February 2007
Administrator unveils Orion details
Posted Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Posted this morning in the SimNASA forum, SimNASA Administrator Brad Hodges reveiled some of the design work going into the new Orion II spacecraft.
The Orion II, the next generation of spacecraft to be used by SimNASA, has been under development for the past several months. Several pictures of design proposal were released with the posting in the forum.
Members of SimNASA have been invited to a comment on the new design. Current development plans are to have the Orion II completed by the middle of March 2007.
The forum topic can be accessed at: http://simnasa.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1172683985
SimNASA engineers are working hard...
Posted Sunday, February 25, 2007
At a first glance it may appear that things are quiet at SimNASA lately, but the truth is different. SimNASA engineers are working hard on both future manned and unmanned mission.
For the manned program, the Orion II is taking shape and will soon make it's first lift-off on top the Ares I launcher. Plans are that it will be used to return Skylab-Columbia's last crew back to Earth. This spacecraft will be 'my office' for our astronauts for the next few years so engineers are paying attention to lots of small but important details..
On the unmanned front, SimNASA is planning a mission that involves a new addition to the Ares I: The Centaur SE upper stage. This third stage is giving the Ares I interplanetary capabilities. The new configuration will be put to the test in a spectular mission to the Moon: The LRO/LCROSS mission will not only map the Lunar surface in great detail, but will also perform a double impact on the Moon, visible from Earth!
SimNASA also plans to place some communication satellites in Lunar orbit, so future Lunar excursion will be able to make contact at any time. SimNASA engineers still have to decide if these comsats will ride along on the same mission as LRO/LCROSS or will be launched at a later time.
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