NASA Successfully Tests Orion's New Crew Escape System

Boccaccio writes "NASA on Wednesday successfully tested its MLAS alternative launch escape system designed for the new Orion Crew module. MLAS, or Max Launch Abort System, is named after the inventor of the crew escape system on the Mercury program, Maxime (Max) Faget and consists of four rocket motors built into a fairing that encloses an Orion module during Launch. MLAS is designed to pull the crew away from the main rocket stack during the critical first 2.5 minutes of flight in the event of a catastrophic failure. The advantage of the MLAS system over the more traditional LAS (Launch Abort System) is that it reduces the total height of the rocket, lowering the center of gravity and adding stability, and potentially allowing higher fuel load. You can watch a video of the launch at the NASA website, and there are also a bunch of pictures."

Comments

Quite complex

[the_other_chewey]

I just watched the video - and while it definitely is a cool concept, what immediately came
to mind is the increased complexity of the system. I counted five separations (the launch itself
would be a separation in reality) of some piece or another and multiple chute deployments before the
crew capsule was safely floating down on its main parachutes.

I'm sure there's redundancy in there so a single failure wouldn't be fatal (although not dropping the
casing preventing main chute deployment would be bad), but it is quite a step up from the regular
"separate, fire one solid booster, wait a bit, deploy chutes" apporach.

Re:Quite complex

[Anonymous Coward]

I think it may be a Russian design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matryoshka_doll

Re:Quite complex

[Shaiku]

I initially thought the same thing, but perhaps they need variable descent rates and perhaps the first set or two of chutes is more likely to get tangled, ripped, or burned. We also don't know if the failure of one system prevents all the subsequent systems from operating or not. It may be more reliable than it first appears.

Re:Quite complex

[sunking2]

after 2 minutes of bastoff this sucker would normally be pretty damn high. The first stages are pretty much just drag chutes to ensure correct orientation. The next few stages are used to slow it down to a safe speed and/or altitude to deploy the final much larger chutes that might not be able to withstand deployment at a high speed/altitude. Another reason may be that they want to get these guys down as quickly as possible. Thus the drag shoots for control, and a few stages of chutes to slow down/land without putting their heads through their stomachs.

Its an alternate solution.

[Hozza]

The summary doesn't really make this clear, but the baseline Orion design uses a standard LAS system.

The MLAS is only being developed as a possible alternate, if the LAS solution proves unworkable.

Apollo 11 nearly tested their LES

[MichaelSmith]

This is from Carrying the Fire, by Michael Collins. The story as Collins tells it is that as the crew entered the capsule for the launch he noticed that Armstrong had a loose strap on the thigh of his pressure suit which was about to snare a T shaped hand controller. The launch escape system is triggered by twisting the controller so there was a risk of accidently triggering it. In the book he suggests the last word spoken in the CM before the LES fired would be "oops".

Oh the possibilities

[yerktoader]

They shoulda ran with it. Awesome names and acronyms have come out of stranger places. For example, my Dad knows one of the engineers that built the San Diego Wild Animal park. They were trying to decide a name for the park's monorail, now known as Wgasa. Apparently, after they had been at it for days one of the engineers coworkers said "Who gives a shit anyway?" :D The story has no official evidence to back it up, but Snopes still believes it to be true.

So I say honor that Faget and give this device a proper name.

Futile attempts go exit there?
Finally a great ejection technology?
Faget's automatic gravity enhancing technique?
Fuckers are gonna egress tonight!

Discuss.

Orion?

[tcdk]

Please, do not call it Orion unless it has small nukes coming out it's ass. Confuses this old timer, it does, yes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)

Overly complex + more chances to fail.

[assemblerex]

Jettison + primary escape stage + jettison stage + deploy nose cone parachutes + jettison nosecone + deploy primary parachute primers + deploy primary chutes
Failure of any of those steps results in loss of crew.

Re:backup of a backup.

[teridon]

However when looking at the video there is the posibilty they get other elements of the escape capsule on their head after a succesful landing.

I know this is /., but try RTFA:

Because the MLAS flight test vehicle was not optimized for weight and parachute performance, there may be recontact between the elements of the test vehicle after the parachutes are fully deployed and after all the required data is collected. If recontact does occur it will not affect the MLAS test objectives, nor will it apply to Orion -- as the MLAS design and hardware are not representative of the current Orion design.

There goes another one...

[PinkyDead]

Hold your fire. There are no life forms. It must have been short-circuited.

Re:There goes another one...

[drachenfyre]

What are we, paying by the laser beam? You don't do the budgets around here....