Orion

[Ярослав]

[del]

[Petrovich]

А при чем здесь английская Black Arrow  (Блэк Эрроу)  с 8-ю перекисными движками Гамма ?

[SFN]

2 тонны перевеса
according to the annual Government Accountability Office report on Assessments of Large NASA Projects, which came out just this month, the Orion MPCV is 5,000 pounds overweight.  IIRC, that's an increase of 1,000 pounds over what Dumbacher quoted in AvWeek some weeks back.  See p. 55 in this PDF:

http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/653866.pdf

Per the report, NASA is not going to work this problem until after EFT-1.

Also troubling in the report are issues understanding heatshield cracking and delays in EFT-1 hardware delivery.

[frigate]

5,000 pounds = 2267.961 kg  :idea:

[SFN]

p.55
Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle
MPCV
project update

Спойлер

common name: MPCV
The project has experienced delays in building and delivering hardware for its first exploration flight test (EFT-1) which could threaten the launch currently scheduled for September 2014. EFT-1 will test numerous separation events, the thermal protection system, and the parachutes, all of which protect the crew during flight, reentry, and landing events. Development challenges coupled with an aggressive schedule have led the project to miss more internal milestones than anticipated for this test event. The project is currently working to develop a mitigation plan in order to meet their planned September 2014 test date. In addition, NASA is in discussion with the European Space Agency regarding an agreement for development of the service module.
Funding issues
According to NASA officials, vehicle development that cannot be managed within the constraints of the current budget will either cause the project to accept additional risk, defer capabilities to later flights, or delay the first crewed launch date. For example, in order to stay within current budget constraints, the project has deferred development and testing of the launch abort system, which is needed to carry the crew away from the launch vehicle in case of a failed launch. By shifting the ascent abort test to two years later than originally planned, the project has shortened the length of time between the ascent abort test and the first crewed flight which decreases the amount of time the project has to address any issues that may be discovered during the ascent abort test.
Design Issues
The current projected mass of the spacecraft for the first crewed flight test exceeds the recommended mass by over 5,000 pounds. Project officials have deferred mass reduction activities for the first non- crewed flight to the first crewed flight. The project plans to use EFT-1 component testing and flight test results, among other analyses, in order to further refine the spacecraft's design to meet mass requirements.
Project officials are tracking a risk that the thermal protection system could crack due to the thermal expansion stress loads of the heatshield prior to reentering the Earth's atmosphere, which could threaten the safety of the crew and success of the mission. This cracking property was known prior to selection of the heatshield material, but project officials have been conducting stress analyses on the heatshield, among other studies, to understand the magnitude of the cracking. These analyses have delayed production of the heatshield for EFT-1.The heatshield was deemed mature during its critical design in May 2012, and project officials expect its capability to be fully demonstrated in EFT-1.

[свернуть]

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Вопросы проектирования
Нынешние прогнозы масса космического аппарата в первый испытательный полет с экипажем превышает рекомендуемую массу более 5000 фунтов. Проект чиновников отложить массовые мероприятия для сокращения первым не-экипажем полета в экипаж первого полета. В рамках проекта планируется использовать EFT-1 тестирование компонентов и результаты летных испытаний, среди других анализов, в целях дальнейшего совершенствования конструкции космических аппаратов для удовлетворения требований масс.
Персонал проекта отслеживания риск того, что тепловая система защиты может треснуть из-за теплового расширения стресс нагрузок Теплозащитный экран до повторного ввода в атмосферу Земли, что может угрожать безопасности экипажа и успех миссии. Это растрескивание собственности было известно до выбора материала Теплозащитный экран, но проект чиновники проводят стресс анализы на Теплозащитный экран, среди других исследований, чтобы понять величину трещин. Эти исследования привели к задержке производства Теплозащитный экран для EFT-1.The Теплозащитный экран считался зрелым во время критических дизайна в мае 2012 года и проекта чиновники ожидают, ее способность быть в полной мере продемонстрировал в EFT-1.
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Спойлер

Other Issues to be Monitored
Development of MPCV continues under a contract awarded in August 2006 for development of the Orion vehicle under the Constellation Program. This contract is currently valued at $6.2 billion. Project officials told us they are working to modify the contract to reflect budgetary, technical and schedule changes of the reformulated program consistent with Congressional direction.

