Ares I (CLV) - status

cIclops · 2007-09-20 12:30:36

Upper Stage Simulator for the Ares I-X test flight (collectSPACE graphics and photos) - 19 Sep 2007

The Ares I-X Upper Stage Simulator (USS) is currently being fabricated at NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Planned for 2009, the Ares I-X test flight will launch a four segment solid rocket booster and mock fifth segment (provided by ATK) together with an upper stage mass simulator (built by GRC) and unmanned mock-up of an Orion crew exploration vehicle and launch escape tower (under production at NASA Langley Research Center).
The Ares I upper stage houses the fuel tanks and J-2X engine used to propel the Orion spacecraft into orbit. For the Ares I-X sub-orbital test flight, the upper, or second stage will be represented by the USS that employs ballast to compensate for the missing fuel and engine to be used on Ares I.

cIclops · 2007-09-26 04:58:10

J-2X power pack installed in test stand (video 5:24 mins)

Power - pack 1A, a test article consisting of heritage turbo-pumps and gas generator, is now installed on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center to begin the first series of tests in the development of NASA's J-2X engine for the Constellation Program. Constellation is developing a new family of vehicles that will replace the space shuttle and carry humans back to the moon. The J-2X engine will power the upper stage of the new Ares I crew launch vehicle. Test stand lines, ducts, and valves will provide simulated inlet and outlet conditions that would be present on the pumps during a full-up engine hot-fire test. Testing will consist of driving the turbo-pumps with the gas generator so that similarities between these turbo-pumps and those being developed for the flight engine can be evaluated. .

cIclops · 2007-10-01 09:44:18

J-2X Powerpack Test Article Installed - 28 Sep 2007

Core components of the J-2X engine being designed for NASA's Constellation Program recently were installed on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. Tests of the components, known as Powerpack 1A, will be conducted from November 2007 through February 2008. The Powerpack 1A test article consists of a gas generator and engine turbopumps originally developed for the Apollo Program that put Americans on the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Engineers are testing these heritage components to obtain data that will help them modify the turbomachinery to meet the higher performance requirements of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles. The upcoming tests will simulate inlet and outlet conditions that would be present on the turbomachinery during a full-up engine hot-fire test.

J-2X Engine factsheet (PDF, 2.97 MB) 1 Oct 2007

SpaceNut · 2007-10-01 11:56:05

Great image as to how really large the engine is.
Glad to see that the first useage testing is on track for Ares I but additional vacumn testing will be needed for Ares V I would think.

cIclops · 2007-10-02 14:19:34

First Test of Main Parachute - 2 Oct 2007

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – NASA and industry engineers successfully completed the first drop test of the main parachute that will help recover the first stage of the Ares I crew launch vehicle. Ares I will carry the NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle to space.
The test, conducted on September 25 at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground near Yuma, Ariz., is part of an ongoing series of tests to support the design and development of the Ares I parachute recovery system, which is derived from the system NASA uses to recover the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters after launch. Tests for the pilot, drogue and three main parachutes will continue through 2010. The next test is scheduled for November 2007.
The main parachute was dropped from a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft with a 40,600-pound load at an altitude of 17,500 feet. The parachute and all test hardware functioned properly and landed safely on the Yuma Proving Ground test range.

SpaceNut · 2007-10-02 19:33:59

IIRC there was already a drop test of a parachute system prior to this one.
It may have been the regular chute but with a simulate 5 segment and it had some issues....

cIclops · 2007-10-04 13:05:27

Shuttle to Orion: First steps back to orbit. (PDF) October 2007

Ares I-X
Only a few modifications will be needed for the first Ares test launch, scheduled barely six months later, in April 2009.
That first Ares flight test is Ares I-X, an unmanned demonstration of the new vehicle’s first-stage flight performance and dynamics. Only a few umbilical arms will reach across from the existing shuttle fixed service structure to the slim, freestanding Ares stack, keeping pad changes to a minimum for this suborbital launch. The four-segment solid rocket first stage, transferred from the shuttle program, will lift off from hold-down posts over one of the two booster exhaust openings in the mobel launch platform.
Only the first stage of Ares I-X will be live; the uppermost fifth booster segment will be a mass simulator only, carrying no propellant. Both the upper stage and the Orion crew exploration vehicle will be inert, boilerplate articles, accurate in shape and mass but having no functional capability. At liftoff, the stack will weigh about 2 million lb.
The I-X flight test will check out launch, flight control, stage separation, motor reentry, parachute deployment, and ocean recovery of the first stage, taller and heavier than the shuttle’s solid rocket booster. Engineers hope to show the Ares I configuration has ample control and structural margins as it experiences maximum dynamic loads imposed in the lower atmosphere. Demonstrating adequate roll control on the single-nozzle solid rocket motor is a high priority to validate the Ares I design.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2007-10-06 22:35:03

