[ad_1]
NASA plans to use two commercial launchers to send a non-piloted Orion capsule and its European-built service module to a test flight around the moon next year, thus keeping the lunar test flight program in spite of the new Delays in the development of a multi-billion dollar space launch system that jeopardizes the maiden flight of heavy gear in 2020, announced Wednesday the board director of the agency.
The lunar test flight, called Exploration Mission-1, is a precursor to NASA's plan to fly astronauts aboard the Orion satellite, build an orbiting lunar outpost and send humans to the surface of the Earth. Moon. But Exploration Mission-1, or EM-1, had to deal with repeated delays as engineers built and tested the Orion capsule and the Space Launch System, the heavy-duty rocket originally designed to propel Space ships and Orion astronauts in the deep space for the first time since. the last Apollo lunar mission in 1972.
NASA now expects that the space launch system will not be ready for the EM-1 test flight by June 2020, the latest target launch date for the program. Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator, announced on Wednesday that the Space Agency is considering different ways to keep the Orion spacecraft on track for a lunar mission in 2020 to test the power and propulsion module of the capsule , and to evaluate the performance of the thermal shield of the crew capsule during the flashing reappearance of the moon in the Earth 's atmosphere.
"Some of these options include launching the Orion crew capsule and the European service module on a commercial rocket," said Bridenstine during a hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Bridenstine said it was important for NASA to fulfill its commitment to launch EM-1 by June 2020. His announcement Wednesday was the first time that a NASA executive has publicly discussed the launch of the first lunar mission of the Orion probe on a commercial rocket. more expensive space launch system managed by the government.
"Certainly it is possible to use the commercial capabilities to put the Orion capsule and the European service module into orbit around the Moon by June 2020, which was our original goal, and I charged the agency to see how we could achieve that goal, "said Bridenstine.
NASA is just beginning to study the possibility of using commercial rockets for the EM-1. The United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket launched an Orion capsule during its first orbital mission, called Exploration Flight Test-1, in December 2014, sending the crew module and a model service module into an orbit that can reach 3,600 km. (5 800 km) from the Earth before the capsule burst into the Pacific Ocean to complete a nearly four-and-a-half-hour mission.
There is currently no working rocket capable of sending an Orion spacecraft and its service module around the moon, but Bridenstine said that a pair of commercial launches could replace an SLS flight. It is estimated that the fully powered Orion spacecraft will weigh approximately 25,000 kg (57,000 pounds), close to the lift capacity of an SLS Block 1 rocket – the initial configuration of the heavy machine launcher – on a lunar trajectory.
Bridenstine announced a new NASA presentation on commercial launch alternatives to the space launch system, after committee chair R-Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker voiced concerns over delays SLS.
"Here's what we can do potentially. Again, we start the process. We could use two large-capacity rockets to put the Orion crew capsule and the European service module into orbit around the Earth. Rocket to place an upper stage into orbit around the Earth, then moor the two together to launch Orion's crew capsule around the Moon with the European Service Module, "said Bridenstine. "I want to be clear. At the present time, we do not have the opportunity to anchor the Orion crew capsule with anything in orbit. So by June 2020, we will have to make it a reality. "
Wicker reminded Bridenstine that it would be difficult to reconfigure Exploration Mission-1 by mid-2020.
"It's 2019," said Wicker.
"We have an incredible capacity that currently exists that we can use in the marketplace to achieve that goal," Bridenstine said. "Just a few years ago, we launched an Orion crew capsule in deep space with a commercially purchased rocket. It's already happened. What is different now is that we have this European service module, which explains how we have the propulsion, the support to life and all the capabilities we need to last for a while with humans in space. We can use the standard ability to achieve this goal for EM-1, but do not change the orientation of the SLS and EM-2. "
Mission-2 Exploration is about to be the first Orion mission with astronauts on board. The most recent program published by NASA's projects, EM-2, would be ready for the launch of the SLS in 2023 during a nine-day trip around the moon and back on Earth.
Since the Orion test flight on the Delta 4-Heavy in 2014, SpaceX has launched its Falcon Heavy rocket, more than double the Delta 4-Heavy's low Earth orbit transport capacity. SpaceX sold a Falcon Heavy mission to the US Air Force last year for $ 130 million, while ULA says a Delta 4-Heavy mission would cost about $ 350 million.
Neither of the two rockets has the power to send the Orion vessel of nearly 29 tons (26 metric tons) to the moon in one single launch.
The exploration mission 1 should last about 25 days. During this period, the Orion probe and its service module would move on the moon, swing about 100 kilometers from the lunar surface, and then follow a more distant orbit. about 40,000 miles (70,000 km) from the moon. If NASA adhered to EM-1's current flight plan, a dual-launch alternative using commercial rockets in 2020 should probably use separate launch pads and probably two different rockets, due to the relatively short duration of the mission.
Bridenstine said that NASA was planning to decide on Orion's commercial launch option in the "coming weeks".
"Every moment counts because … NASA has a habit of not meeting launch dates, and I'm trying to change that," he said.
Wicker then asked Bridenstine how much it would cost to transfer the launch of the Orion capsule to large commercial rockets, which customers typically buy at least two years in advance.
