Interstellar director, Christopher Nolan led us to the insight of our future. Human race was never meant to exist at only one planet ; the Earth rather we had to explore even further pressing against the far flung horizons.
Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians: "I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas..."
Nasa launched Orion test flight for the zeitgeist of Mars voyage on Dec, 5 2014.This is for the first time a spacecraft built for humans will travel out of low earth orbit (LEO) till 2021. Before that Nasa will again launch test flights in 2017 and 2018. The Orion space capsule was launched from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT).The prototype spacecraft embarked on a series of tests in orbit before its planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at about 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT), 4.5 hours after leaving the planet.Approximately 1,200 sensors aboard Orion to monitor the way the capsule's computers and other technology behave in the harsh space environment. Orion flew through belts of radiation twice during the flight (once on the way out, and again on the way back to Earth), allowing scientists to see how the spacecraft's computers behave in a high-radiation environment.
Scientists and engineers want to test how key systems on Orion work during this test. Eventually, NASA officials hope that modified versions of Orion will take humans to deep-space destinations like an asteroid, and even Mars. Engineers working with the computers onboard Orion hope to see how the instruments behave when they're exposed to high amounts of radiation outside Earth's protective atmosphere.
"We do have radiation sensors on board, for example, so we're actually measuring different parts of the vehicle for what we're seeing, what the environment is inside," said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager. "We have 1,200 sensors, and a lot of those are loads, so they measure the impact loads when we land [and during] ascent. We'll get acoustic data inside and out, so we know how loud it is — those kinds of things. A lot of that is for the vehicle, but it's also to understand what the environment for the crew is going to be."
Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians: "I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas..."
Nasa launched Orion test flight for the zeitgeist of Mars voyage on Dec, 5 2014.This is for the first time a spacecraft built for humans will travel out of low earth orbit (LEO) till 2021. Before that Nasa will again launch test flights in 2017 and 2018. The Orion space capsule was launched from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT).The prototype spacecraft embarked on a series of tests in orbit before its planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at about 11:30 a.m. EST (1630 GMT), 4.5 hours after leaving the planet.Approximately 1,200 sensors aboard Orion to monitor the way the capsule's computers and other technology behave in the harsh space environment. Orion flew through belts of radiation twice during the flight (once on the way out, and again on the way back to Earth), allowing scientists to see how the spacecraft's computers behave in a high-radiation environment.
Scientists and engineers want to test how key systems on Orion work during this test. Eventually, NASA officials hope that modified versions of Orion will take humans to deep-space destinations like an asteroid, and even Mars. Engineers working with the computers onboard Orion hope to see how the instruments behave when they're exposed to high amounts of radiation outside Earth's protective atmosphere.
"We do have radiation sensors on board, for example, so we're actually measuring different parts of the vehicle for what we're seeing, what the environment is inside," said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager. "We have 1,200 sensors, and a lot of those are loads, so they measure the impact loads when we land [and during] ascent. We'll get acoustic data inside and out, so we know how loud it is — those kinds of things. A lot of that is for the vehicle, but it's also to understand what the environment for the crew is going to be."
Human in spaceflight to Mars
The Orion capsule cannot fly astronauts to Mars on its own. The spacecraft will need to be outfitted with a functional service module and a habitat module in order to make a trip to the Red Planet comfortable for the four astronauts on the journey, officials have said.This is just the official beginning our generation will witness the history in making.Fictions will turn into realities.
The importance of a test
Officials want to gather data that could help make flights to space in Orion safer for humans in the future. Some of its sensors will be devoted to monitoring conditions on the inside of the uncrewed spacecraft. In total, 55 percent of the systems needed for a crewed spaceflight are being tested during this flight.
"It's important it's unmanned because we actually structured the test to fly the riskiest pieces of the flight," Geyer said. "This is the time to do it, when it's unmanned. We intend to stress the systems and make sure they behave as we designed them to … It is a test flight, and it's set up to be a risky flight."
Orion's journey doesn't stop in space.
Orion's giant heat shield, the largest of its kind ever made, will need to withstand temperatures of up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius) when the craft slams into Earth's atmosphere at a speed of about 20,000 mph (32,000 km/h).
Source and references : Checkout this link below, this extraordinary short film by Erik Wernquist, narrated by Carl Sagan.
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-most-amazing-and-inspiring-vision-of-our-future-ive-1664783812
Officials want to gather data that could help make flights to space in Orion safer for humans in the future. Some of its sensors will be devoted to monitoring conditions on the inside of the uncrewed spacecraft. In total, 55 percent of the systems needed for a crewed spaceflight are being tested during this flight.
"It's important it's unmanned because we actually structured the test to fly the riskiest pieces of the flight," Geyer said. "This is the time to do it, when it's unmanned. We intend to stress the systems and make sure they behave as we designed them to … It is a test flight, and it's set up to be a risky flight."
Orion's journey doesn't stop in space.
Orion's giant heat shield, the largest of its kind ever made, will need to withstand temperatures of up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 degrees Celsius) when the craft slams into Earth's atmosphere at a speed of about 20,000 mph (32,000 km/h).
Source and references : Checkout this link below, this extraordinary short film by Erik Wernquist, narrated by Carl Sagan.
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-most-amazing-and-inspiring-vision-of-our-future-ive-1664783812