Below and in the extended portion of this blog post are my notes from a telecon I had with a Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration project manager in mid-2009. The bizarre situation was that I was at the Colorado Convention Center and Lockheed Martin Space Systems is only a car journey away but I couldn't get a rental car to get myself there (something was happening that meant all the rentals in and around Denver were taken) and the aerospace prime didn't seem too enthusiastic to come get me
I had planned to write the interview up at the time but events got in the way and despite repeated attempts since to get an interview with Lockheed to update this information and write a feature or lengthy blog nothing came of any of it
In the months since that telecon we have had news about the Orion heat shield being made by Lockheed, the choice of lithium aluminum supplier has been made with Rio Tinto Alcan annuoncing its selection and there have been Aerojet engine tests and ATK's Orion launch abort system attitude control motor tests; and one company called G Systems has made public the fact that it has delivered its test stations to the Michoud Assembly Facility for Orion. Next month I think there is an Orion pad abort test too
Anyway, last year I began to write "After a 10-month delay to its preliminary design review NASA has spent over $3 billion on its Orion crew exploration vehicle," and below are my notes
International Space Station (ISS) is higher inclination [than lunar orbit], requires more launch vehicles performance but the spacecraft is [now] lighter
Can carry 3,500lb more cargo to ISS with four crew
Four crew is now the baseline but requirements for that have not been spread through out Constellation
Amount of [crew] consumables didn't change very much [with crew reduction]
We have always kept the waste management system
[Astronaut corp] Crew has been very involved from the beginning
"Driving all the systems to an optimal path, we need enough time to check out the vehice before we fly"
Fan motors have a two year lead time
Putting together different options for Orion and its service module (SM), 17,500lb propellant for lunar, 8,000lb for ISS, SM can be used as a space tug, this could have 16,000lb
we are at 606G design for PDR and after next two cycles get to 606H
21 August have PDR board that lasts for a couple of days
Recent Comments