Browse Topic: Reusable launch vehicles and shuttles
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a thin film sensor that measures temperatures up to 1200 °F, and whose prototype successor may achieve measurements up to ~3000 °F — which was the surface temperature of the Space Shuttle during its atmospheric reentry.
NASA is developing a lightweight one-piece regeneratively cooled thrust chamber assembly (TCA) for liquid rocket engines. Liquid rocket engines create thrust through the expansion of combusted propellants within the TCA. Standard manufacturing of TCAs involves individually building the injector, main combustion chamber and nozzle, and then bolting or welding the components together at the joints. However, potential seal failures in these complex joints can cause catastrophic explosions, as in the tragedy of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
Recent advances are reducing the cost of space launch, high specific power solar cells, and the production of satellite systems. Modular architectures with no moving parts and distributed power systems would minimize assembly and maintenance costs. Together, this may enable space-based solar power to provide decarbonized dispatchable power at a lower cost than equivalent technologies such as nuclear power stations. Space-based Solar Power for Instantaneously Dispatchable Renewable Power on Earth discusses the advances in emerging technologies, like thin film solar cells, reusable launch vehicles, and mass-produced modular satellite systems that would make economic space power feasible. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio.
Life for astronauts on the International Space Station has been, for the most part, less taxing than it was in the space shuttle days, when missions often included many goals and milestones compressed into a short period of time. That won’t be the case, however, for the first astronauts to journey to the surface of the Moon during the Artemis program, said Alexandra Whitmire, a NASA Scientist whose job concerns astronaut well-being and performance.
A structural load estimation methodology was developed for RLV-TD HEX-01 hypersonic experimental mission, the maiden winged body technology demonstrator vehicle of ISRO. Primarily the method evaluates time history of station loads considering effects of vehicle dynamics and structural flexibility. Station loads of critical structures are determined by superposition of quasi-static aerodynamic loads, dynamic inertia loads, control surface loads and propulsion loads based on actual physics of the system, improving upon statistical load combination approaches. The technique characterizes atmospheric regime of flight from vehicle loads perspective and ensures adequate structural margin considering atmospheric variations and system level perturbations. Features to estimate change in loads due to wind variability and atmospheric turbulence are incorporated into the load estimation methodology. Augmentation in loads due to structural flexibility is assessed along the trajectory using vehicle
With regards to any aerospace mission, it is very useful to have awareness about the state of vehicle, i.e., the information about its position, velocity, attitude, rotational rates and other concerned data such as control surface deflections, landing gear touchdown, working of mechanisms and so on. The sensor data from the vehicle that is communicated to the ground can be difficult to perceive and analyze. A frame work for real-time motion simulation of an aerospace vehicle from onboard telemetry data is henceforth developed in order to improve the understanding about the current state of the mission and aid in real-time decision making if required. The telemetry data, that is transmitted through User Datagram Protocol (UDP), is received and decoded to usable format. The visualization software accepts the data in a fixed time interval and applies the required transformations in order to ensure one-to-one correspondence between actual vehicle and simulation. The transformations
With the upcoming technology demonstration projects such as the Reusable Launch Vehicle, easily portable data acquisition systems for ground testing are the need of the hour. The existing data acquisition systems used in ISRO are generally larger and of higher capability based on the number parameters to be acquired, which makes them underutilized in this case. To avoid this problem, a data acquisition system based on BeagleBone® Black, a Single Board Computer (SBC) is conceived. With this approach the number of components utilized would be reduced as we make use of ADCs present in the BeagleBone computer. Also, the size of the hardware setup is significantly reduced as the chosen SBC is small, making the developed Data Acquisition system portable. It could be moved anywhere with ease, even to the runway, where the final phase of ground testing happens.
