NASA Confirms New Moon Vehicle is Orion

[Barrett808]

NASA Confirms New Moon Vehicle is Orion
By Robert Z. Pearlman
posted: 23 August 2006
11:21 am ET

Orion it is.

A month after being granted a federal trademark for its use and hours after an astronaut in space inadvertantly broadcasted it for anyone to hear, NASA announced that its new crew exploration vehicle will be named Orion.

"We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name... Orion," Jeffrey Williams was heard saying over an open radio channel from the international space station today. According to the Associated Press, the recording was meant for an announcement planned for next week, but was released in error.

After initial denials, NASA issued a release several hours later confirming the name.

collectSPACE.com was the first to report the moniker Orion in July, after a publicly-accessible federal trademark search identified the agency's choice.

(more)

http://www.space.com/news/cs_060823_orion.html

[Trillo]

1. So, what do we believe?

Their denial? Or the later claim of existence?

For example, "I went to the store; I didn't go to the store."

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Presumably not powered like nuclear explosions, unlike the previous Orion

Instead, the Orion design would have worked by dropping fission or thermonuclear explosives out the rear of a vehicle, detonating them 200 feet (60 m) out, and catching the blast with a thick steel or aluminum pusher plate.

Large multi-story high shock absorbers (pneumatic springs) were to have absorbed the impulse from the plasma wave as it hit the pusher plate, spreading the millisecond shock wave over several seconds and thus giving an acceptable ride. The long arm pistons proved one of the most difficult design features but many members of the team said that this seemed solvable. Low pressure gas bags were also used for a primary shock absorber. The two sets of shock absorption systems were tuned to different frequencies to avoid resonances.

One aspect of the proposed vessel seems counter-intuitive today; because of the force involved in the nuclear detonations and the need to absorb the energy without harm, large, massive vessel designs were actually more efficient. Early designs had crew compartments and storage areas that were several stories tall, as opposed to contemporary chemical rockets whose height was almost all multi-stage fuel tanks with relatively little payload.

Reaction mass for Orion would have been built into the bombs or dropped between 'pulses' to provide thrust. Polyethylene masses, garbage and sewage were all considered for use as reaction mass.

Wikipedia

[Vidar]

11. Coming soon to an SUV near you.

[Cobalt-60]

16. Old School Orion Details

This is one of my favorite concepts.
http://www.astronautix.com/lvfam/orion.htm
Of course it will never fly from the Earth.
There are the test ban treaty and inevitable contamination to consider.
It might fly from the moon if sufficient fissionable can be found there.
As for a non nuclear Orion, the hot rod proved this to be feasible and controllable with solid phase explosive.
The army has been working up a liquid explosive that would be of some use here.
It won't have the fantastic performance that the nuclear Orion would. But it is useful for many applications including especially anything that would launch from or operate within the atmosphere of Venus.
The nuclear Orion does take a flight of fancy in the novel Footfall. Its a Larry Niven +Jerry Pournelle production.

[Roon]

3. I wish they had pictures and/or drawings

so we can see what it's going to look like and how it's going to work.

[Roon]

8. Oooops, found this

[baldguy]

14. I was hoping for something more like this.

[Cobalt-60]

17. An Eagle

Very nice for a Lunar Shuttle.
Actually this vehicle is completely within our reach.

[Roon]

18. Cool pic! eom

[Barrett808]

15. Just imagine a somewhat larger Apollo capsule

The design is pretty much the same.

[baldguy]

4. Does it have anything to do with Project Orion?

Using nuclear explosions for propulsion?

[Barrett808]

6. No, strictly conventional rocketry. n/t

[mike_c]

5. well, they have a logo-- now they just need a vehicle....

:rofl:

[PointAndLaugh]

7. Whew!

With the way NASA has been naming their probes and/or exploration vehicles lately, I thought it would be named something like: "Jesus Lives!", or "The Lord Saves". I guess they realized the public they were aiming at was not that interested into outer space research, beyond the ultra-nationalistic and/or ultra-patriotic aspects of such programs.


I guess it's back to Greek mythology as a source for names and/or titles.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Shame that Ford already had that Europe

Not a very good example but it will do : http://www.python.demon.co.uk/orion.html :rofl:

[Ian David]

10. I was hoping they were going to name it Ironman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marooned_%28movie%29

[bananas]

12. The book was really good. nt

[GeorgeGist]

13. Orion

O‧ri‧on  n.
1. Classical Mythology. a giant hunter who pursued the Pleiades, was eventually slain by Artemis, and was then placed in the sky as a constellation.

[stepnw1f]

19. If The US and Israel Get Their Way

we may have to use that vehicle for Earth.

[alfredo]

20. I found an image of the first mock up of the Orion

[Placebo]

21. Is this what it's supposed to look like?

From Wikipedia:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_Exploration_Vehicle#Competition

[Octafish]

22. Orion was the Pan-Am space plane in 2001

Neat.