"It's another discussion," Bridenstine replied. "I think there are options to reach the goal, but that might require congressional help."
Before addressing the details of NASA's review of commercial launchers for the Orion test flight, Bridenstine said in his opening address on Wednesday that NASA needed to demonstrate that 39; bold.
"We need really impressive goals and amazing achievements that the world can get," he said. "As a NASA director, I can tell you that when I meet our international partners, one of the topics that passionates them the most is the idea that we will return to the moon. "
EM-1 will be the first Orion flight with a fully operational service module, built by Airbus Defense and Space and funded by the European Space Agency as part of an international contribution to the space exploration program. depth of NASA. Airbus delivered the service module delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in November for final assembly and testing with the Orion crew capsule.
The service module includes four solar panel wings for generating electricity, a US-provided space shuttle program engine, the Orion Space Shuttle cooling system, as well as water and fuel tanks. air to keep crews alive while traveling in lunar orbit.
European and NASA officials said the capsule and the Orion service module needed to be ready for preparations for the final launch in early 2020. The crew capsule's heat shield was coupled with the spacecraft last year, and the service module was put into service in February. first time since arriving in Florida.
The two segments will be paired for the first time in the coming months, and engineers plan to transfer the Orion probe to NASA's Plum Brook station in Ohio in July for a battery of tests in a thermal vacuum chamber so to check the performance of the ship in the ship. cold and airless environment of space. The spacecraft will return to Florida around October, according to a schedule released by ESA.
Concerns about the availability of the service module built in Europe have already been a determining factor for the launch date of the EM-1, but the delivery of the element in Florida last year was a milestone in the module preparation.
In October, the NASA inspector general criticized the agency and Boeing for the SLS's cost and schedule overruns, which had encountered development problems that had delayed the launch of the first SLS from late 2018 to mid-year. -2020. The main floor will contain liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants fueling four modified space shuttle main engines. Two side-mounted solid fuel boosters built by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, also derived from shuttle-era designs, will provide additional boost.
The SLS Block 1 rocket will also have an upper stage derived from the ULA Delta 4 rocket, with a single Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine.
Apart from the main stage, most of the equipment for the first space launch system remains on track for launch in 2020, including main engines, solid propellant propellants and the upper stage.
NASA's $ 21 billion NASA budget request released by the Trump administration on Monday would delay the development of a larger four-engine upper stage for the Space Launch System block 1B configuration . NASA wanted the more powerful 1S SLS to launch co-manifested missions with Orion crew pods and modules for the agency's future gateway, a mini station. -spatial located near the Moon, designed as a landmark for landing gear traveling to and from the lunar surface. .
NASA officials announced Monday that they plan to launch bridge elements on commercial rockets, separating the modules from the space launch system.
The White House budget request for NASA also proposes launching a robotic probe to explore on Jupiter's iced Europa moon on a commercial rocket, and not with the space launch system. In a budget bill passed by NASA earlier this year, Congress included language specifying that the Europa Clipper mission should be launched on the SLS.
Legislators led by Senator Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, chairman of the Senate's powerful credentials committee, have long supported the space launch system. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama hosts the SLS program.
Congress approved $ 2.15 billion for the Space Launch System program during the 2019 fiscal year, while Trump's budget request for the Treasury would reduce that amount from $ 375 million to about $ 1.78 billion. USD.
Shelby said last week that in his role as chairman of the credit committee he had "more than a fleeting interest in what NASA does," according to a report in Space News.
"I also have a little parish interest in what they do in Huntsville, Alabama," Shelby said in an introduction to Marshall Center Director Jody Singer at a luncheon in Washington. "Jody, you keep doing what you do. We will continue to finance you. "
In his remarks on Wednesday, Bridenstine said the space launch system remained an "essential piece" of NASA's deep space exploration plans.
"We are talking about a rocket whose projection weight is greater than anything we have been able to launch before," Bridenstine said of the Space Launch System. "We are talking about a rocket larger than the Statue of Liberty, with a fairing size that can send very large objects in space and even in the depths, orbiting the moon. It's a critical ability.
"Now, here's the challenge we have with EM-1. SLS is struggling to meet its schedule. It was originally scheduled to be launched in December 2019 (and) by June 2020. We now understand better the difficulty of this project and its additional duration. "
Bridenstine's Wednesday statement was unclear whether NASA would consider placing astronauts on EM-2, which would become the first launch of the SLS in the scenario described Wednesday. NASA avoided piloting a crew at the inaugural launch of a new spacecraft or rocket since the space shuttle's first mission.
The core of Space Launch System's Boeing powerhouse will undergo a full development test, or "green race," at the NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, with its four core RS-25 engines, prior to launch. Be launched for the first time since the Kennedy Space. Center.
"The important thing is to fully test the Orion crew capsule and the European service module around the moon and then maintain the SLS program so that by the time we use EM-2, we will have realized a complete green program. test … and then, after the test run in green, we will have tested the SLS, we will have tested the Orion crew capsule and the European service module around the moon, then we can get back on track for EM-2, "says Bridenstine." The goal is to get back on track. "
Email of the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
[ad_2]
Source link