addio shuttle benvenuto orion

[Rudel]

addio allo shuttle...che ne dite del nuovo progetto?

Modificato 10 Settembre 2011 da Rudel

[tornado4ever]

non trovo il link....cmq io sono un pò conservatore e lo shuttle era una macchina fantastica

[gcm981]

Ma quando andrà in "volo"?

 

[Simone]

Mi sembra un poco "ispirato" al programma Apollo,che-in effetti- ha permesso di ottenere grandi risultati ed a pensarci bene sarebbe stato un peccato buttare tutto quel "know how" conquistato con altrettanto grande fatica (e grandi spese). OPerò cio sono delle differenze che costringeranno a fare,presumo, una lunga serie di collaudi e non so se attualmente ci siano materialmente i soldi per riuscirci;l'economia americana è grande,ma il Debito Pubblico lo è ancora di più e temo che anche gli USA abbiano toccato il tetto delle loro possibilità.

Secondo me questi progetti così amp-e costosi-dovrebbero essere internazionali,così si dividerebbero i costi e condividerebbero i risultati,penso ad una partecipazione dell'India con le sue risorse e il basso costo delle costruzioni ingegneristiche, altrimenti si rischia di "lanciare" un progetto,arrivare a metà,chiudere tutto per mancanza di fondi e buttare il lavoro a mare

[tornado4ever]

Simone ha ragione, anche perchè oltre ad un guadagno nel costo ci sarebbe anche un guadagno nella qualità del risultato prodotto da più paesi insieme dove ogni stato partecipante dà il meglio delle sue industrie

Modificato 14 Settembre 2011 da tornado4ever

[TT-1 Pinto]

Novità dalla NASA ....

 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/sep/HQ_11-301_SLS_Decision.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Altre fonti ....

 

http://goo.gl/5L7RB

 

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/09/14/362055/sls-configuration-finalised.html

[TT-1 Pinto]

Animazione ....

 

[Tuccio14]

Cos'è? Una specie di Ariane in versione "manned"?

[TT-1 Pinto]

Cos'è? Una specie di Ariane in versione "manned"?

A occhio e croce .... direi piuttosto una sorta di "SaturnV" potenziato da un paio di "Solid Rocket Booster" derivati da quelli della navetta spaziale ....

[TT-1 Pinto]

Tempo di decisioni ....

 

NASA confirms final design of the Space Launch System 

 

By: Zach Rosenberg Washington DC (4 hours ago)

 

Source:

 

 

After months of speculation, NASA has confirmed the final design of the Space Launch System (SLS) - a heavy lift launch vehicle expected to launch NASA payloads into deep space by 2017.

 

The first rockets will be capable of lifting 70 tonnes to low Earth orbit (LEO), and later versions will be scaled up to 130 tonnes.

 

With a minimum of 10% greater thrust than the massive Saturn V rocket, which took the Apollo astronauts to the Moon, SLS will be the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built.

 

The first stage of SLS will be powered by three Rocketdyne RD-25D/E rockets, also known as Space Shuttle main engines (SSME), assisted in the first minutes of flight by two five-segment solid rocket boosters also derived from Shuttle systems.

 

Later launch systems may have as many as five SSMEs. The second stage will be powered by the Rocketdyne J-2X, currently under development.

 

The solid rocket boosters will have a role in the first launch, but launches thereafter will use boosters still to be selected in an open competition, using either solid or liquid fuels.

 

The competition is expected to begin shortly, according to NASA, with an industry day to be held on 29 September.

 

US-based Alliant TechSystems (ATK), the solid rocket boosters' manufacturer, conducted the first full-scale test of the booster on 8 September. The test was successful, according to ATK.

 

Bringing the launch system to first flight, scheduled for 2017, is expected to cost $18 billion.

 

Details of the vehicle's cost beyond 2017, including the development of the 130 tonne version, support or launch costs, are unavailable.

 

"At this point it's not appropriate to talk about what that final cost is until we have a better idea of our mission," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator.

