Luckily, all the systems vital for the proper functioning of Orion they are going swimmingly on his trip to the Moon. However, he is having some more mundane unforeseen events, such as problems with outlook wave freezing of the urine reservoir. Added to all this is having to use t-shirts as blinds. And it was not an outburst from the astronauts, but rather direct instructions from Houston.
Colder than at Pingu’s communion. The Orion capsule is not exactly the most air-conditioned place. It is very cold inside, so the Mission Control Team, from Earth, has been working to warm it up. Together with the crew, it was decided to move the ship so that it was as exposed to the Sun as possible. But there is a problem with that. The blinds that astronauts use to be able to sleep without the room becoming too bright absorb that heat and overheat.
Possible damage to windows. If the blinds overheat, they could transmit that heat to the windows themselves, which would be at risk of damage. For this reason, the Control Team recommended to the crew on April 4 that they remove all the blinds. They explained to them that they understood that this would be very uncomfortable, since the interior of the capsule would be very illuminated. For this reason, they added a most strange recommendation: that they cover the windows with T-shirts. In the communication system recording, a crew member is heard complying with the order and indicating that they would follow the advice. But what advice.
delicate windows. We might ask ourselves why it is necessary to protect the windows from the Sun if the ship is prepared to withstand the very high temperatures of re-entry into the atmosphere. It’s a good question, but the truth is that it is not the same type of heat. To begin with, reentry involves very great heat that spreads throughout the ship in a very short time. On the other hand, what comes from the windows is a much more focused and maintained heat.
Orion’s heat shield protects it from the heat of reentry. Furthermore, the windows They have an outer layer of fused silica capable of withstanding 2,760ºC. But the inner layers are not as strong. Therefore, if they are exposed to solar radiation maintained and focused directly on them after being absorbed by the blinds, they may not withstand the heat.
The future. Despite that small mishap, everything is going smoothly. In fact, Orion already has broken the record of going further than any other manned spacecraft and is close to beating another, reaching the highest speed at which any human being has traveled. If all goes well, this will happen next Friday, April 10, although in Spanish time it will already be the early morning of the 11th.
In addition, they stand out for being the first lunar mission in which a woman, a black person and someone who is not American travel. It is not understood how in such an ambitious and expensive mission it has been necessary to use t-shirts as blinds, but at least it has been a failure that does not put the crew at risk.
Images | NASA and Freepik
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