Orion (CEV / SM) - status

cIclops · 2007-12-12 02:59:32

To The Moon! (In a Minivan) - Charles Fishman, December 2007

Orion--service module, capsule, escape tower--must weigh no more than 50,250 pounds. The resulting cascade of trade-offs touches almost everything. There is an ongoing wrangle, for example, about whether Orion will have a water heater so astronauts can make coffee each morning--a slim connection to normalcy. Apollo had one, the shuttle has one. Is there room in Orion's "weight envelope" for a water heater? What are you willing to give up to have hot coffee during a 7- to 21-day mission?
Even something as fundamental as windows depends on your perspective. Spacecraft windows have been an issue at NASA since the days of Mercury in the early '60s. Engineers would just as soon create Orion's capsule without windows. That's the strongest, most efficient way to design a spacecraft's structure and skin. The astronauts would prefer a pair of bay windows. That's the way to ensure vital visibility during launch, landing, and orbital maneuvering. Although Orion's flight will typically be automated, astronauts crave a sense of "situational awareness," the ability to orient themselves spatially, physically. That is critical when things start to go wrong. As astronaut Edward Lu told Orion's designers, "I'll trade food for larger windows."
Yet one square foot of spacecraft window--three panes of quartz glass--weighs more than a square foot of metal hull. Every inch of window is weight that has to be shaved somewhere else.
Blaine Brown is the Lockheed engineer in charge of designing the crew capsule. He is so passionate about aeronautical design that he went out and earned a pilot's license--so he'd have a taste of what it's like to fly--and applied to be an astronaut in the class of 2000. Brown's designers delivered an initial Orion capsule with four main windows, two over the control panel, two on either side of it.
Astronauts assigned to consult on Orion's design didn't like the windows. They were, astronaut Lee Morin says, "like looking through a mail slot"--with no view of the horizon and unsatisfactory views for docking. The astronauts originally suggested larger windows that added 80 pounds--to a spacecraft already 5,000 pounds over its limit.
Fortunately, there was a perfect arena to play out the window debate in Houston, and it illuminates the pragmatic culture that has sprung up around the Orion project. Squirreled away in a corner of Building 16 at Johnson sits the ROC (reconfigurable operational cockpit), a bare-bones Orion-capsule simulator. It is the creation of Michael Red and Alberto Sena, two NASA engineers who have worked on shuttle simulators for years and pulled together the ROC without anyone asking for it. "We just did it," Sena says. "We're trying to provide an immersion environment to aid the design."
The ROC includes just a small slice of Orion interior, made of white Masonite and simple aluminum framing. An ordinary bar stool with a blue-cloth seat pulls up to the control panel. Dangling overhead is a ping-pong ball on a thread. Adjust the height of the barstool so the ball rests on the bridge of your nose, pull your barstool up to the command console, and you get an astronaut's-eye view through the windows, behind which a computer plays a launch simulation on a big screen. Astronauts and designers were able to see what each of the 20 different versions of window configurations would show at critical stages of a mission.
This simple skunkworks took the guesswork out of designing the windows. "We were able to tweak them a little bit and get a lot more performance," Brown says. Because Orion is double-hulled (with an inner pressure shell and an outer thermal shell), the deep frames were blocking the view to each side. The astronauts were so determined to evaluate the views, Red says, that during simulations they'd end up sticking their heads right through the window holes to look around. Eventually, the windows were repositioned, and the frames were flared along the ship's hull to open up the field of view.
Total weight increase: 27 pounds. Total cost: little more than a few trips to Home Depot.

cIclops · 2007-12-19 02:24:11

Lockheed Martin Team Opens New Space Exploration Development Laboratory For Orion

Houston, TX, December 12th, 2007 -- Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] announced today the opening of its new space Exploration Development Laboratory in a ceremony dedicating the facility to support the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Project Orion and Constellation Program. Orion isAmerica’s next-generation human spaceflight vehicle that will transport up to six astronauts to and from the International Space Station and up to four to the moon and destinations beyond, beginning in 2015 after the space shuttle is retired.
The new 10,000 sq. ft. Exploration Development Laboratory is a state-of-the-art test facility funded by Lockheed Martin and its teammates United Space Alliance and Honeywell as part of an integrated EDL network that includes facilities in Denver, CO, Glendale, AZ and Arlington, VA. The EDL network is designed to reduce cost and schedule risk by providing an early opportunity to perform systems level avionics and software testing for Orion in a realistic environment in the development phase of the program.

cIclops · 2007-12-21 02:22:54

From Launch Abort System Flight Test Overview (PDF 140MB) - August 2007

Flight Test Objectives for PA-1
• LAV
– Demonstrate stability & control of the LAV during ascent
• LAS
– Determine abort motor performance
– Determine attitude control motor performance
– Demonstrate ability of LAS to jettison from CM
• Separation Events
– Demonstrate abort events sequencing
– Obtain data on ground impact locations for the LAV modules
• Parachute
– demonstrate deployment of drogue & main parachute pilot chute
– Demonstrate performance of main parachute system
• Environmental
– Determine acoustics environment during ascent (before LAS jettison)
– Determine telemetry transmission of the CM through the BPC
• Ground Support

Notes:
LAV = Launch Ascent Vehicle
LAS = Launch Abort System
CM = Command Module

RedStreak · 2007-12-21 12:19:47

I can't seem to load the massive PDF but what you posted looks interesting cyclops. So this is info on the first Orion test right?

cIclops · 2007-12-21 12:31:03

Yep, this is the very first LAS test that uses a Boilerplate Orion mockup capsule with the same mass and dimensions, it's set for 23 Sep 2008, just 9 months from now!

The link is fine, try right click / save link target as ....

cIclops · 2007-12-22 10:55:19

Concept image: Orion docked with Altair

cIclops · 2008-01-11 12:02:08

ATK Selected by Lockheed Martin to Design and Build Solar Arrays - 11 Jan 2008

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) has been selected by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, a division of Lockheed Martin Corporation to design, develop and build UltraFlex solar arrays for NASA's next generation Orion crew exploration vehicle. The value of the initial design and development contract is expected to exceed $50 million. Program management, design, engineering, analysis, manufacturing, assembly and test work for the solar arrays will be conducted at ATK's facility in Goleta, CA. Because the flight solar array system is expendable for each Orion mission, ATK expects continuous production through 2020 and beyond.
Powered by ATK's solar arrays, Orion is being designed to carry astronauts to the moon. It also will transport crew and cargo to the International Space Station.
ATK's UltraFlex disk shaped solar arrays, each measuring greater than 5 meters in diameter, will track the sun and provide power for Orion during its mission. ATK's UltraFlex arrays offer superior performance characteristics and mission enabling features, including ultra-lightweight, high strength, high stiffness, and compact stowage volume. The UltraFlex solar array configured for Orion will provide over twenty-five times the strength and ten times the stiffness of ATK's conventional rigid panel solar arrays, at less than one-fourth the weight.
"We are very excited to play such a key partner role on Lockheed Martin's team supporting NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle," said Mike Cerneck, Vice President and General Manager of ATK Space, headquartered in Beltsville, MD. "ATK is a leader in the development and supply of mission-enabling deployable space systems and we look forward to supporting NASA's new era of space exploration."

Phoenix uses smaller "UltraFlex" arrays that are 2.1m in diameter.

cIclops · 2008-01-31 03:00:45

Contract for singular landing system - 30 Jan 2008

Airborne Systems North America (ASNA) and ILC Dover LP have signed an agreement to work together on the Orion airbag landing and floatation system. A new study initiated by NASA is underway for a “singular” landing system that works for land and water landings and protects the Astronauts in contingency landing situations. ILC and Airborne have combined their engineering and analysis teams and their Orion Gen-2 airbag designs for the new study.
Testing is underway at NASA Langley Research Center for the Gen-2 airbag systems produced at these companies prior to the teaming agreement. Results from these tests will be used to help select the best features of each design.
Peter Johnson, Vice President of Airborne Space and Recovery Systems commented “ILC and Airborne have unique strengths for design, analysis, and manufacture of landing systems. Together with NASA’s and Lockheed Martin’s Orion vehicle design team we provide a very strong technical team that will yield the optimal design solution.”
The airbag team will be looking for design optimizations and mass savings in the singular landing study while NASA and Lockheed Martin are reassessing the entire landing architecture.
NASA has convened a landing tiger team for DAC-2 that will conduct evaluations and trades through February and reassess the nominal landing decision in early March this year. Their goal is “develop the best occupant protection system that maximizes crew safety during ascent, ascent aborts, landing, and post landing recovery” according to a landing system strategy published by John M. Curry, NASA Orion VI Block Manager, on January 7th. The strategy also indicates water landing is nominal and land landing is the contingency.
Bill Wallach, President of ILC Dover, commented, “This teaming agreement provides a better value to NASA not only because of the combined efforts, but the more open communications with everyone involved in the landing system. We look forward to collaborating with NASA, Lockheed, and ASNA to optimize the inflatable landing solution.”

