New Orion Rising
- Published in Space
NASA sent up its new Orion spacecraft after an epic journey of over 3,600 miles from Earth. The space program has new goals and new projects beyond our horizon.
The new Orion spacecraft flew further and faster than any spacecraft built for humans since the Apollo program. While this particular craft was unmanned, it achieved its goal of flying a 4.5 hour test flight and landing perfectly in the Pacific Ocean as planned. The Orion crafts will eventually take humans into space, truly surpassing any of the Apollo mission records.
The plan for future Orions, according to NASA, is to take astronauts further into space than ever before. The real, future goal? To reach Mars. This goal will probably take decades to achieve, but one small step for man was taken on December 6, 2014.
The results from Mission Control confirm that the capsule remained intact and all of the parachutes deployed exactly as planned. The onboard computers endured the high levels of radiation of the Van Allen belts, two “belts” of energized particles held in place by Earth’s magnetic field.
Orion climbed to its epic height to test the craft’s heat shield for efficacy in protection for human missions in the future. This was the most crucial part of the test. It is also why the mission was unmanned.
Orion was equipped with cameras, relaying images back home during its flight. Its splashdown was recorded by an unmanned drone over the recovery zone. Readings showed that the craft slowed from 20,000 mph to 20 mph in just eleven minutes before its water landing. Had human astronauts been on board, they would have undergone up to 8.2Gs of force. Upon landing, three of the five air bags were deployed, enough to keep the crew module afloat. Amazingly, it landed only 1.5 miles from the landing target. This is incredibly accurate for an unmanned flight.
Orion’s future includes a 2017 launch abort test, a 2018 trip aboard a larger rocket that is being developed, and a possible 2021 mission that will actually have a crew. The delay in sending a manned ship is related to budgetary issues.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. called the December 5th flight, “Day One of the Mars era.” Future iterations of Orion will contain habitats to support life for the long trip to Mars. With today’s technology, it would take eight months to reach the red planet.
Mission Control led the operation, but Orion was basically on autopilot during its journey. And while it didn’t have any humans aboard, it did have over 1,200 sensors to check a variety of conditions during the journey.
Lockheed Martin Corporation has begun building the second Orion capsule and is looking forward to creating the future fleet.
After decades of telling stories and making movies about “martians,” it looks like we are finally going to get to the planet. The rover remains on the surface, tweeting and taking pictures – adding to the data that will eventually be used to take us all the way to the first steps on Mars.