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NASA Unveils Future Space Exploration Architecture

Posted on: Thursday, 3 November 2005, 06:00 CST

By Anonymous

NASA administrator Mike Griffin has taken the wraps off the key elements of future, post-Shuttle US space exploration efforts. The agency says it will follow a "safe, accelerated, affordable, yet sustainable approach" to achieving the goals outlined in President George W. Bush's Vision for Space Exploration. This could shorten the gap in US human space flight once the space shuttle is retired in 2010, and ensure the US can continue to service the International Space Station (ISS). This is already a slight climb-down from Griffin's earlier talk of eliminating the gap entirely. NASA's next generation spacecraft will use an improved, bluntbody capsule, much like the shape of the Apollo spacecraft only larger. With an outside diameter of approximately 5.5 meters, the spacecraft will have more than three times the volume of the Apollo capsules. According to NASA, this design will shorten development time, reduce reentry loads, increase landing stability, and permit safe travel for up to six crewmembers.

The new spacecraft can be configured as a crew or cargo module. The crew module will carry four crewmembers during lunar missions and up to six crewmembers for Mars missions. Besides being safer and more reliable than the Apollo module, it doubles the number of crew to the lunar surface, permits landing anywhere on the moon, and fully supports a permanent human presence while preparing for future Mars missions.

The new shuttle-derived launchers for crew (right) and cargo

The spacecraft will have a total mass of 25 metric tons, be able to dock with the ISS and other exploration elements, use a liquid oxygen/liquid methane service module propulsion system (yet to be developed), and return to dry land with a water landing as backup.

NASA has chosen a shuttle-derived option for its launch system because of its superior safety, cost and schedule availability. Specifically, the space shuttle's main engines and solid propellant rocket boosters are reliable, human-rated, and best able to fit the planned architecture. The industrial base to support this option is already in place, which will significantly lower development costs and support a workforce that will transition when we retire the shuttle in 2010.

There will be two primary launch vehicles (see photo). The crew launch vehicle is a single four-segment shuttle solid propellant rocket booster with a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen upper stage supporting one shuttle main engine. This configuration can lift 25 metric tons. This capacity can be increased by an additional 7t if a fifth segment is added to the booster.

The crew launch vehicle is claimed to be 10 times safer than the space shuttle, primarily due to its in-line design and launch abort system. Should conditions warrant, the spacecraft and crew can separate from the upper stage of the launch vehicle and make a safe landing on land or in water.

The lunar heavy cargo launch vehicle will consist of five shuttle main engines, and two, five-segment shuttle solid propellent rocket boosters. This combination yields a lift capability of 106 metric tons to low Earth orbit, and 1 25 metric tons if using an Earth departure stage. Although primarily designed to carry cargo, this system can be human-rated to carry crew into orbit.

How much will it cost? The official answer, at least for now, is $104 billion, a sum that Griffin believes can be made available mostly by redirecting existing funds. However, cost escalation is a fact of life (especially at NASA), so the question is: Over the years ahead, are the politicians and the public going to buy into re- doing Apollo half a century later?

Copyright Aerospace Media Publishing Autumn 2005

Source: Interavia

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