gaetanomarano · 2008-01-31 09:45:35

Parachute landing systems augmented by air bags and or retro rockets have been under study by NASA since the early days of Orion. See earlier messages in this topic.
(gaetanomarano, this seems to be a duplicate, self promotional message. Unless there are reasons to keep it, it will be removed as spam.)

I don't want that you read all my articles (if you have something better to do) but, if you don't read them, you can't see the difference

I know the original Orion airbag system, but it's 1.5 mT heavy and too dangerous (due to its jettisoned TPS) then, I've suggested two (lighter) solutions NEVER proposed by NASA

.

cIclops · 2008-01-31 10:12:02

I know the original Orion airbag system, but it's 1.5 mT heavy and too dangerous (due to its jettisoned TPS) then, I've suggested two (lighter) solutions NEVER proposed by NASA.

Yes it's too heavy for the current design according to Jeff Hanley, who also said the air bags weighed 680 kg.

(as there was no justification for keeping your previous message, it has been deleted together with my response)

RedStreak · 2008-01-31 13:42:59

I know the original Orion airbag system, but it's 1.5 mT heavy and too dangerous (due to its jettisoned TPS) then, I've suggested two (lighter) solutions...

Always that damn I've that leads to more self-endorsements. Start up your own aerospace company if you have soooooooooo many ideas!

cIclops · 2008-02-04 15:09:43

From the FY 2009 Budget Request Full Document (5.9 Mb PDF) - 4 Feb 2008

Preliminary Design Review: 3rd Qtr FY2008

Critical Design Review: 4th Qtr FY2009

RedStreak · 2008-02-04 17:55:11

Promising. I'll be eager to hear what the preliminary report says.

cIclops · 2008-02-05 02:40:05

It's not likely the review itself will be published. A PDR on a project this scale is a big effort involving hundreds of documents, many meetings and presentations. The design of each subsystem will be examined in detail and results from various studies discussed. At the end of the process a decision will be made to proceed or rework the design. Hopefully a summary will be published.

cIclops · 2008-02-11 10:49:31

Keeping it Cool - 31 Jan 2008

NASA chose an ablative heat shield that slowly burns off because it can handle higher temperatures than the shuttle's reusable tiles. A spacecraft returning from a lunar mission is expected to encounter temperatures as high as 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, compared to about 2,300 degrees for a space shuttle re-entry. Because of this, the Orion heat shield can only be used once, Huff said.
The prototype heat shield rests in Hangar N at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where will it undergo several months of nondestructive evaluation testing, or NDE, that mainly includes laser scans and X-rays. The tests will be used to reveal flaws purposely built into the heat shield.
"We want to get it into the X-ray facility to use X-rays to look for these known flaws," Huff said. "That's part of the NDE task to come up with standards, so when you get a flight unit, you know what you're flying."

cIclops · 2008-02-15 12:23:16

Several photos of the completed boilerplate capsule - all set for the pad abort test scheduled 23 Sep 2008

cIclops · 2008-02-18 07:17:41

Composite Crew Module

Early in 2006, the NASA Engineering and Safety Center assembled a team to examine the possibility of an alternative composite-dominated CM design. As part of this activity, NASA Glenn Research Center personnel and contractors took the lead on designing and sizing a potential monocoque CM concept and performed sizing analysis on a geometrically stiffened CM concept designed by the NASA Ames Research Center

GCNRevenger · 2008-02-18 08:08:44

That would pretty much fix any CM weight problems, wouldn't it?

cIclops · 2008-02-18 08:51:11

What CM weight problems? Orion has closed mass margins for both ISS and lunar missions. Of course it's early days in the design process - PDR is not until Q3 this year, and important decisions such as the landing mode have to be made. BTW Ares I has reserves of about 20%.

