NASA engineers at the Langley Research Center in Virginia have launched a new series of four water-impact drop tests using a test version of the agency’s Orion spacecraft capsule.
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The tests, conducted at Langley’s Landing and Impact Research Facility Hydro Impact Basin in Hampton, will mimic various landing circumstances to get a clearer picture of what Orion and his crew might experience when landing in the Pacific Ocean after the planned Artemis mission. On the moon.
Orion will launch NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the 4-foot-tall Space Launch System (SLS), which will be used in Artemis I later this year.
The first drop test for the latest Orion model capsule on March 23, 2021. The splash effect at NASA Langley was tested from a height of 18 inches in the basin.
(NASA)
During the first Artemis mission, the SLS rocket will send an unveiled Orion on a flight around the lunar planet and return to Earth – marking the first of three missions.
NASA plans to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024 to “explore more lunar surfaces than ever before” and prepare for the next step: to send astronauts to Mars.
When engineers officially began testing with Orion’s rough model in 2011, NASA conducted a series of previous drop tests in the 2016 basin called the Ground Test Article.
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However, the new tests are using a new configuration of the crew module – built at the facility of lead contractor Lockheed Martin in Colorado – that “represents the final design of the spacecraft,” according to a release.
“The formal formal qualification testing program derived from water performance tests is part of a program to accomplish dramatic design and requirement testing prior to arteritis II,” NASA wrote. “The information will help feed the final computer model for loads and structures before Artemis II flight testing.”
In an earlier statement, NASA wrote that the crew module has undergone a number of structural improvements and enhancements and noted that data from 2021 tests will be incorporated into the final computer modeling.
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“This is less about trying to reduce the uncertainty of the model and about loading up to the design limit, bringing the model in height and loading more, not testing the requirements, but testing the extremes,” explained Chris Tarkanton, technical lead, in November. .
“In some serious cases, thousands of prospects will be pushed,” said project manager Brian Rush. We will check the data and make sure that the models are correlated to test and adjust to gain confidence. “It helps us know that the models are reliable and represents what you will experience during the flight scenes.”
