All language subtitles for Impossible Engineering s02e01 NASA Rocket to Mars.eng

Today on
"Impossible engineering,"

the Orion spacecraft,

the most advanced exploration
vehicle ever built...

The space launch system will be
the most powerful rocket

that's ever left
the face of the earth.

Transporting humans
to distant worlds...

We're going farther
than we've ever gone before

into deep space,
uncharted territory.

But to do this, engineers
must take a look back

at the trailblazing innovations
of the past...

This is really cool.
This is like going back in time.

Here we go!

...That made the impossible...

This is an
incredible piece of engineering.

...Possible.

Captions by Vitac
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
Discovery Communications

4, 3, 2, 1.

NASA has been at
the cutting edge of space travel

for over 50 years

from man's first step
on the moon

to the epic
international space station.

And today, they're hard at work
on their next project,

a mission to top every mission
that came before it...

Taking man to Mars.

Mars is like the holy grail
of space exploration.

Designing a spacecraft
that can survive

the over 100 million-mile
journey to the red planet

is an epic engineering
challenge.

Orion is just a huge
engineering feat.

There are thousands of people

that are working very hard
to make Orion a success.

The best engineers in the world

are all working
right here on this project.

This isn't easy.
We're going to space.

If it was easy,
everybody would be doing it.

At the core
of this revolutionary spacecraft

is the crew capsule.

It's the largest
NASA has ever built,

15 feet in diameter

with enough space
to accommodate four astronauts.

It's a state-of-the-art
service module

equipped
with unique life support

and propulsion systems

and four winged solar arrays

spanning nearly 60 feet across.

Orion will travel farther
into deep space

than any other human exploration
vehicle in history.

I think it's important
to learn about the other planets

we have in our solar system,

how they were formed,
and whether we might be able

to live there.

And to be able
to answer the question,

ultimately, if we're alone.

The first hurdle facing Lara
and her team at NASA...

Figure out a way to get
such a large spacecraft

off the ground and into orbit.

When you fly a mission
like that,

you have to take
a lot of components with you,

a lot of equipment.

With that crew, they're gonna
be gone a long time.

And in order to push
all of that equipment

a long way away,
it has to be very powerful.

To get Orion off the ground,

NASA engineers look

to the innovators of the past
for inspiration.

As long as man has looked
to the heavens,

he's dreamt of traveling
to the stars.

In the 2nd century a.D.,
an ancient mesopotamian scribe

wrote about a ship
blown to the moon by a storm.

And according to legend,
in the 1500s,

Chinese astrologer wan hu

tried to reach the moon
using rockets

traveling in a chair
powered by gunpowder.

Aah!

But once the smoke cleared,
he was nowhere to be seen.

Whether he made it into space
remains a mystery.

Ah!

Aaaaah!

It would take the genius

of American engineer
Robert Goddard

to take the seemingly
impossible dream

of a rocket powerful enough
to leave the earth's atmosphere

and turn it into reality.

??

Space historian Amy shira teitel
is in roswell, new Mexico,

recreating one of Goddard's
landmark engineering feats.

This rocket is a replica
of the a5

built by rocket pioneer
Robert Goddard in 1935.

And it was
in this desert landscape,

away from populated areas,

that Goddard was first able
to fire his rockets

to really show
how powerful they were.

Goddard was fascinated
by space travel as a child.

In 1915, he launched
his first rocket.

But the gunpowder he used
to fuel his early prototypes

was extremely inefficient.

He knew that,
to ultimately leave

the pull of the earth's gravity,

he would need a far more
powerful fuel source.

And so he turned
to liquid propulsion,

a mix of gasoline
and liquid oxygen

that would burn
with a hotter reaction

and create
a more powerful rocket.

Burning gasoline
and liquid oxygen

together in a combustion chamber

creates a high pressure,
high velocity stream of hot gas.

Passing it up through two pipes
and down a nozzle

accelerates the flow
of the gas even more,

producing thrust
to propel the rocket upward.

The higher the temperature,
the greater the thrust.

??

This is actually a replica
of his 1926 rocket

that he used as a proof
of concept demonstration

of the power
of liquid propulsion.

