By IB Times Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IB's RSS feed
September 1, 2010 11:51 AM EDT
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and ATK Aerospace Systems completed a two-minute, full-scale test of the largest and most powerful solid-fueled rocket engine designed for flight, which could power future heavy-lift launch vehicle designs.
The solid rocket was built as an element of NASA's Constellation Program and is managed by the Ares Projects Office. ATK Aerospace Systems is the prime contractor. After some more tests, the first-stage solid rocket motor will be certified to fly at temperatures of 40 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
The stationary firing of the first-stage development rocket, dubbed DM-2, was conducted by ATK, a division of Alliant Techsystems of Brigham City, Utah. DM-2 is the most heavily instrumented solid rocket motor in NASA history with a total of 53 test objectives measured through more than 760 instruments.
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The solid rocket motor was cooled, prior to the static test, to 40 degrees Fahrenheit to verify the performance of new materials and assess motor performance at low temperatures during the full-duration test. Initial test data showed the motor performance met all expectations.
“For every few degrees the temperature rises, solid propellant burns slightly faster and only through robust ground testing can we understand how material and motor performance is impacted by different operating conditions. Ground-testing at temperature extremes pushes this system to its limits, which advances our understanding of five-segment solid rocket motor performance,” said Alex Priskos, first stage manager for Ares Projects at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.
The first-stage rocket is designed to generate up to 3.6-million pounds of thrust at launch. Information collected from this test, together with data from the first development motor test last year, will be evaluated to better understand the performance and reliability of the design.
Although similar to the solid rocket boosters that help power the space shuttle to orbit, the five-segment development motor includes several upgrades and improvements implemented by NASA and ATK engineers.
Motor upgrades from a shuttle booster include the addition of a fifth segment, a larger nozzle throat, and upgraded insulation and liner. The motor cases are flight-proven hardware used on shuttle launches for more than three decades. The cases used in this ground test have collectively launched 59 previous missions.
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