HAMPTON, Va. — A NASA team looking into design concepts for future space capsules has successfully demonstrated that an all-composite structure is a feasible alternative to traditional metal capsules for carrying astronauts into space and returning them safely to Earth.
For the past three years, the NESC has been evaluating a composite crew module as an alternative to the baseline Orion design. A tiger team was formed between Orion and the NESC team recently to compare opportunities and challenges. In 2006, the NESC studied the feasibility of a primary structure CCM for the Constellation Program...
Even as NASA’s Constellation program is designing the Orion crew module that will carry astronauts back to the moon and beyond, another NASA team is exploring alternate materials and fabrication techniques that promise even more advances for future spacecraft. Aerospace composites, not unlike the materials used in open-wheeled racecars and high-end sporting equipment, are lightweight...
Engineers from across NASA are working on a design for an Orion crew exploration vehicle pressure shell made entirely of composite materials, but it will never get off the ground. Instead, the effort led by the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) is aimed at gaining in-house composites experience for the agency to tap when it...