He named it Nell, and it flew
41 feet in just 2 seconds

before it crashed.

It was a short but incredibly
significant flight.

Goddard created the blueprint
for the modern rocket.

In 1920, he published a paper
claiming his designs

could be used
to send payloads to the moon.

Not everyone agreed.

His radical ideas flew
in the face

of accepted scientific views.

Scientists believe that because
there's no air in space,

there would be nothing for
a rocket to push against.

So it wouldn't be able to fly.

But Goddard had other ideas.

??

Goddard based his theory

on one of the most basic
laws of physics

written by sir Isaac Newton
in 1686.

It stated that for every action,

there is an equal
and opposite reaction.

Unlike his contemporaries,

Goddard believed this theory
would also apply

in the vacuum of space.

So here's Newton's third
law of motion in action.

Imagine this skateboard
is the rocket.

And the medicine ball
is the hot exhaust gases

escaping from that rocket.

As I throw it forward, the force
of me throwing the medicine ball

will propel me backwards

with the same force
in the opposite direction.

So here we go.

That's Newton's
third law in action.

Goddard successfully launched

34 liquid-fueled rockets,

reaching altitudes
as high as 1 1/2 miles

at speeds approaching
750 miles an hour.

??

And today, one of his
engineering masterpieces,

the a5 rocket,
has been replicated

by the Albuquerque
rocket society

and is set to launch
in the new Mexican desert.

So this is really cool.

This is like going back in time.

This is it.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

That's amazing!

Oh.

This is really incredible.

You can just imagine
Robert Goddard and his team

being out here, doing this
exact thing 80 years ago.

Robert Goddard

made the seemingly impossible
possible.

He researched, developed,
and understood

the basic,
fundamental principles

of modern space flight

and developed the rockets
to make it happen.

Without Goddard's contribution,

human space flight
would still be just a dream.

??

To reach Mars,

the engineers
of the Orion spacecraft

need to supercharge Goddard's
ingenious design...

8.4 million pounds of thrust,

it's taller than
the statue of Liberty,

longer than a football field.

...And build the largest,

most powerful solid
rocket booster in the world.

At NASA's
michoud assembly facility,

work is underway
on the Orion spacecraft's

monstrous rocket booster system.

Pat whipps is tasked

with building
the propulsion system

that will send Orion
on two test missions

beyond low-earth orbit.

The space launch system rocket
will be the most powerful rocket

that's ever left
the face of the earth.

??

Orion's solid rocket boosters

will generate over 75 percent
of its thrust,

enabling the spacecraft

to carry a payload
of almost 80 tons.

The rocket's core stage
is a giant fuel tank.

It will store

the cryogenic liquid hydrogen
and liquid oxygen

used to power Orion's
four rs-25 engines.

Rs-25 engines were first used

during the space shuttle
program.

??

The engineering
that's gone into these engines

is just incredible.

I call them the Mona Lisa
of mechanical engineering.

Steve wofford heads up the team

testing the space launch
system's engines

at the stennis rocket facility
in Mississippi.

To be able to do what they do

with the efficiency that they do

and harness that incredible
amount of energy

and produce the power
that they do,

it just astonishes me.

I've been in love
with these engines

for over 25 years now.

??

These colossal engines
are paired

with two gigantic
150-foot rocket boosters.

In march 2015, tests begin
in the Utah desert.

During the two-minute burn,

engineers collect data
on 103 design objectives.

The world's largest
solid rocket motor

generates a jaw-dropping
3.6 million pounds of thrust,

the equivalent of 14 jumbo jets

at maximum power.

These engines will get
to orbital velocity

of 17,500 miles per hour,
which is about mach 25.

For Orion's 100 million mile
journey to Mars,

NASA engineers are building
an even more powerful version

of this rocket system.

And just a few more
years down the road,

our 130-metric-ton version
of the space launch system

will be able to take
nearly 140 tons of payload,

ultimately taking
habitats and equipment

and, of course, astronauts
to the surface of Mars.

??

With Orion's
propulsion system in place,

NASA now turns to their next
engineering challenge...

Creating a capsule
that will keep Orion's crew safe

on the up to 300-day journey
to Mars.

