Aug 12, 2011

Science Scene - NASA's Orion Makes a Splash


Splashdown Test The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle test undergoes a drop test at the Hydro Impact Basin (HIB) July 21, 2011. NASA
Next-generation spacecraft will not land on runways. Instead they’ll splash down in the ocean a la Apollo, Mercury and Gemini.
NASA just completed building a million-gallon pool to test these splashes, and managers have been dunking a test model of the space agency’s next crew vehicle.
The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle “boilerplate test article,” which weighs 22,700 pounds, is attached to a special gantry — think of a person swinging on a rope out over a lake — and dropped into the Hydro Impact Basin. In the video below, it was going about 24 mph at impact.
The $1.7 million Hydro Impact Basin will help prove that the Orion capsule can withstand a splashdown. Other future space capsules will also be tested in this manner.
NASA is planning additional drop tests at higher speeds throughout the summer.

4 comments:

  1. Does this also indicate NASA's move away from reusable space craft?

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  2. I guess they need to test in a controlled enviornment, I am wondering where we tested the early capsules and how?

    Oh well, I guess I think too simply , as many lakes as we have on government controlled lands, seems one would have been appro.

    But I am glad we are moving ahead, even if it looks backwards.

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  3. I loved one of the shuttles pilots statement, "Landign the shuttle on the runway is sort of like landing a brick."

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  4. LOVE that photo. But I was thinking the same thing as your first commenter... are we just going to discard these and not reuse them? It seems like a step back.

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