back to article NASA starts assessing Orion capsule for refurb

NASA's Orion capsule – built to send the first woman and another man to the Moon – has arrived at a US naval base in San Diego, California, and will be dragged ashore for inspection. The podule just returned from a relatively short trip in space. As part of the Artemis I mission, it was launched unmanned atop America's Space …

  1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge
    Coat

    Plans call for [the Artemis II] mission to fly as soon as 2024

    Wow, the speed of this program is impressive!

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "Orion is supposed to be ultimately reusable, after all"

    And NASA has a great history of making things reusable.

    The Shuttles were a fine example, if you call a $1.6 billion cost per launch "reuseable".

    1. ComputerSays_noAbsolutelyNo Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: "Orion is supposed to be ultimately reusable, after all"

      The cost of expendable and the complexity of reuseable.

      - best of both worlds, from billing-perspective

  3. fpx

    Would I fly to the moon in a reused spaceship?

    Yes, of course. For the same reason that I prefer to fly aircraft that have flown before: it has already proven that it can fly safely.

    1. Sgt_Oddball

      Re: Would I fly to the moon in a reused spaceship?

      Which is a fine idea, right up until something serious breaks because whilst being thermal cycled a couple of times is fine, but many, many times can cause unforeseen consequences (not to say it can't be done, just that inspection processes need to be thorough).

      It also changes the material costs, since materials to better handle the heat cycle tend to cost more. Alternatives are efforts like virgin galactic but then slowing down first becomes the big issue. It's all a rather fine balancing act.

      1. cray74

        Re: Would I fly to the moon in a reused spaceship?

        It also changes the material costs, since materials to better handle the heat cycle tend to cost more.

        That's true, but it's an very well solved problem in aerospace engineering.

        Orion's heat shield is ablative so it doesn't get reused. The interior side of the heat shield only reaches 200F / 93C. That means the majority of the Orion spaceframe and systems are unlikely to exceed 175F, which is around the peak operating temperature for the aircraft systems I work with. On the cold side, spacecraft interiors generally stay around room temperature as a deliberate design choice. Even the Voyagers' buses were running around 20-25C until RTG power output started drooping. So other than the disposable heat shield the temperature swing of a reentry-capable spacecraft like Orion isn't that large.

        For comparison, cycling from a 160F (71C) Saudi airstrip to -70F (-56C) at flight altitude is normal for exterior systems and structures of a commercial aircraft, and commercial aircraft make ~100C temperature swings with every one of the thousands of flights in their lifetime. Does it take attention to detail during design and somewhat more expensive design choices? Yes, and every product I work on goes through environmental stress testing to make sure that it is proven to survive that cycling. Optics are particularly finicky but we get them to work.

        1. james 68

          Re: Would I fly to the moon in a reused spaceship?

          My biggest worry would be the mounting points for the parachute lines and the sections of the main body to which they mount, They will be experiencing pretty horrendous shock loads on a low cross section on every use, plus the thermal cycling of said parts. However I'm pretty sure that the folks at NASA know a thing or two about x-raying materials for stress fractures and would hopefully see these as "consumable" components.

          1. Missing Semicolon Silver badge

            Re: Would I fly to the moon in a reused spaceship?

            And being dunked in the sea can't be good either.

      2. ravenviz Silver badge

        Re: Would I fly to the moon in a reused spaceship?

        Virgin Galactic is just a fairground ride compared to Artemis.

  4. fpx
    Black Helicopters

    There was an interesting article about the Artemis III mission, i.e., the sequel to the sequel, in the paywalled NYT the other day.

    The gist was that Elon Musk has sold the NASA a lunar lander, that does not exist yet. The lunar lander needs a Starship, which does not exist yet, to get off the ground. However, the Starship only has enough fuel to get to earth orbit. Therefore, SpaceX must deliver a gas station to orbit, which does not exist yet. And as much as 8 launches of a tanker, which does not exist yet, are needed to fill up the gas station, using fuel transfers which have never been attempted in microgravity before.

    And it does not help that the SpaceX engineers and leadership must first fix Twitter.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Given the development curve of Autopilot versus Musk's promises I would not hold my breath for anything usable in the promised time frames.

    2. mantavani
      Holmes

      Science Fiction

      Apply the same logic to Apollo, which was also science fiction until it wasn’t anymore. Musk is the mouthpiece and the funds, but the quiet engineering skill at SpaceX is breathtaking.

      The UK remains the only country to develop and then voluntarily relinquish an autonomous space access capability. That programme was for its day every bit as impressive as Falcon. For all the problems with his Muskness, the engineers need someone to facilitate rather than squander their genius, as happened here. Perhaps he has a place after all.

      Where would Reaction Engines be now, if we were a country that could actually nurture and grow science and engineering talent, rather than just pay lip service to it?

  5. chivo243 Silver badge
    Go

    Two Words

    Millennium Falcon.

  6. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    more than 50 years since humans took that one giant leap for mankind.

    I was born in 1969, somewhere in May.

    So 1969 holds some significance for me.

    Should they do a third trip in order to land on the moon, I'll be watching this happen, if Klaus Schwab, Terminators, or a new plandemic haven't killed me off then.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I was born in Nov of the same year. To annoy people and make them feel old, I tell 'em that I wasn't born when man first walked on the moon.

      I'm just waiting to see which member of the animal kingdom is going to be responsible for a new pandemic. Bird, swine, bat, monkey pox, camel fever (was an article in the news - all the football/soccer fans in Qatar are going to be infected and spread it worldwide)

      1. mantavani

        That’s easy to answer - humans. Greater than 75% of emerging infectious diseases are of zoonotic origin, but it’s human interference in animal ecosystems (deforestation, intensive & factory farming, population growth) that exposes us to these threats, and we’re but we’re the only species capable of bridging them them into a pandemic.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Born in ‘62

    Watched Apollo as a starry eyed kid.

    Absolutely crazy about all things rockets and the Moon.

    I used to cut the articles out of the newspaper before Dad got home to read it (that habit didn’t last long)

    It’s been a long time, but I can feel the excitement building again.

    1. ravenviz Silver badge

      Re: Born in ‘62

      I'm hopeful we might be onto something this time!

  8. Sceptic Tank Silver badge

    Recycle? Is the Smithsonian full?

    I can't wait for the YouTube clickbait videos to appear to announce all matter of weird & wonderful stuff NASA discovered when they opened the Orion* capsule after its return.

    Anyway, recycling heat sinks and radio antennas sounds to me like recycling the bottle tops of a sixpack to recoup costs after drinking the contents. What percentage of the overall mission cost does that bent antenna cover?

    * How did they find Orion? You look past Uranus and you'll see it there.

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