Human beings are not meant
to live in space.

So we have to deal
with the vacuum of space,

the extreme temperature
conditions,

the zero-gravity environment...

Things that the human body
is not used to

while they're here on earth.

Providing a safe environment
for Orion's crew

would be impossible
without the daring attempt

made by one scientist
almost a century ago.

Since the first manned launch
in 1783,

balloonists wanted
to go higher and higher.

In 1899, French meteorologist
Leon teisserenc de bort

sent his weather balloons
into the stratosphere.

Oh, l� l�!

Aeronauts were desperate
to reach the stars.

But they soon found out

that their bodies
simply couldn't cope.

??

Dr. Andrew Steele is treading
in the footsteps

of these daredevils.

This is amazing.

It's an incredible view.

And to think
that pioneering aviators

would make high-altitude flights
in balloons

not dissimilar to this one.

They rapidly discovered

that the atmosphere changes
dramatically as you go up.

The air gets a lot colder,
but it also gets a lot thinner.

It gets much harder to breathe.

And that's 'cause
the pressure goes down.

The oxygen molecules
are more spread out.

And you just can't breathe
deeply or fast enough

to compensate for that.

By the end of the 1920s,

daring aeronauts had reached
heights of 40,000 feet.

They took an oxygen supply
with them.

But they had other physiological
problems to deal with.

So what happens to your body

as you go up to 12,000 meters

and approach
the vacuum of space?

Well, I don't really
want to try that myself.

So I've got a little
marshmallow man

who's gonna demonstrate it
for me.

Today's flight is only
hovering around 2,000 feet.

So a vacuum jar and pump

will simulate high altitude's
unforgiving conditions.

You can see now that,
as we're sucking the air

out of the vacuum jar,

the marshmallows
are starting to expand.

And that's because they contain
little pockets of air.

And as the pressure

on the outside
of the marshmallows fall,

those little pockets of air
start to expand.

Now if that was me going up
to ever-higher altitude

closer to that vacuum,

then the pockets of gas
inside my body

would start to expand.

And as we got
to really low pressure,

fluids on my exterior
would start to boil.

Poor guy.

What I'm gonna do
is turn off the pump

and then...

...Let the air back in.

And and you can see that,
as the pressure

increases again
back in that jar,

it squishes him back down
to his normal size.

Though I don't think he's ever
gonna be his former self again.

Traveling
beyond the stratosphere

was thought
to be an impossible feat.

Until daring scientist
auguste piccard

proposed an audacious idea.

Hidden away in the depths
of a Chicago storage facility

lies a groundbreaking craft

that finally transported man
safely into the stratosphere.

Piccard wanted to travel high

into the atmosphere
to study cosmic rays.

And he didn't want to work

wearing a cumbersome
oxygen mask.

So he knew, if he was gonna
do this and survive,

he was gonna have to take
the earth's atmosphere with him.

He came up with the notion
of a pressurized capsule.

Piccard turned to a local
beer barrel manufacturer

to build his airtight
two-man gondola.

Capsule is just over two meters
in diameter.

And to keep it
as light as possible,

it's made from aluminium
just a few centimeters thick.

??

When sealed,
the pilots can be kept alive

for up to 10 hours
inside the gondola

through the use
of an air recycling system

based on submarine technology.

Once inside,
the oxygen was supplied

by liquid oxygen evaporating
from a container.

And the carbon dioxide
was scrubbed from the atmosphere

by a reaction with soda lime.

In 1931, a huge
hydrogen-filled balloon

successfully lifted
piccard and his assistant

to almost 50,000 feet.

The two aeronauts
were the first men

to successfully break through
the stratosphere.

It's incredible to think
what it must've been like

for those two men to look
out of this tiny porthole

and see, for the first time,

the curvature of the earth
stretching out beneath them.

Outside, it was freezing cold.

It would've been impossible
to breathe.

They really were incredibly
brave pioneers of their time.

??

As auguste piccard
safely descended

to the mountains of Austria,

there was no doubt
that he had shaped

the future
of high-altitude travel.

Piccard predicted
that one day we'd all fly

high in the atmosphere
above bad weather

and where the air resistance
is lower.

