Ares I-X – Constellation

Constellation Finalizes Thrust Oscillation Fix

NASA and contractor engineers have developed multiple options for “de-tuning” the Ares I rocket to prevent any problematic thrust oscillations from originating in its solid-rocket main stage to sync up with the natural resonance of the rest of the vehicle.

The Constellation Program Control Board set a formal baseline for thrust oscillation mitigation during a meeting Dec. 17. Moving forward, the Ares I vehicle design will be updated to include the addition of upper plane C-Spring isolator module and the upper stage fuel tank LOX damper.

While evaluations of data from the DM-1 motor test and Ares I-X test flight to date show no problematic thrust oscillation vibrations occurred, the Constellation team concluded incorporating the upper plane C-Spring isolators and LOX damper at this phase of design is a sensible addition.

“When we discover an engineering risk, like thrust oscillation, we tackle it with full rigor,” said Jeff Hanley, Constellation Program manager. “That’s what this team has done with thrust oscillation. We assumed the worst when the problem was first discovered. The good news is there is no empirical evidence of problematic oscillations from our ground test of the first stage development motor or during the Ares I-X first test flight.”

“The isolators work like shock absorbers to de-tune the vehicle and the LOX damper will counter the vehicle acoustic response by absorbing and disrupting the oscillation. Together these options will give us added confidence in the tuning of the vehicle as we mature the Ares and Orion designs,” added Hanley.

The NASA team, along with the prime contractors, has worked this issue carefully, understanding and minimizing any effects of the integrated vehicle response by introducing new thrust oscillation hardware into the design. The team will “scar,” or prepare, the upper stage design to accommodate the addition of this mitigation hardware at a later time, if desirable.

“The options approved today puts us on a robust foundation as we move forward,” said Hanley. “Finalizing the thrust oscillation design now allows us to keep to our schedule and provides contractors specific requirements about what we need them to build.”

The Ultimate Parachute Test

How do you stop a 200,000-pound solid rocket motor from ending up at the bottom on the Atlantic Ocean? With the biggest, strongest rocket parachutes ever built of course! And they are snuggly packed in the forward section of the Ares I-X rocket, awaiting their debut performance. The Ares I-X flight will be the first full flight test of the Ares I first stage parachute system.

NASA and ATK have successfully conducted nine development tests of the parachute
system including the main cluster parachute test on May 20, 2009. Credit: U.S. Army
Yuma Proving Ground (Watch the test, Windows, streaming)

NASA, ATK and other partners have successfully tested each element of the parachute system. In fact, over the last three years, the team has conducted three pilot, two drogue, three single main, and one main cluster parachute drop tests at Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Az.

But Ares I-X will be the best test of the whole kit and caboodle because of the unique flight profile.

“You simply can’t drop 200,000 pounds out of a plane. The only way we can do drop testing is from a C-17 aircraft and there is a 90,000 pound load limit. The Ares booster weighs more than double that,” said Ron King, Ares first stage deceleration subsystem manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Al. “And Ares I-X is the only test of the entire flight sequence from start to finish, or separation to splashdown as it will be.”

On October 9, 2009 NASA and industry engineers dropped a 72,000 pound test payload
from the back of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft from an altitude of 25,000 feet, tying the
record for the heaviest load ever extracted from the aircraft during flight. This drop test
was designed to push the main parachute’s canopy to its limit — supporting a
250,000-pound dynamic load. The payload included the main parachute for the Ares I
rocket. Credit: U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground

The Ares deceleration system consists of three types of parachutes: (1) a small pilot chute which pulls out the drogue chute; (2) a 68-foot diameter drogue chute and (3) three 150-foot diameter main parachutes. Here’s how the sequence goes:

The Ares I-X first stage separates from the upper stage at 124 seconds into the test flight, at an altitude of 130,000 feet. The vehicle’s four tumble motors then fire to slow the first stage for its return trip to Earth and eventual recovery. At an altitude of about 15,000-feet the nose cone is jettisoned, immediately deploying the pilot parachute. The pilot chute will in turn deploy the 68-foot drogue parachute, which is the workhorse of the system and will re-orient the booster to vertical and slow it to acceptable conditions for main parachute deployment. At about 4,000 feet, the separation at the base of the forward skirt extension occurs, pulling out the three 150-foot diameter main chutes packed within. These majestic red, white and blue canopies slow the booster even more, carrying it gently to splashdown.

