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 Glenn
Research Center’s Roles and Responsibilities
Overview
NASA’s Glenn Research Center is leading
several major activities in support of the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle
Project. Within the Constellation Program, Ares I is the vehicle that
launches the crew aboard Orion to low Earth orbit (LEO) on its journey
to the International Space Station, the Moon, and eventually Mars.
Glenn and other NASA centers are supporting Marshall Space Flight
Center in their management and development of the Ares I launch vehicle.
Glenn is contributing their skills and competencies in space flight
systems, electrical power, actuation systems, and launch vehicles
to design and test elements of the next launch vehicle.
Ares I is a two-stage launch vehicle. The first stage is a five-segment
solid rocket booster, which propels the entire vehicle (including
Orion) off the launch pad to high altitude. The second stage, referred
to as the upper stage, carries Orion from high altitude to LEO. The
upper stage is a hydrogen/oxygen stage propelled by a single J–2X
engine.
The Ares team at Glenn is responsible
for supporting integrated vehicle analysis, the design and development
of several upper-stage systems, and thermal vacuum testing of the
upper stage J–2X engine. They are also building and testing
hardware components in support of the first Ares test flight—Ares
I–X.
Vehicle Integration
Vehicle integration for Ares I involves establishing
the overall design requirements and evaluating the performance of
all the components of the vehicle working together. Elements of performance
include the ability of the vehicle to carry its load, reach its maximum
velocity, and maintain stability during flight. The overall structural
dynamics, including the environmental impact on crew members, must
also be analyzed. In this area, Glenn is providing integrated and
independent analysis of vehicle trajectory, vehicle control stability,
vehicle dynamics, vehicle sizing, and reliability.
Upper Stage System Design and Development In support of the
Ares I upper stage, Glenn is designing and developing the following
systems:
Thrust vector control (TVC)
system consisting of power and actuation components that control the main engine’s
direction and thrust to steer the vehicle in the right direction
Avionics
– Electrical power system that provides all the electrical
power for the upper stage throughout the entire mission
– Development flight instrumentation (DFI) package consisting
of instrumentation to be flown on initial development flights to
acquire flight data to help validate the vehicle’s performance
– Advanced, miniature leak detection sensors and a sensor
data qualification system
Structures and Thermal
Compartment purge and hazardous
gas leak detection system
Ares I–X Flight Test Scheduled for 2009, Ares I–X
is planned to be the first test flight of the Ares I vehicle. The test
flight objectives are focused on first-stage flight dynamics, controllability,
and separation of the first and upper stages. The Ares I–X flight
will consist of a functional booster stage and an upper stage mass simulator,
which has the same mass as the actual upper stage. By flying the vehicle
through the first stage, the test flight will also verify the performance
and dynamics of the shuttle’s solid rocket booster in “single
stick” arrangement. (The usual shuttle configuration is two
rocket boosters with one external fuel tank.)
In supporting this test flight, Glenn is responsible for the design,
fabrication, and testing of various components of the upper stage
mass simulator, spacecraft adapter, service module, and interstage
(the lower part of the upper stage that separates from the booster).
This flight hardware will be built in-house and tested at Glenn facilities. Read
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Purge System & Hazardous
Gas Detection System |
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Upper stage J-2x engine |
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J-2X Engine |
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Upper stage TVC system |
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Electrical power system
power distribution unit |
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J-2x engine testing
in B-2 Test Facility at Plum Brook Station |
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Test Facility at PlumBrook
Station |
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