And without his pioneering
gondola experiments,

commercial air travel
and space flight

would just be a dream.

The Orion spacecraft
will travel 6 million times

farther than auguste piccard's
two-man gondola.

The journey to Mars
is expected to take 9 months.

This epic journey
requires a super-sized capsule

for up to four astronauts,

creating a huge challenge
for lockheed Martin's

crew module senior production
manager, mark mccloskey.

Mass is gold

'cause any ounce I can save
in building the structure

is an ounce of an astronaut,

is an ounce of something
going to space.

??

??

After more than half a century
of space travel,

NASA is undertaking
its most daring project yet.

Aeronautical engineers
are building a new craft

that will enable man
to explore deep space.

Orion is going farther than
humans have ever gone before.

The goal...
Land a team of astronauts

on the surface of Mars by 2035.

Space is obviously
a very aggressive place to be.

So there are a lot
of challenges.

Everything needs to work.
Failure is not acceptable.

Engineers are hard at work
on the space capsule

that will support Orion's crew

on the up-to-300-day journey
to the red planet.

Orion's capsule
will be 15 feet in diameter

and large enough to accommodate

up to four astronauts.

Some people would compare
this crew module to Apollo.

However, this is 40 percent
larger than Apollo.

Each of the capsule's
seven giant sections

have been machined
for up to six months,

reducing the metal's weight
by up to 90 percent.

This is the aft bulkhead

for the actual
exploration mission vehicle.

It's got a lot of pockets

to add strength
for the least amount of weight.

This huge capsule
must be completely airtight

while in space.

This crew cabin structure
has to stay together,

not leak, perform flawlessly
on its mission.

To achieve this, engineers face
a historically challenging side

to the construction process.

When people talk about welding,
they think, "heat."

They see a torch,
they see a rod,

and they see sparks.

And that was welding, you know?
That's fusion welding, heat.

But this
time-consuming technique

deforms the metal as it cools.

NASA's engineers have come up
with an ingenious solution...

??

Seamless joints

using groundbreaking,
state-of-the-art machinery.

In friction stir welding, you
never actually melt the metal.

You get to a stage
called plasticizing.

So you're actually
rubbing against the metal,

heating it up, but never
reaching the melting point,

forming one solid piece
of metal across.

Orion's capsule will also need
a life support system

for its astronauts.

So NASA engineers are building
the largest-ever service module

to pair with Orion's
super-sized crew capsule.

The service module's
twin liquid oxygen tanks

will provide astronauts
with breathable air

at sea level pressure

during their nine-month
journey to Mars.

The life support systems include
oxygen, oxygen regeneration,

maintaining temperature,
maintaining humidity.

So things you never
think about on earth

because the environment
takes care of it for you.

NASA's goal
is to develop a system

that can power the Orion capsule
and service module

for up to three years
in deep space.

To do this,
engineers are building

four giant solar arrays

capable of providing

a staggering
11 kilowatts of power.

When you look at the combination

of the crew module
and the service module,

you're looking at a very
advanced piece of engineering,

a true state-of-the-art machine.

??

NASA's next challenge...
Develop a system

that will keep
the Orion spacecraft on course

during its 100-million-mile
journey to Mars.

We only have
so much fuel on board.

If we get a little off target

and we don't have
the fuel to get back,

that obviously could mean
a loss of our crew.

To do this,
engineers are turning

to a revolutionary device

used by mariners
over two centuries ago.

It's a piece
of engineering genius

that's incredible
for a piece of equipment

that was designed in the 1700s.

??

??

The Orion spacecraft will be

the most advanced
exploration vehicle ever built,

designed to transport man
into deep space

for the first time.

Orion is ultimately the future
of space flight for humankind.

And for crew module manager,
Lara kearney,

the project's
ultimate destination

is the holy grail
of space travel.

Being able to get
the crews to Mars

will be an important part
of being able to answer

whether there either was or is
life on Mars.

??

But at over
100 million miles away,

the biggest concern
facing engineers and astronauts

is the potential
to get lost along the way.

Unfortunately, it is very easy
to get lost in space.

The task of navigating to Mars

gets progressively harder
the further away you go.