You guys can stick your heads in the sand all you want or even go off the cliff with flags flying but it does not change the facts. I wasn't chatting to you guys I was responding to GCNR's comment about NOT allowing foreign industries or foreign economies in for the VSE (which should remain an American mission for American taxpayers according to some newmars posters). Like it or not India has very much become part of this VSE once Griffin went to Bangalore and signed away jobs to Madhavan Nair in India.

Getting back to the topic of the CLV or 'Stick'. I still think it's not to late to start lookig at CLV Alternatives, by going back to ATK and allowing then to develop a launcher that looks like giant German hand grenade we are returning to Pork barrel politics and allowing them to be only source for a large reusable solid propellant motors. There is still a potential for using derivatives of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles to meet space exploration requirements instead of paying for an over priced stick to get payloads into orbit post the era of Titan-Centaur rockets and after Shuttle's retirement in 2010. I still do not understand why NASA has completely abandoned crew transfer craft concepts like X-38 and not decided to man rate a Saturn sized rocket. Within the next decade Russia may be flying RLV tourist flights around the Moon with some Kliper/Angara config but for some reason NASA is going to burden us with an over-priced stick and more Thiokol pork barrel politics.

cIclops · 2007-10-07 01:08:38

Ok there is a new topic here on outsourcing.

"not to late to start lookig at CLV Alternatives"

OMG no please! Waste another two years along with the X-33, X-34 and VentureStar programs to replace Shuttle? Ares I is under development and on track, all the main contracts have been made. NASA have spent a LOT of time and effort considering how to replace Shuttle and this is a good solution.

Why do you think that an EELV solution would not involve "pork barrel politics"? Ares I is being designed to be as safe as possible, highly reliable and operationally cost effective. There is no perfect design, all designs have limitations.

X-38 needed the Shuttle to reach orbit, it was designed as an ISS lifeboat not a crew launch vehicle.

Using a Saturn V class launcher would be total overkill for crew launch. Separating crew from cargo is a sound concept. Mars and Moon missions need a large, heavy lift vehicle, it has to be cheap. Crew need a launcher as safe as possible, that makes it small and expensive.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2007-10-07 03:15:44

Ares I is being designed to be as safe as possible, highly reliable and operationally cost effective.

A design which causes it to be being most stable if flying backwards and which is developing ongoing problems in wind tunnel tests NASA has also failed to establish a competitive commercial launch service while people like Rutan are trying to push the envelope. Ares I and their current under performance is forced the team to start hacking bits off the CEV and for the teams to put it on a diet of slim-fast so it could go through some quick weight loss, the smaller/lighter CEV started to raise questions about an adequate re-entry thermal protection system. The Stick will be forced to act as direct competition with existing vehicles, post 2011 Lockheed and Boeing will see their funds slashed as the Pork-Barrel CLV competes in payload class. :shock: The proposed configuration of Ares-I also raises questions about its aerodynamic instability

cIclops · 2007-10-07 03:49:44

Ares I and their current under performance is forced the team to start hacking bits off the CEV

What under performance? NASA have been asked about Ares I performance again and again, as recently as last month NASA ESMD confirmed that Ares I is right on target with 15+% reserves. Nothing has been "hacked" off Orion, its weight is also fine but it needs more margin. There are always weight issues in the development of spacecraft, Orion is no different. BTW there's a separate thread about Orion

cIclops · 2007-10-08 10:16:47

Ball Aerospace Chosen to Compete for Ares I Instrument Avionics Contract

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has been selected by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center as one of the final competitors for the Instrument Unit Avionics (IUA) contract for the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle. Ball Aerospace was chosen as a finalist from five industry teams that submitted proposals for the IUA contract, and will now enter discussions with NASA regarding proposal implementation. NASA is expected to select a single prime contractor for the Ares I Instrument Unit later this year. "Ball Aerospace has the proven capabilities and experience to successfully meet NASA's extremely high standards for safety and mission success," said Bill Townsend, Ball Aerospace vice president for Exploration Systems. "We're the right team to interface with Marshall Space Flight Center based on our expertise in the integration of complex space systems, rich history in human spaceflight programs, and the affordability of our innovative and agile approach." The Ball Aerospace team for the Ares I IUA includes subcontractors Hamilton Sundstrand and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, subsidiaries of United Technologies Corp.

