For all its numerous utilizations throughout various career fields, data entry is applied most industriously across all aspects of the science world. Fascinatingly, but unsurprisingly, data entry plays an important role in space exploration. This innovation is manifested in NASA’s brilliant Orion Spacecraft, an exploration vehicle designed to carry humans further into space than any previous incarnation. The data accumulated by Orion during its numerous tests, and on its eventual flight into space, allows for development of exciting new inventions and applications in the world of space exploration. Obtaining research and information from the Orion will be the catalyst for a new era of innovation in space travel, technology, and exploration.
The Ongoing Quest of Data Collection through the Orion
Commonly, spacecraft is tasked with collecting data, often over the course of years as they complete long journeys of observation and study of planets, star systems, asteroids, and even Earth. Gathering data from images, tactile samples, and measurements, these complex mechanisms of space exploration are scientist’s key to unlocking the mysteries of the galaxy. Many scientists, including famed astrophysicist Neil Tyson DeGrasse, as well as cosmologist and theoretical physicist Steven Hawking, hope that this data will bring about the means to determine if there are other potentially habitable planets, or even if there is alien life on other planets. In a less theoretical scope, the collected data is necessary for scientist’s ongoing study of the galaxy, the planets, and our place among them.
The Orion Spacecraft, conceived in 2012 by America’s NASA scientists and engineers, is a testament to the far reaching scope of humankind’s innovation, pushing the boundaries of our knowledge and physical capacity to reach deep space destinations. The most advanced spacecraft ever built, it is capable of exploring further than has ever been possible, and can safely sustain a human crew during space travel. Still in the critical testing phases, the Orion is the futuristic means by which humankind will explore deep space, and eventually, Mars. As NASA attempts to prepare the Orion for its subsequent journey, it currently undergoes a multitude of flight, landing, and impact tests. In December 2014, the Orion embarked upon a flight test that resulted in millions of elements of data that signals how the spacecraft will fare in deep space. Data collected from material samples, such as the heat shield, as well as data from temperature and propellant readings, plumbing and gas systems, vent stabilizers, and speed indicators were gathered with meticulous care for further analysis by engineers to improve upon the Orion’s design. After dissecting the gathered data, mechanics and engineers were able to apply corrections to design issues, such as the crew module’s mass, parachute system, and service module’s protective casing.
Over 500 gigabytes of data were collected from the Orion’s initial flight tests and sent to NASA’s Langley Research Center for conversion, processing, and analysis by the agency’s experts. This led to a Critical Design Review that works as a program to study and handle the data and make targeted changes based upon results procured from data analysis. The Orion’s structures, pyrotechnics, launch abort system, navigation system, and guidance software are adjusted according to the aforementioned data findings and more tests are prepared. NASA stated that “all of the flight test data is a huge part of the development process,” and the quest for more data continues in 2016 as more tests are carried out on the Orion.
Future Data Utilization for the Orion’s Deep Space Exploration
Data derived from these flight tests goes beyond elementary, simplified studying of information. By analyzing the data accumulated by the Orion, engineers can pinpoint, quite accurately, where improvements and modifications are needed. The treatment of data is just as critical to the Orion’s successful functioning as is any other component. This information, scraped from the Orion’s exterior, or processed from thousands of image files, or derived from internal computer readings, provides NASA not only with intel as to how to improve upon this particular spacecraft, but it makes it possible for NASA to design, create, and envision new, futuristic ways to pursue space travel. The Orion is more than just a vessel for space exploration, it provides NASA with the ability to determine how to make new methods of technology for advancements in space travel.
Space exploration crews rely on vastly increasing amounts of data that require transmission to Earth, yet rate of transfer is frustratingly slow for their needs. Currently, the rate of data transfer from a near Earth environment in space is a few hundred megabits per second, while in deep space it is even slower at a few hundred kilobits per second. NASA is attempting to exceed the demands of bulk amounts of data transfer by developing optical communication technology that uses lasers to transfer data at faster rates than radio communication systems. Processing the incredible amounts of data that will be transmitted by astronauts aboard the Orion is integral to maintaining the safety of the spacecraft’s crew, as well as helping NASA monitor the craft for flight stability. Aside from these immediate concerns, the transferred data will encompass exciting details of the actual flight, such as images of the Orion’s environments as it travels, including stars, planets, and the International Space Station where it will temporarily dock. Medical and science experiments, conducted by astronauts aboard the Orion, will be monitored by the ground station. All data will be recorded, catalogued, and shared across several international science research centers so that many different countries can learn from the collected data and contribute to future technological developments.
Conclusion
Science is built upon the discoveries and conclusions drawn from millions of components of data. Whether it has been accumulated from long journeys across planetary systems, years of difficult lab research, or flight tests from space crafts, data is used to assist NASA and astronomers all over the world by creating new means of space enabled technologies and deep space exploration.
– DataEntryOutsourced
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