Crew Exploration Vehicle

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
CEV initial concept in Lockheed Martin design, showing delta-wing crew module (at right), with a mission module and propulsion stage (with rocket engines) for interplanetary flight.
Orion, as a later design, after the initial plans for the Crew Exploration Vehicle led to development of the Orion.

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

Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the Moon, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the Solar System. After Constellation was cancelled, it was envisioned for emergency evacuation of the International Space Station
, then retained for revived Solar System exploration plans.

Competition

The concept for the vehicle was officially announced in a speech given by

Request For Proposal (RFP). The Final RFP was issued on March 1, 2005,[2]
with the potential bidders being asked to answer by May 2, 2005.

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:

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.

X-33 shuttle replacement program; after the contract award he suggested that Lockheed Martin's work on the X-33 gave it more recent research and development experience in propulsion and materials, which may have helped it win the contract.[8] According to an Aerospace Daily & Defense Report summary of a NASA document explaining the rationale for the contract award, the Lockheed Martin proposal won on the basis of a superior technical approach, lower and more realistic cost estimates, and exceptional performance on Phase I of the CEV program.[9]

Lockheed Martin planned to manufacture the crewed spacecraft at facilities in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.[10]

Proposals

NASA Constellation officials announcing the selected Orion contractor Aug. 31, 2006, at NASA Headquarters

Original designs

Lockheed's proposed craft was a small

Aviation Week and Space Technology, EADS SPACE Transportation would be in charge of the design and construction of the associated Mission Module (MM). The head of the Lockheed team was Cleon Lacefield
.

The Lockheed Martin CEV design included several modules in the LEO (

Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs) could be conducted from the CM, which could land on land or water and could be reused 5–10 times.[11]

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

Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles
(EELVs), with one component in each launch. This vehicle would need additional modules to reach lunar orbit and to land on the Moon. However, this plan was to be altered according to the CFI (Call for Improvements), described below.

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

Orbital Space Plane (OSP) resembled the Apollo capsule. It was possible that the Boeing CEV is a capsule rather than a lifting body or plane design.[12]

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]

Completed Orion MPCV for Artemis 1 (November 2019)

Post Constellation

After reviewing the

Obama administration decided to exclude Constellation from the 2011 United States federal budget. On February 1, 2010, the President's proposed budget was released, which included no funding for the project, and it became law on April 15, 2011.[15] The Orion CEV would survive the cancellation for future mission to the Moon, near earth asteroids, and Mars. It was renamed the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle as it would now be a single vehicle rather than the multiple designs originally proposed and launch on the Space Launch System. The Orion MPCV is the major crewed element of NASA's current Artemis Program. The vehicle undertook its first flight with the SLS in 2022 on Artemis 1 and the first crewed flight is currently scheduled for 2024 on Artemis 2. Lockheed Martin has been contracted for up to 12 vehicles.[16]

Asteroid Redirect Mission

The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), also known as the Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization (ARU) mission and the Asteroid Initiative, was a

Trump Administration in 2017.[18]

The Orion MPCV approaching the Lunar Gateway on Artemis 3

Artemis Program

The Artemis program is an ongoing

crewed spaceflight program carried out predominately by NASA, U.S. commercial spaceflight companies, and international partners such as the European Space Agency (ESA), JAXA, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) with the goal of landing "the first woman and the next man" on the Moon, specifically at the lunar south pole region by 2025. NASA sees Artemis as the next step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon. The Orion MPCV will be used as the main crew transport and logistics vehicle. It will be launched using the Space Launch System Block 1 and later the SLS Block 1B. Using the EUS, it will be able to transport crew as well as a logistics module to the Lunar Gateway. Once at the Gateway, the crew will embark on the Human Landing System (HLS)
to the lunar surface for excursions eventually lasting up to 6 weeks.

References

  1. ^ "President Bush Announces New Vision for Space Exploration Program". NASA.
  2. ^ NASA (2005-03-01). "Crew Exploration Vehicle, Solicitation SOL NNT05AA01J". Archived from the original on 2009-01-17. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
  3. ^ Dunn, Marcia (2006-05-13). "NASA Chief Pushes for Shuttle's Replacement". Space.com. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ 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]
  6. NASA Watch. Archived from the original
    on 2005-10-18.
  7. ^ Schneider, Mike (2006-08-26). "Astronaut lets name of new spaceship slip". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "NASA Selects Lockheed Martin To Be Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle Prime Contractor" (Press release). Space Ref. 2006-08-31. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  11. ^ Coburn, Davin (1 June 2005). "Lockheed Unveils Shuttle Replacement - A PM Exclusive". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2012-06-30.
  12. ^ Image Display
  13. ^ "Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) Procurement". NASA. 2005-05-16. Archived from the original on 2008-04-03. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
  14. ^ Merle, Renae (2006-09-01). "Lockheed Wins Contract to Build NASA's New Spaceship". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
  15. ^ "Constellation Is Dead, But Pieces Live On | AVIATION WEEK". 2011-04-20. Archived from the original on 2011-04-20. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
  16. ^ "NASA awards long-term Orion production contract to Lockheed Martin". SpaceNews.com. 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2019-12-19.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Loren Grush (March 16, 2017). "Trump's NASA budget cancels Europa lander and Asteroid Redirect Mission". The Verge. Retrieved May 15, 2023.

External links