Astronaut Drew Feustel Talks Orion and the Future of Space Exploration (Video)

By Kasandra Brabaw

NASA astronaut Drew Feustel was destined to play a big role in the exploration of space.

His early years make it seem that way, anyway. Not only is Feustel from Lake Orion, Michigan — Orion is the name of NASA's next crew-carrying spacecraft — but he also grew up along a cluster of streets with NASA-worthy names.

"I lived on Saturn Drive," Feustel told Space.com's Dave Brody in a video interview. "The street nearby was Gemini Drive. We had Mercury. We had Armstrong," Feustel added, referring to NASA's Gemini and Mercury human-spaceflight programs, and famed moonwalker Neil Armstrong. [Giant Leaps: Top Milestones of Human Spaceflight]

While there isn't a Feustel Street yet, the astronaut is doing his part to further space exploration — as is the Orion spacecraft, which NASA envisions helping get astronauts to asteroids, Mars and other deep-space destinations

The 16.5-foot-wide (5 meters) Orion may seem like it would be cramped for astronauts, but the capsule is actually pretty roomy, Feustel said. Orion is larger than Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, which astronauts currently use to get to and from the International Space Station (ISS), and Orion's living quarters are bigger than those of NASA's now-retired space shuttle.

When Orion comes online in the early 2020s, it will able to accommodate up to six astronauts on ISS flights, and up to four crewmembers for journeys to Mars, NASA officials have said. But astronauts on Red Planet missions wouldn't be confined to Orion during the entire trip, which would require about eight months of spaceflight in each direction, Feustel said.

"Of course, we believe if we flew this spacecraft, we would have a habitation module going to wherever we were going with us," Feustel said in the video. Orion "is really the piece that sits on the pointy end of the spear to get the crew to space, assemble what we need — the rest of the vehicle — and then take it on out to a distant location."

Living on Mars for long stretches will likely require pioneers to utilize Red Planet resources, a skill that NASA said it wants to practice first in Earth-moon space. Feustel, a geoscientist, said he's all for this plan. (In college, he said, he had a T-shirt with the slogan "Earth first — we'll mine the other planets later." But, he added, he's not in favor of exploiting Earth so heavily that the planet gets damaged.)

"Wherever we are, we're going to need those natural resources," Feustel said.

The astronaut also said he thinks it's important for humans to learn how to live beyond Earth.

"We don't have a lot of history here, and we probably don't have a lot of a future here either," he said. "It's not doom and gloom. It's just the reality of the world that we live on."-

http://www.space.com

Orion Loaded into Work Stand at Kennedy

Engineers loaded the Orion pressure vessel, or underlying structure of the crew module, into a work stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 2. The pressure vessel’s seven large pieces were welded together at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans between September 2015 and January 2016. It will fly thousands of miles beyond the moon on Exploration Mission-1.

Orion is lowered onto a work stand in the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The pressure vessel provides a sealed environment to support astronauts and is key for future human-rated crew modules. The Orion team will test the pressure vessel to make sure it’s structurally sound and then begin outfitting it with the spacecraft’s other systems and subsystems. Over the next 18 months, more than 100,000 components will arrive to Kennedy for integration into Orion. 

https://blogs.nasa.gov/orion

NASA Completes Orion Parachute Development Tests

nasa.gov

TESTS COMPLETE DEVELOPMENT

Orion’s three main parachutes begin to unfurl after they are drawn out by three pilot parachutes. A test of the spacecraft’s parachute system was conducted Jan.2016

A dart-shaped test vehicle descended from the skies above the Arizona desert under Orion’s parachutes Wednesday, Jan. 13, successfully completing the final development test of the parachute system. NASA engineers evaluated modifications to the system for the last time before the start of qualification testing for Orion missions with astronauts.

During the test, engineers demonstrated that when the spacecraft is traveling faster during descent than in previous tests, Orion’s parachutes can properly deploy and withstand high-inflation loads. The dart-shaped vehicle allows engineers to simulate faster descent conditions than the capsule-shaped test article that has been used in many previous evaluations. The test also evaluated new, lighter-weight suspension line material for the parachutes saving a significant amount of mass.

“The completion of this last development test of the parachute system gives us a high degree of confidence that we’ll be successful in certifying the system with the remaining qualification tests for flights with astronauts,” said CJ Johnson, project manager for Orion’s parachute system. “During our development series, we’ve tested all kinds of failure scenarios and extreme descent conditions to refine the design and ensure Orion’s parachutes will work in a variety of circumstances. We’ll verify the system is sound during our qualification tests."

During Wednesday’s test, a C-17 aircraft dropped the test vehicle from its cargo bay while flying 30,000 feet over the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. NASA conducts the tests at the proving ground because of the capabilities of airdrop testing that exists there, and the ability for engineers to gather detailed video and photo imagery from chase aircraft to analyze how all of the parachute system’s mechanisms work, including how mortars fire and the parachutes unfurl and descend.

NASA Completes Successful Orion Parachute Test

Orion’s parachute system is a critical part of returning future crews who will travel to deep space on the journey to Mars and return to Earth in the spacecraft. The first parachutes deploy when the crew module is traveling more than 300 mph, and in a matter of minutes, the remaining parachute system slows the vehicle and enables it to splash down in the ocean at about 20 mph.

The system is composed of 11 total parachutes that deploy in a precise sequence. Three parachutes pull off Orion’s forward bay cover, which protects the top of the crew module -- where the packed parachutes reside -- from the heat of reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. Two drogues then deploy to slow the capsule and steady it. Three pilot parachutes then pull out the three orange and white mains, on which Orion rides for the final 8,000 feet of its descent. Orion’s main parachutes are packed to the density of oak wood to fit in the top part of the spacecraft, but once fully inflated cover almost an entire football field.

The test was the seventh in the developmental series. In July, engineers will begin qualifying Orion’s parachute system for flights with astronauts. The series will encompass eight drop tests over a three year-period.

http://www.nasa.gov/