Artist concept of the Ares I-X first stage recovery sequence. Credit: ATK

“The velocity and re-entry environments we’ll see on Ares I-X are a bit less than Ares I, but we will get a great deal of data to help us refine the final flight hardware designs,” said King. “We can’t wait to see our giant parachutes off the coast of Florida.”

Jennifer Morcone, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center public affairs office

Bolting Down 3.6 Million Pounds of Thrust

The solid rocket is armed, the countdown is in its final minutes as NASA and ATK prepare to ignite Ares I five-segment first stage designed to take humans out of Earth’s gravitational pull — this time; however, the rocket isn’t going anywhere.

Engineers at ATK install new mid-span to support Ares I solid rocket motor design. (ATK)

The Ares I development motor, or DM-1, will be tested at Alliant Techsystem’s (ATK) test stand in Promontory, Utah on August 27. With a magnificent flash of light the 154-foot solid rocket motor will come to life, producing heat two-thirds the temperature of the sun and 3.6 million pounds of thrust from its 12-foot diameter cylinder.

Spectators will first see the flame of the motor, so bright the majority will wear sunglasses, then a few seconds later the sound wave will be heard, followed by the ground shaking. Those in attendance will gain a true understanding of the power produced by this motor.

Called by some an “engineering masterpiece,” the first stage is capable of producing 22 million horsepower which is equivalent to the energy produced by 25,882 race cars. So how do ATK and NASA hold down one of the world’s most powerful rockets?

The load measurement system on ATK’s test stand which is attached to the thrust block. (ATK)

“It’s comparable to an ice berg or an upside down mushroom where the majority of this massive test stand is underground,” said Gary Bates, chief test engineer for ATK Space Systems. “This motor is designed to go places, so we need to ensure that it can’t.”

The test stand is made out of 7,000 cubic yards of concrete, 308 tons of reinforced steel and 230 tons of steel plates and rails. It includes a 16-foot tall by 40- foot long, and 20-feet wide above ground concrete fixture, or thrust block, which is attached to an extremely large buried foundation measuring more than 100 feet long by 80 foot wide and almost two-stories below the ground.

The test stand also includes a new, mid-span support which was installed to support the weight of the longer five-segment motor for approximately 70 seconds until enough propellant has been consumed to lighten the weight of the motor.

Newly installed mid-span support for the Ares I five-segment solid rocket motor. (ATK)

The rocket is installed horizontally with attachments at the front and aft ends of the stand. More than a hundred fasteners up to 2.5 inches in diameter help hold the motor in place. At the thrust block, the first stage is attached to a load measurement system. This system is designed to not only handle up to 4.3 million pounds of force, but measure it.

“Along with securing the motor in the test stand, we need to be able to collect data during its operation,” said Bates. “This data is vital in understanding how the motor performs to compare with flight and other ground test data.”

Once the test is complete, NASA and ATK will be able to use the information in collaboration with data collected from the Ares I-X test flight this fall, to finalize the design of Ares I first stage.

For more information about the Ares rockets or to watch the DM-1 hot fire test live, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/ares

Ares I-X: Let the Stacking Begin…

Stacking is set to begin for the Ares I-X vehicle on Wednesday, July 8 in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. It’s been a long time since the workers in the VAB have seen a new vehicle. In fact, it’s been 25 years since a new vehicle was stacked.

Following nearly three years of work by thousands of dedicated team members, the Ares I-X vehicle is ready for stacking on the Mobile Launch Platform, or MLP, in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

Over the last week, the management team has met for reviews. Today (July 7), a “go” was given for the stacking operations. All of the modification work has been completed in VAB High Bay 3, as well as the Mobile Launch Platform, in preparation for the new Ares I-X vehicle.

Tomorrow, the Ares I-X aft assembly, composed of the aft skirt and aft motor segment, will be rolled from the Rotation Processing and Surge Facility to the VAB and lifted by overhead crane and placed on the MLP. (Be sure to check out the KSC gallery for photo updates.)

Over the next month, the stacking operations will continue with the additional motor segments, simulated upper stage segments and the vehicle will be completed when the simulated crew module and launch abort system is added to the top. (There will be a time-lapse camera. NASA will be posting video and images.)

We will keep you posted on this blog, on our Facebook page and Twitter.

Let the stacking begin!

Comprehensive Constellation Status Report Presented to the Augustine Panel

The Norm Augustine led U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee heard from Doug Cooke and Jeff Hanley yesterday during the panel’s first public meeting held at the Carnegie Institute in Washington.

The full presentation, which includes a comprehensive status report on Constellation can be found at:

https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/library/hsfr_exploration.html

Jeff Hanley briefed that NASA is on track to maintain the March 2015 goal for the first crewed Orion/Ares flight to the International Space Station. He emphasized how Constellation is making use of existing NASA and contractor facilities and capabilities but in a leaner, smaller more sustainable manner to not just provide crew transport to space station, but to develop future human spaceflight systems that move beyond low Earth orbit, to the moon and beyond.

Technical progress to date is impressive. Scan through the Augustine panel briefing charts and you can see the labor of over 10,000 civil servant and contractor employees hard at work designing, building and testing hardware. Click and scan through an interactive tool posted to the Constellation website this week and you can see the Ares and Ares I-X, Orion, Altair vehicle designs come to life, linking design drawings to video footage of actual hardware and tests.

https://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/constellation_projects/

Welcome to Our New Pad…

Check out the news release:

RELEASE: 09-127

NASA’S SHUTTLE PROGRAM HANDS OVER LAUNCH PAD TO CONSTELLATION

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The May 31 transfer of Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida from the Space Shuttle Program to the Constellation Program is the next step in preparing the first flight test of the agency’s next-generation spacecraft and launch system. The Constellation Program is developing new spacecraft — including the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles, the Orion crew capsule, and the Altair lunar lander — to carry humans to the International Space Station, the moon and beyond.

Since the late 1960s, pad B has been instrumental in human spaceflight programs, such as Apollo, Skylab and the space shuttle. The pad originally was built for the Saturn V rockets to launch the Apollo capsules to the moon. In July 1975, the pad was modified to support space shuttle operations. The first space shuttle to lift off from pad B was Challenger in January 1986.

The handover took place Sunday after space shuttle Endeavour was moved to Launch Pad 39A. The ground operations team will finish modifying pad B for the Ares I-X rocket launch. Modifications will include removing the orbiter access arm and a section of the gaseous oxygen vent arm and installing access platforms and a vehicle stabilization system.

Same Choices,Same Story Here

There’ve been a lot of stories in the press lately about Constellation and its progress or supposed lack thereof. The alleged danger that the program is in. Could it be that when there’s nothing real to report that people try to stir up old news?

The fact is that Constellation is targeting March 2015 for the first crewed flight to the International Space Station, with Orion aboard the Ares I rocket. That date hasn’t changed for some time. We did originally give our teams a very tough challenge in the early days of the program of making this milestone in September 2013. And they worked hard toward it. But the fact is, we needed more money early on. Given the way budget cycles work, we were given a budget to initial operational capability, but the critical mass we would have needed to make that earlier date just wasn’t there right away.