We only have
so much fuel on board.

If we get a little off target

and we don't have the fuel
to get back,

that, obviously,
could mean a loss of our crew.

With the Orion crew's
lives at stake,

NASA needs a solution.

For ancient mariners,
earth's vast oceans

offered an equally intimidating
navigational challenge.

For centuries,
mediterranean sailors

were guided by the direction
of the wind.

Confident they could recognize
a chilly northerly...

...Or a sweltering southerly.

Aah!

But they found a still day

would leave them all at sea.

Fortunately, a more effective
navigation solution

was on the horizon.

In order to know precisely
where you are,

you need to know
your line of latitude

and also your line of longitude.

In 1757,

mathematical instrument-maker
John bird created a device

which helped mariners
do just that.

This is a modern version
of bird's device.

It's called a sextant.

It works by allowing the user

to measure the angle
between different objects

in the sky and the horizon,

things like planets, the moon,
the sun, and the stars.

The sextant enabled seafarers

to determine their location
anywhere on the globe

at any time of day or night.

But sextant's device
only measures latitude.

To get their exact position,
mariners needed longitude.

This was first provided

by the royal greenwich
observatory's

nautical almanac in 1767.

Sailors combined
their calculations

with those recorded from
the world-renowned observatory.

By comparing the position
of the sun at local noon

to the position of the sun
in greenwich on the same day

using a guide like this almanac,

we can determine
our line of longitude.

This ingenious system
enabled seafarers

to plot an accurate course
for centuries.

But how will this
18th-century technique

stand up against a GPS?

So I've taken that noon sight
with the sextant.

I've done the calculations.

And it looks like our latitude

is about 49 degrees
and 55 minutes.

Our longitude
is 5 degrees and 27 minutes.

And all that comes out to within
less than 500 meters

of the reading
we get on the GPS.

??

John bird's invention
made the impossible possible.

The sextant is
a piece of engineering genius

that has remained
almost unchanged

since John bird's day.

In fact,
merchant ships in the Navy

still carry sextants
as their means of navigation.

That is incredible
for a piece of equipment

that was designed in the 1700s.

As the Orion engineering team

focuses on
their first test flight,

it will have a host
of new technology

to call on
as it navigates through space.

First of all, of course, we have
the deep space radio network,

which is ground-based
tracking equipment

from earth dishes

that uses the information
carried in a radio signal

to actually navigate
the spacecraft.

But as the Orion capsule heads
further away from earth

and into deep space,

its crew will increasingly
have to look to the stars

for answers, just like
their nautical predecessors.

NASA has a very good
understanding of stars

and their relationship
to one another.

There's been a lot
of mapping of the universe

to understand where the stars
and the planets are.

As radio signals weaken,

astronauts will need to turn
to astronavigation,

taking their own measurements

to establish their position
in deep space.

The further out
you get from earth,

the more diligent
you have to be of milking

every piece of information.

Greg holt and his team
are testing

a cutting-edge
navigational device

in NASA's state-of-the-art
optical tunnel.

So this is the Orion optical
navigation camera system.

And the camera
is actually looking

at a simulated image of the moon
that's not unlike the image

that it would be taking
in space.

We're gonna run that through

the image-processing
routines on board

to actually extract
measurements.

This brand-new system

can calculate
critical dimensions,

such as the diameter of the moon

and the angle of separation
between the moon and the stars,

allowing astronauts
to plot their location

to a matter of feet.

It's the newest way to determine

where your spacecraft's position
and velocity is in space.

There are concerns

that the high levels
of radiation

in Mars' hostile environment

will disrupt Orion's
on board computer systems.

If that were to happen
at a critical time

with a crew on board,
it could be a very bad day.

So NASA astronauts will use
John bird's sextant in a pinch.

They can take these measurements
between the moon and the stars

good enough
to get them back home safely.

The idea that we're still able
to use a sextant

is really astounding.

You can feel the salt air
as you're in the spacecraft

and hear the ghosts
of the mariners past

whispering to you,

giving you advice
on how to take a good sight.

But staying on course

isn't the only challenge
astronauts need to deal with

during their nine-month
journey to Mars.

