NASA announced to launch its test flight to take humans to Mars. Orion, the space capsule, will leave for Mars on Thursday. This will be the farthest space distance ever traveled i.e around 58 million km.
The program will mark a key initial step toward a human mission to Mars. Orion is also designed to excite the public’s imagination for deep-space exploration, much as the Apollo moon missions sparked an interest in space and produced civilian engineering triumphs.
With the first test flight on Thursday, NASA wants to make it abundantly clear that much of the hardware that can get humans to Mars already exists and is ready to fly.
Carrying about 1200 sensors, Orion will orbit earth twice on it's launching day. Traveling for about 4 hours and 24 minutes, Orion will drop into the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles from San Diego.
Carrying about 1200 sensors, Orion will orbit earth twice on it's launching day. Traveling for about 4 hours and 24 minutes, Orion will drop into the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles from San Diego.
Delta IV rocket, built by the United Launch Alliance, will take the initial flight. Space Launch System will power future Orion mission.
Richard Boitnott, an engineer at NASA said that, “My hope is that when we fly the capsule on Thursday, it will energize the public and energize that middle schooler isn't quite sure what he wants to do, but he likes math and science”.
With initial flight to Mars, NASA will be able to collect significant data on the effect of radiations on the interior of the space craft.
Mark Geyer, program manager of Orion, said in a statement that, "Ascent, entry and things like fairing separations, Launch Abort System jettison, the parachutes plus the navigation and guidance -- all those things are going to be tested. Plus we’ll fly into deep space and test the radiation effects on those systems".
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