Of Pressure and Risk:NASA Considers the Trump Proposal to Speed Up the Orion Program

A NASA official,Dr.William Gerstenmaier,Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate,has spoken to the media via teleconference about the White House request that NASA consider making Exploration Mission-1 of the Orion Program,currently slated to be an unmanned mission in 2018,to be the first crewed mission as well as a test mission for the integrated Orion spacecraft and new Space Launch System rocket,in order to speed the development process up and preserve American leadership in space exploration:
We don't need the full capability of the Exploration Upper Stage to do this revised mission EM-1.What changes do we need to make?We think we can still protect the crew.We didn't do a test of the cargo flights to International Space Station.We might add micrometeorite protection for the high Earth orbit.The mission would be in 2019.We're going to do an altitude abort test to make sure it works.
Does this really advance our ability to get to the Moon?It will be a risks analysis.We can notionally pull the altitude abort test forward to early in 2019,ahead of revised EM-1.
We recognise this is an increased risk,and we have to decide whether it's worth it with astronauts included in the discussion.What do I really gain from putting a crew on board?When you look at STS-1,the first Space Shuttle mission,which also added crew to a test flight,it's not as big a step as what we did with Shuttle technology.*
From my perspective,I don't see this as pressure.It's better if I don't have a preconceived notion.They gave us freedom to delay EM-1 and extra funding.I think it's great if we have a chance to look at this.We make some changes to give us a better system overall,even if we don't add crew to EM-1.It's going to take a significant amount of money-and pretty quickly-to do what we have to do.We will still have a pretty exciting mission without a crew on EM-1;but a very successful Exploration Flight Test-1 helps give us confidence in adding new things to EM-1.We hit 85 of 87 flight tests successfully on EFT-1,except for the crew uprighting at splashdown.We were looking at this on our own to see what we could do.We added crew seats and dummies and radiation testing.To make this faster,the carbon dioxide removal has been tested on ISS.The waste management system will be going to ISS.*
I don't consider this a ton of extra work for us.I've picked team members for this evaluation not directly associated with Orion so the Orion team could stay focused on EM-1/EM-2.We don't have a specific schedule about getting information.If we go beyond 2019,we might as well go fly EM-2 instead.In the next month or so,we hope to have some of our preliminary findings briefed within the agency.We want to have a pretty polished format in about a month,Dr.Bill Gerstenmaier explained to the media.*
Priniciple contractors for the Orion Program include Lockheed Martin (LMT);Boeing (BA);United Launch Alliance (LMT/BA partnership);and Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJRD).

The Orion Spacecraft:Shuttle-like Tiles,but Uniquely Distant Missions

About 10 technicians and quality inspectors with Arctic Slope Regional Corporation have begun bonding approximately 1300 thermal protection tiles onto panels of NASA's Orion spacecraft to preserve the capsule and its future crew through the reentry inferno.The workers,veterans of the Space Shuttle programme's tile-bonding process,will bond each silica tile to the nine Orion side panels or the forward bay cover.Orion also has a massive heat shield for protection.Before bonding,each tile is scanned for conformity with Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin's design information for the particular tile.
The work,which will take several months to complete,is being done in the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building,Kennedy Space Center,a facility serving as the preparatory nerve center for Orion's first mission atop the new Space Launch System rocket,Exploration Mission-1.This second uncrewed mission,following the successful first one on 5 December 2014 and scheduled for 30 September 2018,will see Orion sent far beyond where any other human-rated spacecraft has traveled before,some 40,000 miles above the Moon,on a three-week journey to gather spacecraft performance data and qualify Orion for the human spaceflight to occur on its next mission,EM-2 in 2023.The silvery-looking aluminised tiles will be installed on the Orion crew module before mating with the ESA Orion Service Module.
Beneath the silvery coating will be the same Toughened Uni-Piece Fibrous Insulation,or TUFI,used in the closing missions of the Space Shuttle era.Unlike the shuttle's tiles,however,Orion's will not be reusable,as salt water contaminates them upon splashdown.*
Orion's reentry to the Earth's atmosphere will be at about 25,000 miles an hour and 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.While many of the tiles are a standard 8x8 inches;others are odd-shaped to fit around windows,thrusters and antennae.*
ASRC Federal delivers aviation,space and missile defence,base and range operations and maintenance services to the US Government.The company is owned by the Innupiaq people of Alaska's North Slope.*
Lockheed Martin (LMT)

Aerospace Engineering:Critical Design Review Completed for ESA Orion Service Module

