IEEE Spectrum January, 2014 - 59

top 10 tech

2014

fuN fACt: Orion won't carry either
people or seats on its maiden flight.

orioN'S
roAd AheAd
2014: exploration
flight test-1
An uncrewed Orion spacecraft
makes its first jaunt into space,
orbiting twice around Earth.
2017: exploration mission 1
Orion is paired with the Space
Launch System (SLS), a new heavylift rocket. The spacecraft, again
uncrewed, may go around the moon
before returning to Earth.
2018: ascent abort 2
A rocket-powered cap designed to
separate the spacecraft from the
launcher is tested at high altitude.
2018: asteroid redirect
robotic mission
A robotic spacecraft launches into
deep space to rendezvous with and
capture a space rock and bring it
close to the moon.

NASA

2021: exploration mission 2
Orion takes its first crew into space,
potentially to the moon, to investigate
the retrieved space rock.

in at some 40 000 km/h,
raising the temperature of
a craft's exterior to about
2700 °C. One major goal
of Orion's maiden flight
is to test the capsule's
5-centimeter-thick epoxy
heat shield.
The capsule will be
launched from Florida
atop a Delta IV Heavy
rocket and loop around
icon by

Greg Mably

Earth twice, reaching an
altitude of about 5800 km-
some 15 times as high as
the International Space
Station. Then it will dive
back into the atmosphere
at more than 32 000 km/h,
84 percent of the speed of
a return from the moon.
As it descends, the craft
will reach temperatures of
more than 2200 °C, some
500 degrees cooler than in a
real lunar return.
The flight will also test
the capsule's parachutes,
which will slow the craft
down before it splashes into
the water off the coast of
California. The parachutes
have already been dropped
from aircraft to test them
in the atmosphere, but
because the chutes interact
as they open, it's important
to subject them to the
"exact environments and
speeds that we're going to
see with people," Geyer
says. Engineers will also be
watching to make sure that
the cover that sits over the
chutes ejects as designed after
a pyrotechnic device is fired.
Two more test flights are
planned in order to prove
Orion ready to carry people.
One will come in 2017, when
Orion will be paired with the
new Space Launch System
(SLS), which will most likely
send it on a jaunt around the
moon. Another flight will
test an escape mechanism
that Apollo had but the space
shuttle did not-a rocketpowered cap that would
blast Orion away from its
launcher in an emergency.

The SLS will boast at least
10 percent more thrust
than the Apollo program's
Saturn V, the most powerful
rocket flown to date.
The road ahead is uphill.
A recent report from NASA's
inspector general says
that the agency is tracking
248 technical issues with
the Orion program. And it
warns that the program's
flat funding projections
leave a thin cushion in the
budget to deal with any
snags that may arise. Indeed,
NASA's departing deputy
administrator, Lori Garver,
said in September that the
2017 uncrewed flight with
the SLS and the first crewed
flight in 2021 already look

like they might be delayed
by a year or two.
Still, the journey of a
thousand miles begins with
a single step, and this year's
test could pave the way for
more ambitious missions. "If
I were back in the astronaut
corps, I would be looking
forward with great desire to
be able to go beyond Earth
orbit," says Jeffrey Hoffman,
a professor of astronautics
at MIT and a former space
shuttle astronaut. "Let's
hope that the astronauts of
a decade from now will get a
chance to do that."
-M aggie McK ee
post your comments at http://
spectrum.ieee.org/orion0114

*honorabLE MEnTion*

a SMarTphonE
MEanT To LaST
you may never have to throw
away a handset again
you'll soon be able to
buy a phone that outlasts
its parts if Project Ara
pans out. Ara, led by
Google-owned Motorola
Mobility, aims to make
smartphones that users can upgrade or
customize at will. Broken screen? Just snap
on a new one. Sluggish memory? Pop in the
latest chip. Ara's designers have promised
a developer's kit by early this year, so it's
possible that handsets will go on sale
before December. -ariel bleicher
SPectrUm.ieee.orG

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum January, 2014
