Orion: Lessons Learned from EFT-1 and, EM-1, AA-2, and EM-2 status

摘要

Orion, the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, is a key piece of the NASA human exploration architecture for beyond earth orbit (BEO). Lockheed Martin was awarded the contracts for the design, development, test, and production planning for Orion through the Exploration Mission 2 (EM-2) in 2021. Numerous lessons have been learned from this development program and allowed NASA and Lockheed Martin to optimize the Orion design for future flights to increase crew safety, lower mass, lower cost, and shorten production schedules. On December 5, 2014, NASA and an industry team led by Lockheed Martin achieved a remarkable advancement in our nation's human deep space exploration capability with the launch of Orion's Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1). Orion EFT-1 marks NASA's first development and operation of a new human-rated spacecraft since the Space Shuttle program began 40 years ago. In a 4.5 hour, 60,000 mile journey that flew 15 times higher than the International Space Station, the Orion EFT-1 team carried out many of the riskiest in-flight events critical to making Orion the safest spacecraft possible for crewed deep space missions. Data provided from more than 1200 sensors measured every aspect of the spacecraft's performance, including avionics and software; separation events; attitude control and guidance; entry, descent and recovery operations; parachute deployment; aerodynamic and aero-thermal performance; and other critical mission and ground operations. EFT-1 met or surpassed all expectations and validated analytical model performance predictions. This data helped identify specific improvements to enable more efficient processes and operations concepts for the following Exploration Mission One (EM-1) production. Breakthrough manufacturing improvements, for example, reducing the number of main weld points from 33 in the original design to only seven in current production, dramatically reduced the mass of the pressure vessel by 700 lbs. The Orion EFT-1 Team not only collaborated on manufacturing innovations, but also process innovations that reshaped traditional oversight/insight functions and increased affordability. EFT-1 reignited public interest and excitement in human spaceflight worldwide. The extraordinary success of the Orion EFT-1 Team initiated a new era of space exploration enabling missions of far greater scope, duration, and complexity, and brought the U.S. significantly closer to reaching the ultimate goal of landing humans on Mars. The next three flight tests for the Orion program will be EM-1, Ascent Abort Two (AA-2), and EM-2. These final tests will validate the improved designs and certify the Orion for operational use. Work on these missions is well underway. The EM-1 critical design review was completed at the end of 2015 and the European Service Module Critical Design review was completed in June 2016. The EM-1 pressure vessel was delivered to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Operations and Checkout (O&C) facility in early 2016 and is being prepared for all crew module subsystems integration. EM-1 will be a twenty five/six day un-crewed mission to a Distant Retrograde Orbit around the moon, in preparation for the future Asteroid Retrieval Mission. EM-2 will be the first Orion flight with crew, also to orbit the moon. This paper will discuss the EFT-1 lessons learned and optimization plans for the future Exploration Mission configurations and tests.