On the first launch of the Space Launch System (SLS), America’s next-generation heavy-lift rocket, the Orion Stage Adapter (OSA) will carry 13 CubeSats, or boot box-sized science and technology investigations, that will help pave the way for future human exploration in deep space. Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have built the main structure of this hardware that will be part of the rocket when it lifts off from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s modernized spaceport at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Jennifer Takeshita, the lead for friction stir welding at Teledyne Brown Engineering, compares a model of the Orion Stage Adapter (OSA), including brackets to secure CubeSats during their spaceflight, to the flight hardware nearing completion at Marshall Space Flight Center.
The Orion Stage Adapter does exactly what its name indicates: it connects the Orion spacecraft to the second stage of the launch vehicle. Using enormous friction-stir welding machines, engineers just finished welding three large panels into a ring that is 18 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. With this welding complete, it’s time for analysis. The main structural ring is currently undergoing nondestructive analysis using 3-D structured light scanning and photogrammetry, which creates a computer model using photography, to ensure hardware was built to design specification.
Engineers use 3-D structured light scanning and photogrammetry to analyze the main structure of the Orion Stage Adapter (OSA) at Marshall Space Flight Center. Targets for the optical scanner and SLR camera can be seen on the aluminum structure. Solid modeling software will combine the images into a single computer model so engineers can compare finished hardware to the design.
Next, engineers will trim it, weld upper and lower rings onto the large ring, machine it to final dimensions, apply paint, and install the diaphragm, a barrier that separates SLS from Orion. After that, installation of cables and the brackets that will secure the secondary payloads during their spaceflight will complete this critical piece of flight hardware.
The 13 CubeSat secondary payloads will be some of the first small satellites to explore deep space and answer critical questions relevant to NASA’s future exploration plans. These small but mighty scientific investigations include ten satellites from U.S. industry, government, and commercial partners as well as the three CubeSats being built by international partners.
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Over the next year, the rocket comes to the Rocket City in a big way.
Huntsville, Alabama, a.k.a. “Rocket City,” is home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where today the Space Launch System (SLS), the powerful rocket NASA will use for human exploration of deep space, is being developed.
More than six decades ago – before NASA even existed – Huntsville laid claim to the nickname thanks to its work on missiles and rockets like the Juno that launched the first American satellite or the Redstone used for the first Mercury launches.
In the years since, Huntsville, and Marshall, have built on that legacy with work on the Saturn V rockets that sent astronauts to the moon, the space shuttle’s propulsion systems, and now with SLS.
A steel beam is “flown” by crane into position on the 221-foot-tall (67.4 meters) twin towers of Test Stand 4693 during “topping out” ceremonies April 12 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
While the program is managed at Marshall Space Flight Center, contractors around the country are building the rocket. Engines are being tested in Mississippi. The core stage is being built in Louisiana. Booster work and testing is taking place in Utah. Aerospace industry leaders and more than 800 small businesses in 43 states around the country are providing components.
The Marshall team has also been involved with the hardware, largely through testing of small-scale models or smaller components. The center also produced the first new piece of SLS hardware to fly into space – a stage adapter that connected the Orion crew vehicle to its Delta rocket for Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014 (See Orion’s First Flight for more.) The same adapter will connect Orion to SLS for their first flight in 2018.
Workers prepare the top half of a test version of the SLS Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter. The completed adapter will undergo structural testing at Marshall later this year.
Now, however, big things are happening in the Rocket City. The new Orion stage adapter for the upcoming launch is being built. The larger Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter, which will connect the core and second stages of the rocket, is being built at Marshall by contractor Teledyne Brown Engineering. This year, test versions of those adapters and the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) will be assembled into a 56-foot-tall stack, which will be placed in a test stand to see how they handle the stresses of launch.
Those test articles built locally will be joined by larger ones produced at the Michoud Assembly Facility outside New Orleans. Test versions of the rocket’s engine section, oxygen tank and hydrogen tank will be shipped by barge from Michoud to Marshall. Two new test stands – one topped out last month at 221 feet tall – have been built at Marshall, joining historic test stands used to test the Saturn moon rockets.
In addition to rocket development, Marshall is involved in numerous other efforts, including supporting all U.S. scientific research conducted aboard the International Space Station.
Fifty-five years ago this month, Alan Shepard became the first American in space riding on a Redstone rocket, named for the Huntsville army base where his rocket had been designed – Redstone Arsenal. Today, Marshall, located on the same red clay that gave the arsenal and rocket their name, is undertaking perhaps its largest challenge yet – building a rocket to carry humans to the red stone of Mars.
Huntsville grew substantially from its small Southern town roots during its early days of rocket work in the 1950s and ‘60s, and Marshall has gone on to be involved in projects such as Skylab, Spacelab, the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station, to name a few. But despite branching out its work both in space and other technology areas, Huntsville remains the Rocket City.
…After all, we built this city on a rocket role.
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We don’t know who will take those first steps on Martian soil, ushering in the age of humans as a multi-planetary species. But we do already know a couple things about those first intrepid explorers: They’re taking steps on Earth right now; and they belong to a generation that is tech-savvy, and raised on the internet and social media. But do today’s students think about exploring beyond this world and into deep space?
Members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s rocketry team said at NASA’s Student Launch competition that they look forward to NASA’s Journey to Mars and aspire to be a part of it.
“Every day – we can’t get enough of that stuff!” said Ben Collins from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on a recent windy morning that was spent launching rockets in a field north of Huntsville. Collins and his teammates were among 51 student rocketry teams that competed in various challenges and sent their amateur rockets soaring during the 16th annual Student Launch rocketry challenge April 13-16.
Members of Tuskegee University’s rocketry team enjoy their day at NASA Marshall’s Student Launch.
At this year’s Student Launch, middle and high school students and university computer scientists, physicists and engineers of all stripes (aerospace and mechanical were particularly well-represented) got to tour NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the center responsible for developing the Space Launch System (SLS), the country’s next-generation heavy-lift launch vehicle.
While there, the students heard from a member of their generation actively involved in designing and engineering SLS: Marshall engineer Kathryn Crowe, who is part of a generations-spanning workforce blending fresh thinking with years of experience. (See Time Flies: Next-Generation Rocket is the Work of Generations for more about Kathryn’s work.)
For some, the competition – and the visit – were a taste of things to come.
“My biggest career goal is to work on the Journey to Mars – to somehow be a part of it,” said Brandon Murchinson, also of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “I think SLS is incredible. As someone who’s always been interested in space exploration and travel, it’s why I chose this career path.”
NASA’s call for new astronauts earlier this year also made an impact on the future engineers and scientists at the Student Launch. Paul Grutzmacher, a 17-year-old senior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio, said that his career goal is to become a pilot for the Orion crew vehicle that will launch on SLS. “SLS excites me because it’s supposed to take us farther than we’ve gone before and it’s also our next heavy lifter,” he added.
St. Vincent-St. Mary High School’s Project Manager Raykwon Wookdruff describes the team’s rover, which autonomously located the team’s downed rocket, providing a proof of concept that an autonomous rover on Mars could locate and retrieve a supply rocket without astronauts having to leave the vicinity of their habitat.
Grutzmacher thinks he’s got the right stuff to fly on SLS, but so does Vanderbilt University’s Rebecca Riley, a senior computer science major who plans to continue her education in particle physics. “I think we’re all pretty excited that we might be the right age to be going to Mars. I’m like, Man, that’s going to be me going to Mars!”
These students recognize the value in missions that build expertise in long-duration spaceflight – and the technological spinoffs that arise from the process. To hear them tell it, long timelines just don’t scare them.
Auburn University’s student rocketry team tracks progress on America’s next great rocket by following social media and events like solid rocket booster static test firings and RS-25 main engine tests. “Social media makes it a lot more tangible,” said Auburn’s Burak Adanur. “And I think it gives people something to look forward to,” he said.
Vanderbilt University’s Andrew Voss has participated in the Student Launch over the past four years. “I have seen a lot of work go down,” he said. “And I like seeing the test stands because the work that goes into testing is a feat of engineering.” Check out our recent blog post on Engine 2059 for more about how an engine helped test a test stand.
Tech-obsessed students have no trouble spouting off advancements that have arisen from America’s space program: cell phone cameras, scratch-resistant sunglasses, memory foam, and the list goes on. Vanderbilt’s Voss said, “That’s part of what NASA’s always done, and what could come out of SLS is not just spaceflight, but technology that drives the world forward.”
Members of Vanderbilt University’s student rocketry team spoke about the future of deep space exploration after successfully launching their rocket.
“I think that’s one of the most important aspects to space exploration,” said Auburn’s Adanur. “We have to go space because it’s a mechanism – it’s a crucible – that will change us as a society and give us new technologies. I think it has more of a ripple effect than most people think.”
Chris Lorenz of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said he sees the value of NASA’s proving ground missions to build up for human Mars landings. “I’m a big fan of what NASA does in robotic exploration. It’s smart to go unmanned and build up infrastructure first before attempting manned missions,” he said.
Vanderbilt’s Mitch Masia said that while proving ground missions are necessary, deep space exploration really gets people going. “The space station is awesome and a huge feat and deep space missions will get people even more excited.” Case in point: Worldwide amazement and wonder at the photos of Pluto NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has been sending back to Earth.
Members of Sylvania Northview High School’s rocketry team explain their project to other students during the Rocket Fair at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center the day before launch.
Participants at the Student Launch emphasized that their generation wants its chance to make history. They want their Mars shot. “I think SLS will bring our generation together,” said Michael D’Onofrio, a 17-year-old senior at Sylvania Northview High School in Sylvania, Ohio. “Something that’s greater than where we are – going beyond Earth – will bring us together.”
Vanderbilt’s Riley said, “I’m excited about SLS in a very patriotic way. SLS and going to Mars is that big goal that we can all get behind and be excited about as an American people.”
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