Portugal manufactures technology for future NASA shuttle that can … – Express

The Orion spacecraft – which incorporates Portuguese technology, produced by Active Space Technologies – will perform in 2017 the next flight unmanned around the moon. Headquartered in Coimbra, the Active Space delivered two equipment manufactured for Orion, the future ship shuttle space agency of the United States (NASA). The Orion will succeed the Space Shuttle in the transport mission the astronauts, but can also be used in missions to Mars.

Active Space Technologies, chaired by Ricardo Patrício, manufactured and assembled the “test prototypes thermal control unit (Thermal Control Unit) module “Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle – European Service Module (MPCV-ESM).” future ship Orion NASA These Portuguese projects were coordinated by Liliana Baptist, says the Portuguese company of aerospace technology .

The ship Orion will serve as a vehicle for exploration, crew transport and emergency vehicle, operating primarily in support missions to the International Space Station.
future ship that uses Portuguese technology, will transport “astronauts to Earth orbit, allowing future missions to the moon and asteroids and eventually to Mars,” said the company in Coimbra.

The first mission of the Orion will take place in two years and will be “a flight is not manned around the Moon, who re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 11 kilometers per second – the highest re-entry speed forever. “, informs the company of Coimbra

” The main function of the ship Orion NASA will serve as a vehicle for exploration, crew transport and emergency vehicle, operating mainly in the support missions International Space Station, “said Active Space. The propulsion module of Orion, called “European Service Module”, “is based on the Automated Transfer Vehicle, developed by the European Space Agency”, explaining that this “is a module that includes four solar panels and provides propulsion, power, thermal control, water and air to the habitable module Orion “.

The company Coimbra manufactured” two equal equipment, like a box, made of aluminum and which will then be incorporated into the ship to test. ” However, the model that will be used in reality is much more complex, with many electronic components, thermal and sensors.

In February 2015, the vice-president of NASA, Dava Newman, said that the NASA shows the moon will continue in 2020 and the goal of coming up with missions to Mars will be achieved after 2030. Dava Newman encouraged the Portuguese young people to study engineering, admitting that NASA is interested in hiring graduates in Portuguese schools.