- [Man] We have liftoff. - NASA has two spacecraft
that were born 50 years apart but they look like they
were separated at birth. I'm talking, of course, about the historic Apollo command module and NASA's new Orion spacecraft. Both share the same shape, but
their similarities end there. (upbeat music) Hey everyone, TJ here
for "I Need More Space." In each episode of this series, I'm going to take two
components of spaceflight and compare them to one another. Hopefully we both learn
how they came to be and get a better
understanding of the story of space's past and future. And this video is sponsored by me. Yes, me. I do this all on my own
dime in my own time. I appreciate you watching and if you'd like to support
me making more episodes, consider buying a shirt,
ineedmore.space/shop, or just subscribe, I'd
really appreciate it. All right, back to the episode. 2020 looks like it's going
to be a really exciting year for spaceflight fans everywhere. Boeing's Starliner and
SpaceX's Dragon are scheduled to make their first crewed flights, getting NASA back in the
astronaut taxi business for the first time since
the Space Shuttle retired back in 2011. But lost in the exciting buzz
of these upcoming launches is an equally important
and very exciting mission, Artemis 1, the first integrated test of NASA's massive Space
Launch System or SLS rocket and its next generation Orion spacecraft. But with Orion's cone-shaped structure, it definitely looks more like something from spaceflight's past
rather than the new ship to take us to spaceflight's future. So is Orion just a clone
of Apollo's command module, or are the similarities only skin deep? Let's jump in. (rumbling) So some background on the
Apollo command module. When President John F. Kennedy declared that America should go to the
Moon by the end of the 1960s, he drew the finish line for
the still young space race. While the Soviet Union was
in the lead at the time, spaceflight experts in the States thought that a lunar landing was far enough out of the Soviets' reach
that NASA had a chance to overtake the Soviets
and beat them to it. The result was the Apollo program. Apollo had the single goal of
getting American astronauts to the Moon as quickly as possible and returning them safely to Earth. Built upon the lessons of the
Mercury and Gemini programs, Apollo consisted of the massive
three-stage Saturn V rocket, the gumdrop-shaped command module, its cylindrical service module, and the spidery lunar lander. Because the command module
was the only part of Apollo that would make it back to Earth, it needed to be the workhorse
of the entire mission, responsible for transporting
a crew of three astronauts and keeping them alive
from liftoff to splashdown. And it did this spectacularly well. 11 Apollo missions were flown, with six successful lunar landings. After the final flight
of Apollo 17 in 1972, command modules also flew three missions to America's first space
station, Skylab, in the 70s. - [Man] Recovery, Skylab, I'm
amazed that everything's okay. - As well as one mission to dock in Low Earth
Orbit with the Soviets. While the Apollo command module
was incredibly successful, it was a single-use craft. With the space race essentially won, NASA's budget was shrinking and the reusable Space
Shuttle was on the horizon. - [Man] All engines building up to drive. - The final flight of the
classic Apollo era spacecraft took place in 1975 as the American half of the Apollo-Soyuz test project. But the Space Shuttle wasn't
a true replacement for Apollo. While it was much larger and
could fly dozens of missions, it wasn't capable of leaving Earth orbit and its thermal tiles couldn't withstand the much hotter reentry temperature from a high-speed return from the Moon. With the end of Apollo,
NASA lost the ability to conduct crewed deep-space
missions, until Orion. While the Apollo command module
was part of a massive effort with a single goal in mind, Orion's path to space is a
little bit more complicated. First announced as a
Crew Exploration Vehicle back in the 2000s, Orion
was originally part of NASA's Constellation program, supposed to take America back
to the Moon and on to Mars. Constellation consisted
of two rockets named Ares, the smaller Ares I that would carry Orion. - [Man] Liftoff of Ares IX. - And the large Ares V
to carry heavier cargo like a jumbo Altair lunar lander. But after going over budget
and falling behind schedule, Constellation was canceled in 2010, and only Orion survived
the chopping block. The Ares rockets were recycled into basically the Space Launch System, a single rocket for launching
Orion and cargo into orbit. But the Altair lander
was scrapped outright, because returning to the Moon's surface was no longer a goal. Instead, Orion would carry
astronauts to rendezvous with a small asteroid in lunar orbit as a preparation for a trip to Mars. But as often happens
with new administrations, those goals changed. In 2017, the asteroid
meet-up was canceled, and a mission to Mars was
put in the background. Instead NASA was asked to
return astronauts to the Moon no later than 2024 as part
of the new Artemis program. Despite the shifting goals, Orion had its first successful
uncrewed flight in 2014 when it completed two orbits before splashing down
in the Pacific Ocean. And as said in the beginning, Artemis-1, Orion's second uncrewed flight
will take it to the Moon and back sometime in 2020. Throughout all its mission changes, Orion has stayed pretty much the same. And in fact, it doesn't look like Orion's design has changed much since the days of Apollo. To understand the reasons
behind its retro appearance, it helps to look back at the
decisions that shaped Apollo. The design of Apollo's command
module closely followed the Mercury and Gemini
capsules that came before it. But unlike Mercury and Gemini, the Apollo command module
was designed to carry a crew of three for up to two weeks and had to be much bigger
than its predecessors. Its 210 cubic feet of living space was about the same size
as a walk-in closet, which in microgravity was just enough room for a crew to live and work side-by-side. Since it would carry the
