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Constellation Program - Ares, Orion & Altair


Waspie_Dwarf

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NASA Tests Launch Abort Parachute System

08.19.08

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JSC2008-E-094716 (31 July 2008) --- As the mock-up is released from the pallet, the programmer chute and two stabilization chutes are released to set up the proper test condition. The programmer chute -- the chute that is supposed to get the Orion mock-up in the correct orientation, altitude and speed for the test -- failed to inflate properly. The chute was one of 18 parachutes used during the test. Photo credit: NASA

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JSC2008-E-094712 (31 July 2008) --- A test set-up parachute failed during the July 31, 2008, test of parachutes for the recovery system for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Shown here, the Orion mock-up, attached to a pallet, is pulled from its C-17 transport above the U.S. Army's Yuma Testing Grounds in Arizona. Photo credit: NASA

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JSC2008-E-094721 (31 July 2008) --- Only one of the three main parachutes for the recovery system held to the mock-up during the July 31, 2008, test. The parachute was torn and too damaged to inflate properly and slow the falling mock-up. Photo credit: NASA

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JSC2008-E-064698 (31 July 2008) --- The mock-up used during the July 31, 2008, test of the parachute system for the recovery system of the Orion spacecraft was severely damaged when a test set-up chute failed to properly inflate and caused the parachute system to fail. The failed parachute --called a programmer chute -- was supposed to get the test vehicle set up to the correct test conditions. Photo credit: NASA

Source: NASA - Constellation

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NASA Seeks Input For Commercial Lunar Communications & Navigation


The linked-image media advisory is reproduced below:

Aug. 19, 2008
Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4715
michael.curie@nasa.gov

Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-4997
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov


MEDIA ADVISORY: M08-207

NASA Seeks Input For Commercial Lunar Communications & Navigation


WASHINGTON -- NASA issued a Request for Information, or RFI, on Monday to gauge interest and solicit ideas from private companies in providing communications and navigation services that would support the development of exploration, scientific and commercial capabilities on the moon over the next 25 years.

NASA plans to establish science stations on the lunar surface beginning as early as 2013, followed by the return of humans to the moon and establishment of the first lunar outpost in 2020. Communications, networking and navigation capabilities required to support these efforts will be provided by NASA, other national space agencies, private industry or some combination thereof.

The services for which NASA seeks information in this RFI are communications, networking, and position, navigation and timing. The information requested is for planning purposes only as this RFI is one step of a larger study that will culminate in a final NASA report addressing strategies for the commercial co-development of lunar communications and navigation.

Communication and navigation services may include, but are not limited to, terrestrial network services, terrestrial ground stations, Earth-orbiting capabilities, lunar orbiting capabilities, and lunar surface capabilities. They may be complete "turn-key" services, subsystems or components; partial solutions such as applications for specific functions; or other capabilities believed to be necessary to meet a portion of anticipated needs.

Responses should be submitted to Barbara Adde, NASA Headquarters, Mail Suite 7L70, 300 E. St., SW, Washington, D.C. 20546-0001, by 4 p.m. EDT on Sept. 15, 2008.

To view the Request for Information, visit:


For more information about NASA’s exploration program, visit:


For more information about NASA’s science missions, visit:


Source: NASA Media Advisory M08-207
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They will get it right B-4 the next test I bet ! Good thing for unmanned test Eah!

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They will get it right B-4 the next test I bet ! Good thing for unmanned test Eah!

Actually, in this case, it is precisely because it is an unmanned test that it failed. The parachute that failed is not part of the equipment being tested and will not be fitted to the Orion spacecraft. It is only used in these drop tests.

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Actually, in this case, it is precisely because it is an unmanned test that it failed. The parachute that failed is not part of the equipment being tested and will not be fitted to the Orion spacecraft. It is only used in these drop tests.

I thought it was a drop test for the recovery chute`s to see how well they will work?

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I thought it was a drop test for the recovery chute`s to see how well they will work?

It is, but what actually caused the problem was one of the parachutes which is used to extract the pallet (on which they Orion mock-up sits) from the aircraft and orientate it before the drop test starts. These would not be used on a real Orion capsule. As such, whilst the test failed, it was not a failure of Orion equipment.

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  • 2 weeks later...

