NASA Constellation Program Part 2: The Orion Crew Vehicle

This is part two of the series on NASA's Constellation program, if you didn't read part one then here it is so that you can catch up. Today we will be discussing the Orion Crew Vehicle and all of the parts that come with it. Well let's go ahead and get right into it.

The Orion Vehicle is being designed to carry a crew of four to six astronauts, and will be launched by the Ares I rocket. It is scheduled to begin flights at the end of 2014 or beginning of 2015 with future flights to the International Space Station. Though flights to and from the ISS isn't Orion's main purpose, its primary function will be human missions to the Moon and Mars. The design of the Orion Vehicle is based heavily on the Apollo command module, with one of the major differences being that Orion can carry up to six passengers while Apollo could carry a max of three. You can see the Orion Vehicle's main components in the diagram.

The Orion Crew Module will be 5 meters by 3.3 meters, mass around 8.5 tonnes, and have an internal volume of 6 cubic meters. Orion will dock by means of the Low Impact Docking System, which is pretty much high tech USB port for spaceships.

The craft's service module will have a pair of deployable circular solar panels that replace the fuel cells that powered Apollo. Orion is propelled by an Aerojet (read more) AJ-10 rocket engine, derived from the second stage of the Delta II rocket. The closed-loop recycling system used will be identical to those units used on both the Mir and International Space Stations.

The abort system uses an abort motor, which is more powerful than the Atlas 109-D booster that launched astronaut John Glenn into orbit in 1962, that would clear the astronauts of any danger that may be threatening them. Now Orion has safely completed its mission and returns to Earth it has a new way of landing. It uses a combination of parachutes and either retrorockets or airbags for capsule recovery, this eliminates the expensive naval recovery. As I said earlier the craft should be in flight by 2014, and since NASA has this as one of its top priorities I think that it may actually be close to on time. Only time will tell. This crew vehicle has a lot of potential for Moon missions and especially for Mars missions; I just hope that it will fulfill that potential.

Now don't forget that tomorrow night we have a full lunar eclipse around 10:30pm EST. It should be a really amazing eclipse and it is the last one until 2010 so don't miss it!

Source: NASA.gov, Wikipedia.com
Image Source: Wikipedia.com

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NASA Constellation Program Part 1: Overview

I thought that I would do a little series on NASA's Constellation Program just to inform thouse who don't know too much about it, and to update those who are keeping track of this project's progress. So to start off this post will be an overview of the whole program and then I will go into more depth on its individual parts in later posts and add updated information as it comes in.

The main purpose of the Constellation program is to design and build the spacecraft for America's next generation of human spaceflight. The program's current projects are the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule, the Earth Departure Stage and the Altair lunar lander. Once completed these spacecraft will be able to perform all of America's duties in space such as supplying the ISS, and hopefully landing on the Moon and eventully Mars.

The main goals of the NASA's Constellation program are to keep an American presence in suborbital space, to return to the moon and hopefully establish an outpost, to prepare to explore Mars and possibly get humans there by 2050.

The development of this program was started politically by the Vision for Space Exploration which George Bush proposed in 2004. This Vision has good intentions and should keep NASA busy, though I would imagine, and almost hope, that private companies exceed NASA's unambitious goals.

But to me the Constellation program is interesting and has a good bit of potential so I will continue this series with the next part being on the Orion crew exploration vehicle.

Image source: nasa.gov

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Barack Obama and Outer Space

I have been browsing around lately and I read a post over at http://www.spacepolitics.com/ and in a post by Darnell at http://www.colonyworlds.com/ about Barack Obama's space policy. The source for both of the is http://www.spaceref.com/ .

Obama has been much more supportive of NASA and its needs than many of his opponents. SpaceRef says that Obama supports development of the Ares 1 and Orion, completion of the ISS, robotic space exploration, and climate change research. Obama has said that he would talk with other nations about the need to stop space weaponization and work together. One subject that Obama was weak on in his recent statement in SpaceRef is actual human exploration, he focuses more on robotic and research missions. This disappoints me a little, though progress is progress and as long things are being done that is good. One other presidential candidate that may bring good news for the space community is John McCain who says that he would like to bring humans to space as soon as possible. This is a developing story and I will report on it as more news comes out. It is up to the space community to make space an important issue in politics.

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Congressman Proposed Plan to Delay Shuttle Retirement

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) unveiled legislation Dec. 17 aimed at keeping the U.S. space shuttle fleet flying beyond its planned 2010 retirement. The plan will keep the shuttle's alive until at least 2015 though possibly past that. The purpose of the bill is to make the transition to the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle a little smoother and in case the Orion Vehicle cannot make crucial trips the shuttle will be there to make the launches. I suppose the bill is a good idea, it strips some funds from NASA while adding others. It comes at the same time as Congress was poised to take up an omnibus spending bill that includes the $17.3 billion the White House requested for NASA for 2008, that would increase the agency's spending on science and aeronautics at the expense of Orion and Ares. The bill proposed by Weldon will provide NASA with $3.7 billion annually for upkeep of the shuttles. Hopefully the bill will not be needed but I expect that it will, regardless of whether it is passed or not. We will soon see what exactly NASA's budget is next year and as soon as I know you will know.

I just found a neat little slideshow about the Orion and Ares vechicles: http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=3562&gid=263

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