======================================

Project Office Comments
The MPCV project provided technical comments to a draft of this assessment, which were incorporated as appropriate. NASA officials also commented that while MPCV continues to make progress on the first production spacecraft to fly on EFT-1 in 2014, the project is reformulating to the objectives and constraints of the revised human space exploration policy.
project update
common name: MPCV

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[Ярослав]

Petrovich пишет:
А при чем здесь английская Black Arrow (Блэк Эрроу) с 8-ю перекисными движками Гамма ?

хм... кажись я не в ту тему написал  :oops:

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/05/03/orion-passes-difficult-parachute-test/

Orion Passes Difficult Parachute Test
Posted by Doug Messier
on May 3, 2013, at 12:04 pm
   
YUMA, Arizona (NASA PR) – A test version of NASA's Orion spacecraft safely landed during a simulation of two types of parachute failures Wednesday.In the test, conducted in Yuma, Ariz., the mock capsule was traveling about 250 mph when the parachutes were deployed. That is the highest speed the craft has experienced as part of the test series designed to certify Orion's parachute system for carrying humans.

Engineers rigged one of the test capsule's two drogue parachutes not to deploy and one of its three main parachutes to skip its first stage of inflation after being extracted from a plane 25,000 feet above the Arizona desert. Drogue parachutes are used to slow and reorient Orion while the main parachutes inflate in three stages to gradually slow the capsule further as it descends.

The failure scenario, one of the most difficult simulated so far, will provide data engineers need for human rating the parachute system.

"The tests continue to become more challenging, and the parachute system is proving the design's redundancy and reliability," said Chris Johnson, NASA's project manager for the Orion parachute assembly system. "Testing helps us gain confidence and balance risk to ensure the safety of our crew."

Orion has the largest parachute system ever built for a human-rated spacecraft. The canopies of the three main parachutes can cover almost an entire football field. After reentering Earth's atmosphere, astronauts will use the parachutes to slow the spacecraft for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Testing irregularities allows engineers to verify the parachutes are reliable even when something goes wrong. The tests provide information to refine models used to build the system and Orion. Changes to the design and materials used in Orion's parachute system already have been made based on previous tests. Other government or commercial spacecraft using a similar parachute system also can benefit from the work done to validate Orion.

"Parachute deployment is inherently chaotic and not easily predictable," said Stu McClung, Orion's landing and recovery system manager. "Gravity never takes any time off — there's no timeout. The end result can be very unforgiving. That's why we test. If we have problems with the system, we want to know about them now."

Orion's next Earth-based parachute test is scheduled for July, when the test capsule will be released from 35,000 feet, a higher altitude than ever before. The first test of the parachutes after traveling in space will be during Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014, when an uncrewed Orion will be return from 3,600 miles above Earth's surface. The spacecraft will be traveling at about 340 mph when the parachutes deploy.
   

A model of NASA's Orion spacecraft is loaded into the C-17 airplane that then dropped it from an altitude of 25,000 feet above the Arizona desert.


A model of NASA's Orion spacecraft is poised to be dropped from a C-17 airplane 25,000 feet above the Arizona dessert to test its parachute system.


To test the Orion parachute system, engineers rigged one of the test capsule's three main parachutes – the middle parachute in this view – to skip one stage of its inflation, putting additional stress on the vehicle as it opened.


A model of NASA's Orion spacecraft glides to a successful touchdown during a test of its parachute system on Wednesday, May 1.

[Salo]

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_05_03_2013_p03-02-575826.xml

Orion Parachute System Tested Through Induced Failures
By Mark Carreau
Source: Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

May 03, 2013
Credit: NASA

A mockup of NASA's Orion capsule descended safely this week with multiple deliberately induced parachute system failures onto the U.S. Army Proving Grounds in Yuma, Ariz., clearing the way for a higher altitude drop in July.

The parachute tests are part of preparations for the first unpiloted launch of an Orion spacecraft. Slated for late next year, Exploration Flight Test-1 will launch an uncrewed Orion test capsule atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV to an orbital altitude of 3,600 mi. for evaluations of heat shielding and other systems under deep-space mission re-entry and descent conditions.

"If we have problems with the system, we want to know about them now," said Stu McClung, Orion's landing and recovery system manager, in a statement accompanying the May 1 test. "Parachute deployment is inherently chaotic and not easily predictable."

Recovery operations for piloted Orion missions, currently targeted for 2021, are planned for the Pacific Ocean.