Severe problem of aerodynamic heating and drag force are inherent with any hypersonic space vehicle like space shuttle, missiles etc. For proper design of vehicle, the drag force measurement become very crucial. Ground based test facilities are employed for these estimates along with any suitable force balance as well as sensors. There are many sensors (Accelerometer, Strain gauge and Piezofilm) reported in the literature that is used for evaluating the actual aerodynamic forces over test model in high speed flow. As per previous study, the piezofilm also become an alternative sensor over the strain gauges due to its simple instrumentation. For current investigation, the piezofilm and strain gauge sensors have mounted on same stress force balance to evaluate the response time as well as accuracy of predicted force at the same instant. However, these force balance need to be calibrated for inverse prediction of the force from recorded responses. A reliable multi point calibration
NASA intended its Reusable Launch Vehicle program of the 1990s to demonstrate technologies that would enable hypersonic spaceplanes to make affordable, repeated trips into space. It was never intended to improve the performance of hunting, skiing, and sports gear, but, more than 20 years after its cancellation, that’s what’s happened.
NASA Kennedy Space Center developed the Inductive Non-Contact Position Sensor for motion control applications. The sensor was designed to monitor the precise movements of an optical inspection system that measured defects in Space Shuttle windows. The technology has been prototyped and successfully field-tested. Its small size, low cost, wide range, and accuracy give it a distinct advantage over other types of sensors used for similar applications.
With the advent of rotating machinery, high-speed rotors have been of interest to engineers. Rotating machinery has been employed in a wide range of applications in the past century, ranging from steam turbines for electric power generation to the turbo pumps used in the Space Shuttle Main Engines. As these machines have become more commonplace, there has been an increased demand for lightweight, compact designs. The required power output of these units has also increased, leading to higher power-to-weight ratios. These leaner designs are the hallmark of the aerospace industry.
This aerospace information report (AIR) provides historical design information for various aircraft landing gear and actuation/control systems that may be useful in the design of future systems for similar applications. It presents the basic characteristics, hardware descriptions, functional schematics, and discussions of the actuation mechanisms, controls, and alternate release systems. The report is divided into two basic sections: 1 Landing gear actuation system history from 1876 to the present. This section provides an overview and the defining examples that demonstrate the evolution of landing gear actuation systems to the present day. 2 This section of the report provides an in depth review of various aircraft. A summary table of aircraft detail contained within this section is provided in paragraph 4.1. The intent is to add new and old aircraft retraction/extension systems to this AIR as the data becomes available. NOTES 1 For some aircraft, the description is incomplete, due to
How did we get to the point that four civilians can pilot a craft into space, orbit the planet, and re-enter the atmosphere with only a matter of months to train for the journey?
NASA Kennedy Space Center developed the Inductive Non-Contact Position Sensor for motion control applications. The sensor was designed to monitor the precise movements of an optical inspection system that measured defects in Space Shuttle windows. The technology has been prototyped and successfully field-tested. Its small size, low cost, wide range, and accuracy give it a distinct advantage over other types of sensors used for similar applications.
With Artemis II — the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion — four astronauts will travel to the lunar environment in 2024. The Artemis II crew will have an approximate 10-day mission where they will set a record for the farthest human travel (4,600 miles) beyond the far side of the Moon in a hybrid free-return trajectory.
This SAE Aerospace Information Report (AIR) presents reference information for use in preparing detailed specifications and other documents. The intent is to have a master reference document containing frequently required tabulations of information, such as the meaning of abbreviations, the spelled out wording of acronyms, the definition of terms, etc. so that such tabulations need not be repeated in recommended practice documents describing how to prepare technical documents. This document is intended to provide references in the field of fluid system components for space applications. Space applications include spacecraft, such as satellites, space stations, launch vehicles and space shuttles, and servicing equipment and components used for ground systems and launching and for servicing in space. Fluid system components include couplings, fittings, hose and tubing assemblies.
Determination of micrometeoroid/ orbital debris (MMOD) impact on orbiting spacecraft currently requires visual inspection. For human-rated spacecraft such as the International Space Station (ISS) and previously, the Space Shuttle Orbiter, this has required crew time as well as vehicle assets to identify damage due to MMOD strikes. For unmanned spacecraft, there are no human assets present to conduct detailed surveys to ascertain potential damage.
