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NASA's Orion Capsule Reaches Orbit
PaisteUser sends word that NASA's Orion capsule successfully reached orbit this morning after a flawless launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. Video of the launch is available on YouTube, and the Orion Mission blog has frequent updates as mission milestones are reached.
Mission managers said the rocket and capsule performed perfectly during the initial phases of the test. "It was just a blast to see how well the rocket did," said Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion program manager. After Orion makes its first circuit around the planet, the rocket's upper stage will kick it into a second, highly eccentric orbit that loops as far as 3,600 miles from Earth. Then Orion will come screaming back into Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 20,000 mph — 80 percent of the velocity that a spacecraft returning from the moon would experience. This particular Orion is missing a lot of the components that would be needed for a crewed flight, and it won't be carrying humans. Instead, it's outfitted with more than 1,200 sensors to monitor how its communication and control systems deal with heightened radiation levels, how its heat shield handles re-entry temperatures that are expected to rise as high as 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and how its parachutes slow the craft down for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
They are making sure that their spacecraft actually works before putting people in it. Not that hard to suss out.
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Capabilities of the space craft being 3600 miles above Earth.
I am a bit disappointed though, I would like to see how she performs at least after a loop or two around the moon. To get Orion out in space for a couple loopty loops around the planet feels like such a waste of taxpayer money. Know, baby steps, but can we at least take a full step rather than this edging forward. When we look at the size and scale of Apollo in comparison to this, we would have already been launching people after the engineering modifications, after barbequing a trio of astronauts.
We have been working on Constellation/Orion/SLS since 2005 or possibly earlier, post Columbia 2003, when we thought the space shuttles were going to need to be retired. Sadly, if this had been Apollo, we would already be seeing Neil on the Moon's surface waving back at us. There should be no reason why we shouldn't be able to get our own people up to a space station largely funded by us. I say we push forward with Orion testing, but also use it as a supply tool for the ISS.
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Hey I wanna see people go to Mars as much as anyone here. But let's get realistic: Mars is way harder to get to than the moon. WAY harder.
And since Mars has an atmosphere deorbitting is essentially free.
Not even close. Landing a heavy craft on Mars is difficult. In fact the top scientists in the world (including NASA) aren't even sure how we're gonna do it exactly. Smithsonian mag has a lengthy and highly informative article on this.
So
Earth -> Moon: 15.58
Earth -> Mars: 16.65
Difference: 6.9%
Yes but that doesn't include the time to get there. Moon = 3 days. Mars = 9 to 12 months. If you're sending a robotic probe then no problem. But if you're sending humans, compare the weight in supplies (food water etc) that you need for a 3 day journey vs. a 10 month journey. That's a gigantic weight difference. And that's not even counting the shielding you will need for a Mars journey.