During the latest test, one of the test capsule's two 23-ft. drogue parachutes was constrained from deploying, while one of the three 116-ft. mains was rigged to skip the initial inflation stage, following a drop from an Air Force transport at 25,000 ft. As designed, the mains inflate in three stages to gradually slow the descent.

The test capsule reached 250 mph. as the deployments began, the highest velocity yet for the parachute system flight evaluations. July testing will take the mock Orion capsule to 35,000 ft., the highest altitude yet in the flight evaluation series, permitting chute deployments at 340 mph. Tests over Yuma in February and December demonstrated safe landings with a main chute malfunction and a failed drogue chute deployment.

[Salo]

http://ria.ru/science/20130529/940086593.html

Европейцы к концу года начнут делать оборудование для корабля "Орион"


БАЙКОНУР (Казахстан), 29 мая — РИА Новости. Производство оборудования для европейского космического служебного модуля, который будет в составе американской пилотируемой возвращаемой капсулы "Орион", планируется начать в конце текущего года, сообщил журналистам на космодроме Байконур руководитель Европейского космического агентства (ЕКА) Жан-Жак Дорден.

"Мы планируем создание служебного модуля для капсулы "Орион". Сама капсула уже создана. Что касается служебного модуля, то в конце этого года состоится защита проекта с тем, чтобы производство оборудования (для служебного модуля) было начато в конце года", — сказал Дорден.

Он напомнил, что запуск капсулы "Орион" планируется на конец 2017 года.

Будущий космический корабль "Орион", предназначенный для полетов за пределы околоземной орбиты, создает НАСА в расчете на экспедиции к астероидам и дальше. В середине января НАСА и ЕКА подписали соглашение, согласно которому европейцы предоставят для корабля служебный модуль, созданный на базе "грузовика" ATV.

[SFN]

Он напомнил, что запуск капсулы "Орион"[с европейским служебным модулем] планируется на конец 2017 года.

[bavv]

Orion Parachute Test Vehicle Loading Operations
from NASA Orion Spacecraft
Tuesday, July 23, 2013 1:04 AM
1 day ago

The Orion Parachute Test Vehicle is loaded onto a C-17 plane in preparation for the parachute drop test on Wednesday, July 24.

Orion Spacecraft @NASA_Orion
CPAS Flying Higher Than Everest. Orion was dropped from 35,000 and landed safely using only 2 out of 3 chutes.

CPAS Flying Higher Than Everest
from NASA Orion Spacecraft
Wednesday, July 24, 2013 5:53 PM
1 hour ago

The 10th in a series of evaluations to check out the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle's parachute system dropped an Orion test capsule from a C-17 aircraft at its highest altitude yet, 35,000 feet above the Arizona desert. One of three massive main parachutes was cut away early on purpose, leaving the spacecraft to land with only two. The test at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground was the highest-altitude test of a human spacecraft parachute since NASA's Apollo Program.
[/li]

[Salo]

Chris Bergin: EM-1: NASA managers request ambitious changes to debut SLS/Orion mission
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/07/em-1-nasa-request-changes-debut-slsorion-mission/

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/08/17/navy-practices-recovering-orion-capsule/

Navy Practices Recovering Orion Capsule
Posted by Doug Messier
 
on August 17, 2013, at 10:00 am in News
      


With the U.S. Navy's well deck ship USS Arlington stationed against its pier at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, divers in small boats approached a test version of NASA's Orion crew module.  As part of a deliberative process, the divers attached tow lines and led the capsule to a flooded well deck. With the capsule in position over the recovery cradle, the water drained until the capsule settled.
 
During the stationary recovery test of Orion at Norfolk Naval Base, divers attached tow lines and led the test capsule to a flooded well deck. (Credit: NASA/Dave Bowman)
 
 The stationary recovery test is helping to ensure that when Orion returns from deep space missions and splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, the methods used to recover the spacecraft and obtain critical heat shield data are sound.
"Today marks a significant milestone in the Navy's partnership with NASA and the Orion Human Space Flight Program," said Navy Commander Brett Moyes, Future Plans Branch chief, U.S. Fleet. "The Navy is excited to support NASA's continuing mission of space exploration. Our unique capabilities make us an ideal partner for NASA in the recovery of astronauts in the 21st century — just as we did nearly a half century ago in support of America's quest to put a man on the moon."
The stationary recovery test was two years in the making.  NASA met in working groups with the Navy to leverage their well deck recovery expertise to develop recovery procedures for the Orion crew module. Together, NASA and the Department of Defense (DOD) carefully choreographed each step of the test.
 
