Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Orion’s Heat Shield Gets a Scorching on Re-entry
universetoday.com ^ | Matt Williams

Posted on 04/02/2015 8:46:22 AM PDT by BenLurkin

Yes, she’s a little worse for wear, isn’t she? But then again, that’s what atmospheric re-entry and 2200 °Celsius (4000 °Fahrenheit) worth of heat will do to you! Such was the state of the heat shield that protected NASA’s Orion Spaceship after it re-entered the atmosphere on Dec. 5th, 2014. Having successfully protected the craft during it’s test flight, the shield was removed and transported to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where it arrived on March. 9th.

Since that time, a steady stream of NASA employees have been coming by the facility to get a look at it while engineers collect data and work to repair it. In addition to being part of a mission that took human-rated equipment farther out into space than anything since the Apollo missions, the heat shield is also living proof that NASA is restoring indigenous space capability to the US.

First unveiled by NASA in May of 2011, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) was intrinsic to the Obama administration’s plan to send astronauts to a nearby asteroid by 2025 and going to Mars by the mid-2030’s. In addition to facilitating these long-range missions, the Orion spacecraft would also handle some of the routine tasks of spaceflight, such as providing a means of delivering and retrieving crew and supplies from the ISS.

(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...


TOPICS: Travel
KEYWORDS: reentry

Larry Gagliano, Orion project manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, photographed in front of the spaceship’s heat shield. Credit: Lee Roop/AL.com
1 posted on 04/02/2015 8:46:22 AM PDT by BenLurkin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Temperature is not heat, as anyone who puts out
a candle with their finger knows.


2 posted on 04/02/2015 8:48:37 AM PDT by Diogenesis ("When a crime is unpunished, the world is unbalanced.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

In 1962(?) Kennedy called for landing a man on the moon and returning him safely by the end of the decade. Had the current NASA leadership been around then we would have had Project Gemini somewere in the mid 1970’s and landed on the moon in the 80’s. Let private industry do it.


3 posted on 04/02/2015 8:51:46 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin
Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum examine the heat shield on the underside of the Apollo 11 command module
4 posted on 04/02/2015 9:09:30 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DoodleDawg
Had the current NASA leadership been around then we would have had Project Gemini somewere in the mid 1970’s and landed on the moon in the 80’s. Let private industry do it.

Had we the current White House leadership then we would all be speaking Russian today and stand in line to buy toilet paper.

5 posted on 04/02/2015 9:16:12 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac
Had we the current White House leadership then we would all be speaking Russian today and stand in line to buy toilet paper.

Nah, we probably wouldn't even remember toilet paper because only the elite would have access to it, on the plus side newspapers would be make comeback............not for reading though.

6 posted on 04/02/2015 9:35:08 AM PDT by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Pontiac

He’s muslim, no toilet paper allowed.


7 posted on 04/02/2015 9:54:02 AM PDT by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

I read an interesting idea about a spacecraft piggybacking on a hyperbolic asteroid. Hyperbolic asteroids and comets pass once through the inner Solar System before being flung out to interstellar space along s hyperbolic trajectory.

The spacecraft would be taken to rendezvous with the asteroid by a transport spaceship, so when it landed on, and attached itself to the asteroid, it would have maximum fuel for its thrusters and its ion drive.

Its thrusters would be used to slowly maneuver the likely rotating asteroid so that the spaceship would be at the relative “back” of the asteroid. Then its ion drive would very gradually increase the speed of the asteroid, so that by the time it reached interstellar space it would have tremendous velocity.

All of that for the primary purpose of using the asteroid as a shield against the vast number of other space bodies it would collide with.


8 posted on 04/02/2015 12:32:20 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Interesting!


9 posted on 04/02/2015 12:38:19 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: DoodleDawg

Weren’t the old heat shields made of some kind of wood, like spruce?

I’m thinking 1960s era.


10 posted on 04/07/2015 1:33:46 PM PDT by T-Bone Texan (The time is now to form up into leaderless cells of 5 men or less.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson