The parachute system for Orion, America's spacecraft that will carry humans to deep space, deployed as planned after being dropped from an altitude of 6.6 miles on July 12, at the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. Data from the successful seventh drop in a series of eight qualification tests will help NASA engineers certify Orion's parachutes for missions with astronauts.
[...] To demonstrate the system's robustness, this test evaluated parachute deployment under conditions that exceeded the requirements for a system carrying crew. Engineers dropped the dart-shaped test article from an altitude that allowed it to generate enough speed to simulate almost twice as much force on the main chutes as would be expected under normal conditions. Orion's full parachute system includes 11 parachutes—three forward-bay cover parachutes, two drogue parachutes, three pilot parachutes, and three main parachutes that will reduce the capsule's speed after reentry in support of a safe landing in the ocean.
[...] For storage, the parachutes are compacted with hydraulic presses at forces of up to 80,000 pounds, baked for two days and vacuumed sealed. Once packed, they have a density of about 40 pounds per cubic foot, which is roughly the same as wood from an oak tree.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday July 20 2018, @11:39AM
Orion's success is America's failure.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday July 20 2018, @02:37PM
Wait, so they're saying that Orion will fit to a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launcher?
Or what?
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday July 20 2018, @05:35PM (6 children)
> Orion, America's spacecraft that will carry humans to deep space
Even if it ended up carrying humans to Mars (not very likely), "deep space" requires a pretty restrictive description. Is Jupiter "super-deep space", and Pluto "hyper-deep space" ?
Seems to me that anything inside the asteroid belt isn't exactly "deep", but pretty near.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday July 20 2018, @06:21PM (2 children)
It's another common expression we each think has a definite meaning until we hear someone else's definition. I always thought of "deep space" as beyond the heliosphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliosphere [wikipedia.org], but I'm learning.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Friday July 20 2018, @06:42PM (1 child)
In my head:
Over 100km is "space".
Anything below GEO is Near-Earth Space (LEO to GEO)
Go to the moon, still in Earth-Space, because gravity well.
Rocky planets ... Near-Space or Near-Sun Space
Beyond the Asteroid Belt: Outer planets means Outer-Space
Go past the last planet, and you're in Deep Space which then overlaps with interstellar space.
That's just my head. People like to think of going to Mars as "Deep". That's setting the bar a little low, when it's only a 20-minute latency call away.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday July 21 2018, @04:15AM
Awesome!! I love it! Of course those distances are spherical.
Here's the burning question: what (who where) is the "last planet"?? "Planet X"?? Yet another postulated possible planet? How about just anything past the Kuiper belt?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 23 2018, @01:58PM (2 children)
They've got Deep space all wrong.
It should be called Shallow space.
The further you climb out of a gravity well, the shallower of space you are into. Eventually you reach interstellar space, effectively outside of any star system's gravity well, or alternately within the slight pull of multiple star systems, which is the shallowest space of all, other than intergalactic shallow space.
But deep space sounds better on TV. Just like the REAL computers on TV have blinking lights and spinning tape drives to play disco music.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday July 23 2018, @05:59PM (1 child)
You mean that flat space isn't exciting, which is why we keep to curvy space with hard bumps at the top ?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 23 2018, @06:33PM
Space is not flat.
But they've got the deep / shallow things backwards. When you're in the flattest or "highest" part, they call that "deep" rather than "shallow".
Sort of like if you visit Shallow Space 9.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.