How will NASA send humans on deep space missions? With their new Orion crew capsule, with a heat shield that recently arrived at Kennedy Space Center!
In 2018, Orion will launch into space on top of the agency’s new rocket called Space Launch System (SLS). After about three weeks in space during which Orion will travel thousands of miles beyond the moon, the capsule will return to Earth. And when it encounters Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield will protect the capsule from temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit!
This flight is known as Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).
Last month, the heat shield was delivered to NASA’s space center in Florida after being transported on NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft. It’s now inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building.
What comes next?
The heat shield will be worked on by technicians in preparation for Orion’s flight in 2018. They will apply Avcoat, a type of thermal protection that will erode away in a controlled manner as it heats up. This is known as ablation, and the process will transport heat away as the crew capsule travels through Earth’s atmosphere during its return.
Orion flew for the first time in 2014 on its Exploration Flight Test-1. At the time, the capsule used a heat shield in which individual honeycomb cells were filled with Avcoat. On the next upcoming flight of Orion, however, the heat shield will have blocks of Avcoat bonded to it.
How do we know the blocks are attached correctly and that they will perform their job as anticipated? The shield will go through a thermal cycle test.
This flight, EM-1, will also carry instruments to collect data on the shield’s heating and performance.
The heat shield was designed by the NASA and Lockheed Martin Orion team. Lockheed Martin is a founding member of the Coalition, and the shield was built at their facility near Denver.
Orion heat shield. Image credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
The largest of its kind, Orion’s heat shield will protect the spacecraft as it comes back to Earth on its last mission before carrying humans onboard. In the missions that follow EM-1, Orion will be manned and will protect astronauts from the harsh environment of space all the way from launch through re-entry back to Earth through our atmosphere.
Learn more about Orion at NASA.gov.