.

Lawmakers included in the minibus a clean four-week extension of the so-called continuing resolution that has kept the federal government operating since the new budget year began Oct. 1. Congress must pass this legislation by Nov. 18 to prevent a government shutdown.

Summary Breakdown
According to a summary of the final conference report posted Nov. 14 on the House Appropriations Committee’s website, the $17.8 billion for NASA would break down as follows:

•  $3.8 billion for Space Exploration, which is $30 million below the 2011 level. This includes funding above NASA’s request to meet congressionally mandated deadlines for the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket (SLS) and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
• $4.2 billion for Space Operations, which is $1.3 billion below the 2011 level.
• $5.1 billion for Science programs, or about $155 million above the 2011 level. This includes additional funding for the overbudget James Webb Space Telescope program that will be offset by “commensurate reductions in other programs.”

The minibus also includes $4.9 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a 7 percent increase over 2011. 

Some $924 million of that amount is set aside for the Joint Polar Satellite System “to ensure the continuity of critical weather forecast data.” Lawmakers, however, denied NOAA’s request for $322 million to establish a new NOAA Climate Service.

NASA - Apollo 16 Lunar Module 'Orion' seen from the Lunar Rover

The Apollo 16 Lunar Module "Orion" is photographed from a distance by astronaut Chares M. Duke Jr., Lunar Module pilot, aboard the moving Lunar Roving Vehicle.

Astronauts Duke and Commander John W. Young, were returning from the third Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA-2).

The RCA colour television camera mounted on the LRV is in the foreground. A portion of the LRV's high-gain antenna is at top left.

Image Credit: NASA and Chares M. Duke Jr.

NASA Orion: Capsule dropped in pool at Langley

The intensity in Steven Gayle’s voice grew as NASA’s 18,000-pound Orion test capsule landed in the pool.

“Don’t flip over, don’t flip over, don’t flip over,” he said as the spacecraft lurched forward.

It didn’t flip over — a sign that astronauts could make a similar plunge into the ocean and remain safe.

“Whooo,” said Gayle, one of several engineers at NASA Langley Research Center leading Thursday’s experiment. “Now we’ll start going over the test data.”

Tests of the capsule, officially called the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, have been ongoing at Langley for months. Aside from a few videos NASA posted online, it kept the operation largely under wraps.

“There’s some new elements here,” said Langley engineer Paresh Parikh, referring to the 115-foot long pool, which NASA calls its Hydro Impact Basin. “We wanted to make sure everything works.”

NASA hoisted Orion about 25 feet in the air with a large crane called the gantry, which Mercury astronauts used during the 1960s to mimic landing on the moon.

NASA released the capsule from its straps following a 15-second countdown. It skidded into the pool with a loud pop, creating a killer whalelike splash that sent water spilling over the concrete toward dozens of onlookers.

Unlike NASA’s recently retired space shuttle, Orion will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and land in water. The capsule, which resembles a gigantic Hershey Kiss that holds four astronauts, will be slowed by parachutes during its descent.

“We call this configuration ‘Apollo on steroids,’” said Gayle, noting it weighs roughly 9,000 pounds more than its 1960s-era predecessor.

Engineers designed Thursday’s experiment to replicate landing in the Pacific Ocean, off southern California. A previous test mimicked landing in the north Atlantic Ocean amid rougher seas.

Instruments aboard Orion track its speed, if any water seeps into the capsule, how it responds to the pressure of the landing and numerous other measurements, Gayle said. Engineers will spend days comparing the results to computer projections.

The idea, Parikh said, is to test every conceivable scenario, which will help NASA better predict where and how the capsule lands. That’s important considering the astronauts may be floating in the ocean for hours waiting for a helicopter to arrive and bring them to a nearby ship, he said.

Tests of the capsule were not certain until earlier this year when President Barack Obama and Congress reached a compromise on NASA’s human spaceflight program.

NASA Orion: Construction begins

Start made on Space Bound Orion

Construction on the first space-bound Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Module began with the first weld at the Michoud Assembly Facility on Sept. 9. 2011.

This capsule will be used during Orion's first test flight in space.

After welding is completed at Michoud, the Orion spacecraft orbital test article will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where the heat shield will be installed. At Kennedy, it will undergo final assembly and checkout operations for eventual flight.

Credit: NASA

NASA: ORION (OMPCV) Integration

Preparations are underway to begin integration of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Launch Abort System (foreground) with the Crew Module (background) for acoustical testing.

The tests will be conducted in the Reverberant Acoustics Laboratory at the Lockheed Martin Waterton facility near Denver, Colorado.

The Orion stack will be exposed to a series of acoustic tests of increasing decibels that simulate the sound pressure levels that the vehicle will encounter during launch.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA Langley: Splash test of Orion (MPCV)

Inside the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) - Video

Aeronautical engineer Olivia Fuentes talks with TIME's Jeffrey Kluger about the MPCV, the next generation vehicle for deep space travel.

Self-righting Heli-vehicle: Bounce and Fly

This self-righting probe is designed to travel deep into obstacle-ridden spaces such as caves and rubble-laden buildings to video what it finds.

It is being developed for the Army Research Lab in Aberdeen, Maryland, by Eric Beyer and Mark Costello, a pair of robotics engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

The army wants this capability because today's military robots, which run on small tank-style tracks, cannot cope with irregular surfaces and obstacles such as rubble or boulders.

"They usually have trouble and get stuck with even low obstacles and walls a couple of feet high," says Costello. Small helicopters are one alternative, but continuous flying drains the batteries fast.

So their answer - which Costello freely admits is Weeble-inspired - is a rotor-powered, bottom-heavy, self-righting vehicle that spends most of its time on the ground, thus conserving battery power. Instead of flying around, it hops, using a pair of contra-rotating rotors (to avoid the need for a tail rotor) mounted on an aluminium base. All this is encased in a spherical cage made of strong carbon-fibre spars (see diagram).

To steer in flight, the robot swings a weight to tilt in the direction it needs to hop (Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, DOI: 10.2514/1.41331). Whichever way it lands, the weight of the base rights it. Don't take our word for it - Watch the Video!

NASA Test Launch Abort System

The Max Launch Abort System, an astronaut escape ship alternative to NASA's tower-based choice on the Orion vehicles, launched at 6:26 a.m. EDT on July 8, 2009 from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith