14 DAY TRIAL // Though the American Administration is proposing to shut down Project Constellation in 2011, when the new fiscal year begins, funding continues to be supplied for the current approach to space exploration. As if to show White House officials that the Project is the way to go, experts at Lockheed Martin, one of the main contractors for its construction phase, announce they have just completed the construction of the largest heatshield ever. The device is to be outfitted on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, which is the Constellation component that actually carries astronauts.
The new milestone, which is of tremendous importance regardless of the faith the Project faces, was achieved at the Denver, Colorado-based Lockheed Martin composite development facility. The instrument has a diameter of five meters, or roughly 16.4 feet, and was developed specifically to protect the Orion space capsule from the fiery temperatures it would experience during atmospheric reentry.
“In addition to the technology advancement, we achieved a $10 million cost savings and improved the project schedule by 12 months through the innovative tooling, materials and fabrication processes the team put into action,” Lockheed Martin Vice President and Orion Program Manager Cleon Lacefield explains in a press release the company made public.
The cutting-edge, high-temperature composite material system that is being used in the heatshield was developed specifically for the Project, which again reaffirms the role that it plays in promoting the advent of new technologies. Some analysts say that it's very weird the Obama Administration wants to kill this approach to space exploration, for promoting innovation in the private spaceflight sector. The new materials were developed by Lockheed Martin experts, working together with engineers from the company TenCate Advanced Composites, which supplies such materials for commercial aircraft, satellites, general aviation, oil and gas, medical and high-end industrial applications.
The shield will be outfitted on the first full-size, flight-like Orion capsule, which is currently being built in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Michoud Assembly Facility. The test vehicle will be the first to feature all the live components that will go into the final version of Orion, and all those involved in Project Constellation are eagerly waiting for this integration phase to occur. Once this happens, the vehicle will be subjected to static vibrations, acoustic tests and water landing loads, as if it were under real flying conditions.