Monday, May 4, 2015

The Next Step

The public sector of space flight is the government funded National Air and Space Administration (NASA) that is currently working on developing a new wave of spacecrafts and rocket technology. In the peer-review article To Low Earth Orbit and Beyond by Mckee describes the future of space travel after the NASA space shuttles retired in 2011 without having to rely on Russia to ship cargo and transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The future depends on the new space craft Orion that would be able to carry astronauts to lunar orbit much like Apollo craft except this would be more spacious and able to keep four astronauts on board for 21 days. Here is a diagram breaking apart the Orion spacecraft found on the NASA website.


Orion is designed to be paired with additional modules that would be created one day to bring future explorers to Mars and beyond. The major problem with sending Orion to the Moon and further is the return velocity once hitting the Earth's atmosphere is greater than any other manned spacecraft had to endure. Testing will be conducted to make sure the newly developed 5 centimeter thick poxy heat shield would be able to withstand the highest temperature upwards of 2200 degrees Celsius and also to launch the parachutes that would slow Orion down to splash gently onto the water. Hopefully soon it will be able to take astronauts and scientists to the stars and back.








Mckee, M. (January 2014). To Low Earth Orbit and Beyond. Spectrum IEE. 51, 58-59.  http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.mutex.gmu.edu/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6701435&tag=1


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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 9, 2015 at 10:28 AM

    Why is the return velocity higher for Orion than other space crafts? What type of material are they planning on using to slow the descent? Is it metallic based? And can the parachute be guided to land on water?

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  2. UnknownMay 11, 2015 at 4:23 PM

    I did not know that the US was relying on Russia to send cargo up to the international space station. When did they start construction on Orion, and has it been finished yet? I think I will have to read the article that you mentioned because it sounds really interesting. I cannot believe that they could have that many astronauts on board for 21 days, that is quite a long time to eat freeze dried foods. I tried freeze dried ice cream before when I went to the air and space museum and I did not like it at all, it tasted really weird, but I guess if you want to go up into space you will eat anything.

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