NASA and the ESA completed a critical design review culminating in a final review board on 16 June 2016 for the European-built Orion Service Module.The OSM,manufactured by Airbus Group SE,will power,propel and cool the Orion capsule in deep space,along with providing air,water and storage capacity for Orion's crew.
No new major issues were identified during an initial scan of the review,NASA said.Indeed,numerous items were processed and closed out,assuring engineers the OSM design is mature enough to continue with fabrication,assembly,integration and testing.While Airbus builds the OSM,Lockheed Martin is serving as prime contractor of the Orion spacecraft itself.*
The CDR set April 2017 as the target for OSM delivery to Kennedy Space Center for final processng for its late 2018 launch on the unmanned Exploration Mission-1,when it will be stacked atop the new Space Launch System rocket and beneath the Orion spacecraft.
Orion and its Ground Systems Development Program that provides the facilities and ground support at KSC to prepare SLS and Orion for deep space missions,successfully completed their own joint CDR in March 2016.*
Airbus Group SE (Euronext:EAD),Lockheed Martin (LMT)

Inside NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission - what,when and why

NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) has two mission segments,according to NASA's Formulation Assessment and Support Team (FAST),a group of government and academic solar system exploration experts advising NASA on mission requirements.The Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM),slated for an end of year 2020 launch,will be the first mission ever to visit a large Near Earth Object,land on it,collect and return the asteroid material to a stable orbit around the Moon.The second mission segment is the Asteroid Redirect Crew Mission (ARCM),planned for a late 2025 launch of the Orion spacecraft on the new Space Launch System rocket,in which astronauts will explore the boulder and return to Earth with samples.*
A principal objective of the ARM is the development of a high-power Solar Electric Propulsion vehicle for the ARRM and the demonstration that it can operate for many years in interplanetary space.A second prime objective is to conduct a human spaceflight mission including in-space interaction with a natural object,to provide the systems and operational experience required for eventual human exploration of Mars,including the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos.The ARRM will test how Orion can dock and operate with a SEP-powered spacecraft.This new technology will help send the large amount of cargo,habitats and propellant to Mars in advance of a human mission.*
ARCM provides a compelling focus for the Orion program before the infrastructure for more ambitious flights will be available.The ARCM will provide the opportunity for human explorers to work in space with asteroid material,testing the activities that would be performed and tools that would be needed for later exploration of primitive body surfaces in deep space,close to our home planet and making it a significantly more affordable approach to obtaining this experience.*
According to the FAST draft report for public comment dated 23 November 2015,NASA has identified the NEA 2008 EV5 (the 5 is formally rendered as a subscript numeral) as the reference target for the ARRM.Final target selection will be made approximately a year before launch.2OO8 EV5 provides a valid target that can be used to help with formulation and development efforts.It is about 400m in diameter and has a reflectance spectrum consistent with carbonaceous chondrite meteorites (meteorites are small pieces of asteroids or comets that entered the atmosphere and survived to reach the surface of Earth).It is possible to identify 6 distinct candidate 10-m scale boulders on 2008 EV5's surface by visual inspection of radar images.One of the candidate boulders is located near the asteroid's South Pole;the others cannot be located with certainty at this time.
As for regoliths,or unconsolidated rocky material,there are likely millions of 10-cm scale cobbles on this NEA;and 3000 1-5m boulders would be expected on its surface.In terms of vehicle safety,steep cratered topography is not prevalent on asteroids less than 1 km in diameter,which are of interest to the ARRM.*
Initial dynamic modeling indicates 2008 EV5 began its existence as part of a much larger body in the Asteroid Belt (likely diameter 100 km) and migrated inward across the inner main belt over many millions of years until it reached a planetary gravitational resonance that drove it into the NEA population.Besides material collection,2008 EV5 will also be used for an enhanced gravity tractor asteroid deflection demonstration.This is one of the prospective defence techniques to deflect dangerous asteroids and protect Earth if needed in the future.

