Hyperbola has obtained details of the work on NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle’s proposed landing systems being carried out till 11 and 12 September when the CEV’s Systems Baseline Review (SBR) occurs and its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) that takes place from 10 to 21 November
credit: NASA / caption: This old airbag system design has been rejected due to its mass penalty
The agency and its contractor(s) are conducting feasibility assessments for the crew module’s (CM) contingency land landing (CLL) system being used for a nominal land landing (NLL)
That CLL system is a parachute descent with wrap around airbags deployed on one side of the CM, using the capsule’s reaction control system all the way down to the surface to ensure that the airbags hit the ground first and not another side of the vehicle’s underside
The feasibility work will also see if a derivative of the CLL system can meet the NLL requirements
As Orion prime contractor, by the September SBR, Lockheed is to describe the CM’s capability to withstand a nominal water landing, with its wrap around airbags deployed, and off-nominal water landings (with and without airbags deployed) and land landings
For PDR Lockheed has to demonstrate that the 606E design meets the approved criteria for nominal water and CLL assuming a singular architecture, i.e. airbags deployed for water and land landings
The 606E Orion CM design is the “matured” 606D design reached at the end of design analysis cycle (DAC)-2, which is expected to be completed at the Engineering Review Board and will include updates brought about by the November PDR. The 606D point of departure design was approved at the 22 April 2008 Crew Exploration Vehicle Prject Control Board (CPCB)
For PDR NASA has to demonstrate an assessment of CLL extensibility to NLL given the 606E design capabilities and limitations
Overall from May to PDR the related DAC-2 analyses are, off-nominal water landings without airbags for three parachutes and two parachutes (with one chute out); nominal, off-nominal and contingency landings per the requirements defined by the System Requirements Documents update; and water landings with airbags to define vehicle capabilities, vulnerabilities assuming a singlular architecture goal to deploy airbags nominally in water and land landing scenarios
The work will also include “a preliminary assessment of CM subsystem and vehicle level weight impacts associated with reinstating the NLL architecture”
