Orion CEV Earth Landing Impact Attenuating Airbags - Design Challenges And Application

Airbags are currently being evaluated by NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) as a candidate impact attenuation system technology for earth landing of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). The purpose of the system is to limit landing loads and provide stability, to protect the crew and to allow vehicle reuse. Other candidate technologies include retro-rockets, crushables, and hybrid approaches. In support of LaRC's investigation, ILC Dover has generated a conceptual design of an Airbag Landing System (ALS) for a generic CEV and fabricated a prototype airbag set. ILC modeled the system using LS DYNA, and showed that the proposed design meets objectives in response to nominal and off nominal landing scenarios. Presented herein is an overview of airbag principles of operation, key requirements, design drivers, configuration trades, supporting analysis, and a design overview. Materials selection is discussed, along with an overview of planned testing.