What is the Safety Record of the US Space Program?
The constellation plan is a space exploration plan prepared by NASA. The entire plan will include a series of new spacecraft, launch vehicles and related hardware. It will be used in various space missions including the International Space Station resupply and transportation and the moon landing. In use, although NASA has long claimed that the first launch of the Orion spacecraft was March 2015, the actual scheduled time was September 2013, and it had to be postponed to September 2014. On January 29, 2010, the White House confirmed that the (return to the moon) constellation plan has died due to financial constraints in the Obama administration's 2011 budget. [1-2]
- Constellation plan [3]
- The constellation's launch system will use Earth Orbit Rendezvous and Lunar Orbit Rendezvous simultaneously. The entire system consists of three parts: The Orion Crew & Service Module (CSM), Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM), and Earth Departure Stage (EDS). The rockets used in the launch system include Ares V, which launches unmanned installations (Ares V, which will launch one of the Earth's departure stations plus a lunar landing capsule and other cargo), and Ares I, which launches a manned spacecraft. . [4]
- According to the constellation plan, the Orion (Orion) spacecraft will send astronauts and cargo to the space station and meet with the lunar module and the earth departure station in low earth orbit to send the astronauts to the moon, NASA The aviation safety advisory group found that NASA had serious problems in the design of the Orion spacecraft safety. And this issue further revealed that NASA's Constellation Program is currently facing the test of funding, morale and leadership. The NASA Aviation Safety Advisory Group was on Apollo 1 in 1967
- The Constellation Program is a U.S. space program and the latest name for NASA's return to the moon program. Four years ago, US President Bush asked Americans to return to the moon and fly to Mars. NASA therefore spent hundreds of millions of dollars to design, build and test This program made possible spacecraft. However, this effort has not yet sparked public interest as Apollo planned in the 1960s. NASA invited an advertising company in New York to "formally name" the program in early 2009, known as the "Constellation Project." This plan undertakes building spacecraft, launching
- In the Orion spacecraft's construction plan, any measures to enhance safety will be re-evaluated from the perspective of whether it is worth adding cost and weight. In this regard, the NASA Aviation Security Advisory Group, including two former space shuttle astronauts, believes that this thinking is very incorrect. Once the spacecraft enters formal operating procedures, the "light" feature alone cannot provide sufficient protection for the Orion spacecraft from various external dangers. NASA officials in charge of the constellation program have defended the safety of the spacecraft being continuously improved, but acknowledged that some NASA staff did not approve of these changes. Jeff Hanley, head of the constellation program, pointed out that sending a spacecraft that can reach the moon and return is a very difficult and costly task, so the designer paid great attention to space savings from the beginning and made improvements on the previous , Hope to maximize savings and reduce weight.
- This does make some people feel uncomfortable, but as for why, we don't quite understand yet. Jeff Hanley said that we are not blindly reducing those secure backup systems. We don't want to please everyone. He said that if we tried to please everyone, it would be impossible for the Orion spacecraft to reach the moon and return. Jeff Hanley acknowledged that he had not yet seen the report of the Aviation Safety Advisory Group. The report also evaluated NASA's overall work and praised certain aspects of the constellation plan. After the report of the aviation safety advisory group was released, the head of the constellation program announced on a conference call that their original ambitious Orion spacecraft had the first launch of astronauts, and had to postpone it for lack of funding. It is reported that although NASA has long claimed that the first launch time of the Orion spacecraft was March 2015, the actual scheduled time is September 2013, and now it has to be postponed to September 2014. For us, the budget for the next two years is too tight, so I have to adjust some of the original schedule. Jeff Hanley said. NASA plans to return American astronauts to the moon in 2020.
Constellation Plan Progress
- The planned space shuttle will be fully retired in 2010, so NASA implemented the constellation program in 2005 to develop a new generation of manned space systems. In fact, the space shuttle was retired in July 2011, and the Constellation Plan was terminated by the Obama administration in early 2010 due to lack of funds, delayed progress, and controversial design ideas. The related bill became law in October of the same year. As an alternative, the commercial aerospace company will take over the responsibility of manned missions in low earth orbit around 2016, and the MPCV multi-purpose manned spacecraft will complete deep space manned missions. The following pictures show some of the various parts of the Constellation program, including the Orion crew exploration vehicle, the Ares 1 and Ares 5 rockets, and their support systems. [5-6]
Constellation plan wind tunnel test
- This shading photo was taken on October 28, 2008. The photo was a wind tunnel test showing the airflow over a 0.34 scale model of the Ares 5 heavy carrier rocket with a speed of Mach 4.5. The schlieren photo is a method for visualizing air currents of different intensities. It is widely used in aeronautical engineering to take pictures of air currents around objects.
Constellation plan scale model
- The same scale model of the Ares Rocket 1 launch vehicle, this photo is July 1, 2006
- Constellation Project
Constellation Plan Control System
- A Ares 1 test rocket roll control system was tested. A technician adjusted the equipment while testing the Ares 1 test rocket roll control system (RoCS) in a spontaneous combustion maintenance facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The data collected during the roll control system maintenance simulation tests will be used to help prove ground support equipment design and verify maintenance conditions and processes. In order to reduce costs and meet project schedule requirements, most of the ground support equipment used for roll control system maintenance has inherited the shuttle's legacy. This high-definition maintenance simulation will provide the necessary confidence that the maintenance conditions meet the conditions of this traditional system.
- Constellation Project
Constellation plans launch test
- The Ares 1 rocket engine test. The first stage of the Ares 1 carrier rocket is a five-part reusable solid rocket booster designed from a space shuttle project. The reusable solid rocket engine uses a scale called It is a solid propellant of polybutadiene acrylonitrile (PBAN). The second or upper stage of the rocket will use the J-2X main engine, and the fuel will be liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. This high-definition video photo shows the test ignition of a 40k internal oxide J2X injector at the 115th test bed of the Marshall Space Flight Center on September 9, 2007.
Constellation shielding system
- Orion spacecraft thermal shielding system prototype, November 13, 2007. Elizabeth Chu, materials and processing engineer at Boeing Advanced Networks and Space Systems, inspects the thermal protection system manufacturing demonstration device. This device was developed for NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle program. Boeing Advanced Networks and Space Systems has signed a contract with NASA to develop a prototype of a thermal shield system. Thermal shielding systems can protect astronauts from hot gases when spacecraft return to Earth's atmosphere from low-orbit missions. Kennedy Space Center's new lightning strike tower. On November 25, 2008, NASA's Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39B in Florida, a crane is preparing to lift the equipment to the new lightning strike tower. Each of the three towers is 500 feet high, and each has a 100-foot fiberglass mast on top, supporting an important electrical system. This improved lightning protection system can provide more security protection for the Ares 1 rocket, which is highly comparable to the space shuttle. Launch pad B is where the Ares rocket was launched for the first time.
Core components of the constellation plan
- The core components of the Constellation J-2X engine, September 20, 2007. At NASA's Stanislas Space Center near St. Louis Bay, Mississippi, engineers installed the core components of the J-2X engine designed for the Constellation Program to the A- 1 test bench. This component is called "Powerpack 1A", and engineers tested it between November 2007 and February 2008. The Powerpack 1A includes a gas generator and engine turbopump, which were first developed for the Apollo program to send Americans to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Engineers test these components to obtain relevant data that can help them improve the turbine unit to meet the high performance standards of the Ares 1 and Ares 5 rockets.
- Ares 1 solid rocket engine test. On February 15, 2008, NASA was testing a Ares 1 manned carrier rocket (CLV) first stage TEM-13 solid rocket engine in a facility in Utah.