Founded on July 1, 1960, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL is one of NASA’s largest field centers. Marshall engineers designed, built, tested, and helped launch the Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the Moon. Marshall developed new rocket engines and tanks for the fleet of space shuttles, built sections of the International Space Station (ISS), and now manages all the science work of the astronauts aboard the ISS from a 24/7 Payload Operations Integration Center. Marshall also manages NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans — the agency’s premier site for the manufacture and assembly of large-scale space structures and systems.
NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) has been a leader in human space exploration for more than half a century. Established in 1961 in Houston, TX as the Manned Spacecraft Center, the center was renamed in 1973 to honor the late president Lyndon B. Johnson. From the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs, to the International Space Station (ISS) and Orion, the center has been at the forefront of America's human spaceflight programs.
The Inductive Non-Contact Position Sensor is a highly accurate sensor for motion control applications. The sensor was designed to monitor the precise movements of an optical inspection system that measured defects in space shuttle windows.
Humans have been using rocket propulsion for almost a millennium, starting with Chinese rockets and “fire arrows” in the 13th century and continuing to the modern era's powerful Space Shuttle and Falcon rockets. For most of that history, rockets have been chemically fueled, but in the past century scientists and engineers have also experimented with electric rockets, also known as ion engines or ion propulsion systems.
NASA's Langley Research Center has developed a new eddy current inspection device that probes for cracks in parts of metal structures that are often inaccessible without extensive disassembly. The probe is specially designed for insertion into the cavity of a part to inspect the surrounding structure in an outward direction. For example, the probe may be held inside a large, thick tube and pointed outward to inspect the outer diameter of the tube. NASA used the probe to test for stress corrosion cracking in the relief radius of Space Shuttle thrusters without having to dismantle the hardware, reducing inspection time while ensuring the health of the structure. NASA Langley is seeking organizations that would like to license the probe to test for cracks in rocket thrusters and other metallic structures with hard-to-reach inspection areas.
NASA’s Langley Research Center engineers have developed a new software package for more facile computational fluid dynamics. The software’s fast user run time, robustness, and efficiency have enabled its extensive use in space shuttle modeling. Adaptive Refinement Tool (ART) permits the computational modeling of flow, including jet or rocket plumes, wakes, and shocks via unstructured tetrahedral grids. Commercially available software packages often struggle to sufficiently and quickly model such complex examples of flow. ART also allows cells to be divided into two, four, or eight cells as compared to traditional software, which allows cell division only in units of eight. This is advantageous as it allows the user to control cell division more succinctly. ART executes commands via colloquial English, and has built-in internal statistical programming that increases its ease of use. ART allows the user the choice of alternate variables such as temperature or pressure at will, which
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a system to detect and locate atmospheric clear air turbulence (CAT) by means of a ground-based infrasonic array to serve as an early warning system for aircraft. This system could augment existing systems such as pilot reports (PIREPs), airborne lidar, and airborne radar. The NASA system offers a benefit since the existing electromagnetic methods lack targets at 30,000-40,000 feet and will not detect CAT. Because CAT and severe storms emit infrasound that propagates over vast distances through the Earth’s atmosphere, the Langley system offers an excellent early warning opportunity. The system has been able to detect known events — such as detection of the launch of the Space Shuttle in Florida all the way from Virginia. It also has correlated data with NOAA’s PIREPs information.
One of the crucial ground structures employed at the launch pad during the Space Shuttle program is the rainbird nozzle system, whose primary objective is to suppress acoustic energy generated by the launch vehicle during pad abort and nominal operations. It is important that the rainbird water flow does not impinge on the rocket nozzles and other sensitive ground support elements. For the new Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle, the operation is similar, regardless of the new mobile launcher and new engine configurations. The goal of the rainbird nozzle system remains sound suppression (SS), and the rocket engines still cannot get wet. However, the rearrangement of the rainbird water system for the SLS mobile launcher locates the rainbirds closer to the first-stage rocket engines, which are positioned above the exhaust hole. The close proximity of the rainbird nozzle system could potentially cause vehicle wetting during liftoff.