The distance is so immense

that the trip will have
to be done

in a series
of gigantic space hops.

Once we're out of earth's orbit,

we're gonna have to dock
to a habitat

if we're gonna stay out there
for any period of time.

You have to be able
to get into other vehicles

or get out of that vehicle
when you get there.

It's frank Moore's job

to create NASA's first-ever
automated docking system

for the Orion spacecraft.

We can actually get
the crew to a habitat

without them flying it
themselves.

??

Frank's system
is being tested today

at lockheed Martin's space
operations simulation center.

It would normally take
up to five astronauts

to perform these same maneuvers.

So what we're doing now is
simulating the motion

of a final approach
to a destination

to see if the navigation system

can actually correct
the vehicle motion.

The approach
will be carefully controlled

by a series
of laser-guided sensors.

The closing velocity
has to be very slow,

typically about
1/10 foot per second.

But we're traveling
at 17,000 miles an hour.

We have to be within a couple
centimeters of accuracy.

You don't want
to come in too hard

'cause you can then damage
the docking port.

There's no spares.
They don't grow on trees.

??

As dangerous as a trip
to Mars will be,

it's the return home

that presents the biggest
challenge for NASA engineers.

They'll again look
to an innovator from the past

for the answers...

Yes! That's massively increased
our surface area,

and we're decelerating
phenomenally.

...To create even more
impossible engineering.

??

Engineers around the world

are joining forces with NASA

to develop a groundbreaking
space exploration vehicle.

The name "Orion"
will be up there

in the annals of history.

We have Mercury, gemini, Apollo.

The audacious project
hopes to achieve

the seemingly impossible goal
of taking man to Mars.

Orion will Usher in
a completely new era

of space exploration.

Being able to take crews farther
than we have ever been before

and bringing them home safely.

As difficult as it will be
to send a human to Mars,

it's the trip back to earth

that presents
the biggest challenge.

This will be the first time
we have ever

brought anything back
from the surface of Mars,

particularly something as big
as the Orion spacecraft.

As it enters earth's atmosphere,

Orion will be traveling 35 times
faster than a speeding bullet.

Its state-of-the-art heat shield
will protect the crew

from temperatures
hotter than molten lava.

But heat isn't the problem.

We're still going very fast,
thousands of miles an hour.

So it's a very big challenge

to be able to slow down
a 20,000-pound vehicle

all the way down
to 20 miles an hour.

It's up to parachute assembly
chief engineer koki machin

to tackle this seemingly
impossible challenge.

It's very difficult
to make measurements

on something that's deployed
at 100 miles an hour.

That has a lot to do
with why they're considered

the least-reliable piece
of the spacecraft.

To complete the final stage
of its flight,

Orion is at the mercy

of one of the simplest forms
of engineering.

The use of parachutes took off
in the early 1900s.

The first freefall jump in 1919

transformed parachuting
into a sport.

??

But it was the need
to drop cargo and deploy troops

during the first and second
world wars

that drove engineers
to push the boundaries

of this lifesaving piece
of equipment.

Physicist Andrew Steele
is experiencing

what an astronaut goes through
during earth re-entry.

When we jump out of the
aircraft, there'll be two forces

acting on me and George...
Gravity pulling us down

and air resistance
pushing us up.

And the air resistance
gets larger the faster we go.

So eventually,
we'll be going so fast,

the force of air resistance

will balance the gravity
pushing us down.

And that means
we'll have reached

what's called terminal velocity.

For an average man or woman,

this constant speed levels out
at around 125 miles per hour

after 15 seconds of freefall.

Here we go.

Whoo!

Whoo-hoo-ha!

So we've just gone
below 1,500 meters.

We pulled the cord,
and drew out the chute,

which is stabilizing us
during the free fall.

It's pulled the main parachute
out of the bag.

That's massively increased
our surface area.

And that means
we've got much, much more

air resistance than before.

So we decelerated phenomenally.

But if you want to slow down

a much larger,
faster-moving object,

a solid canopy like this
won't cut it.

This was a problem first faced

by the luftwaffe's
engineering team in the 1930s

as they struggled
to control the landing speed

of their newly-developed
jet aircraft.

The solution to their problem

came from a young German
engineer named Theo knacke.

??

Theo's ribbon parachute design

revolutionized
high-speed air travel.

Its ring-shaped canopy
was broken

into a series of vented ribbons,

allowing enough drag
to slow the aircraft down

but leaking enough air to reduce
the stresses on the canopy.

Aircraft could now land
on shorter runways,

decelerating from higher speeds

faster and safer
than ever before.

Ohh!

That is an incredible piece
of engineering.

It's revolutionized aviation
and saved countless lives.

And, man, it's good fun, too.

NASA engineers will rely

on Theo knacke's 80-year-old
ribbon parachute design

for Orion's re-entry.

But the largest space capsule
NASA has ever built

is going to need
a super-sized parachute.

This parachute is the final
phase of landing.

It is roughly
12,600 square feet.

Think about your house
or your apartment,

how many of those would fit
in one of these is impressive.

And there's only one way
to find out if it works.

At 15 feet in diameter,

it can accommodate
up to four astronauts

during its missions
into deep space.

To ensure a safe return
to earth for the Orion crew,

engineers have designed
a parachute system

modeled after
an almost century-old design,

but on a colossal scale.

July 2012.

Engineers attempt their first
low-velocity air drop.

The proper test
would be a spacecraft...

Rather expensive.

So what we've been able to do

is integrate our parachutes
into something

that looks exactly
like the spacecraft

and then practice deploying.

A total of 11 chutes

gradually slow the capsule down

from a speed of around
350 miles per hour.

The 23-foot drogue chute's
simplified ribbon design

stabilized the capsule,

reducing Orion's velocity
down to 100 miles per hour

before the pilot chutes
pull out,

deploying
the three colossal mains.

When you look at a main,

you can look at the fabric
in here.

And if you go calculate

the surface area
of this parachute,

it is roughly
12,600 square feet.

So think about your house
or your apartment,

how many of those would fit
in one of these is impressive.

??

Thanks to the ingenious design
of these gigantic chutes,

Orion's speed will be cut
to one thousandth

of its outer space velocity
in a matter of minutes.

By the time we get to the water,
we're in steady state descent.

When we hit the water,

we're traveling
roughly 20 miles an hour.

Despite a successful
test landing,

Orion's designers
are leaving nothing to chance.

Engineers are carrying out
extensive water drops

at NASA's hydro impact basin
in Virginia,

simulating potential
splash-down scenarios

in the pacific ocean.

They're testing a variety
of entry angles, wave heights,

and wind directions to ensure
the self-righting capsule

will not be tripped up
in the final moment

of its historic voyage to Mars.

We are committed
to 100 percent mission success.

That means
the crew is always safe.

We get everybody back home safe.

??

Finally, after years
of development and testing

by thousands of engineers,

December 2014 marks

project Orion's
first major milestone.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

And lift-off.

A new era
of American space exploration.

The state-of-the-art
spacecraft

soars to over 3,000 miles

in its first
unmanned test flight.

We're back
in space business, now.

Oh, yeah.

During its 4 1/2 hour mission,

the capsule faces a variety
of hostile environments.

It passes through
Van Allen's belt

and is exposed to prolonged
periods of radiation

before being subjected
to temperatures

in excess
of 4,000 degrees fahrenheit.

But despite
these incredible stresses,

critical data confirms
that Orion's maiden voyage

into earth's orbit
is a resounding success.

??

The Orion spacecraft
and all of the thousands

of people that are working on it

are making what we thought
was once impossible

a possible dream.

With a successful
unmanned test flight,

Orion's designers
now have their sights set

on taking man to Mars.

This is a tough task.
We're up to it.

I think once we finally do it,

we could look back and say,

"this is the greatest thing
we've achieved."

By drawing on the innovations
of the past, adapting them,

improving them,

and making
their own discoveries,

Orion's groundbreaking engineers
are determined

to one day make
the impossible dream

of putting a human on Mars
possible.

Standing on another world,

you can almost not
wrap your head around that.

Awesome.

I have no doubt that Orion

will be that next great leap
for mankind.

- Splash down.
- Splash down right now.

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