Capsule makes a splash in NASA test, and the scientists are pleased

A full-scale replica of the next-generation Orion crew spacecraft, tipped at a 90-degree angle, hung from cables 40 feet in the air from the huge, historic gantry at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

At the close of a 15-second countdown, the capsule swung left.

Then, with a bang from the explosive release bolts, the nearly 7-ton capsule dropped with an impressive splash into the Hydro Impact Basin.

It shot a wave toward media cameras and a small host of onlookers — engineers, soldiers, children, local politicians, congressional staffers, journalists and others — gathered to witness Thursday’s splashdown test for a capsule designed to carry U.S. astronauts farther than they’ve ever gone before: to Mars, asteroids and other deep-space missions.

The test was conducted to see how the Orion craft would perform if it lost one of its three landing parachutes.

(Steve Helber/Associated Press )

“That’s exactly what we were looking for,” said chief engineer Jim Corliss, principal investigator for NASA Langley’s Orion test project.

The test was the ninth in a series that began in April at the center in Hampton, Va. to simulate a water landing from deep space and to see whether the computer models NASA uses to make the capsule safe for an astronaut crew are accurate.

It’s all part of what Bill Hill calls “the journey to Mars,” which NASA plans for the 2030s.

“This is an important part of it,” said Hill, deputy administrator at NASA headquarters. “We’ve got to prove that we can actually pull this off.”

NASA experts say they’re pleased with the results so far.

“What we’ve learned to this point is that our computer models actually do a very good job of predicting the loads and stresses in the actual structure and in the crew,” Corliss said.

The Orion replica drops into the Hydro Impact Basin with an impressive splash.

(Steve Herbert/Associated Press )

The Orion was designed and built to NASA requirements by primary partner Lockheed Martin under a long-term, $11-billion contract.

Each test drop is designed to address particular questions about the vehicle’s design or performance.

The recent test was to see how the craft would perform if it lost one of its three landing parachutes, causing it to drop in the ocean at higher speed with greater impact.

“We want to make sure the crew are not injured if one of those three parachutes fails,” Corliss said.

Under full parachutes and with no wind, the Orion will splash down at a vertical velocity of about 16 mph, he said. Under only two parachutes, the speed increases to around 20 mph.

Strapped inside the replica capsule were two test dummies, or anthropomorphic test devices. They were in full spacesuits and hooked to dozens of sensors to see how they fared under the physical stress.

The pair represent two extremes of possible astronauts: a 5-foot-2 female weighing 119 pounds and a 6-foot-2 male weighing 236 pounds.

In all, the mock capsule and mock crew were equipped with about 535 channels of instrumentation — the better, Corliss said, to assess a highly complex spacecraft.

Engineers will now begin the lengthy process of analyzing all that sensor data.

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NASA and Lockheed originally planned nine drops through August, but added a 10th that’s intended to stretch the boundaries of possible landing conditions.

The center has spent more than two years preparing for these drop tests, including installing the same heat shield that flew in space on the first test flight of an Orion capsule in December 2014.

NASA plans to launch an uncrewed Orion in 2018 aboard a new and cutting-edge Space Launch System booster — a super-heavy-lift rocket especially designed to carry the Orion and a four-person crew into deep space.

That spacecraft is set to travel 40,000 miles beyond the moon over a three-week mission before returning to splash down in the Pacific Ocean.

NASA says Orion could carry a real crew as early as 2021.

Dietrich writes for the Daily Press.

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