Orion craft??? fuel storage........?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bilal C
  • Start date Start date
B

Bilal C

Guest
how does the orion spacecraft crew store so much fuel to go to the moon and back i mean if uve seen it it looks big but what about the fuel it doesnt look like it can store so much fuel and same goes for the apollo 11 crew moduel how does it fit so much fuel in a small space
sorry i made a mistake not the orion space craft crew i meant the crew moduel
 
The Orion Service Module will differ from the Apollo SM by using solar panels, rather than fuel cells, for electric power. The Orion SM was to use liquid methane as fuel, with liquid oxygen as oxidizer. The decsion to use liquid methane fuel for the first time, requiring new engine development work, was made because methane might be manufactured from the Martian atmosphere on future Mars landing missions, and because the methane/LOX combination provides higher specific impulse (thrust per pound of propellants) than the hypergolic hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide combination used on the Space Shuttle OMS engines and the Apollo SM.
However, in 2006 NASA decided to abandon the liquide methane fuel plan in order to reduce Orion's development time. Thus the Orion SM and the LSAM lunar lander ascent stage will use the same reliable hypergolic hydrazine/nitrogen tetroxide fuel and oxidizer as Apollo and the Space Shuttle.

There are to be four versions of the Orion CEV:
Block 1A: for transferring crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station.
Block 1B: a pressurized but unmanned version for transferring cargo to and from the ISS.
Block 2: for lunar landing missions, in conjunction with a Lunar Surface Access Module.
Block 3: Earth reentry vehicle for Mars landing missions, in conjunction with an as yet unspecified Mars Transit Vehicle.
 
The bulk of the fuel is used to leave the earth's atmosphere. That's why when you see a spacecraft leave, it has rocket boosters that are cast off once it reaches the velocity it needs to exit earth's atmosphere. Once it enters the vacuum of space, the laws of physics take over. An object in motion stays in motion. It uses much less fuel to activate 'thrusters' which just push the craft in a certain direction- like a little nudge, to slow it down to land on the moon, and to help it leave.
 
Back
Top