X-38
A space vehicle is currently beeing developed by Nasa engineers at JSC, it is called X-38.
Itīs primary mission is to serve as a rescue boat onboard the International Space Station. It is developed on a budget of 500 million dollars, a fraction of the costs on previous spacecraft. As much as 80% of the spacecraft is constructed from equipment and technology already available, drasticly reducing costs. X-38 should be ready before the constuction of the ISS is finished. But until it is launched into orbit the crew will have to use a Russian Soyuz as a rescue boat. The Soyuz has been in use by the Russians for many, many years and is a reliable spacecraft but it only holds 3 people and the ISS will carry a crew of 6. This means that there will have to be 2 Soyuz vehicles parked at the station at all times. It is cheaper to send up a X-38 which can hold 6 people and does not have to be replaced after it has been up there for a while for safty reasons as the Soyuz does.
The X-38 is a wingless aircraft which uses a so called "lifting body", the vehicles shape gives it airodynamic lift. This saves weight and makes the craft less complex. When departing from the station is uses a simple rocket engine to gide it into the Earths atmosphere. It uses more durable thermal tiles than the Shuttle which means that there will be less time spent on replacing damaged tiles. Before landing the motor is jettisoned and a parafoil is deployed, the parafoil is used to steer the X-38 down to its landing spot, it is 37 meters long and 14 meters wide. The Global Positioning System is used for navigation down to earth. A set of skids are used for landing instead of wheels, this means that there is no brakes, so the spacecraft will slide for a couple of kilometers before stopping.
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Mating to the station -30K
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On reentry -25K
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Touch down -23K
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Painting -18K
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Placement of X-38 -21K
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Inside the X-38 -10K
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The spacecraft can be launched on a europeean Ariane 5, russian Proton, japaneese H2 and the american Titan 4 rocket. But the first to be docked with the station will be launched inside the shuttle cargo bay. It can be changed to fit almost every task. Since it is currently only developed to be used as a life boat it only carryes limited electical power and about 9 hours of oxygen. The flight is totally automated, although the crew has the capability to switch to backup systems, control the orientation in orbit, pick a deorbit site, and steer the parafoil, if necessary.
If everything goes well the X-38 will be the first new manned spacecraft developed for more than two decades. Nasa plans to build two of these vehicles, each to be docked at a different place on the station leaving the crew with two possible escape routs in case of an emergency.
X-38 and Soyuz comparison
| Module
| Mass
(Kg)
| Length
(m)
| Width
| Propulsion
| Power source
| Crew
| Function
|
|---|
| X-38
| 7,500
| 8,5
| 4
| Nitrogen gas
| Batteries
| 6 people
| Rescue vehicle
|
| Soyuz
| 7,100
| 7
| 2.7
| Nitric Acid/Hydrazine
| Solar panels
1,3 KW
| 3 people
| Transport &
rescue vehicle
|
Related Info:
NASA | JSC
| Shuttle | Shuttle-Mir
| Mir
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