Posted on 09/02/2018 12:00:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Exploration Mission-1, which is scheduled to take place in 2020, will consist of an uncrewed Orion capsule being sent into orbit around the Moon and then returning to Earth. Using lunar gravity to gain speed and propel itself 70,000 km beyond the Moon – and almost half a million km from Earth – this mission will send a spacecraft farther into the Solar System than ever before.
The Orion pressure vessel, which is the vehicle’s primary structure that will hold a pressurized atmosphere for the astronauts, consists of seven large aluminum pieces that are welded together using a state-of-the-art process called friction-stir welding. This process produces incredibly strong bonds by transforming metal into a plastic-like state, then uses a rotating pin tool to forge a bond between two metal components.
This helps ensure that the structure of the Orion spacecraft is strong, light-weight and air-tight, something that is essential to next-generation spacecraft. And while it has meant that the construction and assembly process of the Orion has been a long journey, the extra care NASA is taking to prepare their capsules will ensure that they can keep their astronauts safe and withstand the harsh environment of deep space.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Why send it unmanned? Surely there are folks that would love to make the trip. Heck, I’ll volunteer.
High energy radiation just blows through it.
Wonder id they are storing water between the shells of the walls, or if the water storage will be up front?
Smart money would ship extra water and air up then add it as a module to the craft.
I’d prefer the dragon.
Which really begs the question, how exactly did they do it before...
The original Orion was a system developed by a Freeman Dyson. It used nuclear bomb explosions that could propel a large craft loaded with gear and people to mars in weeks rather than months.
I’d go, but as fat as I am I’d have to buy two tickets.
Aluminum can block or repel about 25% of cosmic radiation. They're using plastics now with much better results. They're building capsules with layers of materials to protect astronauts, and materials sciences are moving quickly toward better protection measures for astronomical applications.
Its the mass, not the weight.
What I would like to know and I know it is a lot bigger than the Apollo capsule. What are the 3 or 4 astronauts are going to do during a several months space flight to Mars?
That’s what I thought they were referring to when I saw the headline.
Three I don’t know. They’d need a fourth for Bridge...
Lots of sleep. Lots of vitual reality headset time. Books, movies, twitter, youtube...you can put the whole internet on a handful of thumb drives these days...
Astronaut long term exposure outside Earth’s magnetosphere (the Apollo astronauts were only vulnerable for a week or so and the ISS orbits well within the protective field) is something seldom noted in “Let’s go to Mars and then mine the Asteroid Belt” articles. Perforation by micro-meteoroids moving at a few miles per second is another potential “Whoa, s***!” reality of space that you never see in the movies.
They’d have to exercise a lot just to keep from wasting away.
If you’re moving fast enough to get to Mars in weeks, how are you going to slow down when you get there?
NASA and safety engineers require an initial unmanned test flight to qualify a new spacecraft for manned flight.
Project Orion craft would have carried water between dual hulls in the millions of gallons. They were not the fragile ships/capsules used today. Inter-system ships would have had a crew of 150. The interstellar version would have had a crew in the thousands ... the bigger they were the better they would have worked.
Motto: Mars by 1964, Venus by 1970
That’s how far behind we have fallen.
everal months space flight to Mars
—
Years. not months
Yes they slow down for the second half.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
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