August 2008 Ares Update

08.25.08

The Ares Projects continues to achieve major milestones and successes as NASA develops the next generation of launch systems -- the Ares I rocket and Ares V heavy lifter -- which will take us to the moon and beyond. Read the monthly Ares Update to stay informed about the Ares launch vehicle fleet. Find up-to-date information about the hardware being built, the latest testing and a detailed look at the Ares elements as they proceed through the design, review and development process.

This issue of Update includes the latest, vital information about:

  • Ares Projects Reviews Pass Major Milestones
  • Friction Stir Welding a Key Technology for Ares Rockets
  • Thrust Oscillation Status
  • J-2X Nozzle Testing -- Engineers Fine-tune Design

Ares Projects Reviews Pass Major Milestones

Upper Stage Completes Preliminary Design Review

On Aug. 5, the Ares I upper stage team successfully completed its preliminary design review, and gained overall approval for NASA's technical design approach.

This just-completed preliminary design review, conducted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., looked at current designs for the upper stage to ensure that the planned technical approach will meet NASA’s requirements for the vehicle.

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Ares I upper stage.

Image Credit: NASA/Boeing

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This review was part of a series of milestones that will occur before the actual flight hardware is built. Each major review provides more detailed requirements for the vehicle design to ensure the overall system can meet all NASA requirements for safe and reliable flight. The review process also identifies technical and management challenges and addresses ways to reduce potential risks as the project goes forward.

Ares Integrated Vehicle Preliminary Design Review Kick-off

Ares Projects recently kicked off the process that will set the final design for the Ares I rocket with the Ares I preliminary design review July 28. Detailed design presentations were given which focused on requirements and engineering, internal and external interfaces, integrated performance, avionics and software, crew safety and reliability, operability and supportability, test and verification, and overall project risk. The preliminary design review will conclude on Sept. 10 with an assessment of the Project's readiness to proceed to critical design review for the Ares I launch vehicle.

Ares I-X Critical Design Review Completed

The Ares I-X team successfully completed its critical design review on July 24. Engineering analysis and data were presented to an independent panel, which agreed that the Ares I-X vehicle design is complete. Hardware manufacturing continues for the flight vehicle, with individual hardware elements shipping to the Kennedy Space Center beginning in September.

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Ares I-X

Image Credit: NASA

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Ares I-X -- the first test flight of an Ares I design rocket –will provide the Ares I team with data and analysis on flight controllability, hardware, facilities and ground operations prior to the Ares I critical design review. The Ares I-X launch is planned for 2009.

Friction Stir Welding a Key Technology for Ares Rockets

The world's largest known welding machine of its type -- capable of building major components of both NASA's Ares I and Ares V rockets -- has been installed at the Marshall Center this summer.

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Y-ring delivery for Ares I production.

Image Credit: NASA

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The robotic weld tool uses forging pressure and frictional heating to produce high-strength component bonds virtually free of defects. Friction stir welding transforms the Al-Li alloy from a solid state into a "plastic-like" state, and then methodically stirs the materials together under pressure to form a welded joint.

Initial tests using gore panels from the space shuttle began in August with a demonstration weld using external tank hardware. Testing on Ares I components being fabricated on this unique machinery is set to begin later this year.

Y-Ring Delivery for Ares I Production

A fixture designed for use with the self-reacting friction stir welder in the production of the Ares I rocket fuel tanks has been delivered to the Marshall Center by the Futuramic Tool & Engineering Company of Warren, Mich.

This fixture, or clamp, will hold the y-rings in place while they are being welded to fuel tank domes. All domes have y-rings attached for welding to the barrel panels. The barrel panels comprise the major portion of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks. The barrels are capped on either end by the forward and aft domes.

The highly reliable and low cost friction stir welding process will be used to assemble different components of the upper stage of the Ares I to a greater degree than is used on the External Tank Program for the space shuttle.

Gore Panel Welds Successful

In the first of a series of tests to demonstrate future Ares I rocket upper stage friction stir welding tasks, engineers began welding space shuttle external fuel tank dome gores Aug. 11. The initial test consisted of friction stir welding two aluminum-lithium (Al-Li) external tank dome gores together using the robotic weld tool.

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Aluminum-lithium external tank dome gores.

Image Credit: NASA

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The robotic weld tool will be used to develop the manufacturing techniques required to fabricate the tanks of the Ares I upper stage. This series of tests will lay the ground work for future work on the Ares I upper stage. The tool is critical for manufacturing the main propulsion test article, which will demonstrate the functionality of the upper stage.

