Human spaceflight : Moon, Mars and beyond - NASA videos

The Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP) is a program of robotic spacecraft missions which NASA will use to prepare for future human spaceflight missions to the Moon. Two LPRP missions, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), were launched in June 2009.

LRO will orbit the Moon for one year, gathering high resolution images of the lunar surface that will allow the creation of detailed maps. LRO's goals include finding safe landing sites for human visits to the Moon, identifying lunar resources, and studying the lunar radiation environment. The LRO will provide a 3-D map of the moon's surface to allow astronauts to return to the moon in 2020.

LCROSS - which is formed by two parts, the rocket upper stage and the probe - will explore a permanently shadowed region of a lunar pole by crashing the 2,300 pounds (1,043 kg) spent upper stage into a dark crater. The composition of the ejecta plume will be observed by a shepherding spacecraft, which will itself crash-land 4 minutes later, creating a second plume. The ejecta plume will be in the order of 350 tons and rise 6 miles (10 km) from the surface.

Ares V is a heavy three-stage rocket, with a payload capacity of 188 tonnes, more than 6 times larger than that of other heavy-lift launch vehicles in use or under development worldwide.

Ares V utilizes a pair of solid-fueled first stage rocket boosters (in white) that burns simultaneously with the liquid-fueled second stage (in orange-brown). The solid rocket booster is an improved version of the current Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). The liquid-fueled second stage is derived from the Space Shuttle External Tank, and uses five liquid-fueled engines attached to the bottom. Its fuels are liquid oxygen and hydrogen. The upper stage (checkered), derived from the upper stage used on Saturn V rocket, is known as the Earth Departure Stage (EDS). Powered by an Apollo-derived engine, it is also be used on the liquid-fueled upper stage of the Ares I booster.

Ares V will be the cargo launch component of the Constellation program. Constellation program plans to use two separate launch vehicles, the Ares I and the Ares V, for crew and cargo respectively. This allows the two launch vehicles to be optimized for their respective missions. Crew system (composed by Orion Capsule and the service module) and cargo (composed by the Earth Departure Stage - EDS - and by the Altair lunar module on it) will join in low-Earth orbit after departure. EDS, which is the upper stage of the Ares V rocket, will provide the propulsion to send the the Crew module and the Altair lander beyond low-Earth orbit, onto a trajectory to the Moon.

Besides its lunar role, Ares V can support a manned Orion expedition to a Near-Earth asteroid, and could boost in a single shot an 8 to 16-meter successor of the Hubble Space Telescope to a stationary orbit. EDS can also be used to haul large payloads into low-Earth orbit, along with placing large unmanned spacecraft onto trajectories beyond the Earth-Moon system.

Approaching the launch date, the Ares V will be transported to the same launch pad used by NASA to launch the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Upon giving the clearance to launch, the five liquid-fueled engines and the twin SRBs will ignite. At the same time, the EDS swing arms and Ares V core stage collect "chocks" will retract, and the booster will then lift off from the pad. The twin SRBs jettison at T+121.6 seconds into the flight.

The launch shroud separation occurs at T+295.0 seconds. After that, the main engines cutoff at T+329.0 seconds, and the subsequent jettison of the core stage occurs. The spent core stage will burn up in the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. The EDS will steer the Altair/EDS combination into a stable 360 km high circular orbit.

The Orion spacecraft will be launched into a low earth orbit using the Ares I rocket. Ares I consists of a single Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) derived from the boosters of the Space Shuttle, connected at its upper end by an interstage support assembly to a new liquid-fueled second stage powered by an uprated Apollo liquid-fueled engine.

Ares I will utilize a Launch Pad currently undergoing conversion from Shuttle missions, where it will be transported approximately a day after the Ares V stack. After final checks, the ground crew fills up the second stage with liquid hydrogen and oxygen, with the Orion crew, suited up in new all-purpose spacesuits, entering the spacecraft only three hours before liftoff. Approximately 90 minutes after the Ares V launch, the Orion-Ares I stack, will lift off, jettisoning the SRB at 125.0 seconds after liftoff.

Orion is the crew compartment for the Constellation program. Orion will consist of two main parts, an Orion Crew Module (CM) similar to the Apollo Command Module but capable of holding four to six crew members, and a cylindrical Service Module (SM) containing the propulsion systems and supplies.

