Quote from: Coastal Ron on 12/04/2014 04:01 pmA second article from Businessweek with an interesting claim:Businessweek - Why NASA's Orion Spacecraft Looks So Familiar"Orion is roughly three times larger than the Apollo crew module, built to carry four astronauts as far as Mars, a 70-million mile round-trip journey that could take as much as 23 months."It's amazing the pervasiveness of this meme.The sadder part is that NASA itself perpetuates that meme, oversimplifying the fact that Orion is only the general command and reentry spacecraft, not the mission extended excursion mode.
A second article from Businessweek with an interesting claim:Businessweek - Why NASA's Orion Spacecraft Looks So Familiar"Orion is roughly three times larger than the Apollo crew module, built to carry four astronauts as far as Mars, a 70-million mile round-trip journey that could take as much as 23 months."It's amazing the pervasiveness of this meme.
Quote from: edkyle99 on 12/04/2014 12:36 amQuote from: LouScheffer on 12/03/2014 05:58 pmAgreed that it's a sensible set of test goals, but considering the booster alone is more than 1/3 of a billion bucks, I too am disappointed (as a taxpayer) that they could not cram a few more tests in.These things are going to carry people! They should wring them out, piece by piece, for as long as it takes and for as much as it costs, before anyone is strapped into one.Before astronauts prepared to fly an Apollo, NASA launched four unmanned Apollo spacecraft, five boilerplate Apollos, and 15 unmanned Saturn rockets. Six of those were suborbital missions that lasted a half-hour or less. And guess what? That still wasn't enough, because then the AS-201 fire happened.No, NASA should fly as many tests as its most conservative engineering calls for. Then it should fly a few more just to be sure. Any decision maker who balks at the cost should be escorted to view the STS-107 debris, or equivalent. - Ed Kyle I think you've got this backwards. I'm suggesting *more* tests, and you are suggesting fewer. In practice, you've got a budget, and you can only afford a certain number of (expensive) flight tests. So to your point, you should have enough flight tests to convince yourself it's safe (safe enough, not perfectly safe). But to my point, once your flight test schedule is determined, you should cram each flight test with as many tests as possible (this was the "all-up" testing of Apollo, which was considered radical at the time).
Quote from: LouScheffer on 12/03/2014 05:58 pmAgreed that it's a sensible set of test goals, but considering the booster alone is more than 1/3 of a billion bucks, I too am disappointed (as a taxpayer) that they could not cram a few more tests in.These things are going to carry people! They should wring them out, piece by piece, for as long as it takes and for as much as it costs, before anyone is strapped into one.Before astronauts prepared to fly an Apollo, NASA launched four unmanned Apollo spacecraft, five boilerplate Apollos, and 15 unmanned Saturn rockets. Six of those were suborbital missions that lasted a half-hour or less. And guess what? That still wasn't enough, because then the AS-201 fire happened.No, NASA should fly as many tests as its most conservative engineering calls for. Then it should fly a few more just to be sure. Any decision maker who balks at the cost should be escorted to view the STS-107 debris, or equivalent. - Ed Kyle
Agreed that it's a sensible set of test goals, but considering the booster alone is more than 1/3 of a billion bucks, I too am disappointed (as a taxpayer) that they could not cram a few more tests in.
Hi all! Can anyone speculate why we only have 1 test flight for Orion? Shouldn't we be doing more than one test flight? Since the Space Shuttle had technically, 4 test flights? Just a thought....MikeEndeavour23
I find it completely absurd that American people can not grasp the need for a hab module on such a long journey. Why not be upfront about it? You might be surprised.
Hi,Could anyone kindly point me to a ground track for the re-entry? I'm wondering if it will be visible from Honolulu.Thanks!
Quote from: MattMason on 12/04/2014 04:30 pmThe sadder part is that NASA itself perpetuates that meme, oversimplifying the fact that Orion is only the general command and reentry spacecraft, not the mission extended excursion mode.I'll take that a step further... Orion/SLS is considered a complete system just like STS....
The sadder part is that NASA itself perpetuates that meme, oversimplifying the fact that Orion is only the general command and reentry spacecraft, not the mission extended excursion mode.
Valves aren't going to be replaced
When it does take off, it is predictable that the NASA announcer will say something like "Liftoff of Orion, the spacecraft that will take us to Mars." They have a tradition of saying something dramatic (and usually corny) every time.
Quote from: Jim on 12/04/2014 04:36 pmValves aren't going to be replacedExercised? Lubricated? Purged?Just hope they work?
Quote from: dvdt on 12/04/2014 11:28 pmHi,Could anyone kindly point me to a ground track for the re-entry? I'm wondering if it will be visible from Honolulu.Thanks!The NASA Press Kit has a crude orbit trace map on page 10. It seems to show that your best bet might be a look at the second stage reentry, which should be north east of Hawaii, but may be too far away at about 30 N 150W. CM reentry looks to be far to the east, and it will be daylight. - Ed Kyle