Thrust Oscillation Status

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Thrust Oscillation chart.

Image Credit: NASA

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The thrust oscillation focus team has developed several solutions and options to eliminate thrust oscillation on the Ares I rocket. In early August, the team provided options to address thrust oscillation and made recommendations to the Constellation Program about how to move forward to implement changes to mitigate this issue. In September they will brief the Exploration System Mission Directorate leadership at NASA Headquarters in Washington on the decision path. NASA managers will evaluate these recommendations and then move forward with the selected design and mitigation plan.

J-2X Nozzle Testing -- Engineers Fine-tune Design

"Nozzle side loads" are a major design consideration for rocket engine exhaust nozzles. The J-2X is no exception. Side loads, or pressures exerted on the sides of the engine nozzle, are most severe during engine start as the rocket exhaust plume fills the nozzle, as well as at shutdown when the plume empties from the nozzle, pressing unevenly around the nozzle walls. Engineers must make the nozzle strong enough to withstand those uneven forces. Yet they must not risk over-designing it, which could add needless weight that detracts from the launch vehicle's overall payload capability. Testing at the Marshall Center's Nozzle Test Facility enables Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne design engineers to characterize these side loads and apply this test data to computer analyses used to design the nozzle to withstand the side loads.

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J2-X engine.

Image Credit: NASA

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Subscale nozzle test articles were developed to simulate the J-2X nozzle -- both with and without the turbine exhaust gas injection. In the J-2X engine exhaust, gas from the turbines that pump propellants to the combustion chamber will be injected around the nozzle extension to provide a cooling barrier against the hotter combustion chamber exhaust, as well as provide additional engine thrust. This film coolant flow has a noticeable impact on the nozzle side loads. The recent tests simulated rocket exhaust flow, using warm air instead of hot rocket exhaust -- a process termed "cold flow" testing.

Since testing began in March, more than 1,000 J-2X nozzle start simulations have been performed. Test results to date have benefited the design by showing that the side loads are actually significantly less than the original analytical predictions, thus enabling designers to reduce the weight of the nozzle and nozzle extension designs. Engineers continue to evaluate the data obtained to further refine the predicted loads for J-2X nozzle and nozzle extension. Follow-on testing is planned through September, with the objective to obtain data on the film coolant's thermal effectiveness.

Media contacts: June Malone 256-544-0034

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

June.E.Malone@nasa.gov

Source: NASA - Constellation Program - Ares

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Orion Scale Model Tested in the Water
08.27.08


Scale models of the Orion crew exploration vehicle recently were tested at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, or NBL, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and at a wave tank at Texas A&M University in College Station.

NASA conducted a series of buoyancy and flotation characteristics tests using the NBL and a 1/4-scale model of the Orion crew capsule. The model was lowered into the NBL’s 6.2-million-gallon pool and was floated in a series of positions. This testing will allow the engineers and the NBL team to develop their full-scale crew training mock-up that will be used for mission training and for creating the crew safety procedures for water-based landings of the Orion crew capsule.

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A 1/4th-scale model of the Orion spacecraft is
lowered into the 6.2-million-gallon Neutral
Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space
Center. Engineers used the test to gather data on
how the model behaved and reacted in the water.
Photo Credit: NASA
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The team also performed a series of tests to validate a new seal design and updated wireless communications. Engineers also evaluated a prototype floatation collar for the spacecraft, which was provided by NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“It is rewarding to see an actual scale model of Orion finally being tested in the water,” said Alan Rhodes, a NASA engineer who was observing the testing. “The NBL is a one-of-a-kind testing facility for NASA, and the team helped us gather a tremendous amount of critical data that we will use to refine the design of Orion.”

A smaller scale model of the Orion crew capsule also was tested at a wave tank at Texas A&M University. The goal of the test was to determine how the spacecraft reacts to strong waves while it floats in the water. Engineers simulated gale force winds and large waves to ensure the spacecraft would remain upright.

The next step for the team will be to partner with a team of naval architects from the United States Navy to conduct a series of flotation characteristics and towing tests to help further understand how the Orion crew capsule will act in different sea states and to help generate recovery procedures. The next round of testing will be held in October at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Carderock, Md., and at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Md.