AFAIK the current 607 (point of departure design) is using Al-Li for the primary structure, however, the mass saving possibilities of composites would make them attractive for future upgrades. The downside is the lack of understanding of these new materials in such applications.

cIclops · 2008-03-03 04:35:48

From: Project Orion progress (PDF 2MB) - 26 Feb 2008

• 5 meter diameter capsule – Apollo shape
• Significant increase in volume from Apollo (3.9 meter)
• Proven safe technique to withstand extreme heating loads
• Able to leverage Apollo performance data
• Reduced development time and risk
• Larger Crew Accommodations
• Lunar missions: 4 crew
• Space Station missions: 6 crew
• Expanded Mission Capabilities
• Long Duration (6 months)
• State-of-the-Art Materials, Systems

RedStreak · 2008-03-03 11:47:27

So they've completed the boilerplate "dummy" that will be used in the upcoming Pad Abort Test?

Have they officially decided to use that more 'rounded' nosecone for Ares-I? I also see in the article what appears to be a cargo-block sketch for a future Orion derivative I think.

cIclops · 2008-03-04 01:00:21

Yes. This boilerplate will fly as the mass simulator for the command module during the pad abort test in September.

Not really sure what this is, but it does look like a small circular cargo compartment for the service module. There seems to be two hatches, one on each side. Rough size is about 2x1m, so about 3m³ each. NASA said October 2007 that GSFC were working on an unpressurized cargo carrier for Orion. The dedicated cargo version of Orion was canceled.

And yes, the rounded bulb shape LAS adapter is part of the new baseline, but AFAIK it won't fly on the pad abort test.

cIclops · 2008-03-12 03:34:29

PA-1 boilerplate command module

New Orion CEV requirements - 27 Feb 2008

By Rob Coppinger
NASA and its Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV) prime contractor Lockheed Martin are restructuring the design, development, test and evaluation contract, awarded in August 2006, following new CEV requirements that emerged from project reviews last November and December.
Lockheed expects the restructured seven-year deal to be agreed by May this year with increased costs in the short term but overall no change to the total contract award of $3.9 billion.
Requirements for the Orion that have already been dropped are two-failure tolerant specifications for some of its subsystems while others, such as the ability of the capsule to cope with Atlantic or Pacific sea-states for up to 36h before the crew can be recovered, are in negotiation.
Before the restructuring is agreed Lockheed expects Orion subsystem preliminary design reviews to start in the second quarter of this year and to continue through a final PDR for the entire CEV in the third quarter. The outcome of the requirements renegotiation and PDR reviews may also see a reduced level of reusability for Orion.
Lockheed Martin Space System's human spaceflight vice-president and general manager John Karas told Flight at NASA's third space exploration conference, in Denver, Colorado, on 26 February: "If you can reuse 50% of the vehicles 50% of the time, you can meet the life cycle costs."
Only the CEV's crew module is reusable, its service module is expendable. But landing in water could mean the crew module is not fully reusable unless the capsule is recovered with the crew still in it.
Orion is being designed to go to the Moon and Karas explained that while the service module's reduced propellant needs for an International Space Station mission would allow the capsule to use the very heavy heat shield needed for the skip re-entry necessary for a land landing, CEV lunar flight mass limitations preclude the heavy shield.
In an off-nominal land landing a Moon-capable Orion could save its crew but, Karas added, it would need a mix of a crushable zone and crew seat shock absorbers and the capsule would not be reusable. NASA has a study under way on the water- or land-landing baseline and a decision could be taken in March or April.
April may also see the PDR for the crew module's heat shield, developed by NASA Ames Research Center and Boeing. If successful this phenolic impregnated carbon ablator will then be handed over to Lockheed for integration into CEV.

[url=http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-tiles0108mar01,0,5772843.story[/url]New use for NASA's ceramic thermal-protection tiles[/url] - 1 Mar 2008