So we made choices. We continue to make choices. About what to do and when. About sequencing and doing things in parallel that we might ideally do in a different fashion given every dollar we wanted when we wanted it. But who gets that? The reality is that we are very fortunate to have a budget that will enable us to get to a crewed flight in 2015, but we’re going to have to put off some other work until we get the Ares I and Orion system fully designed, tested and flown.

Our budgets are built to accommodate the change and contingency that any development program encounters. We have, after all, not created a new system for spaceflight in over 35 years. It’s an enormous challenge and one that we welcome. There have been varying budget numbers reported in the press. The bottom line is that we had some numbers early on that we used as estimates while the overall architecture we were going to use was still under discussion. Right now we’re targeting $36 billion for Constellation’s cost through initial operational capability. That’s for hardware, the stuff that will actually get us into space. But we also need to budget for the people and ground operations, the upcoming work that must begin on Ares V and early development work on lunar systems. When you add that in, you get to around $44 billion for Constellation through 2015.

But those budgets are still being worked out with the new Administration. In the meantime, America should be proud of the exceptional work by teams across the country for the next generation of space vehicles. We’re working hard on them every single day.

Space Shuttle Program Hands over Launch Platform to Constellation

The handover of Mobile Launcher Platform-1 from NASA’s Space Shuttle Program to the Constellation Program at a Kennedy Space Center ceremony on March 25 is the next step in returning people to the moon and exploring beyond.

The 4,625-ton, two-story steel structure will be modified for the first test flight of NASA’s next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system. The Ares I-X rocket test, which is targeted for launch this summer, will provide important data for developing Ares I and support a critical design review next year.

“It truly is a historic day to be turning over a major piece of hardware from one manned spaceflight program to another,” Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said. “It really doesn’t happen very often.”

MLP-1 holds special memories for Leinbach, considering it has taken part in 51 shuttle launches — more than NASA’s other two launch platforms. Its rich history also includes three Apollo launches, including Apollo 11 that put humans on the moon; and three Skylab missions, making it the first mobile launcher platform to support space station, Apollo, space shuttle and Constellation programs.

The launch platform had just been used on March 15 to launch space shuttle Discovery on its STS-119 mission to the International Space Station.

After Leinbach shared some history of the launcher, the banner that read “Go Discovery” was changed to “Go Ares I-X” to reflect its new mission with the Constellation Program.

“We are excited to have this mobile launcher platform turned over to us,” said Pepper Phillips, director of the Constellation Project office. “This is a real enabler for us.”

Constructed in 1964, Mobile Launcher-1, or ML-1, originally was used for transporting and launching the Saturn V rocket for Apollo lunar landing missions. For Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz, ML-1 was modified with a “milkstool” pedestal that allowed the shorter Saturn IB rocket to use the Saturn V tower and service arms. ML-1 was modified in 1975 for use in shuttle operations and was renamed Mobile Launcher Platform-1, or MLP-1.

In support of the transition, United Space Alliance, Lockheed Martin and NASA collaborated to simplify design plans and capitalize on previous shuttle upgrades and existing infrastructure.

The first modifications for MLP-1 began in May 2008, with the installation of 20 water bag cleats to the platform’s right-hand solid rocket booster hole, which will prevent any possible acoustic damage to the rocket during liftoff.

In December 2008, the ground control system hardware, which controls the ground equipment for checkout and launch, was installed onto MLP-1.

Next, MLP-1 will undergo ground control hardware testing at Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B. Upon completion, the platform will move to the Vehicle Assembly Building’s High Bay 3 to begin its stacking with Ares I-X.

During the handover ceremony, Brett Raulerson, United Space Alliance manager for MLP operations, received a commemorative plaque that will be hung in the MLP shop. An identical plaque also will hang in Kennedy’s Launch Control Center.

“This MLP is the workhorse of the fleet,” Raulerson said. “It’s exciting to know it’s going to support three (space) programs before it is finished.”

Following the Ares I-X flight test, MLP-1 will be disassembled.