 

Internal NASA documents, leaked to the media in August, showed a potential lifetime cost of up to $38 billion.

 

The confirmation announcement was made from the US Senate building in Washington DC, indicative of SLS's strong congressional support.

 

The project has been the subject of bitter political battles between NASA and the Senate, culminating in a Senate subpoena for design documents and a series of angry letters.

 

"We have been frustrated, I think that's no secret," said Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. "It came to a head that there was a leak that issued a hypothetical set of circumstances which would double the cost of this space launch system, and that's when [Florida] Senator [bill] Nelson and I came forward saying, 'this is sabotage.'"

 

The main bone of contention is that SLS will certainly cost a lot of money, but lacks a clear mission. SLS is not optimised for any particular flight, unlike the mighty Saturn rockets.

 

Many in the space business recall the aimlessness and political machinations that compromised the Space Shuttle programme, turning what was intended to be a cheap quick-launch capability into a rarely launched and massively expensive spacecraft.

 

SLS promises to drain NASA's small and shrinking resource pool for years to come, and leaves the organisation without a clear definition of success - but on the hook for failures.

 

SLS is perceived by many to be foisted upon NASA by legislators as a high tech make-work programme. In some circles it is derisively referred to as the "Senate Launch System".

 

The sole expected payload is the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), to be launched on exploration missions to destinations unknown.

 

"We've talked conceptually about different destinations. What we've been tasked to do is to build a capability-driven framework," said Gerstenmaier.

 

The first manned flight is not expected to take place until 2021. SLS's considerable lift capabilities could allow heavier unmanned payloads, and its sheer size allows of greater volume. However, no such payloads have been designed.

 

SLS is the most recent iteration of a series of large planned launch vehicles that have been cancelled and resurrected in various forms, notably the Ares V launch vehicle.

 

Despite a notable resemblance to the Ares V, including a very similar upper stage, the lower stage is substantially different in design.

 

Despite heavy usage of Shuttle parts, including liquid and solid engines and a significant amount of internal components, Gerstenmaier said: "It's not fair to say this is a rocket built from Shuttle parts."

 

Jim Albaugh, chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and former head of Boeing's space business, said he welcomed NASA's announcement about the heavy launcher.

 

However, he posed a question: "Will we have the resolve to see it through?"

 

He noted that NASA has cancelled other major launch programmes, including the Ares.

 

David Hess, chief executive of Pratt & Whitney - parent company of Rocketdyne - was was also sceptical about the programme's future.

 

The announcement was "encouraging", he said, but it "does not preserve our future in space."

 

[Andrea75]

UK will help build Nasa's manned spacecraft Orion

 

Britain will play a major role in building Nasa's new manned spacecraft, Orion, after contributing £16m to the European Space Agency in a one-off deal.

The next generation spacecraft is designed to venture into deep space on missions to the far side of the moon, near-Earth asteroids, and further afield to Mars.

In joining the project, engineers at UK centres will take on the development of the propulsion and communication systems that the capsule needs to operate in space.

Reminiscent of the US space agency's Apollo capsule, the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle (MPCV) can carry up to four astronauts and return to Earth with a splashdown in the ocean.

Britain's involvement in Orion was announced at a meeting of Esa's ministerial council in Naples on Wednesday. The move came as a surprise given that successive UK governments have steered clear of human spaceflight in favour of projects to build robotic satellites, communications and other space industries.

Speaking to the Guardian from Naples, the science minister, David Willetts, said Britain's involvement in Orion would bring money into the nation's space industry. "We have got particular skills in propulsion technology and telecommunications, and these are the areas where there will now be a British role in Orion."

Nasa has conducted scores of tests on the separate modules that make up the Orion spacecraft. The first unmanned orbital flight test is due in 2014, when the spacecraft will be launched 3,000 miles into space before re-entering into Earth's atmosphere.

Over the next five years, Britain will pay £240m a year to Esa, Willetts said, making it the third largest contributor to the agency. In return, the UK expects to make four times that amount, or £1bn a year, in contracts for work on Esa missions.

