NASA set to test emergency capabilities of new space capsule

NASA this week will show off the first mock up of its Orion space capsule ahead of the capsule's first emergency astronaut escape system test.

NASA in late 2008, says it will jettison the full-size structural model off a simulated launch pad at the US Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The launch escape vehicle sits atop the Orion capsule which is slated to be bolted on an Ares rocket. The escape vehicle is made up of three solid rocket motors as well as separation mechanisms and canards, and should offer the crew an escape capability in the event of an emergency during launch, according to NASA.

Orbital is the NASA subcontractor building the escape component as part of the Lockheed Martin team building the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle .

The mock up will face at least three tests of its capabilities. In addition to a pair of pad abort tests, which test Orion's ability to pull its crew capsule to safety from the launch pad, a trio of in-flight trials is scheduled between 2009 and 2011 to measure the escape system's effectiveness at subsonic and supersonic speeds, as well as during a tumbling motion. A high-altitude test during the second Ares I launch, slated to fly in 2012 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, will check the escape system at the upper limit of its design, according to NASA and a Space.com article.

NASA said one of the major challenges of the Orion has been culling about 5,000 pounds from the Orion spacecraft to lighten its load. Meanwhile, a series of other technology checks are underway to test Orion parachutes and the shuttle-derived solid rocket booster of Ares I's first stage. NASA successfully launched a 1:100 scale model of the Ares I rocket in January.

According to NASA, Orion will be similar in shape to the Apollo spacecraft, but significantly larger. The Apollo-style heat shield is the best understood shape for re-entering Earth's atmosphere, especially when returning directly from the moon. Orion will be 16.5 feet in diameter and have a mass of about 25 tons. Inside, it will have more than two-and-a-half times the volume of an Apollo capsule.

That larger size will let Orion seat four crew members on missions to the moon, and six on missions to the International Space Station or Mars-bound spacecraft. Orion, which is part and parcel of NASA's overarching Constellation program is scheduled to fly its first missions to the space station by 2014 and carry out its first moon flight by 2020. The escape vehicle isn't the only safety component of the launch.

NASA is also building what it calls the Orion Emergency Egress System, which is basically a roller caster ride no one ever wants to take. It is a group of multi-passenger cars on a set of rails on the outside of the Ares rocket launcher facility. The idea is to move astronauts and ground crew quickly from the spaceship on the launch pad to a protective concrete bunker in case of an emergency.

For Orion, the rail car would stand some 380 feet above the ground. It will be at the same height as the hatch on the Orion capsule, which is where the astronaut crews enter the spacecraft before launch. "It's obviously not a thrill ride, but we're taking advantage of technology that's there," a NASA official said.

According to NASA similar systems have been built into launch pads since the Saturn rockets and for the space shuttle. Both earlier systems were cables running from the spacecraft's crew ingress level to an area near a bunker. There has never been an emergency on the pad that required the crew use these systems, NASA said.

Also with safety in mind, NASA is building an enormous lightning protection system at the Kennedy Space Center that will not only protect people and equipment but will collect strike information for analysis by launch managers.The $28 million structure will be the largest on the space compound and will feature large cables strung between three 594-foot-tall steel and fiberglass towers.

Each tower is topped with a fiberglass mast and a series of catenary wires and down conductors designed to divert lightning away from the rocket and service structure. This configuration helps keep the vehicle isolated from dangerous lightning currents, NASA said.

The system will also include an array of sensors, both on the ground and the mobile launcher, will help determine the vehicle's condition after a nearby lightning strike. This can prevent days of delays, NASA said on its Web site.

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