NASA released today three stages on the journey to Mars and it's outstanding to see development of this concrete form. The three stages on the journey don't go through to a landing on Mars but they include extremely cool pieces of it.
The Space Launch System isn't so much a cool new thing as it a massively powerful thing. NASA projects a 140-ton lift capability for it. Here's an ignition test in Utah:
That's some seriously bad-ass space hardware. Now imagine it with two solid-fuel boosters on each side in the same way as the shuttle boosters have done it. Those primary components make up the Space Launch System.
Riding above the SLS will be the Orion exploration vehicle and it will carry four astronauts.
She looks a lot like Apollo but the Orion has the utility module underneath the astronaut module so presumably this means quite a bit more room for the astronauts to move. It would be almost unimaginable to do a long trip in space in such cramped quarters as with Apollo. Orion provides 50% more volume but the really new stuff will come in the proposed Deep Space Habitat which will be associated with Orion for the long missions. That one is currently in the planning stage.
For more detail, WIKI: Orion (spacecraft)
Here's one to tear it apart:
It will be extremely damn good to see the spirit of human exploration alive again. People ask why do it but we have no idea why do it. We will find that when we get there. We always have.
This will be a slow evolution, just as with Apollo, from short Earth-orbit flights until the program expands to whatever destiny awaits it. I know one thing for sure: I want to see it.
The Space Launch System isn't so much a cool new thing as it a massively powerful thing. NASA projects a 140-ton lift capability for it. Here's an ignition test in Utah:
That's some seriously bad-ass space hardware. Now imagine it with two solid-fuel boosters on each side in the same way as the shuttle boosters have done it. Those primary components make up the Space Launch System.
Riding above the SLS will be the Orion exploration vehicle and it will carry four astronauts.
She looks a lot like Apollo but the Orion has the utility module underneath the astronaut module so presumably this means quite a bit more room for the astronauts to move. It would be almost unimaginable to do a long trip in space in such cramped quarters as with Apollo. Orion provides 50% more volume but the really new stuff will come in the proposed Deep Space Habitat which will be associated with Orion for the long missions. That one is currently in the planning stage.
For more detail, WIKI: Orion (spacecraft)
Here's one to tear it apart:
It will be extremely damn good to see the spirit of human exploration alive again. People ask why do it but we have no idea why do it. We will find that when we get there. We always have.
This will be a slow evolution, just as with Apollo, from short Earth-orbit flights until the program expands to whatever destiny awaits it. I know one thing for sure: I want to see it.
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