hey Ty -- here's those flippin' crew seats again ! (remember we discussed those in connection with an SSTO that would have the landing gear ports on the *top* side of the aerodynamic shape, relative to the reentry heat shield ?)

Rapid prototyping of innovative seats

The CXV launches nose first and reenters nose first, unlike all previous capsule designs that have reentered base-first. This means the crew seats must turn 180 degrees to orient the crew for the most comfortable position to undergo reentry decelleration. ("Eyes in" rather than "eyes out" in terms of which way the g forces are pushing.)

Col. Jim Voss (USA, Ret.) led a rapid-prototyping effort in early 2005 during his tenure as associate dean of aerospace engineering at Auburn University, based in part on his experience flying on both the U.S. Space Shuttle and the Russian Soyuz. His team created an innovative light weight crew seat for the CXV that is very low mass, weighing less than 10% of the weight of a current Space Shuttle crew seat and it incorporates support straps sewn to attenuate loads when the design limit of 8 g is exceeded.

But the most innovative feature is the ability to quickly rotate the seat 180 degrees for entry or in the case of an abort. In the case of an abort, this must occur rapidly, without egressing the seat, and without the need for electrical power. A pull of the rotation handle releases the seat latch and a torsion spring rotates the seat 180 degrees where it is locked in place, allowing the crew to better withstand the deceleration forces associated with entry. The crew seat has been installed in the t/Space CXV mock-up.

The project was developed under an academic grant to the Auburn University College of Engineering. Applying the t/Space rapid prototyping philosophy, a research team moved from concept to fully functional prototype in three months.

Water landing of the capsule uses proven systems from the Apollo program and allows the aeroshell to remain unpenetrated by landing gear, airbag doors, or hatches. As 70 percent of the Earth's surface is ocean, water landing is important to enable safe abort under all circumstances.