Orion embarked on its maiden voyage in

December 2014, putting NASA back in the

manned space race. Dr Neil Ashton straps
himself in for the ride

74

Knowledge June 2015

SPACE I SCIENCE

Technicians and
engineers shifted
the Orion craft into position
on the service structure.
It was then lifted and
moved onto the Delta IV
Heavy rocket
A

SCIENCE | SPACE

Orion undergoing
final assembly at the
Kennedy Space Center.
Technicians ensured that no
foreign objects contaminated
the spacecraft while it was
being put together

pollo 17 splashed into the Pacific

Ocean on 19 December 1972 after
completing the final mission of the
Apollo space programme. It marked the
end of an 11-year effort to take humans to
the M o o n . N A S A had first achieved this
feat just three years earlier with Apollo 11.
NASA's latest craft, Orion, finally gives
the space agency the ability to take h u m a n s
beyond the Earth once again. O n 5
December 2014 it completed its first test
flight, dubbed Exploration Flight Test 1.
For this flight, O r i o n was launched by the
world's most powerful rocket, the Delta IV
Heavy, taking it 5,794km (3,600 miles)
above the Earth, more than 10 times
further away than the International Space
Station. After nearly four hours of
spaceflight, it started its descent back to
Earth. O n the way d o w n it reached speeds
of over 3 2 , 1 8 7 k m / h (20,000mph) and then
attained temperatures in excess of 2,000C
during its re-entry.
T h e first mission was designed to test the
top risks that O r i o n would face on a
mission into deep space. These included the
ability of the heat shield to protect the
spacecraft on return, the pyrotechnicinduced separations at various stages of the
mission and the guidance, navigation and
propulsion systems. W h i l e the data f r o m
the maiden flight is still being analysed, a
first look at the information suggests it was
a huge success for NASA. "We're ecstatic;
there aren't adjectives that describe h o w
well overall the spacecraft did," says Mark
Kirasich, Orion's deputy p r o g r a m m e
manager at NASA. " O u r exploration
programme at N A S A is all about reestablishing h u m a n exploration beyond
low-Earth orbit."
T h e origins of O r i o n date back to 2004.
A new crew module, service module and

76

Knowledge June 2015

Orion splashed
down into the Pacific
Ocean, 1,030km (640 miles)
southeast of San Diego. Five
balloons are used to ensure
Orion stays upright, but
only two of them correctly
inflated

The Orion craft

blasted into space on
5 December 2014 aboard
the Delta IV Heavy, which
is the most world's most
powerful rocket

"BY 2021 THE

FIRST MANNED
MISSION WILL
BE LAUNCHED"

SCIENCE | SPACE

"EVENTUAL
MANNED
MISSION
TO MARS IN
THE 2030S"
LAUNCHED"
rocket were planned, together with a lunar
lander. But a change in the U S
administration ultimately led to the
programme being cancelled, and NASA
went back to the drawing board.
O u t of this rethinking came two
objectives. First, to commercialise the resupply of crew and cargo to the
International Space Station. This has since
led to two private companies, SpaceX and
Boeing, being awarded contracts to take
over the responsibility of ferrying
astronauts and cargo to the space station.
This capability allows NASA and its lead
contractor, Lockheed Martin, to
concentrate on the development of deep
space human exploration missions.
Blast off
This second objective resulted in the O r i o n
spacecraft, whose design came largely f r o m
the previously cancelled Constellation
programme. In addition to Orion, a new
and powerful rocket called the Space
Launch System (SLS) has been developed.
The SLS will have the capacity to
eventually take Orion to Mars.
You could easily be forgiven for thinking
that the Orion spacecraft is, in fact, Apollo
in disguise. Larry Price is Orion's deputy
programme manager at Lockheed Martin.
As he explains, NASA's extensive
storehouse of knowledge came in handy
when designing Orion. " T h e shape

78 EE] Knowledge June 2015

BLAST OFF!
The Delta IV Heavy is the world's most powerful
rocket. It launched the Orion crew module and
launch abort system into space

LAUNCH SYSTEM
Launch abort system

Orion crew module

Upper stage

Delta IV Heavy Rocket

ORION'S FIRST FLIGHT

Hours: minutes:
seconds after launch

0:00:00
On 5 December 2014,

Orion launched on the

Delta IV Heavy rocket
from Kennedy
Space Center

0:06:10
The service module
and the launch abort
system separated this was a critical

3,000

part of the mission

1:57:11
The upper stage of the
system reignited after

2,000

completing one orbit

around the Earth

3:23:41
The Orion crew module

'00

separated from the

service module and the

500

upper stage

3:57:00

The crew module fired the

control jets to orientate the

Time in hours from launch

craft correctly for re-entry

into the atmosphere

HOW ORION ORBITED EARTH

1:13:41
rhe Orion crew module made
:ontact with the Earth's
itmosphere at an altitude of
505km

4:20:22
Forward Ibay cover separated,
starting the parachute
deployment sequence

4:24:46

Orion landed safely in the

1|

Pacific Ocean and was

recovered by NASA and the
ivy

"THIS IS THE START OF A

NEW WAVE OF HUMAN

EXPLORATION OF OUR

SOLAR SYSTEM"

MSI

i&sasK

'ail

SPACE | SCIENCE

Orion seen in the

well deck of the USS
Anchorage. US Navy divers
recovered the spacecraft
after Orion's first exploration
flight test
A

reduces the time and cost to develop a

system based upon the existing data
we've got from the Apollo
programmes," he says.
This mission marks the first step
towards an eventual manned mission to
Mars in the 2030s. Next year, further
test flights with updated hardware will
take place. And in 2018, Exploration
Mission 1 will launch an unmanned
O r i o n aboard the new Space Launch
System, sending it into orbit around the
M o o n . This will be used to test the
guidance and navigation systems as well
as the radiation protection equipment.
By 2021 the first manned mission will
be launched, called Exploration Mission
2. This mission is currently proposed
to send astronauts to a captured asteroid,
so they can collect samples and bring
them home.
Before any humans fly onboard
Orion, one hugely important part of the
system will be thoroughly tested. The
Launch Abort System (LAS) fits around
the crew module, with a spike housing
three rocket motors. If the main rocket
should fail, the LAS's rockets would fire
within milliseconds to pull the crew
module out of harm's way before
deploying parachutes for a safe landing.
Mars mission
Many challenges lie ahead before the
final goal of sending astronauts to Mars,
however. At present Orion is designed
to only take four astronauts for missions
lasting up to 21 days. This is because
there isn't enough space to store water
and supplies for longer missions. An
eventual mission to Mars would rely on
various other components, such as a
habitat module.
But the need for humans to undertake
such missions is something that NASA
is convinced is necessary. Exploration
Flight Test 1 was just the start of a long
journey for NASA, but it is one that
could ultimately mark the start of
a new wave of human space
exploration of our Solar System and will
inspire a new generation of scientists
and engineers. US
Dr Neil Ashton works at The University of
Manchester's School of Mechanical, Aerospace
and Civil Engineering.

june2015 EE] Knowledge

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