The Orion CM will be reusable for up to 10 flights. It will have a mass of about 8.5 tons and a volume more than 2.5 times that of an Apollo capsule. NASA is currently developing different Orion capsules tailored for specific missions. The Block I Orion will be employed for International Space Station crew rotation and resupply and other Earth orbit missions. The Block II and III variants will be designed for deep-space exploration.

The Service Module, that will be discarded at the end of each missions, has a pair of deployable circular solar panels, similar in design to the panels used on the Mars Phoenix lander. The panels, will allow NASA to eliminate the need to carry malfunction-prone fuel cells.

A third element is the Launch Abort System (LAS) explained in the following pictures.

In the event of an emergency on the launch pad or during ascent, the Launch Abort System (LAS) will separate the Crew Module from the launch vehicle using a solid rocket-powered motor.

The motor of the Launch Abort System (LAS) is important to every flight because it pulls the LAS tower away from the vehicle after a successful launch.

The manned Orion Crew and Service Module (CSM) contained within Ares I will dock with the Altair/EDS combination already in low-Earth orbit.

After the systems are configured for lunar flight, the EDS will fire for the 390-second translunar injection (TLI) burn, which will accelerate the spacecraft stack from 28,000 km/h to 40,200 km/h. The TLI burn will be done in the "eyeballs out" fashion, that is with the astronauts being "pulled" from their seats. After the TLI burn, the EDS is jettisoned.

During the three-day trans-lunar coast, the four-man crew will monitor the Orion's systems, inspect their Altair spacecraft and its support equipment, and, if necessary, change their trajectory to allow the Altair to land in a near-polar landing site suitable for a future lunar base.

Three days after TLI, the Orion/Altair combination, approaching the lunar far side, will orient the Altair's engines in the proper direction for the lunar orbit insertion (LOI) burn to begin. Once in orbit, the crew will refine the trajectory and configure the Orion CSM for unmanned flight, upon which all of the crew members will transfer to the Altair, and upon receiving clearance from Mission Control, will undock from the Orion.

After the Altair undocks, it then performs an "inspection maneuver," allowing controllers, via a live TV feed, to inspect the spacecraft for any anomalies that may have occurred during launch or the trans-lunar coast. Once the subsequent separation maneuver is completed, the unmanned Orion CSM is placed in a 95 to 110 km high circular orbit to wait for the Altair's return.

Lunar ice is water ice that is hypothesised to exist on the surface of the Moon, delivered over geological timescales by the regular bombardment of the Moon by comets, asteroids and meteoroids. Energy from sunlight usually splits this water into its constituent elements hydrogen and oxygen, which generally escape to space.

Because of the only very slight axial tilt of the Moon's axis, some deep craters near the poles never receive any light from the Sun, and are permanently shadowed (for example, Shackleton crater). The temperature in these regions never rises above about 100 K (-170 degrees Celsius), and any water that eventually ended up in these craters could remain frozen and stable for extremely long periods - perhaps billions of years. The quantities and concentrations of this water ice are at present unknown, but it has been suggested that, at the south pole at least, any lunar ice is more likely to exist as small grains widely dispersed in the regolith rather than as thick deposits.

The presence of usable quantities of water on the Moon is an important factor in rendering lunar habitation cost-effective, since transporting water from Earth would be prohibitively expensive. Water ice could be mined to provide liquid water for drinking and plant propagation, and the water could also be split into hydrogen and oxygen by solar panel-equipped electric power stations or a nuclear generator, providing breathable oxygen as well as the components of rocket fuel. The hydrogen component of the water ice could also be used to draw out the oxides in the lunar soil and harvest even more oxygen.

After receiving approval from ground controllers, the Altair's descent stage will fire again, and the crew will land their Altair in a pre-determined landing spot that will have been scouted out before by unmanned spacecraft.

Upon landing, the crew will don their moonwalking spacesuits and commence the first of five to seven lunar Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVA) collecting samples and deploying experiments.

The suit to be used primarily for lunar EVAs conducted during the initial 7 to 10-day lunar sortie missions and later for 3 to 6-month lunar outpost missions, will consist of a completely new spacesuit. It will have a white cover layer.

Due to myriad meteorite impacts, the lunar surface is covered with a thin layer of dust. The dust is electrically charged and sticks to any surface it comes in contact with. The soil becomes very dense beneath the top layer of regolith. There are concerns that the dust found on the lunar surface could cause harmful effects on any manned outpost technology and crew members:

- Abrasive nature of the dust particles may rub and wear down surfaces through friction;
- Negative effect on coatings used on gaskets to seal equipment from space, optical lenses that include solar panels and windows as well as wiring;
- Possible damage to an astronaut's lungs, nervous, and cardiovascular systems.

