Journey to Space Page #3

is coming together.

What an impressive vehicle.

Look at that... it's beautiful.

It's gorgeous. I'd love to climb in there.

Orion is a true deep-space

exploration craft,

designed to carry astronauts of the future

back to the moon,

to asteroids, and even to Mars.

I've always been drawn to explore

and try new experiences.

Maybe that's why I applied

to be an astronaut.

I'm Serena Aunon, and I am one of the

newer group of astronauts chosen by NASA.

Like the rest of my class,

I'm absolutely honored

and humbled to be here,

and it's great to be a part of this team.

I guess you could say I'm one

of those people for whom

the future has always seemed

an unfolding adventure.

So you can go forward

and backwards in the procedure

just by using

this toggle switch over here.

Yes, that, exactly.

Learning from astronauts,

like Lee Morin, who have

already spent weeks in space,

gives you a great sense of confidence.

The Orion mock-up provides

astronauts in training,

like Serena, a chance

to learn flight procedures,

and also give feedback

to perfect new systems.

This should be a piece of cake for Serena,

since my shuttle's ten screens

and more than a thousand switches

have been streamlined

to just three screens

and 60 switches on Orion.

Hey, Lee, you can open

the helium cross-feed valve.

Okay, we got that, so go ahead

and send that command

- on the helium cross-feed valve.

- All right, copy that.

And the shuttle's hundred pounds

of flight manuals and checklists

have been reduced to...

well... zero, since Orion's

are all on computer.

Stand by, and we'll evaluate.

But even with all these improvements,

to get Orion into deep space,

we're gonna need a bigger rocket.

When NASA's giant space launch system,

built by Boeing, is complete,

the rocket will stand

as tall as a 38-story building

and make more than

nine million pounds of thrust,

enough to lift 22 elephants into space.

For deep-space expeditions,

the SLS will need to lift

five key mission components

beyond low-Earth orbit.

Since Orion is too cramped

for a six-month journey to Mars,

one solution being developed

is an inflatable habitat

to house the crew en route.

A solar electric

propulsion device will provide

continuous power

for the round-trip journey.

A lander craft will carry the

crew from their orbit above Mars

down to the planet's surface.

Months later, an ascent vehicle

will lift the crew back up

to the orbiting Orion

for the return trip to Earth.

But even using the most sophisticated

future spacecraft, a two-and-a-half year

round-trip journey to Mars

will present new challenges

to the human body.

I wanted to thank the Indiana

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