In article om,
says...

On 2016-01-01 13:44, Jeff Findley wrote:

It's a structural test article. But as I said, I believe that ESA's
flight proven ATV (ISS cargo delivery vehicle) is the basis for the
Orion service module, so it's not like ESA is creating something
completely new.


Did ATV goto Mars ? Moon ? Are the ATV orbital engines able to have the
trust necessary to goto the Moon (and hopefully gosub Moon) ? Or will
new engines be developped ?

It's a propulsion module! It doesn't care *where* it goes, it just
fires its engines and/or RCS thrusters when commanded!

NOTE: ATV was designed with *quad* redundant systems (i.e. man-rated).
It's systems are *more* than adequate for Orion.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/ATV

Note the most recent news on the ATV website is about the Orion
propulsion module testing and contains good information (from ESA's
point of view) about this program:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Hu...s_European_mod
ule_ready_for_testing

Is the software/guidance going to be used unchanged in the Orion Service
module ? or will it be rewritten, with new interfaces to Orion, which
didn't exist with ATV ?

ESA may have experience with ATV, but that doesn't mean that the service
module will be just an ATV with minor modifications.

Why not? ESA designed it to be used in the future with a possible ESA
capsule design. Using it with Orion won't be that much different than
its original intended future purpose. Certainly ESA and NASA will have
to work on integrating it with Orion, but they've had a working
relationship for a *long* time.

Remember Spacelab that flew in the shuttle payload bay many times when
NASA could not afford to build a space station? That was an ESA module!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacelab

NASA has been trusting the lives of its astronauts inside ESA modules for decades!

They plan on making more engines. A cost reduced version of the
SSME
which is more suitable for an expendable launch vehicle than the
original (presumably more expensive to manufacture) SSME.

By the time they get to that point, Elon will have proven Falcon9's
capabilities and much lower cost, and NASA will likely request SLS be
canned and that Orion be launched on Falcon.

I agree that once Falcon Heavy is flying, I don't see why Orion could
not fly on top of it. Since Orion was designed for a worst case
scenario involving the solids on SLS, the escape system on Orion would
be more than capable of pulling it away from a malfunctioning Falcon
Heavy.

But, Congress is hell bent on continuing funding for SLS so I really
don't see that happening unless something really bad happens with SLS
(like it goes *boom* on its first test flight).

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer