IndyCar travels with the NASA Orion Capsule

NASA had recently marked a test flight with the Orion capsule and it went pretty successfully. The capsule was known to land in the Pacific Ocean after it had managed to accomplish a height of about 3,600 feet along with two of our planet's orbits. The surprising thing that you are probably not aware of is the fact that IndyCar played a major role in making this happen.

A website explained in detail that the engineers at NASA made use of the IndyCar data from certain blind incidents that dated back to a session in 2003. This helped them to design a system that could handle increased accelerations in case they happened and it would be particularly helpful for the future crew members in Orion. A portion of this data consists of information gathered from the crash data recorders located on cars and the ear accelerometers that are used by the drivers.

Despite the fact that the test flight of the spacecraft that happened was not manned, NASA is in the hopes that when a manned trip does happen, the capsule will be fully capable of bringing the astronauts to asteroids and Mars.

The technical director at IndyCar said that the capsule's seating system was very similar to the seating systems in the open wheel machines of 230 + mph. the previous systems that were used in the NASA space capsules had reclining seats. Also, certain data for the IndyCar was also gathered, such as how hard it hit and whether there were any systems in the car that could or could not be used, like the safer wall, the rear attenuator, and the seat.

The data also included the angle of impact, since such knowledge makes a huge difference when the seating system for a capsule is designed. You would after all like to know whether you would be crashing forward or backward. The accelerometer data can be analyzed so that you can see for yourself how safe the systems truly are.

Many of the other organizations like the United States Air Force also like to analyze the data gathered from the IndyCar so that they can know how they should create their seats, harnesses, and helmets. This data from the IndyCar has benefitted many organizations a lot, particularly NASA for the construction of the Orion capsule.