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posted by janrinok on Saturday August 27 2016, @09:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the plop dept.

NASA on Thursday conducted the second to last splashdown test for its Orion spacecraft as the agency prepares to eventually send humans to Mars.

Scientists at NASA's Langley facility used a pendulum and explosives to vault a test capsule into a pool of water at about 25 mph. The 11-foot craft disappeared behind a bowl-shaped splash before bouncing buoyantly against safety netting.

The last time a NASA spacecraft parachuted into the ocean with astronauts on board was in the 1970s during the Apollo missions. The rules of physics haven't changed, but the technology has grown dramatically, NASA officials said.

The capsule's heat shield is no longer steel but carbon fiber and titanium, making it stronger and lighter. Instead of a couch-like seat to hold all of the astronauts, each will have his and her own custom-made chair to better protect the spine. Computer simulations have shrunk the number of actual splashdown tests from 100 to 10.

"A capsule hitting the water hasn't changed," said Mark Baldwin, an analyst with Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor behind Orion. "But what we know about it has."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2016, @11:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2016, @11:15AM (#394164)

    Because after all the geniuses left and Nazi scientists died NASA is now a bunch of self-serving bureaucrats who like Hollywood prefer to stick to "safe" stuff like sequels and franchise reboots. They are still doing 1950s or 1960s stuff but with fancier tech and materials.

    They talk bullshit about sending people to Mars but how are they going to get people back? If it's a one way trip, they haven't even tested to see how long people can live in Mars gravity levels. The only thing they had in that area/direction was cancelled: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Module [wikipedia.org]

    If it's a suicide mission it would be cheaper to to kill the people and send robots.

    Nowadays NASA is not really about science and innovation but keeping the gravy train going for as long as possible.