Along with the scaled testing, NASA and the United States Navy began fabrication of a full-scale test article that will allow search and rescue divers from the Human Space Flight Support team at the Kennedy Space Center to begin working with an Orion mock-up in the water. These tests will allow the team to review current recovery procedures and to understand how changing sea states will affect the overall recovery operation. Full-scale testing will take place off the coast of Florida, near the Kennedy Space Center, in January 2009.

Source: NASA - Constellation Program
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Is Orion going to be land recovered also ? I thought I read that some where?

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
removed quote. There is seldom need to quote an entire post.
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Is Orion going to be land recovered also ? I thought I read that some where?

The current intention is that, like the Russian Soyuz and the Chinese Shenzhou, the Orion capsule will be recovered on land. This option is much less expensive than a sea recovery (no large armada of recovery ships). However the capsule must still be capable of landing on water in case of emergencies (Soyuz 23 landed on a frozen lake, breaking through the ice).

There are many that think that NASA will abandon the land recovery option and instead settle on an Apollo style splashdown. Although more expensive in the long run, it is easier to land on water because you can hit it at a higher speed, therefore you do not need such large parachutes to slow the vehicle.

For the time being though NASA (publicly at least) remains committed to land recovery.

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  • 11 months later...

post-9259-1249718592_thumb.jpg

Yesterday, yet another portion of the Ares I-X rocket was stacked on the Mobile Launch Platform in Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building. Now that super stack 1 is up and on, the 327-foot rocket is more than half way assembled and the team is getting excited as they watch it take shape in High Bay 3.

Super stack 1 is composed of the fifth segment simulator, forward skirt, forward skirt extension, frustum and interstages 1 and 2. It also includes two internal elements - the roll control system and the first stage avionics module - as well as the parachute system housed in the forward skirt extension. The team used a massive overhead crane, specially adapted for I-X use, to place it on top of the forward motor segment.

Over the next month, four more super stacks with the final pieces of hardware (including the simulated crew module and launch abort system) will be mated, finishing off the stacking operations for the rocket. So, in about a month, NASA is going to be able to show off one of the biggest rockets the world has ever seen!

Ares I-X is scheduled to roll out to launch complex 39B just four days prior to its targeted liftoff of October 31.

http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/Ares%20I-X/

This bird will be interesting to watch even if it is just for test porposes. Rog:

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post-9259-1250406615_thumb.jpg For the first time in more than a quarter-century, a new space vehicle stands ready in the Vehicle Assembly Building.

http://twitpic.com/duuhj

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I have to repeat due to glitches in the system, but no, it will not effect the mission at hand. We're gonna fly ARES 1X. Hopefully, it will not effect the program as a whole!

Edited by MID
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:mellow: Hows everyone Likeing the New Forum ? And whats the real time frame on a Launch of the Ares ?
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:mellow: Hows everyone Likeing the New Forum ?

Looks pretty good so far D!

And whats the real time frame on a Launch of the Ares ?

31 October, 2009 by the present schedule, from pad 39B.

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:sleepy: Well its at least still working No P.M`s anymore? but I guess they had to cut back?
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Looks Like Good news for Orion ! Yeah!!!!

The way the Augustine Commission is looking, Ares I is all but dead. Orion will probably be launched on an EELV... or never if Obama decides to shelve human spaceflight permanently.

<!--quoteo(post=2468529:date=Aug 29 2008, 04:14 PM:name=DONTEATUS)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DONTEATUS @ Aug 29 2008, 04:14 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2468529"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Is Orion going to be land recovered also ? I thought I read that some where?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

The current intention is that, like the Russian Soyuz and the Chinese Shenzhou, the Orion capsule will be recovered on land. This option is much less expensive than a sea recovery (no large armada of recovery ships). However the capsule must still be capable of landing on water in case of emergencies (Soyuz 23 landed on a frozen lake, breaking through the ice).

There are many that think that NASA will abandon the land recovery option and instead settle on an Apollo style splashdown. Although more expensive in the long run, it is easier to land on water because you can hit it at a higher speed, therefore you do not need such large parachutes to slow the vehicle.

For the time being though NASA (publicly at least) remains committed to land recovery.

AFAIK dirt landing was deleted back last year with the big mass scrub to Zero Baseline Vehicle. There's been no move to re-install them.

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
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