The Reacting Flow Environments branch at NASA ARC is interested in characterizing the aerothermal environment of three main classes of problem: planetary entry vehicles, reusable launch vehicles (RLVs), and arc-jet (or other ground test) flow simulations. Each of these problem classes has unique physical characteristics, the understanding of which is at the cutting edge of the field. Proper modeling of the relevant physics is required to accurately simulate the aerothermal environments of these problem classes. These include, but are not limited to, chemical non-equilibrium, thermal non-equilibrium, shock layer radiation, surface catalycity, and thermal protection system material interaction with the aerothermal environment.
The Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS) and Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) have proven the benefit of long-reach manipulators, with the reach of both manipulators in the l5-18-m class. Manipulators with greater reach provide many benefits. The SRMS’s limited reach required an additional 12-m boom to augment its reach during inspection of the belly of the SRMS in support of return to flight following the Columbia disaster.
NASA relies on the Natural Environments (NE) Branch located at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to provide databases that represent the wind magnitudes and wind changes expected on day-of-launch (DOL) for vehicle programs that MSFC NE supports. MSFC NE has traditionally utilized weather balloon measurements to generate the wind profiles used in DOL loads and trajectory simulations. However, balloon measurement archives have three limitations in that (1) they do not contain a large enough sample to adequately represent the wind environment at extreme percentiles, (2) balloons could misrepresent the aloft wind environment due to their rise rate and drift characteristics, and (3) the Space Shuttle Program’s operational requirements significantly drove the atmosphere databases’ development. To help mitigate these limitations, MSFC NE used the 50-MHz Doppler Radar Wind Profiler (DRWP) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to validate balloon measurements on DOL during the SSP.
Advanced Optical Systems, Inc. (AOS) developed a low-cost Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking (RPOD) system that has applications for the future NASA Orion vehicle. Docking operations between the space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) required the coordination of real-time sensor data analysis and manual measurements. AOS developed a family of algorithms that processes the centerline docking camera data for navigational information that is currently derived from multiple sensors and manual estimation.
On April 24, 1990, something happened that forever altered mankind’s view of the universe. It was on that day that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Most of us cannot comprehend the task of building something to withstand temperatures over 4,000 °F, but NASA can. The space shuttles endured such temperatures when returning to Earth’s atmosphere because of aerodynamic heating, or heating due to the combination of compression and surface friction from Earth’s atmosphere. For the vehicle to survive these conditions, NASA constructed a complex thermal protection system (TPS) for the exterior of the shuttle.
A concept for recovering reusable spacecraft or capsules, or reusable rocket boosters, has them land on an airbag-based, cushioned platform positioned on a highly maneuverable hovercraft. This landing method would have performance advantages over conventional approaches to reusability by placing most of the landing function on the hovercraft while maintaining the safety benefit of an open ocean landing away from populated areas; however, it would be similar to a dry landing as the spacecraft or booster would not enter the water.
When the space shuttle’s external tank (ET) was being filled with the cryogenic fuel components LOX and LH2, moisture from the surrounding atmosphere could condense onto the ET’s sprayed-on foam insulation (SOFI). This condensation could drip onto components, such as the LOX feed line bellows, where it would freeze, forming a potentially dangerous ice block.
NASA seeks to preserve, and make readily accessible, historical Space Shuttle launch footage to inspire and educate NASA stakeholders both in and outside the NASA family through the dissemination of the Ascent production materials as a DVD, and through both NASA Television and online social media avenues without incurring distribution and media costs.
This rapid response computer program predicts Orbiter Wing Leading Edge (WLE) damage caused by ice or foam impact during a Space Shuttle launch (Program “IMPACT2”). The program was developed after the Columbia accident in order to assess quickly WLE damage due to ice, foam, or metal impact (if any) during a Shuttle launch. IMPACT2 simulates an impact event in a few minutes for foam impactors, and in seconds for ice and metal impactors.
NASA needed to provide a software model of a parachute system for a manned re-entry vehicle. NASA has parachute codes, e.g., the Descent Simulation System (DSS), that date back to the Apollo Program. Since the space shuttle did not rely on parachutes as its primary descent control mechanism, DSS has not been maintained or incorporated into modern simulation architectures such as Osiris and Antares, which are used for new mission simulations. GFEChutes Lo-Fi is an object-oriented implementation of conventional parachute codes designed for use in modern simulation environments.
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