
Nasa has provided a glimpse of what Orion's cockpit could look like once its completed in 2018.

The spaceship, which will someday take humans to Mars, is set to launch with the help of the world's biggest rocket, the Space Launch System.

It features a simple three-screen set-up designed as a better alternative to the 'nearly 2,000 switches and controls' packed into the space shuttle.

Scroll down for video

In recent weeks, the space agency has been putting Orion's cockpit design through its paces to see if astronauts can use it to cope with an Apollo 13-like power failure scenario

In recent weeks, the space agency has been putting Orion's cockpit design through its paces to see if astronauts can use it to cope with an Apollo 13-like power failure scenario.

'One of the main things this simulation was designed for was to figure out what the first contact between crew and mission controllers looks like,' said Jeff Fox, deputy of the RPL.

'We wanted to see how the crew interface systems we're developing work with the team on the ground.'

Orion will have a sophisticated display and control system as well as advanced software to aid the crew on long missions far from Earth, where astronauts will be required to work more independently than on missions in low-Earth orbit.

Nasa has provided a glimpse of what Orion's cockpit could look like once its completed in 2018. The spaceship, which will someday take humans to Mars, is set to launch with the help of the world's biggest rocket, the Space Launch System

Pictured is a view inside the Apollo 10 command module. The space capsule was flown around the moon in 1969 ahead of the Moon landing by Apollo 11. The set up was far more complex that Orion's three-screens

Orion features a simple three-screen set-up designed as a better alternative to the 'nearly 2,000 switches and controls' packed into the space shuttle (pictured). Pictured is the cockpit of space shuttle Discovery

On the space shuttle, there were nearly 2,000 switches and controls used to operate the orbiter.

Nasa's new spaceship will have software to allow the crew to command the vehicle in most scenarios using just three display screens.

'We're evaluating a totally new software model that allows us to automatically diagnose if a failure occurs during a mission and for messages to be displayed for flight controllers on the ground,' said Haifa Moses, a human factors engineer at Nasa.

The February simulation involved two astronauts and several flight controllers, including a flight director, capsule communicator or CAPCOM to communicate with the crew, and controllers who manage electrical power subsystems and environmental control and life support elements.

Together they worked through a failure scenario in which part of Orion's power system failed.

This scenario required troubleshooting to get pumps and other systems back up and running to support the systems the crew needs to survive.

Surprisingly, Orion uses a processor from 2003's Apple iBook G3, which is less powerful than a modern smartphone.

The reason Orion is packed with this old technology is two-fold. First, Orion has been on the drawing board in some form or other since 2004, so technologies employed on the spacecraft are likely to be from a similar time.

Orion will have a sophisticated display and control system as well as advanced software to aid the crew on long missions far from Earth, where astronauts will be required to work more independently than on missions in low-Earth orbit.

A view inside Apollo 10, carrying astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan, was launched in May 1969 on a lunar orbital mission as the dress rehearsal for the actual Apollo 11 landing

Orion will ultimately be travelling to an asteroid and eventually Mars in the 2030s, but traversing deep space will subject the spacecraft to high levels of radiation. Pictured is what the interior could look like

Secondly, and more importantly, Orion will be subjected to intense and extreme conditions when it begins journeys into deep space in a few years.

THE FIRST MISSION During the uncrewed test, Orion traveled twice through the Van Allen belt, where it experienced periods of intense radiation, and reached an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth. However, this was not enough to cause any significant damage to the computers on board the spacecraft. Future missions will be subjected to higher levels of cosmic radiation, though, as the spacecraft moves further out into the solar system. On its return, the spacecraft hit speeds of 20,000 mph (32,000 kph) and weathered temperatures approaching 2,200°C (4,000°F) as it entered Earth's atmosphere. Advertisement

Orion will ultimately be travelling to an asteroid and eventually Mars in the 2030s, but traversing deep space will subject the spacecraft to high levels of radiation.

For this reason the spacecraft must be resilient, and often tried and tested older technologies are less likely to fail than newer devices.

According to Computer World, Orion's flight computer uses a somewhat cumbersome console that was first developed for Boeing airliners.

It is powered by two IBM PowerPC 750FX chips, a processor used in Apple machines up until 2005. Apparently, the exact chip being used in the Orion flight computer was employed in some versions of the iBook G3 from 2003.

This is about as powerful as the chip used in the Samsung Galaxy S3. However this is 4,000 times faster than the computer on Apollo, 400 times faster than the one on the Space Shuttle and 25 times faster than the one currently used on the ISS, according to Nasa.

The chips do not error check each other but instead perform exactly the same tasks, so that they can check the other for errors.

However, while it might be a similar processor to the iBook G3, the rest of the computer bears little resemblance.

Before it attempts to fly to Mars, in 2018, Nasa's Orion capsule will fly 43,000 miles beyond the moon and back in a vital test of its systems.

The test flight will send Orion into lunar distant retrograde orbit – a wide orbit around the moon that is farther from Earth than any human-rated spacecraft has ever travelled.

It will be be controlled remotely as it flies 43,000 miles (70,000 km) beyond the moon.

The mission will last about three weeks and will certify the design and safety of Orion and Space Launch System for future human-rated exploration missions.

The touch screens inside Orion a long way from the Apollo 10 switches (pictured) astronauts were forced to use in 1969

Nasa's Orion stacked atop a 70 metric ton Space Launch System rocket will launch from a newly refurbished Kennedy Space Center in November 2018. The uncrewed Orion will travel into Distant Retrograde Orbit, breaking the distance record reached by the most remote Apollo spacecraft, and then 30,000 miles farther out (275,000 total miles)

On future missions to an asteroid and Mars (illustrated), the technology aboard the Orion spacecraft will ensure astronauts are not in danger of losing power or control of the spacecraft

Once the crew module passes its structural tests it will undergo final assembly, integration and entire vehicle testing in order to prepare for EM-1, when Orion is launched atop Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS) for the first time. Pictured is the SLS in comparison to other rockets

HOW DOES ORION COMPARE TO APOLLO 17? A 'new Apollo'? Orion bears a strong resemblance to the Apollo command module that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon in 1969, but it is bristling with the latest technology The development of Orion has helped reawakened some of the atmosphere of exploration that surrounded Nasa during the Apollo missions that first landed mankind on the moon. But with almost exactly 42 years between the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, which launched on 7 December 1972, and the first flight of Orion, the technology has moved on considerably. On the surface the two space capsules look the same - they are cone-shaped, and have a large heat shield to protect the astronauts from the intense conditions during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere. However, Orion is larger, capable of carrying four crew members rather than Apollo's three. It will also have to carry far more supplies than Apollo ever did. The last Apollo mission saw a two man crew spend just three days on the moon's surface while a mission to an asteroid or to Mars could see astronauts spending up to 450 days in space. Like the Apollo Command Module, Orion has a Service Module attached that houses a single large engine, batteries and storage. However, Orion will carry a pair of solar arrays to help keep the capsule powered in space - technology that Apollo did not use. Orion also uses up-to-date computers, electronics, life support and propulsion systems. The electronics also have a far more sophisticated radiation shielding than the Apollo modules. Nasa has also used some hard lessons to improve the heat shield. Measuring 16.5 feet (five metres) across, it is the largest heat shield ever built for a spacecraft and has been covered in a new material called Avcoat. Nasa has also improved the parachutes, once used to land the Apollo spacecraft and slow the Space Shuttle, to help Orion land more safely in the water when it splashes down after a mission. Advertisement