The extra funds will back research into space-based communications, and give UK businesses a leading role in the development of Earth observation systems, navigation satellites, nuclear propulsion technologies, and the advanced Metop 2G weather satellite.

With an investment of £12.4m, the UK also joins the European Life and Physical Sciences in Space Programme (Elips), which exploits the space environment to study human physiology and ageing, and advanced materials for jet engines.

Ian Crawford, a planetary scientist at Birkbeck College in London, welcomed the fresh support for space science and exploration. "Participating in Orion and joining the Elips programme are very positive developments," he said.

Nasa has discussed plans to land astronauts on a near-Earth asteroid, but some experts believe the agency is about to announce a mission to the far side of the moon. Rather than landing on our nearest celestial neighbour, the mission would place astronauts in orbit far from the surface.

"That would be an obvious precursor mission before sending astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid. It allows them to build up the capability of people operating around the moon," Crawford said.

Ahead of the Naples meeting, it was unclear to what extent the financial difficulties faced by many of Esa's member states would affect space projects. But in a press conference on Wednesday, the agency's director general, Jean Jacques Dordain, said the agency's science budget was "flat cash" for the next five years, meaning it will remain fixed for the period.

Germany remains the largest contributor to the space agency, with €2.6bn. France is the second largest, contributing €2.3bn. "Member states recognise that space is not an expense; it's an investment," Dordain said.

 

 

 

Project Orion raises hopes that Britain could have its own man on the moon

 

Europe is preparing plans to join the United States in building a manned spaceship that would take men and women to the moon and beyond. The project is supported by the UK and could see a British astronaut launched into deep space before the end of the decade.

The proposal to join in construction of the four-person US Orion spaceship will be debated at a meeting of ministers of the European Space Agency's 20 member states in Italy this week. If passed, it would mean that for the first time Europe would be involved in building and launching manned space vehicles.

"Europeans will have the power to put men and women into space," Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency, told the Observer in an exclusive interview. "That would be a fantastic development for us."

Among the European candidates who might fly on the new spaceship, which should be ready for flight by 2017, would be UK astronaut Tim Peake. A qualified army helicopter pilot, Peake was selected three years ago to be one of six new European astronauts and has been training in Germany since then. At the time of his selection, it was assumed Peake's best chance of space flight would be a mission to the International Space Station. Now he and his five colleagues have a chance of a deep space flight thanks to the US request for Europe to join in its Orion programme.

Modificato 22 Novembre 2012 da Andrea75

[TT-1 Pinto]

LM fallisce il primo test di separazione delle carenature della navicella spaziale Orion ....

 

Orion Fairing Test Encounters Problem ....

 

The fairing test, which was conducted at Lockheed-Martin’s Sunnyvale, Calif., facility involved pyrotechnic mechanisms and bolts firing to separate the fairing’s panels ....

.... one panel failed to separate completely.

 

Fonte .... http://www.americaspace.com/?p=37196

 

Anche qui .... http://www.air-cosmos.com/espace/la-coiffe-d-orion-se-separe-aux-deux-tiers.html

 

NASA .... http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/mpcv/separation_test.html

 

Modificato 15 Giugno 2013 da TT-1 Pinto

[TT-1 Pinto]

 

Stepping into the Orion Crew Module .... NASA astronauts Cady Coleman and Ricky Arnold step into the Orion crew module hatch during a series of spacesuit check tests conducted on June 13, 2013 at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Orion crew module will serve as both transport and a home to astronauts during future long-duration missions to an asteroid, Mars and other destinations throughout our solar system.

Image Credit: NASA

[TT-1 Pinto]

Orion ... "Ascent Abort 2" test ... un successo ...

... nasa.gov ... https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/successful-orion-test-brings-nasa-closer-to-moon-mars-missions ...

[TT-1 Pinto]

Un piccolo passo per Orion ... 

... thespacereview.com ... http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3753/1 ...