cIclops · 2007-10-20 12:30:16

Launch scheduled April 2009 - ripped from ESMD briefing (PDF) - 1 Oct 2007

cIclops · 2007-10-21 23:44:16

From ESMD briefing (PDF) - 1 Oct 2007

Always good to see real metal!

cIclops · 2007-10-22 12:09:04

RSRM Test To Gather Vibration Data

Oct 22, 2007
By Jefferson Morris/Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
Among the objectives of the next scheduled test of the space shuttle's reusable solid rocket motor (RSRM) is gathering further data on vibration loads that will be experienced by the RSRM-derived Ares I rocket's first stage, according to ATK.
ATK is both the prime for the RSRM and the first stage of the Ares I, which NASA will use to boost the Orion crew exploration vehicle to orbit. The Ares I first stage will be a five-segment version of the four-segment RSRM. The test is scheduled for Nov. 1. The last test was held in May (DAILY, May 29).
Engineers already have an idea what loads to expect on Ares I because of experience on the shuttle program, according to Mike Kahn, vice president of space launch systems for ATK.
"But now that we know the configuration of the Ares rocket, we can put instrumentation with better fidelity so we know what kind of vibrations are going to be induced on the system," Kahn told Aerospace Daily. The test also will evaluate some long-lead materials that are slated for use on Ares.
ATK tests full-scale RSRMs roughly twice a year at its Promontory, Utah test site. While the tests are sponsored by the shuttle program, ATK also uses them to gather data on Ares' largely similar systems. The first flight of the Ares will be the so-called "Ares I-X" test in April 2009, although that will use only a four-segment RSRM. ATK will begin tests of the five-segment RSRM around that same time. The only previous five-segment test was in October 2003.
Another test objective of the Nov. 1 firing is a "One APU Out" test in which engineers will validate the performance of the rocket's thrust vector control (TVC) system with only one of its two Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) working. The redundant APUs power the hydraulic system that gimbals the rocket's nozzle during ascent.
Eighteen seconds into the two-minute burn, the team will simulate an APU failing, to make sure a single APU is enough to turn the nozzle. "Now the analysis ... early in the [shuttle] program in the 80s shows that will work, but we've never actually had an APU go out on the shuttle program and we've never actually shut one off during a ground test," Kahn said.
Since the Ares I will use the same skirt and TVC system as the shuttle, "obviously the value of that knowledge is certainly applicable to Ares," he said.
The issue of whether the TVC system is capable enough to keep the rocket stable as it rises has been put to bed by previous tests, according to Kahn. Engineers have calculated that the current RSRM TVC system has twice the capability that should be needed to keep the Ares I flying straight, he said.

SpaceNut · 2007-10-22 19:57:06

There has already been a test of this a long time ago with the 4 segment and we talked about how the unit could measure anything if it is hard bolted down to the test stand, I thinkI meantioned that there would be a need for strain gages to allow for the measurement.

It may be in one of the SRB threads...

cIclops · 2007-10-23 03:34:08

Yes that's right, ATK will use their next scheduled RSRB test to do more measurements for Ares I.

cIclops · 2007-10-27 15:13:39

From Exploration briefing charts - 22 Oct 2007

Exploration Briefing video 45:56 mins

cIclops · 2007-10-29 08:18:05

From Baseline configuration (PDF) - 19 Oct 2007

Note payload reserves on both ISS and Exploration (Lunar) Mission and the new LAS adapter cone.

cIclops · 2007-11-01 00:58:05

Ares Quarterly Progress Report #6 - real video (5:19 mins) - October 2007

Many new video segments showing:

o First stage re-entry and stage separation wind tunnel testing
o First stage pilot and main parachute tests
o Upper stage panel demonstration tests
o Friction stir welding tests for lightweight fuel tanks
o J-2X high altitude/orbital A3 test stand construction and defuser preparation work
o J-2X sea level A1 test stand modifications
o J-2X powerpack installation, injector and materials testing

gaetanomarano · 2007-11-01 04:58:11

IIRC... NASA has claimed months ago to adopt ONLY the METRIC system... so, why do we STILL see "lbs.", "ft", "nmi", etc. in its documents?

