Orion - ILC Dover

Orion / Crew Exploration Vehicle Airbags

ILC designed and manufactured airbags for the CEV / Orion vehicle under contract to NASA LaRC. ILC participated in systems engineering activities to design the system, designed materials and the airbags, integrated inflation systems, and participated in laboratory and system test activities. Full scale vented airbags were produced and integrated into a mass representative capsule simulator (7300 Kg) for testing landing dynamics at NASA LaRC's drop facility.

ILC performed extensive structural and dynamic analysis of the system and found excellent correlation between numerical simulations and test data.

Both testing and analysis have shown that the a vented airbag landing system provides excellent performance under severe landing conditions, without resulting in a rollover of the vehicle or exceeding acceleration requirements.

Drop Testing at LaRC	Drop Testing at LaRC
Test and Analysis Show Very Close Correlation (25 ft/sec vertical velocity with 40 ft/sec horizontal velocity case shown)