NASA and ESA:Orion Program Draws Them Even Closer

On 30 November,several NASA officials,plus Orion Program prime contractor Lockheed Martin and their European partners held a press conference to mark the start of testing of the European Service Module for the Orion spacecraft.The ESM test article was recently flown to the US on a huge Russian Antonov aircraft and trucked to the NASA Glenn Research Center in Clevelend and Sandusky,Ohio.The ESM will be certified for flight on Exploration Mission 1 in 2018,an unmanned mission that will be the first flight of Orion on the new Space Launch System rocket,which will take the spacecraft to the Moon and back.*
This is another step along that journey of designing a vehicle that's going to take us farther than human beings have gone ever,said GRC director Jim Free.It's really about ensuring the success of EM-1.GRC is the only place you can test a vehicle this size in its launch configuration.The huge vibration table here shakes the vehicle and the vacuum chamber simulates what space is like for the vehicle.At GRC's multiple locations for testing and getting qualified for flight,there will be ESM solar array deployment and firing pyrotechnics.It's all about ensuring mission success,meeting the flight and mission requirements here on the ground.
With the ESM Orion Service Module,we're building on the international partnership of the ISS.*
This is a significant milestone,said Greg Williams of NASA headquarters in Washingon,DC.What's more important is,we don't want to go it alone.We want exploration to be together.Orion and the Exploration Systems program will be the same as ISS.
We're building hardware,testing hardware,testing software.All the pieces are coming together.In the SLS program,tanks are being welded together;there is fabrication and testing.The huge Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center is being recertified;pads are being refurbished.It's really exciting to see we're on this march to EM-1.*
The vibration table and acoustic chamber here at GRC are unique in the world,said Mark Kirasich,Orion Program Manager,Johnson Space Center,Houston.We have to make sure we can survive that and the thermal extremes.We welcomed the ESA three years ago.Their ESM will provide Orion with propulsion,attitude control and abort capability.Its large solar arrays power the equipment and its radiators keep the equipment and astronauts comfortable.Its water and gas tanks are for drinking and breathing.
Down in Louisiana,the EM-1 crew module is almost complete;in early January,it will be shipped to KSC for the production and outfitting phase.*
This Saturday will be the first anniversary of EFT-1,the first test flight of Orion,said Dr.Mike Hawes,Orion Program Manager at Lockheed Martin.Five of the seven EM-1 crew module welds are complete.We are delivering computer boards to the ESA.We all believe exploration has to be an international venture.We work day in and day out with the Airbus team.The service module has to be totally interactive with the crew module.The crew module is the brains,directing the ESM's solar arrays and firing.The ISS proves that these partnerships can work on a vast scale.ESM is really building on that.We're testing Orion components on the ISS.*
It's a real team achievement,said Nico Dettman,head of the ESA's Development Department.I've seen a tremendous development in cooperation of the teams,a continuation of the ISS program.It's the first time ESA is embarking on a human mission beyond low earth orbit.*
On this programme,we are the partner of Lockheed Martin,building for the agencies,said Dr.Oliver Jukenhoefel,ESM Program Manager for Airbus Defence&Space.Our ESM couldn't fly alone;there is no onboard computer.The whole mission control is done by the crew module and NASA.Collaboration on a daily basis is not easy.The ESM test article is the majority of the mechanical.Space is in our DNA.The Orion Program is the best place we can be and we want to be in it for a very long period.*
The whole reason we're going to the Moon is for practice and as a staging area for equipment going to Mars,added NASA's Greg Williams.We need to develop equipment for deep space habitation;deep space propulsion ( needed first for the Asteroid Redirect Mission);and a landing capability for the Martian atmosphere.We are thinking ahead.Development and testing activities are underway.A lot is being tested on the ISS.Many componenets are either being designed or developed.It's a long,expensive proposition.We would love to see astronauts from several nations involved when we first set foot on the red planet.
All of our avionics and electronics have to be radiation-hardened.We,re building places to protect astronauts if we experience a solar flare,a place where they can hide.*

Career Opportunity:NASA Astronaut

Today NASA announced it will soon be recruiting US citizens again for a new astronaut candidate class.More human spacecraft are in development now than at any time in NASA history,and future astronauts will soon be launching from the Florida Space Coast on US-made commercial spacecraft and deep space missions to advance a future mission to Mars,the agency said.Applications will be accepted from 14 December to mid-February.NASA will announce the selectees in mid-2017.You can apply at http://www.usajobs.gov.The class of 2017 will be flying on either the International Space Station;the Boeing CST-100 Starliner;the SpaceX Crew Dragon;or the Orion deep-space exploration vehicle.*
NASA selects from a diverse pool of US citizens with a variety of backgrounds such as pilots,engineers,scientists and medical doctors.*
The next group of American space explorers will inspire the Mars generation to reach for new heights,and help us reach the goal of putting boot prints on the Red Planet,said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.Those selected for this service will fly on US-made spacecraft from American soil;advance critical science and research aboard the ISS;and help push the boundaries of technology in the proving ground of deep space.*
There are 47 astronauts currently in the active astronaut corps and more will be needed to crew future missions to the ISS and destinations in deep space.In its history,NASA has recruited more than 300 astronauts.
Requirements include a bachelor's degree in engineering,biological science,physical science or mathematics.Advanced degrees are desirable.Candidates must also have at least three years of related,progressively responsible professional experience,or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft.They must also pass the NASA long duration spaceflight physical.*
For more information about this career and the requirements,please visit http://www.nasa.gov.astronauts.