Space Launch System - Orion

Space Launch System - Orion

Author
Discussion

MartG

20,619 posts

203 months

Thursday 23rd January 2020
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MartG

20,619 posts

203 months

Monday 27th January 2020
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How many times will this make it that the politicians have told NASA to change focus from Moon to Mars...or is it the other way around...

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/26/bipartisan-h...

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Monday 27th January 2020
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MartG said:
How many times will this make it that the politicians have told NASA to change focus from Moon to Mars...or is it the other way around...

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/01/26/bipartisan-h...
I'm not sure it makes any real difference anyhow

Very little of the hardware they have in the works is specific to either (Orion and SLS), and whichever is the 'focus' means the same cash gets funneled to the same contractors for very little return

MartG

20,619 posts

203 months

Monday 27th January 2020
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The requirements for a lander are a tad different between the Moon and Mars though wink

Mars missions will also need some form of habitat capable of sustaining the crew for a couple of years

Flooble

5,565 posts

99 months

Monday 27th January 2020
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MartG said:
The requirements for a lander are a tad different between the Moon and Mars though wink

Mars missions will also need some form of habitat capable of sustaining the crew for a couple of years
Was there not some idea to just send them to orbit (a la Apollo 8). Rather a pointless exercise but politics is, well, politics.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Monday 27th January 2020
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MartG said:
The requirements for a lander are a tad different between the Moon and Mars though wink

Mars missions will also need some form of habitat capable of sustaining the crew for a couple of years
The requirements are certainly different for each mission but the outcome is all about jobs and profit not missions

Beati Dogu

8,861 posts

138 months

Monday 10th February 2020
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SLS looking even more orange than before, now the foam insulation has been out in the sunlight.




They're still not planning to light the damn thing up until late summer apparently.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Monday 10th February 2020
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NASA have just admitted they could save over $1.5 billion by launching the Europa Clipper on a commercial rocket instead of SLS..

MartG

20,619 posts

203 months

Monday 10th February 2020
quotequote all
Beati Dogu said:
SLS looking even more orange than before, now the foam insulation has been out in the sunlight.
It'll be dark brown before they actually launch the bloody thing frown

Gandahar

9,600 posts

127 months

Friday 14th February 2020
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MartG said:
Beati Dogu said:
SLS looking even more orange than before, now the foam insulation has been out in the sunlight.
It'll be dark brown before they actually launch the bloody thing frown
Considering the roof on my MX5 it will be "Mold" green by the time it goes up. Young boys will point and shout out :-

" Look dad, Elons rocket is made of steel, but that's made of copper ....... look how green it is "

Dad " It's actually been sitting there for longer than when you were conceived in that petri dish, son"

Son " Wow! !"

laugh


Getting back to money I was happy to see that NASA got a big budget, but being Trump he has concentrated on manned missions rather than the less sexy stuff, I fear for WFIRST which will be a shame frown He's such a we for "biggly sales ideas" copying JFK from his childhood. DO BOTH

I assume NASA's marketing spiel was thatr the first woman to be sent to the moon could be Nancy Pelosi, hence the increase.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
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First launch is again pushed back, until no earlier than late 2021 now.

Also costs have increased (surprise..) but beyond threshold for review.

https://spacenews.com/sls-cost-growth-exceeds-thre...

The cost of the rocket’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, the upper stage of the Block 1 version of SLS, has more than doubled to $358 million through the Artemis 1 launch.

This is a modified Delta IV upper stage now costing more than a Delta IV ??

Beati Dogu

8,861 posts

138 months

Wednesday 11th March 2020
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SLS, HS2 - all big money pits for the same political swamp types.

MartG

20,619 posts

203 months

Monday 16th March 2020
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Orion completes vacuum chamber tests

http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/03/T...

Beati Dogu

8,861 posts

138 months

Friday 20th March 2020
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SLS & Orion construction and development work is being shut down due to the Kung Flu.

A NASA employee at Stennis, where they were due to test fire the SLS booster, tested positive to COVID-19 recently.

The huge Michoud Assembly Facility on the outskirts of New Orleans will also close for all but mission critical staff.

Work on the already built Orion capsule will pause once it is sent to the capsule facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

So more delays to the project.


https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/20/21187671/nasa-s...


Beati Dogu

8,861 posts

138 months

Wednesday 25th March 2020
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They've flown the Orion capsule for the Artemis 1 mission to the Cape today on board a Super Guppy aircraft.



Quite an aircraft. They used these to fly the Apollo command modules, lunar modules and even the 3rd stages of the Saturn V rocket from California to Florida.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

121,769 posts

264 months

Wednesday 25th March 2020
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And of course, Airbus had a small fleet of them too.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Wednesday 25th March 2020
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Nasa also use the guppy to transport cold hard cash to Boeing

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

121,769 posts

264 months

Thursday 26th March 2020
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Is that a fact or just made up?

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Thursday 26th March 2020
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Total fact. Nasa load it up with used notes, bullion and dabloons once a month

Beati Dogu

8,861 posts

138 months

Thursday 26th March 2020
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Eric Mc said:
And of course, Airbus had a small fleet of them too.
Yes I remember seeing them at Toulouse airport. You can't miss them really.