Crew Exploration Vehicle
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The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was a component of the U.S. NASA Vision for Space Exploration plan. A competition was held to design a spacecraft that could carry humans to the destinations envisioned by the plan. The winning design was the Orion spacecraft.
Although it was originally conceived during the
Competition
The concept for the vehicle was officially announced in a speech given by
NASA had planned to have a suborbital or an Earth orbit fly-off called Flight Application of Spacecraft Technologies (FAST) between two teams' CEV designs before September 1, 2008. However, in order to permit an earlier date for the start of CEV operations, Administrator Michael D. Griffin had indicated that NASA would select one contractor for the CEV in 2006. From his perspective, this would both help eliminate the currently planned four-year gap between the retirement of the Shuttle in 2010 and the first crewed flight of the CEV in 2014 (by allowing the CEV to fly earlier), and save over $1 billion for use in CEV development.[3]
On June 13, 2005, NASA announced the selection of two consortia, Lockheed Martin Corp. and the team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and The Boeing Co. for further CEV development work.[4] Each team had received a US$28 million contract to come up with a complete design for the CEV and its launch vehicle until August 2006, when NASA would award one of them the task of building the CEV.[5] The teams would also have to develop a plan for their CEV to take part in the assembly of a lunar expedition, either with an Earth orbit rendezvous, a lunar orbit rendezvous, or with a direct ascent. The two teams were composed of:
- Northrop Grumman associated with Boeing as subcontractor for the Spiral One, Draper Laboratory and United Space Alliance
- Lockheed Martin associated with Hamilton Sundstrand, and Wyle Laboratories(awarded the contract August 31, 2006).
Each contractor-led team included subcontractors that provided the lunar expedition astronauts with equipment, life support, rocket engines, and onboard navigation systems. The planned orbital or suborbital fly-offs under FAST would have seen the competition of a CEV built by each team, or of a technology demonstrator incorporating CEV technologies.[6] Under FAST, NASA would have chosen the winner to build the final CEV after actual demonstration of this hardware. Fly-offs are often used by the U.S. Air Force to select military aircraft; NASA has never used this approach in awarding contracts. However, as Administrator Griffin had indicated he would abandon the FAST approach, NASA pursued the more traditional approach of selecting a vehicle based on the contractors' proposals.[7]
On August 31, 2006, NASA announced that the contract to design and develop the Orion was awarded to Lockheed Martin Corp.
Lockheed Martin planned to manufacture the crewed spacecraft at facilities in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.[10]
Proposals
Original designs
Lockheed's proposed craft was a small
The Lockheed Martin CEV design included several modules in the LEO (
The mission module would be added to the bottom of the CEV for a lunar mission, and would be able to hold extra consumables and provide extra space for a mission of lunar duration. It would also provide extra power and communications capabilities, and include a docking port for the
Unlike the well-publicized Lockheed Martin CEV design, virtually no information was publicly available on the Boeing/Northrop Grumman CEV design. However, it is instructive to note that most publicly released Boeing designs for the canceled
Changes to original bids
Sean O'Keefe's strategy[when?] would have seen the CEV development in two distinct phases. Phase I would have involved the design of the CEV and a demonstration by the potential contractors that they could safely and affordably develop the vehicle. Phase I would have run from bid submissions in 2005 to FAST (by Sept 2008) and down-select to one contractor. Phase II would have begun after FAST and involved final design and construction of the CEV. However, this schedule was unacceptably slow to Mike Griffin, and the plan was changed[when?] such that NASA will issue a "Call for Improvements" (CFI) after the release of the ESAS for Lockheed Martin and Boeing to submit Phase II proposals.[13] NASA chose Lockheed Martin's consortium as the winning consortium on August 31, 2006.[14]
Post Constellation
After reviewing the
Asteroid Redirect Mission
The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), also known as the Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization (ARU) mission and the Asteroid Initiative, was a
Artemis Program
The Artemis program is an ongoing
References
- ^ "President Bush Announces New Vision for Space Exploration Program". NASA.
- ^ NASA (2005-03-01). "Crew Exploration Vehicle, Solicitation SOL NNT05AA01J". Archived from the original on 2009-01-17. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
- ^ Dunn, Marcia (2006-05-13). "NASA Chief Pushes for Shuttle's Replacement". Space.com. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
- ^ NASA HQ (2005-06-13). "NASA Selects Contractors for Crew Exploration Vehicle Work". NASA Press Release 05-146. Archived from the original on 2006-08-27. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
- ^ a b "NASA Selects Lockheed Martin To Be Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle Prime Contractor" (Press release). NASA. 2006-08-31. Retrieved 2006-08-31.[permanent dead link]
- NASA Watch. Archived from the originalon 2005-10-18.
- ^ Schneider, Mike (2006-08-26). "Astronaut lets name of new spaceship slip". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
- ^ a b Lococo, Edmond; Demian McLean (2006-08-31). "Lockheed Beats Northrop for $3.9 Billion NASA Award (Update4)". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
- ^ Morris, Jefferson (2006-09-07). "CEV Decision Document Ranks LM Ahead In Mission Suitability, Cost, Past Performance". Aerospace Daily & Defense Report. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
- ^ "NASA Selects Lockheed Martin To Be Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle Prime Contractor" (Press release). Space Ref. 2006-08-31. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
- ^ Coburn, Davin (1 June 2005). "Lockheed Unveils Shuttle Replacement - A PM Exclusive". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
- ^ Image Display
- ^ "Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Procurement". NASA. 2005-05-16. Archived from the original on 2008-04-03. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
- ^ Merle, Renae (2006-09-01). "Lockheed Wins Contract to Build NASA's New Spaceship". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
- ^ "Constellation Is Dead, But Pieces Live On | AVIATION WEEK". 2011-04-20. Archived from the original on 2011-04-20. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
- ^ "NASA awards long-term Orion production contract to Lockheed Martin". SpaceNews.com. 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
- ^ Mahoney, Erin (2015-03-10). "How Will NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission Help Humans Reach Mars?". NASA. Archived from the original on 2019-10-04. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
- ^ Loren Grush (March 16, 2017). "Trump's NASA budget cancels Europa lander and Asteroid Redirect Mission". The Verge. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
External links
- NASA Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle - NASA webpage with status notes and news.