By Frank Ochoa-Gonzales

Small Steps to a Great Adventure

If the greatest adventures begin with small steps, the Constellation Program took giant strides in 2008 and has more planned for 2009. Here is an excerpt from the year’s-end note, dated December 2008, Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley sent to his team.

All, as I type this I’m coming to the end of nearly a full week in our nation’s capitol, and here at the end of our third year as a team I owe you an update from 50,000 feet (sorry, 15 km). I think it’s important that our entire team have this context, so that we can together take on the challenges that 2009 will surely bring.

First, as I review the events of 2008, and the progress that we together have made across this agency team, I am truly proud of what you have accomplished — and you should be too. Today we have projects and hardware and software in nearly every phase of the lifecycle, from pre-formulation of our lunar surface strategy and the international partnerships that are already beginning to form, to formal formulation of the Ares V and Altair requirements, to completion of the program definition phase for Ares I, Orion, and their sister projects, to the testing of engine components and fabrication of flight test hardware for Pad Abort 1 and Ares I-X.

The program has built considerable momentum in the past 12 months and indeed over the last three years since we stood up as a team. We’ve done it for a fraction of the cost in people and resources compared to Apollo, shuttle and station through this phase. We’ve done it while the same supporting institutions execute our other two human spaceflight programs. We’ve done it with focus and resolve to transition shuttle workforce and assets to the new program in the smartest way possible. We’ve done it — done it all — with the Moon as our goal. “Design for lunar” has guided our every move, our every decision, within the bounds of what we can fiscally afford through these lean years until shuttle is retired.

I know you all have seen the public discourse regarding Ares and Orion and shuttle, and understandably such discourse can temper our resolve to push forward — if we let it. But, let’s review the bidding. First, we should remind ourselves, as we saw in intimate detail at last summer’s Lunar Capability Concept Review (arguably the finest such review the team has yet executed), that the Ares I/Ares V/Orion/Altair transportation system is highly integrated and keenly designed to open the lunar frontier to us in the years to come. Our driving requirements of going anywhere on the Moon, staying twice as long as Apollo in a sortie mode, sending twice as many crew members, and enabling their return at any time, must remain at the forefront of any consideration to alter the nation’s exploration launch architecture. I assure each of you that we are doing all we can to communicate this key aspect of our baseline plan — it is about much more than launching Orion to LEO (Low Earth Orbit).

The shuttle team, as you know, has performed a study of projected cost and decision points for extending the life of shuttle. I have not seen the report in its final form so I won’t comment on the interim version. But I will say — will reassure you — that Constellation’s needs, interests, and requirements were central to their deliberations, and we were partnered closely with the study team to provide the Constellation implications of any extension. It was a good effort and I am quite satisfied that any impacts to Constellation are well accounted for.

Somewhat in tandem, in October we kicked off our own special study led by Ralph Roe out of NESC (NASA Engineering and Safety Center) to look at options to accelerate Constellation to allow the first human flight to occur prior to our March 2015 commitment date. All of the deputy managers of our program and project offices participated, along with a substantial number of experienced contributors from outside the program. It took our most recent baseline plan — including budgets, schedules, technical content, risks and threats, and assessed achievability of three different acceleration cases to improve upon the March of 2015 commitment date, assuming of course that resources were added to do so. Ralph briefed the draft report to leadership at HQ (NASA Headquarters), and while it is still being finalized, the findings are not new — the upshot being, if you want to accelerate Ares I and Orion then significant new money must be added to the Constellation budget in FY09 and FY10. This is the same answer that we provided more than a year ago when asked what it would take to keep our September 2013 baseline with an adequate level of confidence.

And no wonder – if you look at a “traditional” funding profile for an aerospace program and compare it to the Constellation budget profile, the deficit in these early years is obvious. What it compels us to do, therefore, is defer some key work to later that would buy down considerable risk — flight and ground tests, manufacturing demos, test articles to investigate structural margins, engineering development units, buys of long lead parts, etc. This is where we are at today with our internal target of September 2014, compounded by very lean reserves in these same two years to deal with surprises.

