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NASA has completed the final test to qualify the Orion skydiving system for flights with astronauts, marking a milestone on the way to sending humans on missions on the moon and beyond.
In eight tests at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, the US military assessed the performance of the Orion parachute system during normal landing sequences, as well as several failure scenarios and various aerodynamic conditions. space missions.
"We are working very hard not only to make sure that Orion is ready to take our astronauts farther than we have been before, but to make sure they come home safely." said Mark Kirasich, director of the Orion program.
"The parachute system is complex and the evaluation of parachutes repeatedly during our series of tests gives us assurance that we will be ready for any type of landing day."
The system features 11 parachutes, a series of gun-shaped mortars, pyrotechnic bolt cutters and over 30 miles of Kevlar lines connecting the top of the spacecraft to 36,000 square feet of parachute material.
In about 10 minutes of descent through the Earth's atmosphere, everything has to happen in a specific order to slow Orion and his crew about 300 km / h at a relatively slow speed of 20 mph for splashing into the Pacific Ocean.
The parachute system is the only system that must assemble in the air and must be able to ensure the safety of the crew in several failure scenarios, such as mortar failures preventing the deployment of one. only type of parachute or certain conditions of the parachute. textile components to fail.
In the final test, which took place on September 12, an Orion simulacrum was removed from the cargo hold of a C-17 plane flying more than 6.5 miles. The protective ring that covers the top of Orion that covers the parachute system was dropped and ripped off by Orion's first parachutes, and then the remaining parachutes were deployed in a specific order.
In addition, Orion's parachute engineers also provided extensive information and data to NASA's commercial crew program partners. The knowledge gained from the Orion program has allowed NASA to adapt computer modeling to the operation of the system in a variety of scenarios and to help partner companies understand some of the elements of skydiving systems.
In some cases, NASA's work has provided enough information to partners to reduce the need for some developmental skydiving tests and associated expenses.
Orion will first fly with astronauts aboard Mission-2 Exploration, a mission that will venture near the Moon and farther than the Earth before launching the Space Launch System rocket from NASA.
The parachutes of Orion's next flight test, Exploration Mission-1, are already installed on the Kennedy Space Center vehicle in Florida.
Related Links
Orion program at NASA
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Explore the solar system? You may need to pack an umbrella
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Sep 12, 2018
Preparing for its first flight test, NASA's Adaptive Deployable Entry Placement (ADPT) technology is not an ordinary umbrella. ADEPT is a foldable device that opens to form a round and rigid thermal shield, called aeroshell.
This revolutionary technology could introduce a heat shield into a rocket larger in diameter than the rocket itself. The design may one day deliver much larger payloads to planetary surfaces than is currently possible.
Spacecraft typically approach planets at a speed of ten kilometers.
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