With the Orion test capsule in position over the recovery cradle, the water drained until the capsule settled. (Credit: NASA/Dave Bowman)

 "It was nice to see how the ballet of it all performed," said Lou Garcia, NASA Recovery Director.
In the sheltered waters next to a pier, the controlled environment test revealed how precise the positioning of the capsule can be over the cradle used to move the crew module, how long the recovery operation takes and how the taglines, winch lines and tow lines work.
"This allows us to practice our procedures in a benign environment with no ship movement and minimum wave action," said Jim Hamblin, landing and recovery element operations manager, Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) Program.
Navy divers prepared for the recovery test in Norfolk by training in the 6.2 million gallon pool at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston.
Scott Wilson, manager, Offline Processing and Infrastructure for Development,  GSDO Program, referred to testing strategy as a "crawl, walk, run."
 
With the well deck drained, the Orion capsule is recovered aboard the USS Arlington and the stationary recovery test is complete. (Credit:
NASA/Dave Bowman)

 "With this test, we are taking the first steps in learning to walk," Wilson said.
The hardware used in the stationary test will be sent to the West Coast to prepare for a future test of Orion recovery operations in open water planned for January 2014. NASA and the DoD will use the recovery procedures employed in Norfolk to evaluate methods for next year's recovery operations test.
Lessons learned from the test in Norfolk and January's underway recovery test will be applied to the recovery of the Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1 in September 2014.
EFT-1 will be Orion's first mission, which will send an uncrewed spacecraft 3,600 miles into Earth's orbit. As part of the test flight, Orion will return to Earth at a speed of approximately 20,000 mph for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The flight test will provide engineers with critical data about Orion's heat shield, flight systems and capabilities to validate designs of the spacecraft before it begins carrying humans to new destinations in the solar system, including an asteroid and Mars.
EFT-1 will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and splash down off the Baja Coast on the same day. For EFT-1, the recovery ship and team will be in the splashdown zone at the time of launch.
"The recovery of the EFT-1 unmanned Orion capsule will become another building block towards the recovery of Orion capsules with our nation's astronauts aboard," Garcia said.
For more information about the Orion Program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/orion
For more information about the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/groundsystems
Denise Lineberry
 NASA Langley Research Center

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/08/16/orion-review/

NASA OIG: Funding Problems Threaten Delays in Orion Program
Posted by Doug Messier

on August 16, 2013, at 3:34 pm in News
                                                        

 NASA's $16.5 billion deep space Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is suffering fr om underfunding that threatens increasing program risks and causing delays in a program that won't fly with astronauts until 2021, the space agency's watchdog reports.
"Constrained funding for the MPCV forced Program managers to adopt a less-than-optimal incremental development approach in which elements necessary to complete the most immediate tests are given priority while development and testing is delayed on other important but less time sensitive aspects of the Program," NASA's Inspector General said in an audit released this week. "While this may be the only realistic and affordable development approach available to NASA given the Program's current funding profile, such an approach increases risks."
The audit also reports that:
 

[/li]
• the MPCV program is already suffering from delays in testing key components and systems, including postponing the Ascent Abort-2 test by 4 years and the Exploration Flight Test-1 9 months;
  

[/li]
• "under the Program's incremental development strategy NASA has delayed development of many of the life support systems required for performing crewed missions."
  

[/li]
• the program is further vulnerable to slips if NASA experiences delays in developing the the Space Launch System and ESA with the spacecraft's service module;
  

[/li]
• the five biggest technical risks include spacecraft weight, vehicle test and verification plan, cracking of the heat shield, heat shield production schedule, and engineering drawing release rate.
  

[/li]
• Even after MPCV is developed, "NASA will continue to face significant challenges concerning the long-term sustainability of its human exploration program. For example, unless NASA begins a program to develop landers and surface systems, NASA astronauts will be lim ited to orbital missions using the MPCV."
  

Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) vehicle in 2006 as part of the Constellation program, which aimed to return U.S. astronauts to the moon. The Obama Administration later canceled Constellation, but two key elements of it — Orion MPCV and a heavy-lift vehicle now known as Space Launch System (SLS) — were saved from the program.
The Inspector General's report found two problems with MPCV: underfunding and a flat budget profile. The report notes that MPCV received $1.2 billion annually for Fiscal Years 2011 through 2013.
"The $3.6 billion received by the MPCV Program was a reduction of over $1.8 billion or 34 percent of the funding NASA expected to receive in the last CEV budget request submitted prior to cancellation of the Constellation Program," the report states. "Moreover, the MPCV Program anticipates a flat budget profile of approximately $1 billion per year for the remainder of the decade and into the 2020s. Assuming this budget profile and current development schedule, NASA plans to spend approximately $16.5 billion developing its
 crew vehicle by the time of the first crewed flight currently planned for 2021."
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported that the optimal life-cycle funding profile for space projects includes steady funding at the beginning then an increase in funding in the middle years. This produces a bell-shaped funding curve like the one shown in Figure 3 below.
 

Figure 3: Lifecycle Funding Profile for Space System Development

"MPCV Program officials acknowledged that a flat funding trajectory is not optimal and increases the risk that costly design changes may be needed later in the Program when they begin to integrate and test the capsule with other Program elements," the report states.
"MPCV Program managers expect their budget to be "flat-lined" at $1 billion per year  through at least 2018. In fact, due to inflation, MPCV's flat budget profile actually represents a reduction in out-year purchasing power," the audit adds. "The MPCV Program has experienced significant budget reductions in the development phase, which Program officials say has made it difficult to plan and execute a viable development schedule. For example, NASA has delayed development of life support systems and some avionics due to budget constraints. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel – an advisory group that evaluates NASA's safety performance – considers the MPCV's flat budget profile the Program's biggest risk."
The audit makes no specific programmatic recommendations for change.
"Although we made no specific recommendations for corrective action in a draft of this report, we encouraged NASA managers to be as transparent as possible when discussing the issues facing the MPCV Program and the risk associated with its incremental development approach," the report states. "We believe it vital that Congress and the public recognize that incremental spacecraft development is not an optimal way to sustain a human space program. Further, NASA must continue to enhance communication between the MPCV, SLS, and GSDO programs to ensure that the schedules for these interdependent programs remain aligned."
You can read the full audit here.

[ronatu]

Вот и будут летать Союз, Дракон и Тяньгун...

[ronatu]

Боинг забыл...   

[bavv]

Image of the Day

Introducing the 2013 Astronaut Class

Members of NASA's newest astronaut class pose with an Orion capsule at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013. Pictured back row, left to right: Tyler (Nick) Hague, Jessica Meir, Christina Hammock, Nicole Mann, Victor Glover. Picture front row, left to right: Andrew Morgan, Anne McClain, Josh Cassada.

Image Credit: NASA

[Anatoly Zak]

Визуализация полета "Ориона" к астероиду:

http://www.nasa.gov/content/new-imagery-of-asteroid-mission/index.html#.UhaOUeBCcTs

ИМХО, если бы астероид не был в мешок упакован, миссия выглядела бы эффектнее, но так тоже неплохо!

[G.K.]

Anatoly Zak пишет:
Визуализация полета "Ориона" к астероиду:

Сразу бросилось в глаза: 
1. Отсутствие шлюза. Если у них там есть этот грузовой робот и они к нему стыкуются, то почему не сделать на нём шлюз? А так каждый раз разгерметизировать весь СА....Выглядит так, если бы для каждого выхода в открытый космос разгерметизировали бы целый модуль на МКС. 
2. Почему не сделать новое "реактивное кресло"? Они так старательно тягают друг друга штангами вместо полёта со страховочным фалом? 

[Anatoly Zak]

G.K. пишет:
Сразу бросилось в глаза:
1. Отсутствие шлюза. Если у них там есть этот грузовой робот и они к нему стыкуются, то почему не сделать на нём шлюз? А так каждый раз разгерметизировать весь СА....Выглядит так, если бы для каждого выхода в открытый космос разгерметизировали бы целый модуль на МКС.
2. Почему не сделать новое "реактивное кресло"? Они так старательно тягают друг друга штангами вместо полёта со страховочным фалом?

Совершенно согласен! И еще один "маленький" вопрос: накой там пилотируемый корапь? Весь проект отдает попыткой придумать занятие для пилотируемой программы.