Slashdot Mirror
NASA's Orion Spaceship Passes Parachute Test
An anonymous reader writes The spacecraft it is hoped will take man to Mars has passed its first parachute tests. Nasa's Orion spacecraft landed gently using its parachutes after being shoved out of a military jet at 35,000 feet. "We've put the parachutes through their paces in ground and airdrop testing in just about every conceivable way before we begin sending them into space on Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1 before the year's done," Orion program manager Mark Geyer said in a NASA statement. "The series of tests has proven the system and will help ensure crew and mission safety for our astronauts in the future."
Now I'm going to have to go build a military jet in Kerbal Space Program and push a capsule with parachutes out of it.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
As I understand it, Orion is sort of the equivalent of the Apollo CM. It was not cancelled.
However, what I believe the administration wants to cancel is part of the SLS (Shuttle Launch System) which would lift the Orion capsule into orbit--sort of the equivalent of the Saturn 1B that was used to launch Apollo capsules into earth orbit for Skylab and Apollo/Soyuz missions.
I believe the heavy-lift version of SLS--sort of analogous to the Saturn 5--is still funded for the asteroid missions.
Every time I see Orion mentioned, I get my hopes up about nuclear powered interstellar craft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
Not the first test. First test failed five years ago.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVl6lCr1vCo Have been other successful tests since then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMGTsGe4Nds . Nowhere does the article describe these as the first tests....
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
Even with a nuclear powered rocket, interstellar travel to the nearest neighbour will take more than a century, and that's just for a high speed fly-by. If you actually want to get in orbit, it'll take twice as long.