Space ship "Orion": description, history

The future has come. Space travel and interplanetary spacecraft, stations for people on the Moon and Mars and the long stay of a person in outer space conditions no longer seem fantastic. The achievements of space exploration, space exploration and the newest discoveries of physicists made the beginning of our century a likeness of the end of the past for the Internet. The time of uncertainty, the development of creative thought and financial reality. Dozens of international companies work in the field of space technology, projects appear and disappear, giving food for the development of creative imagination. To become an embodiment in reality is lucky in everything. The project of American space exploration spacecraft "Orion" became a reality. About him, other projects, the prospects of space exploration, and we are talking about in this article.

General Introductory

Orion is a spacecraft of the last generation, whose purpose is to lead a person beyond the orbit of the Earth. Equipped with modern technology, a reusable capsule placed on a Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle will be able to transport a crew of six astronauts and in 2030 will take a man to Mars. Such plans are voiced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

In December 2014, the Orion spacecraft was in orbit for 4.5 hours and landed in the Pacific Ocean, proving the possibility of implementing the company's plans. The thermal shield, the capsule and the parachute system were tested. Crash test cost $ 350 million, but they justified the hopes of the entire world community on the Orion spacecraft. Photo and video materials for a long time took the space of the media and the attention of the world community. Flew from the figure of eight thousand to a record 18,300 applications of candidates for astronauts on the spaceship Orion. The film of launching the ship has collected in videohostings a record number of views.

So far, the most-most

Designed in the image and likeness of the Apollo, this ship represents the newest generation of the multi-purpose Crew Vehicle. Since the mid-2000s, a partially reusable manned spacecraft was developed as part of the US space program "Sozvezdie".

The spacecraft "Orion" consists of a reusable and inhabited capsule and service module. The capsule is manufactured by the aerospace corporation Lockheed Martin commissioned by NASA. The customer of the module was the European Space Agency (ESA), and manufactured it in the company Airbus Defense and Space. This is a major international joint project in the field of space shipbuilding.

Specialized sources describe in detail the structure and technical characteristics of this aircraft. For a simple reader, this is a cumbersome and obscure information characterizing the Orion spacecraft. The device and principle of using the "Orion" has a number of characteristic and specific features, on which we will stop.

Orion, Apollo, shuttles and others

Appearance and shape are similar to the capsules of the Apollo and to the Russian "Unions". It is this form that is most optimal when entering the atmosphere and moving in it. The excess heat is absorbed by an ablative heat shield that burns almost completely when planted and easily replaced for a new flight.

The control system is based on single-core PowerPC 750FX processors, which prompted the media to state that the "Orion" is not smarter than modern smartphones. But the developers explained their choice of high reliability of these systems under extreme vibrations, temperature fluctuations and cosmic radiation.

The Orion spacecraft has one more innovative quality. By the principle of modules, you can attach anything to the ship. From additional engines to transport compartments. In the media, he was immediately called his "space truck".

Unlike Space Shuttle, designed as a space shuttle, the Orion spacecraft is equipped with such a detail as a powerful system for protecting and rescuing astronauts at the start. The system automatically includes rocket engines, they will carry the crew from the explosion zone and ensure landing in normal mode.

Project "Orion": the beginning

The program called "Orion" was born in San Diego in 1958 in the bowels of the company "General Atomics" (General Atomics). Her parents are the legendary atomic physicist Frederick Hoffman co-authored with Theodore Taylor. The goal they set for themselves is a conventionally cheap and simple spacecraft capable of developing a speed close to the speed of light. The basis of the project was a nuclear-pulse rocket of an explosive type. They proposed to replace the explosive chamber with a steel shield, which at once would allow achieving a specific impulse and an exhaust velocity of up to 10,000 km / s. Nuclear charges with a capacity of up to one kiloton in the project were thrown out of the ship and exploded 60 meters from the shield at regular intervals.

The program "Orion": a hard way

Several models of such pushers were made, and already in 1959 the first tests were carried out with the launch of the plant at a height of up to 100 meters. The pulse motor confirmed the possibility of a stable flight. The shield also underwent a change, and it was decided to spray the graphite grease on its surface.

The program was designed for 12 years, with a cost of 24 billion dollars. NASA did not support the then project with nuclear engines, and the program was closed. And after the signing in 1964 of an international treaty banning nuclear explosions in space, atmosphere and on earth, the Orion project was outlawed.

They returned to him in the 2000s as part of the program to develop manned spacecraft "Sozvezdie". The development and construction was commissioned by Lockheed Martin. And in 2014 the first Orion spacecraft successfully launched and landed. NASA lived up to its expectations.

Orion: with hope for the future

In March 2017, the US Congress unanimously approved the NASA budget of $ 19.1 billion for 2018 - nearly 200 billion more than last year.

The bill of Congress states that people should be on the surface of Mars in 2030.

Well, the prospects of the project "Orion" are encouraging and pleased with the availability of financial opportunities. The launch of the ship into orbit is scheduled for 2018, and in a few years a manned mission is planned. The Agency is working on the preparation and development of new programs.

Technical prospects

NASA does not stand still and is considering various projects of interstellar flights. Even the most futuristic: the project of nanocarbons, self-healing at any point of the galaxy or laser sails.

Since the 1990s, the agency has been conducting seminars on research in the field of space engines, where the best physicists and engineers are considering all projects and theories. The program of breakthrough physical principles seeks prospects for the use of quantum physics in the organization of interstellar travel.

The most impressive project is the use of antimatter as a source of energy for intergalactic flights. Humanity has already received antimatter and even found a way to store it. Why not fly on it to the stars?

Fantastic prospects: pipes Krasnikov

"The engine of curvature" from the fantastic series "Star Trek" is not so fantastic. The "Alcubierre engine" power unit, compressing the space-time ahead of itself and expanding it behind, is theoretically grounded. Since 2012, such developments are conducted by scientists at the University of Sydney.

The idea of his "bubble of time" Mikel Alcubierre published in 1994. A year later, a theoretical physicist from Moscow, Sergei Krasnikov, advanced a theory about a device that would provide space travel at a speed higher than the speed of light.

This is the curvature of space on the principle of "wormhole", created artificially. According to his theory, the astronaut will return at the same time as he set out. This will happen due to the movement of the spacecraft through other dimensions and curved space-time.