The Lunar outpost will be an inhabited facility on the surface of the Moon which NASA currently proposes to construct over the five years between 2019 and 2024. The United States Congress has directed that the U.S. portion, "shall be designated the Neil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost".

A reference architecture has been established for this outpost, based on a location on the rim of the Shackleton crater, near the Moon's south pole. At a presentation on December 4, 2006, Doug Cooke (Deputy Associate Administrator, NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate) described an area "that is ... sunlit ... 75 to 80 percent of the time, and it is adjacent to a permanently dark region in which there are potentially volatiles that we can extract and use. ... This sunlit area is about the size of the Washington Mall." (approximately 1.25 km²).

Other locations considered for possible lunar outposts include the rim of Peary crater near the lunar north pole and the Malapert Mountain region on the rim of Malapert crater.

The current outpost design includes:

- Habitation modules
- Solar power units
- Unpressurized rovers
- In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) unit
- Surface mobility carrier

The outpost would be supplied by a mixed crew and cargo Altair lander, capable of bringing four astronauts and a payload of 6 tons to the Moon's surface. An incremental buildup would begin with four-person crews making several seven-day visits to the moon until their power supplies, rovers and living quarters were operational. The first mission would begin by 2020. This would be followed by 180-day missions to prepare for journeys to Mars.

After completing their Lunar Sortie operations, the crew will enter the Altair's ascent stage and lift off from the Moon's surface, powered by a single engine, while using the descent stage as a launchpad (and as a platform for future base construction).

Upon entering orbit, the Altair docks with the waiting Orion spacecraft, and the crew then transfers themselves and any samples collected on the moon over to the Orion.

After jettisoning the Altair to allow it to crash into the lunar far side, the crew, using the onboard engine, performs the Trans Earth Injection (TEI) burn for the return trip to Earth.

After a 2½ day coast, the crew jettisons the service module (allowing it to burn up in the atmosphere) and then reenters the Earth's atmosphere using a reentry trajectory designed to both slow the vehicle from its speed of 40,200 km/h to 480 km/h and allow for a West Coast landing.

The Orion CM will be able to land both on land and water. In this last case the airbag landing system can be removed, saving weight.

The Orion crew module will then be flown back to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for refurbishment while lunar samples will berouted to the Johnson Space Center's (JSC) Lunar Receiving Laboratory for analysis.

The Orion spacecraft is able to dock with the International Space Station. The six-man crew, the largest number that can fly on an Orion spacecraft, then enters the station and performs its activities for the duration of their flight, usually lasting six months, but can be shortened to four or lengthened to eight. Once completed, the crew reenters the Orion, which has been kept attached to the station as an emergency "lifeboat", seal off the hatches between it and the ISS, and then undock from the station.

Once the Orion reaches a safe distance from the ISS, the spacecraft will turn around so the main engine faces forward and fires its engine. After the deorbit burn has been completed, the service module is jettisoned, allowing it to burn up in the atmosphere while the crew module re-enters, using the ablative heat shield to both deflect heat from the spacecraft and to slow it down from a speed of 28,000 km/h to 480 km/h.

After reentry is completed, the forward assembly is jettisoned, and two drogue parachutes will be released, followed at 20,000 feet by three main parachutes and airbags, allowing the spacecraft to splashdown. The Orion CM is then returned to Kennedy Space Center for refurbishment for a later flight.

The Orion Mars Mission would utilize the Orion spacecraft and the Ares V cargo-launch vehicle, along with methods of carrying out the mission developed onboard the International Space Station and the planned Lunar Outpost.

An "Earth Return Vehicle" will probably sent out to Mars first. Once the Earth Return Vehicle lands and starts producing liquid oxygen and methane fuel for the return trip, a second spacecraft, carrying the crew, would follow.

Arriving at Mars, the crew will land near the Earth Return Vehicle and will explore the planet for a period of nearly one Earth year. Meanwhile another Earth Return Vehicle is sent to Mars, allowing NASA an "insurance policy" in the event the first Earth Return Vehicle is unable to perform its task.

Once the crew finishes its surface exploration, they will then enter the first Earth Return Vehicle and then lift off from the planet's surface. After docking with an orbiting return rocket, the crew then fires the rocket and returns to Earth, making a high-speed reentry and landing approximately 4 months after leaving Mars.

The Orion Mars Mission, if launched, would occur in the 2030s.