We’re at where we’re at. In the weeks ahead we will proceed assuming no new money will be forthcoming to accelerate and we will instead move forward to adjust our plan to meet our March 2015 commitment. If a decision comes forward to accelerate by the April timeframe, an earlier date is still possible, but that gets less and less likely with each passing month.

Again, none of this should be a surprise — though some will feign shock and accuse us of overselling. But we have been very careful these three years to avoid that. We have consistently pointed out that our internal ‘work to’ dates were aggressive with this fiscal profile and what additional funding it would take to increase our confidence and ability to execute. These same realities have been reinforced by those who independently review us. Throughout we have applied common government and industry practices and methods for how projects and programs are funded and managed. We kept the option open to enable a more aggressive date as long as we reasonably could before last summer’s re-baselining. Two years of continuing resolutions haven’t helped, but we’ve worked around them to the best of our ability to keep moving forward.

Look at all you’ve accomplished in spite of that!!

All this is offered as context to further amplify what an amazing result — in spite of it all — that 2008 has produced. Constellation is not a paper program anymore. It is a full-fledged assault on the frontier, and if we keep the mission at the forefront of our sights then we can persevere. As the year draws to a close, we enjoy broad support in Congress, we have a vision that we’ve not only embraced but have strategically over the last three years codified in an exploration architecture with a broad range of capability to allow us to unlock first cis-lunar space and then the inner solar system in the years to come… and who knows what other missions these new tools might be employed for?

In the coming year, let’s continue to make history — one milestone at a time — as we celebrate those whose shoulders we stand upon more than a generation ago.

A Rocket's Coat of Many Colors

Why are the Ares rockets different colors on the top and bottom? Why do some rockets like the Saturn have black and white strips resembling a checkerboard? The answer to these questions may be as simple as determining what type of material a rocket is made of, or you might be surprised to learn that some of these markings assist in the successful launch of a vehicle. If you look back to the early prototypes of the V2 rockets designed by the German rocket scientists that were painted in the familiar black-and-white roll pattern scheme. This scheme was designed to aid in tracking the rocket after launch. The pattern made it easy to observe any variation or roll of the rocket, based on what colors were visible from a particular angle on the ground. Today’s vehicles can be accompanied by a detailed document called the External Vehicle Markings (EVM) Document. This manual contains everything you might need to know regarding location, size and colorings of various logos and markings on a vehicle. The markings on a rocket may change over its lifetime as the design matures, so these changes are documented in the EVM to ensure consistency. With each new variation in a rocket’s design, the pattern is examined and altered as warranted to meet new flight objectives. The Saturn V for example had a series of black markings on all three sections, or stages, of the rocket. During launch as each stage separated engineers were able to use the markings on the next stage to track the vehicle. The shuttle was designed to look more like a plane so there was no need for markings to determine its roll. However NASA’s first two orbiter test flights–STS-1 and STS-2–did have external tanks that were painted white to protect them from exposure to ultraviolet rays during extended periods on the launch pad. Later it was determined the paint wasn’t vital for tank protection, so painting was abandoned to free up weight – about 600 pounds – for additional payload. All external tanks arrive from the assembly facility are a light tan in color, and can eventually reach a chocolate brown depending on how long it sits on the pad in the sun. NASA’s newest rockets –the Ares launch vehicles – each have their own distinct appearance. The first test vehicle scheduled to fly later this year– the Ares I-X –will have a black “Z-Mark” that wraps around the first-stage solid rocket motor. This marking was added by designers to help engineers determine the orientation and roll of the vehicle during launch and ascent.

Additional markings could be added to the Ares vehicles as the development process continues. So the next time you see a rocket with its funny black, white or orange colorings remember there is probably more to the story than meets the eye.