STS-135 T-1 Days - 1 - Constellation

Orion

 

As we make our journey to the launch. We take time to ponder what will be next.  NASA has planned the Constellation as the successor to the shuttle.  The Constellation program consists of a family of rockets, capsules, and landers for a range of missions.  The primary components are the Orion Crew Module, the Altair Lunar Surface Access Module, the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (rocket), the Ares V cargo launch vehicle, and the Earth Departure Stage (EDS).  By designing the program with these components it can support a variety of missions.  Missions envisioned were ISS supply and support, Lunar exploration and colonization, and exploration of Mars.

Altair

The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle is a crew capsule similar to the Apollo CM.  It is four times heavier and two and a half times as large inside to support four astronauts and more supplies.  A version called the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is also planned to support longer missions needed to reach Mars or and asteroid.  It reenters and lands like the Apollo capsule, however, it has a disposable heat shield so it can be reused on up to 10 missions.

Earth Departure Stage

The Altair lunar lander also functions very similarly to the Apollo LEM.  It is also much larger.  It is able to carry a crew of four to the lunar surface and carry.  It had an equipment and supplies payload equivalent to the entire LEM.  In order to support expanded lunar missions, plans call for three configurations.  The crewed sortie mode is a 7 day excursion like the Apollo.  A crewed outpost mode permitting 7 month missions and an un-crewed cargo mode to carry supplies to a Lunar outpost.  In this mode it could land 15 tons of supplies on the moon.  Roughly equivalent to an 18 wheeler.  Prior lunar explorations determined that there is sufficient water near the lunar poles.  The plan is to land near these areas and tap into the water for life support.

With Constellation, payloads, landers, EDS, etc. will be launched by a rocket 50%  more powerful than Saturn V.  Crew and the Orion will launch separately and rendezvous in orbit to build the rocket for the planned expedition in space.  It is a flexible approach that can be adapted to changing priorities and a variety of new missions.

 

Funding for the Constellation Program is scrapped form the current budgets.  Congress is yet to determine it's fate.  I believe we will send people to beyond Earth orbit.  I hope you will witness the landing on the moon or beyond.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_program