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Introducing the Crew Exploration Vehicle
by James Burk
On January 14th, 2024, U.S. President George W. Bush gave an historic speech at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC: "Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system. We will begin the effort quickly, using existing programs and personnel. We'll make steady progress -- one mission, one voyage, one landing at a time."
Bush announced that the first goal will be to return the Space Shuttle to flight safely, and consistent with the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Once construction of the International Space Station (ISS) is complete, the Space Shuttle will be retired by 2011 to make way for a new spacecraft, the construction of which will transform America into a truly spacefaring nation.
"Our second goal," Bush went on, "is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2009, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2015. The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the Space Station after the shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module."
The program to build the "Crew Exploration Vehicle" or CEV is now called "Project Constellation". It will do much more than simply to develop a single new vehicle. NASA will utilize a spiral development model to create variants of the CEV which can travel to earth orbit, to lunar orbit, to help conduct lunar landings, to build extended duration habitats, and to destinations beyond, such as Mars, near-earth asteroids, and the outer planets.
Thus, the development of the CEV represents the most significant new research into manned spacecraft since the mid-1960s. It will inherit the legacy and most likely the shape of the Apollo Command Module, but will benefit from almost 40 years of technological advances.
While it is still early in the development of the CEV hardware, some of the concepts that may be adopted have already begun to emerge. Overall, a modular design is being touted in order for new capabilities to be added and to allow future launch vehicles designs to be easily swapped out. Another detail is that a capsule-shaped design is being favored. Other wing-shaped designs have not been ruled out yet, but many observers of the project, including the very astronauts that will ride the vehicle, are strongly in favor of the capsule shape due to its proven flightworthiness during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
Aside from the crew module itself, other modules are being designed to enable extended stays in space. Included in a series of graphic mockups released by Boeing is an inflatable habitat module, which many have already compared to a past NASA effort to develop an inflatable habitat for ISS, and as part of an interplanetary vehicle for future voyages to Mars.
Transhab, or "Transit Habitat", was a $3 million technology development program funded by NASA that was cancelled, once detractors in Congress realized its applicability to future manned Mars hardware. At the time of its cancellation, a moratorium was in place at NASA to prevent any research not specifically tied to the Shuttle or ISS programs. If no other advances are made by the current Space exploration initiative, the single greatest thing it has done, in the opinion of many, is to shatter that moratorium and allow research on human exploration beyond earth orbit to be conducted by NASA.
The requirements and supervision of construction for Project Constellation hardware will be the job of NASA's new Exploration Systems office (NASA Code T). It was formally chartered the day after Bush's announcement and is headed by Craig E. Steidle, a retired Navy Admiral. Steidle was formerly the Vice Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, responsible for research, development, and procurement of new naval aeronautical systems. Under his watch, NAVAIR transformed the way it did business during a time when its budgets were decreasing. Steidle streamlined the command, improving processes for communication, responding to problems, and bringing commercial methodologies into use. He also commanded the Navy's largest production, research, and development effort, the F/A-18 Program.
Steidle has already earned respect from all corners, and has touted a CEV "fly-off" between the top two industry contractors (expected at this early stage to be Boeing and Lockheed Martin). Steidle has also advocated NASA's Centennial Challenges program as a way for CEV development to be accellerated and a way to assist program goals to be met by industry.
Over time, more details will emerge on the form and function of the CEV and the timeline of development & the first test flights. But overall, this is a most exciting time for observers of the space program and those who dream of humans again walking on the Moon and walking on the surface of the Red Planet.
James Burk is an independent space writer and the editor of ProjectConstellation.us and MarsNews.com