Robert Block | Sentinel Space Editor
CAPE CANAVERAL - Ceramic heat-protection tiles -- for three decades, the fragile symbol of the space-shuttle era -- have gained an unexpected new lease on life.
Long assumed to be destined for the engineering garbage can as NASA abandons the shuttle for a new spaceship, the tiles have made a comeback as part of the thermal-protection system of the Orion space capsule that is supposed to return astronauts to the moon in 2020.
Even better for the beleaguered work force at Kennedy Space Center -- which expects to lose thousands of jobs when the shuttle is retired in 2010 -- the tiles will be manufactured and applied to the sides of the Orion capsule at KSC. But only as few as 10 tile technicians will remain, down from an estimated several hundred today.
Still, advocates fighting to save jobs at KSC put a positive spin on the news. "Any job that won't be lost is good for Florida," said Deborah Spicer, Space Florida's spokeswoman.
No technology has caused more general exasperation in the space-shuttle program than the 24,000 tiles, each applied by hand, that protect the shuttle's belly and the underside of its wings from the searing heat of re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
Custom-made of spun and compressed silica, every tile is a quality-assurance nightmare. Almost absurdly brittle, they can shatter under finger pressure and be punctured by a pencil.
They are routinely battered and pockmarked by everything from pieces of foam insulation to space debris and even sand particles from the California runway on which the shuttle sometimes lands.
On average, NASA says, 100 tiles must be repaired or replaced after every shuttle mission. In 1997, Columbia came back with damage to 308 tiles -- with 132 showing scars longer than an inch. At least four shuttles have returned from space with tiles missing.
Tiles still do the job
But over 30 years, engineers have yet to devise a simpler, lighter, tougher system, according to Jeff Hanley, the NASA manager overseeing the Constellation program, which includes the Orion capsule and the Ares rocket. "There has been no serious life-compromising or threatening tile event that I am aware of," he said.
When Columbia broke up in 2003, it was because of a hole in the reinforced carbon-carbon material that insulates the leading edge of the wing from the most intense heat of re-entry. The hole was caused by a chunk of foam from the shuttle's external fuel tank that flew off during liftoff.
The tiles' return is partly a result of the engineering challenges dogging the Constellation program. Thrust issues with the Ares I rocket forced engineers to look for ways to lighten the Orion capsule.
NASA's original plan used a Frisbee-shaped disc of a material called PICA as Orion's main heat shield to deflect temperatures that will reach 4,800 degrees on the bottom of the capsule and a special resin on the sides where the heat would not be as intense. But the resin was too heavy.
"The team recently determined for the overall weight of the spacecraft the tile would be a better selection," said Hanley.
"The tiles were available," explained Cleon Lacefield, Orion program manager for Lockheed Martin, which is designing the 25-ton crew vehicle. "They gave us the heat protection we needed, and the newer generation is very tough. They increased the damage tolerance over other alternatives we were looking at."
NASA signed off late last year and is testing prototypes of the new tile designs at the Ames Research Center in California, where re-entry heat can be re-created by gas-plasma streams. Later this year, they will be tested in wave tanks to see how they hold up to salt water, which is where Orion is likely to land.
Lacefield said Lockheed has asked United Space Alliance, one of its partially owned subsidiaries and NASA's main shuttle contractor, to plan on using its facility here to build the new tiles for installation on the first five Orion capsules that will be assembled at the Cape in 2010.

Shuttle ceramic tiles!

Commodore · 2008-03-13 13:51:34

Well, since they are never technically suppose to be exposed to anything until reentry, it would appear on the surface to mitigate the flaws.

Having said that, is there any good reason to have an SM with a smaller diameter than the CM?

gaetanomarano · 2008-03-13 16:35:48

is there any good reason to have an SM with a smaller diameter than the CM?

no, it's a disadvantage since needs a bigger fairing

.

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#276 2007-12-12 02:59:32

Re: Orion (CEV / SM) - status

#277 2007-12-19 02:24:11

Re: Orion (CEV / SM) - status

#278 2007-12-21 02:22:54

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#279 2007-12-21 12:19:47

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#280 2007-12-21 12:31:03

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#281 2007-12-22 10:55:19

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#282 2008-01-11 12:02:08

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#283 2008-01-31 03:00:45

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#284 2008-01-31 09:45:35

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#285 2008-01-31 10:12:02

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#286 2008-01-31 13:42:59

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#287 2008-02-04 15:09:43

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#288 2008-02-04 17:55:11

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#289 2008-02-05 02:40:05

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#290 2008-02-11 10:49:31

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#291 2008-02-15 12:23:16

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#292 2008-02-18 07:17:41

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#293 2008-02-18 08:08:44

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#294 2008-02-18 08:51:11

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#295 2008-03-03 04:35:48

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#296 2008-03-03 11:47:27

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#297 2008-03-04 01:00:21

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#298 2008-03-12 03:34:29

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#299 2008-03-13 13:51:34

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#300 2008-03-13 16:35:48

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