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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: 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.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(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.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.