- It's been 40 years since we went beyond low earth orbit.
It's time to go back.
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December 1972.
That was when the United States sent Apollo 17,
the final moon mission, rocketing toward the moon.
It's also the last time humans went
beyond low earth orbit.
Sure, the International Space Station isn't exactly
a short drive away and the Space Shuttle program
brought people into outer space,
but we've remained relatively close to home.
Now we're stepping out again.
NASA has brought us the Orion Space Capsule.
This is the spacecraft that's going to take us
to a captured asteroid, and later on, to Mars.
It's the spiritual successor of the Apollo program
and if you look at the Orion capsule,
you'll see that it bears a strong resemblance
to that older space craft.
But an entire generation
of technological evolution has passed since those days.
When you look at it on the launch pad,
you're not even able to see the crew module,
because it's covered by a launch-abort system.
Now this system has thrusters that can engage
and detached from the main rocket should something go wrong.
And it only takes a few milliseconds.
When everything goes right,
it just detaches when it reaches the right altitude.
Beneath the crew module is the service module.
This contains unpressurized cargo, oxygen,
water for the crew, as well as the propulsion system
that provides power once the spacecraft is in outer space.
It also has a solar panel array
that they can deploy to generate electricity.
Really important when you're on those deep-space missions.
Now let's talk about that crew module.
It holds four astronauts
who have an amazing amount of room to play in,
316 cubic feet to be precise.
That's just under nine cubic meters.
Should any oncoming radiation be detected,
they have to get a little snug
and move into the aft-section of the space craft
where there's more mass and material
to soak up that incoming radiation.
Once the danger is past, they can stretch their legs again
and move back into the main compartment.
Beneath this crew module is the heat shield.
When the Orion spacecraft re-enters the earth's atmosphere,
they orient the spacecraft
so that the heat shield faces the earth's surface.
An enormous amount of pressure and heat builds up
underneath the craft.
Then they deploy parachutes and slowly descend,
splashing down into the ocean.
There's no need for a runway,
like with the Space Shuttle program.
It's no exaggeration to say that Orion is the gateway
into our future.
A future of deep-space travel.
And sure, we're going to start with some nearby neighbors,
like a captured asteroid, or the Red Planet,
but these are just the first steps.
Steps that are taking us deeper into the unknown,
where we're going to learn more about our past,
while at the same time, forging a pathway into the future.
And you can probably tell
I'm a little caught up in all this.
And that's fantastic news,
because NASA isn't just testing the space-worthiness
of a capsule.
They're also trying to drum up excitement and enthusiasm
about space exploration and space science.
Because they don't just face engineering challenges,
they also have funding challenges.
NASA needs money.
So I think they're doing an amazing job
with the Orion project.
I couldn't be more excited.
But that leads me to a question for you guys.
Are you as inspired by the Orion project as I am?
Or do you think there's some other method
we should explore for space?
Let me know in the comments below.
And if you enjoyed this video,
make sure you hit Like, subscribe to our channel,
and then blast off
and check out these out-of-this-world videos.
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