Orion Space Craft Tests

Spacey awesomeness continued from yesterday's Orion crash tests by NASA Langley's Project Splash! Just when you think it can't get any cooler, I and some other enthusiastic SpaceTweeps visited the Norfolk Naval Air Station at Sewell's Point on the Elizabeth River.

Can you say, "largest naval complex in the world"?!  Also, if you're into American history, we were near the site of the battle of the Monitor and Merrimac (CSS Virginia). We felt very honored to be allowed on base, with a knowledgeable Navy escort who took us along the 14 piers, where we spied various Destroyers, Aircraft Carriers, and Cargo Ships.

Said piers regularly support 75 ships in total, and 134 aircraft, amid the highest concentration of U.S. Navy forces. Port Services controls more than three thousand ships' movements annually as they arrive and depart their berths. You want to be on your best behavior, here.

Once situated among Navy, Marines, Lockheed-Martin personnel, local press and even Virginia Congressmen(!), we witnessed a by-the-book Stationery Recovery Test of an Orion capsule from ocean into the USS Arlington, San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock (also called landing/platform dock), designed to transport troops and helicopters by sea.

This class of ship also has a wide "well deck" that can take on (up to) 14 feet of water in ballast, and quickly deballast, to capture or release water crafts... or in our case, the new class of space capsules being developed by NASA and Lockheed for the next generation of missions. We hope!

In this second video, Commander Brett Moyes, Future Plans Branch chief, U.S. Fleet Forces, narrates the guiding of tending lines to attach-points, so the capsule can be loaded into the well deck -- free of tangles, without smashing into walls, and without killing or drowning any of the Navy sailors or Navy Dive Team involved.

Some men above water, and some men below water -- all worked together to maneuver the module.  It may look slow and simple, but don't be fooled. This is a precision operation of many complex procedural checklists when you're on the water -- and when genuine capsule recoveries are performed, it will most certainly be with higher waves, higher winds, and perhaps less forgiving weather.

What a rush to see the very capsule from crash test films up close, in the ocean for the next testing phase! Next year, the U.S. Navy will team with NASA again to recover a capsule out to sea, so the word "stationery" will be dropped from the recovery test.  We're seeing mission experiments in action!

For photographs of the entire day, see the NASA Langley album in my Pillownaut Picasa galleries.  Includes snaps around LaRC, Orion sea recovery, plus older pictures of Orion mockup crafts at the final Space Shuttle launch (STS-135) and the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) in Houston, Texas.

NASA Langley Project SPLASH!

Awesome trip to Virginia! I often despaired that I might never get to see the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), but I not only finally had the opportunity -- I was able to cross a major space site off my bucket list in the process. THE GANTRY!

This "Gantry" is 240 feet high, 400 feet long, 265 feet wide, and it's massive A-frame  won't fit in any photographs unless you take one from a helicopter!

Built in 1963, and operational by 1965, it was initially used to model the Moon's 1/6th gravity level with complex suspension systems. 

Originally called the Lunar Landing Research Facility (LLRF),  it was upon this sacred site where all 24 Apollo astronauts trained to land on the Moon with Lunar Excursion Model Simulators (LEMS). 

The suspension systems also allowed all the potential Moonwalkers to practice walking in low gravity in their life support suits-- as uncomfortably evidenced here by astronaut  Roger Chaffee in 1965.

Still actively used for testing, the area is now a National Historical Landmark, and has recently been re-named the Landing and Impact Research Facility (LandIR).

Can you remember all those acronyms? There will be a test later. 

Our host at the Gantry was Richard Boitnott, 7-year veteran of the Structural Dynamics Branch at NASA Langley, and he inspired the most laughter I've ever heard at a NASA presentation, as he treated us to fascinating films of Orion space capsule drop-testing at the LandIR. Oh, the hilarity.

Watch Richard narrate dry-lake bed landings, animal mishaps, NASCAR comparison crashes, airbag blowouts, sand & honeycomb decelerations, slow-motion impacts from different angles, water landings (the first in a toddler wading pool!), and finally, a time-lapsed video of the construction of the Hydro Impact Basin used for advanced capsule water landings.

The video is just short of 9 minutes, but undeniably one of the best ways to see how Orion is being prepared for space travel, and how it will return to Earth. And funny. So funny. Can you spot the dragonfly?

The capsule used in the final drops was the same one we saw later in the day at the Norfolk Naval Air Station, being pulled from the ocean into the USS Arlington, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. I'll upload those videos tomorrow!

If you enjoyed these films, you can see all the originals at the NASA Langley Hydro Impact Basin website, where the last 2 years of tests are archived.

For photographs of the entire day, see the NASA Langley album in my Pillownaut Picasa galleries!  Includes snaps around LaRC, Orion sea recovery, plus older pictures of Orion mockup crafts at the final Space Shuttle launch (STS-135) and the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) in Houston, Texas.

NASA Social #10!

NASA Social #10! Well, okay, that's actually a bit of a squeaky count.The first five events I either attended for fun or worked with dearly-departed Camilla were called "Tweetups". The switchover to "Social" didn't seem to go over too well, but the gatherings themselves have been no less exciting and informative! 

As you read this, I'm already on the airplane. This post, like many I write in advance, was set to auto-schedule right around the time I'll be landing in Norfolk, Virginia to finally visit NASA Langley Research Center!

Over the next few days, we will be touring the Landing & Impact Dynamics Facility, the National Transonic Facility wind tunnel, and the Structures & Materials Lab. Following these highlights of the "LaRC", we will travel to the Norfolk Naval Air Station for the Orion Stationery Recovery Test!

Lockheed-Martin has spearheaded the Orion since it's concept stage as part of the Constellation project. It is now the last remnant of Constellation, and its design, manufacturing, construction, and testing processes employees thousands of workers at 90 companies across 26 states.

Orion started out as a "Crew Exploration Vehicle" (CEV) in 2004; the capsule evolved to be the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), and you can follow development and testing updates on Twitter at @NASA_Orion.

Of course, over the course of the social events this week, you can also follow me a @Pillownaut on Twitter, the Orion recovery ship clan, or the hashtag #NASASocial.

I was lucky enough to meet some Orion designers at NASA Kennedy during the last Space Shuttle launch, and also witnessed astronaut testing of the capsule in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) at NASA Johnson. For a sneak preview, see my Pillownaut Picasa gallery for capsule pictures. Much more will be added here over the next week!

Astronaut in the NASA Ward

Dr. Serena M. Auñón (35) of League City, TX was one of the two flight doctors chosen in the last astronaut selection. The Galveston Daily News reported on her visit to the NASA ward at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where she visited with study subjects in the current flight simulation programs.

Participants David Sarmiento and William Widener were in the long-term bed-rest study in the Flight Analog Research Unit at the time, in the now-famed Head-Down Tilt. In this position, participants show physiologic changes similar to those expressed by astronauts in microgravity. Changes in blood pressure and blood plasma volume result when the heart works about 15-20% less, and of course the creation of bone mineral density in the body also changes.

Sarmiento, 35, a commercial diver from Maryland &
Widener, 42, a fitness instructor from North Carolina

Like many subjects before them, the newest recruits attest to a new appreciation of how astronauts cope with weightlessness on their missions, as they find the studies are both physically and mentally demanding. Said one new participant: "I have a greater understanding of the physical effects of zero gravity. It's not just floating. It affects your whole body."

Astronaut Auñón, who completed residencies in both internal medicine and aerospace medicine at UTMB, so she knows a little something about the value of the NASA studies:
"We learn a tremendous amount from astronauts and their experiences aboard the Space Station. Those numbers are small and a larger body of evidence is needed. Head-down bed rest is one of our best analogues. The women and men who volunteer to take part as subjects in the bed rest facility provide invaluable data regarding physiological changes in a 'weightless' environment."

It's also an amazing way to do your part for space exploration, and everything scientists learn about human bodies in these studies gets us closer to planet Mars. Still, it must have been nice to get some personal recognition from an astronaut! They of all people know how much sacrifice can be involved in the stringent protocols. Testing yourself in the way astronauts train? Not for sissies!


Other articles in the past few months regarding the studies have been very positive! We are truly seeing gratifying results in term of how space studies further our knowledge of how to live in micro-gravity, but also the practical benefits that can be applied to life on Earth:

July 13, 2011: Sentara Offers NASA-Developed Treadmill For Therapy
Space study treadmill used for orthopedic patients, senior rehabilitation conditioning, military members endurance and strengthening, etc.

November 29, 2011: Bed Rest Study Provides Invaluable Data for NASA
Information on exercise, muscles, bones and hearts to keep astronauts healthier.

December 21, 2011: From Here To Maternity
Months in bed to stop miscarriage? Practical considerations to involuntary bedrest.

January 2012: Rehab: Space Technology Helping to Heal & Strengthen
Space mission technology adapted and approved by the FDA for use in injury rehabilitation, Neuro-Muscular control, pre- and post- joint replacement surgery conditioning and athletic training.

These have also all been added to the archive of Articles on Pillownaut.com.

Spacehack

Spacehack! It's more efficient (and less criminally motivated) than it actually sounds. Spacehack is a directory of ways to participate in space exploration, interact with the space community, and also serves to encourage what creator and ex-NASA-employee Ariel Waldman calls "citizen science."

The Flight Analogs Project (FAP) investigations were recently updated at the top of the page in the "Data Analysis" category, so hopefully more people will find and apply for the new space flight simulations! Exciting new programs have begun to test out new garments and equipment that will be used on the ISS.


Other listed projects include:

• "Launch Your Own Personal Satellite" from a TubeSat kit
• Image a site on the red planet from the orbiting Mars Odyssey
  
• Build robotic Lunar Excavation or Mars rover models
• Track solar explosions and solar storms
  
• Classify space images at Galaxy Zoo
• Lend your engineering ideas for the Space Elevator

Some are competitions for prizes, others pay actual wages; some are for students and/or entire classrooms as projects, others for amateur and professional astronomers... and still others are simply ways to gather information to contribute to scientific research.


For instance, a timely project for the present moment is the "Planet Hunters", where you can help discover new exoplanets (extrasolar planets orbiting other stars) by exploring telescope data from NASA's Kepler mission. This online experiment taps into the power of pattern recognition. How cool would it be to find a new habitable planet??

If you know of a space-related activity where Citizen Scientists can contribute, you can also submit a project to Spacehack. And feel free to tell me if you join one, as I'd love to hear what folks are contributing!