crew from launch to landing, the command module was packed with nearly everything the crew needed for a trip to the Moon and back. Crammed tightly inside were
the life support systems, flight and navigation controls, computers, food, and
waste management system. But as functional as it was,
it couldn't get astronauts to the Moon and back on its own. Attached to the command module was a cylindrical service module. If you think of the command module as the brains of the Apollo spacecraft, then the service module
was the heart and lungs. Along with providing oxygen for the crew, the service module generates
power for the command module by using fuel cells, which
combine hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity. This chemical reaction
also had the added bonus of producing drinking water for
the crew during the mission. However, using fuel
cells also puts a limit on the amount of electricity
the craft could generate during the mission. The Apollo command module also required at least one crew member to pilot and run the spacecraft at all times, or it would need to be shut down like what happened during
the Apollo 13 Mission. Most of the service module was taken up by its propulsion system,
the large rocket engine that slowed the ship
down to enter lunar orbit and gave it the kick it
needed to head back to Earth. The service module stayed
attached to the command module until just before reentry, when it was jettisoned to
burn up in the atmosphere. Now reentry is really when the command module's
design becomes important. In the early days of the space program, engineers learned that
a gumdrop-like shape, blunt on the bottom
and tapered to the top, was the safest and simplest
way to slow a spacecraft during reentry into Earth's atmosphere. An ablative heat shield, designed to absorb the
intense heat of reentry, slowly burned away,
protecting the blunt end and the astronauts
inside from temperatures as high as 25,000 degrees Fahrenheit. And also like Mercury and Gemini, the Apollo command module used parachutes to slow its descent before
splashing down in the ocean. Landing on water gave
a much softer cushion than touching down on solid ground, and provided a lot of extra room in case the capsule happened
to wander off course a little. It's this design that
engineers returned to when putting Orion together. Orion was the same blunt shape
as Apollo's command module to slow its entry into the atmosphere. It uses an upgraded ablative shield to protect its human cargo during reentry, and a set of parachutes to carry it into the gentle splashdown in the ocean. But shape and landing style aren't all that Orion and Apollo have in common. Like Apollo's command module, Orion doesn't come down
with its own rocket engine. It relies on its European
service module, or the ESM, to make course adjustments and enter and exit lunar orbit using a recycled space shuttle orbital
maneuvering system engine. The European service
module also provides Orion with a breathable atmosphere
and its electrical power, just like Apollo's service module. But for all they have in common, there are also some very
important differences. Orion is about 1 1/2
times larger than Apollo. Its 316 cubic feet of habitable
space provides enough room to house four astronauts, along with the European service module, it's capable of supporting
them 1 1/2 times longer, about 21 days. Now what's under the skin is what really sets the two ships apart. 50 years of advancements
in flight hardware, life support, and computer systems mean that instead of gauges,
switches, buttons, and dials on nearly every surface of Orion, now most of its functions
can be controlled by a few touch screens
and manual consoles. Orion can also operate autonomously with limited support from mission control, so the entire crew could
leave the capsule itself for months at a time. The progression of these
miniaturized systems leaves more room for things
like food, sleeping areas, and a state-of-the-art space toilet, all nice things to have when you're headed to the Moon or Mars. Also, Orion's service module
uses solar panels and batteries instead of fuel cells
to generate electricity. Also with an indefinite supply of energy, the carbon dioxide
scrubbers onboard Orion use the Amine Swingbed Payload system, which efficiently recycles
Orion's breathable air and provide almost unlimited
oxygen to the crew. Instead of relying on a single engine, the European service module will also have eight small backup rocket motors that can take over in an emergency. During Apollo 13, the lunar module's descent
engine performed the same task, although it wasn't
designed with that in mind. On top of it all, Orion will be reusable, enabling a smaller fleet of spacecraft to conduct several different missions. To put it all together, Orion relies on proven and reliable ideas from the Apollo program
and improves on them with lessons and hardware
developed from the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and 50 years of spaceflight. While it might look like a retro throwback to the early days of space exploration, Orion packs enough
advancements under the hood to make it a major upgrade capable of taking us back
to the Moon or even further. The final point I'd like
to cover in this video is the elephant in the room, cost. The cost of a seat on
the Apollo command module would come to $126,966,134.81
in today's dollars. Whereas Orion would
come to $191,666,666.67, assuming four astronauts. That is a 50% increase in cost. But you have more
astronauts, more capability, and possibly more
sustainable infrastructure. So, after hearing all these arguments, which capsule would you prefer to fly on? Leave your vote in the poll above. If you have any of your own opinions on how the Apollo Capsule
and Orion Capsule stack up, I hope you'll drop them in
the comments section below. For more videos about all cool stuff that people do in space, please
subscribe to this channel, and please come find me on social media. I'm @TJ_Cooney on Twitter. I post daily videos and
photos about spaceflight and random things I just find neat. So thank you so much for
watching, and I'll see you soon. Bye.
