orion spacecraft
Orion splashing down will not be easy. A few minutes before, It has to do a big job.
It might have to be weird the extreme heat, and high velocity entering the earth’s atmosphere.
The heat would be reached half of the sun’s temperature.
NASA is going to perform splashing in 8 sequence steps to make it more reliable and secure.
Let’s get started!
01 Separation From The Service Module
02 Skips Off Earth’s Atmosphere
03 Orian In Earth’s Atmosphere
04 Open Protective Bay Cover
05 Open Drogue Parachutes
06 Deploy Pilot Parachutes
07 Open Drogue Parachutes
08 Deploy Pilot Parachutes
01
The first step of splashing will be the separation of the Orion capsule from its service module,
which contains the thruster, engine, and solar arrays for the spacecraft. it is built by the Europian space agency.
The capsule separation will take place around 12 p.m. EST(1700 GMT), about 40 minutes before splashdown.
02
After separation from the service module, Orion will be ready to attempt a guidance
and control maneuver called skip-entry. It is just like a stone skipping across a pond.
Orion will be dipping into the earth’s atmosphere, skipping out, and then re-entering.
03
Orion will finally enter earth’s atmosphere at a high speed of 40,000km/h.
During the entering, its surface temperature will be reached at half of the sun’s which is 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
After the worst entry into the atmosphere, the spacecraft deploys a forward bay cover to protect the capsule’s parachutes.
04
It protects parachutes from the extreme temperature of 5,000-degree Farenheight upon re-entry until the right moment.
05
Orion will perform several stages of parachutes to slow down the spacecraft.
At the height of 25,000 feet, it will release the two drogue parachutes, which slow the spacecraft’s speed to roughly 100 mph(160 km/h).
It is used to slow and stabilize the crew module during descent and helps to establish proper conditions for main parachute deployment to follow.
06
After the Drogue parachutes cut away. Orion will deploy the three pilot parachutes
It will deploy when the spacecraft is roughly 9,500 feet (2900m) above the ground. At this stage, the spacecraft will travel at speed of 190 feet(130m) per second.
07
The last step is to deploy a set of Orion’s 11 parachutes of the three main parachutes which are deployed by the pilot parachutes.
It reduces speed to 20mph(32km/h). Each parachute is roughly 265 feet(80 meters ) long from top to attachment.
08
After performing all the above steps successfully, Orion will splash down off the coast of San Diegi at 12:40 p.m. EST(1740 GMT).
The U.S navy and NASA’s exploration ground systems recovery team of Kennedy Space Center will work together to retrieve the spacecraft.