cIclops · 2007-11-01 06:01:13

Good question. IIRC it should be NASA policy to use SI units for exploration projects and (to give imperial units in brackets like this).

cIclops · 2007-11-01 16:43:01

Successful Rocket Motor Test - 1 Nov 2007

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - NASA's Space Shuttle Program successfully fired a four-segment reusable solid rocket motor Thursday, Nov. 1, at a Utah test facility. The two-minute test provided important information for continued launches of the shuttle and for development of the Ares I rocket, a key component of NASA's Constellation Program that will launch the Orion crew vehicle on missions to the moon.
The static firing of the full-scale motor was performed at 1 p.m. MDT at ATK Launch Systems Group, a Promontory, Utah-based unit of Alliant Techsystems Inc., where the shuttle's solid rocket motors are manufactured. Preliminary indications are that all test objectives for shuttle and Ares I were met.
The test evaluation motor, or TEM-13, burned for approximately 123 seconds, the same time each reusable solid rocket motor burns during a space shuttle launch. The Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages these tests to qualify any proposed changes to the rocket motor and to determine whether new materials perform as well as those now in use.
"Full-scale static testing such as this is a key element of the 'test before you fly' standard and ensures continued quality and performance," said Jody Singer, deputy manager of the Shuttle Propulsion Office at Marshall.
One test objective was to demonstrate the thrust vector control system operation using only one of two hydraulic power units. The vector control, part of the flight control system, directs the thrust of the two solid rocket booster nozzles to control shuttle attitude and trajectory during liftoff and ascent. During a shuttle launch, both hydraulic power units run and provide backup power to thrust vector control actuators. The test with only one hydraulic power unit will validate the system's redundancy capability and operating performance data.
Another test objective was to measure the external sound or acoustics created when the motor ignites. More than 25 microphones were located near the motor to record the data from the firing. This information will be used to predict the motor's acoustic effects and aid in the final design of the launch structure for Ares I.
After final test data are analyzed, NASA will publish results for each objective in a report available later this year.

RedStreak · 2007-11-04 12:06:34

More from your 'other' Ares-1 post gaetanomarano:

there are NO advantages but ONLY giant costs and longer timeline to fly
as explained in my "Super SLV" article, NASA can use three standard SRB (to, also, cover the 13 mT lack of payload of the current AresV design).

...and 3 standard SRBs are heavier than 2 5-segments. AND if it's timelines you're worried about, it'll take ALOT longer to redesign fuel tanks to handle 3 segments including aerodynamic studies, wind tunnels.

I think for my taxpayer dollars I'd want the Ares V rather than settling for a mutant shuttle-C.

RedStreak · 2007-11-04 12:09:50

IIRC... NASA has claimed months ago to adopt ONLY the METRIC system... so, why do we STILL see "lbs.", "ft", "nmi", etc. in its documents?

This might actually be a good point in light of the infamous dual-crap-up of the Mars '98 probes.

Trick was it was Lockheed and the aerospace industry at fault, not NASA or the designers. Likely the past embarrassment has NASA being more strict on them.

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#401 2007-09-20 12:30:36

Re: Ares I (CLV) - status

#402 2007-09-26 04:58:10

Re: Ares I (CLV) - status

#403 2007-10-01 09:44:18

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#404 2007-10-01 11:56:05

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#405 2007-10-02 14:19:34

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#406 2007-10-02 19:33:59

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#407 2007-10-04 13:05:27

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#408 2007-10-06 22:35:03

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#409 2007-10-07 01:08:38

Re: Ares I (CLV) - status

#410 2007-10-07 03:15:44

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#411 2007-10-07 03:49:44

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#412 2007-10-08 10:16:47

Re: Ares I (CLV) - status

#413 2007-10-20 12:30:16

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#414 2007-10-21 23:44:16

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#415 2007-10-22 12:09:04

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#416 2007-10-22 19:57:06

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#417 2007-10-23 03:34:08

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#418 2007-10-27 15:13:39

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#419 2007-10-29 08:18:05

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#420 2007-11-01 00:58:05

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#421 2007-11-01 04:58:11

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#422 2007-11-01 06:01:13

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#423 2007-11-01 16:43:01

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#424 2007-11-04 12:06:34

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#425 2007-11-04 12:09:50

Re: Ares I (CLV) - status

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