Reuters
Northrop Grumman and Boeing unveil a back-to-the-future concept for the next generation of space exploration vehicles. Above, an artist's concept shows NASA's proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle for trips to the space station and the moon.
Posted on 10/12/2005 5:38:23 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON – Northrop Grumman and Boeing unveiled a back-to-the-future concept for the next generation of space exploration vehicles Wednesday, displaying an Apollo-like capsule and support module as their offering in the competition for a system to take humans back to the moon and later to Mars.
The two aerospace giants are teamed in a bid for NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle program, potentially a $100 billion project that is intended to replace the troubled Space Shuttle for servicing the International Space Station by 2012 and to carry astronauts to the moon by 2018.
The Northrop-Boeing team and Lockheed Martin each received $28 million contracts June 13 to refine their design proposals in a competition for the production contract, scheduled to be awarded next spring.
The Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV, is a key part of President George W. Bush's ambitious long-term plan for manned exploration and possible colonization of the nearest planets.
The Northrop-Boeing proposal features a cone-shaped crew capsule that looks strikingly similar to the three-man Apollo spacecraft that last took Americans to the moon nearly three decades ago.
That design was determined to present the lowest technical risks and the best potential for meeting NASA's challenging timelines, said Douglas Young, vice president of Northrop's Integrated Systems in El Segundo, Calif., and CEV program manager.
The proposed capsule would be considerably larger than the Apollo vehicle, able to carry up to six astronauts with more room for them and for equipment and cargo, said Leonard Nicholson, deputy manager of the joint program and a 30-year veteran of NASA's space-flight efforts, including Apollo. By using modern lightweight structural material and electronic systems, the new capsule would be only about 10 percent heavier than the 1960s vintage Apollo, Nicholson said.
Although their proposal appears nearly identical to the artist's rendering of a possible CEV that NASA released earlier this year, Nicholson said they had settled on the Apollo-like design before NASA's release.
"When we went back and looked at all the alternatives, we came to the same conclusions as NASA," he said. "The guys who did it the first time got it right."
"Why carry wings to the moon?" Young added.
The capsule design also lends itself to solutions to two of the problems that have plagued the Space Shuttle throughout its history: how to save the crew if the launch rocket fails and how to survive the intense heat of the supersonic re-entry through the atmosphere.
On launch, the crew capsule would be enclosed in a cone-shaped shield topped by a relatively small rocket that could lift the crew away from the launch rocket if something went wrong. That is the same concept used in the original manned space programs, from Mercury through Apollo, but was not available to the airplane-like Shuttle.
The escape system would be jettisoned after a safe launch.
At launch, the bottom of the capsule would be inside a cylinder-shaped support module that would protect the heat-shielding tiles from the kind of damage that doomed the shuttle Columbia in 2003 and caused anxiety on this year's Endeavor mission.
Nicholson said that unlike the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo crew capsules, which splashed down in the Atlantic, the CEV would return on land, using parachutes to slow its fall, then cushioning the landing either with retrorockets, inflatable balloons or "crushable material" in its bottom.
NASA has indicated the new space exploration missions would be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and would land in the western United States, probably at Edwards Air Force Base in the California desert.
The Northrop-Boeing CEV would be capable of unmanned missions to carry cargo to the Space Station, the program officials said.
For lunar missions, one rocket would carry the CEV and its support module into orbit, while another would carry a moon-landing module into orbit. Once in orbit, the crew capsule would dock with the lander and use its rockets to propel the combination away from Earth's orbit toward the moon.
Upon arrival, the CEV would remain in orbit around the moon unmanned while four astronauts rode the lander to the surface for missions that could last up to six months.
Company spokesmen said no decision had been made on where the work on the exploration vehicle and associated systems would be done, although the program office likely would be in Houston, close to NASA's program managers at the Johnson Space Center. Both firms have space and missile activities in Southern California, as well as in other states.
The California Space Authority has started an effort to persuade NASA and the two companies to do much of the work in the state. In support of that effort, 32 members of the California congressional delegation, including Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice, sent a letter Oct. 7 to NASA administrator Michael Griffin, noting that the Shuttle fleet "was designed, developed and manufactured in California facilities by a California work force with unique training and experience."
Northrop Grumman and Boeing unveil a back-to-the-future concept for the next generation of space exploration vehicles. Above, an artist's concept shows NASA's proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle for trips to the space station and the moon.
fyi
This artists concept shows a six-legged insect-like robot used to inspect and repair spacecraft exteriors from various perspectives. Northrop Grumman Corporation will develop the robot under recent awards from NASA under the Vision for Space Exploration initiative. EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout
October 12—A Northrop Grumman-Boeing team has unveiled its plans to design and build NASA's proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle, a successor to the space shuttle that will carry humans to the International Space Station by 2012 and back to the moon by 2018. Shown in this artist concept, the new, modular space vehicle comprises a crew module reminiscent of the Apollo spacecraft, a service module and a launch-abort system. Read more about Northrop Grumman's creation of the Apollo Lunar Module.
Yes, the CEV lands at Edwards! Yes, wont miss that for anything!
Major plus for California.
I guess they haven't revealed their concept for the lunar lander yet, that will be interesting.
FYI, ping!
Interesting how they have upgraded the basic capsule design.
From the Northrop-Grumman website:
-- CEV's crew module will have much more internal volume than the
Apollo capsule, but will only be slightly heavier, due to the use
of advanced structural materials and technologies that reduce the
size, weight and power consumption of key subsystems.
-- CEV's crew module will carry up to six astronauts, while Apollo
carried just three.
-- CEV will carry more fuel for lunar return than Apollo, allowing it
to change its orbit rather than relying on the moon and the Earth
to be in the right relative positions.
-- CEV will be able to operate as an autonomous spacecraft orbiting
the moon for up to six months while its crew of four descends to
the lunar surface in the lunar lander. Crew members and ground
controllers will be able to communicate with the CEV and monitor
its "vital signs" remotely. During the Apollo era, one astronaut
stayed with the "mother ship" while the lunar lander carrying two
astronauts descended to the moon.
-- CEV will use two fault-tolerant subsystems and integrated system-
health- management systems to allow it to detect, isolate and
recover from subsystem failures. By comparison, Apollo generally
had only single fault tolerance.
The Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV, is a key part of President George W. Bush's ambitious long-term plan for manned exploration and possible colonization of the nearest planets.
How interesting...
SoyPollUz is Go!
This isn't specific to the Northrop Grumman-Boeing proposal, but more so about NASA's whole Moon exploration plan. Here goes:
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