NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis at Launch Pad for Hubble Mission
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- After safely reaching its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Atlantis now awaits liftoff for its target May 12 STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis arrived at Launch Pad 39A at approximately 9:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday on top of a giant crawler-transporter. The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 3:54 a.m., traveling less than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The shuttle was secured on the launch pad at 11:17 a.m. Atlantis' 11-day mission is the final shuttle flight to Hubble.
During five spacewalks, the shuttle's seven astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and replace other Hubble components. The Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit that will be installed in the telescope arrived at Kennedy on Monday. The new unit will replace the one in Hubble that stopped working in September 2008 and delayed the servicing mission. The result of the upgrades will be six working, complementary science instruments with capabilities beyond those now available and an extended operational lifespan of the telescope through at least 2014.
Scott Altman will command Atlantis. Gregory C. Johnson will be the pilot. The Mission Specialists will be John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Megan McArthur, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good. STS-125 is the 126th shuttle flight, the 30th flight for Atlantis and the fifth Hubble servicing mission.
Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to roll out to Kennedy's other launch pad, 39B, on Thursday, April 17. Endeavour will be prepared for liftoff in the unlikely event that a rescue mission is necessary following Atlantis' launch. After Atlantis is cleared to land, Endeavour will move to Launch Pad 39A for its upcoming STS-127 mission to the International Space Station, targeted to launch in mid-June. Endeavour will roll over from Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility 2 to the Vehicle Assembly Building on April 10. In the assembly building, crews will attach the spacecraft to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters in preparations for its move to pad 39B.
NASA managers decided to proceed with the dual-pad approach after carefully reviewing the manifest options to complete the International Space Station and to ensure it is in the most robust condition possible following shuttle retirement. The dual-pad approach requires one month less processing time than the single-pad approach and will help complete both STS-125 and STS-127.
Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Exposed Facility and make the space station more robust to support cargo delivery for a six-person crew. The Space Shuttle Program will continue to work with the Constellation Program to minimize the impact on the Ares I-X test flight which will use Launch Pad 39B later this year.
For STS-125 and STS-127 souvenirs and a whole lot more visit the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store
Showing posts with label spaceboosters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spaceboosters. Show all posts
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Astronaut James Lovell
NASA Honours Gemini and Apollo Astronaut James Lovell
WASHINGTON -- NASA will honour astronaut James "Jim" Lovell, Jr., with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his contributions to the U.S. space program. During a ceremony Friday, April 3, Lovell will accept the award at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in Lexington Park, Md., and present it to the museum for display. NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America's goal of going to the moon. The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite, mounted for public display. The rock is part of the 842 pounds of lunar samples collected during six Apollo expeditions from 1969 to 1972. Lovell was born in Cleveland and received his bachelor's degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1952. He spent four years as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center, now the Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
Lovell was the pilot for the Gemini 7 mission and the command pilot for Gemini 12.
He and fellow crewmen, Frank Borman and William A. Anders, became the first humans to leave the Earth's gravitational influence and travel to the moon during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. On Lovell's fourth mission, he was the commander of Apollo 13.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Spaceboosters - STS 119 Mission Report #3
Monday, March 16, 2009Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
STS-119 Mission Report #03
Space Shuttle Discovery’s first full day in space focused on an up close inspection of its wing leading edge panels using the robotic arm and Orbiter Boom Sensor System extension. Combined with video documentation on launch day and photographs taken by the International Space Station crew when Discovery approaches on Tuesday afternoon, imagery experts will analyze the photographs and video to assess the health of the shuttle’s Thermal Protection System for reentry. The five-hour inspection today paralleled work by the seven crew members onboard to prepare for the docking Tuesday planned for 4:13 p.m. Some of that work included pre-positioning transfer items and checking out spacesuits that will be used during the three spacewalks planned while Discovery is docked. In preparation for docking, the crew tested rendezvous equipment, installed an Orbiter Docking System “centerline” camera and extended the docking ring atop the docking system before going to bed just before 1 a.m. Tuesday. The shuttle crew includes Koichi Wakata – Japanese astronaut on his third mission – who will become the newest station crew member after docking and hatch opening. He will replace Sandy Magnus who returns home after four months aboard the station. On board the space station, Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineers Yury Lonchakov and Magnus prepared for Discovery’s arrival by reviewing procedures they will use to capture images of Discovery as it approaches and conducts a backflip exposing its underside tiles to the paparazzi armed with long-range lenses inside the station. At about 4:30 Monday afternoon, trajectory experts called off the need for a station maneuver to avoid a piece of space debris when calculations showed it would pass harmlessly by the complex. The next status report will be issued after crew wake-up at 8:43 a.m. Tuesday, or before, if events warrant.
SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store
STS-119 Mission Report #03
Space Shuttle Discovery’s first full day in space focused on an up close inspection of its wing leading edge panels using the robotic arm and Orbiter Boom Sensor System extension. Combined with video documentation on launch day and photographs taken by the International Space Station crew when Discovery approaches on Tuesday afternoon, imagery experts will analyze the photographs and video to assess the health of the shuttle’s Thermal Protection System for reentry. The five-hour inspection today paralleled work by the seven crew members onboard to prepare for the docking Tuesday planned for 4:13 p.m. Some of that work included pre-positioning transfer items and checking out spacesuits that will be used during the three spacewalks planned while Discovery is docked. In preparation for docking, the crew tested rendezvous equipment, installed an Orbiter Docking System “centerline” camera and extended the docking ring atop the docking system before going to bed just before 1 a.m. Tuesday. The shuttle crew includes Koichi Wakata – Japanese astronaut on his third mission – who will become the newest station crew member after docking and hatch opening. He will replace Sandy Magnus who returns home after four months aboard the station. On board the space station, Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineers Yury Lonchakov and Magnus prepared for Discovery’s arrival by reviewing procedures they will use to capture images of Discovery as it approaches and conducts a backflip exposing its underside tiles to the paparazzi armed with long-range lenses inside the station. At about 4:30 Monday afternoon, trajectory experts called off the need for a station maneuver to avoid a piece of space debris when calculations showed it would pass harmlessly by the complex. The next status report will be issued after crew wake-up at 8:43 a.m. Tuesday, or before, if events warrant.
SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store
Spaceboosters - STS 119 Mission Report #2
March 16, 2009Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
STS-119 Report #02
The astronauts on board space shuttle Discovery plan a day of orbiter inspection on their way to deliver a new set of solar arrays to the International Space Station. The crew was awakened at 9:13 a.m. CDT to the sounds of “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, played for Pilot Tony Antonelli. First up for Antonelli and Commander Lee Archambault is a planned firing of the shuttle’s orbital maneuvering system engines to refine its approach to the station for Tuesday’s planned docking at 4:13 p.m. Then, Antonelli joins Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba and John Phillips to begin inspection of critical elements of Discovery’s heat shield. The astronauts use the shuttle robot arm to lift the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) from the starboard sill of the payload bay and move it into position to examine the reinforced carbon-carbon panels that line the leading edges of both wings and the orbiter’s nose cap. Data gathered by the OBSS sensor packages is transmitted to Earth for review by specialists looking for evidence of damage caused by debris during the shuttle’s Sunday evening climb into orbit. Also on tap for Monday are checkouts of the spacesuits to be worn by Acaba and Mission Specialists Steve Swanson and Richard Arnold during the three spacewalks they’re to conduct from the International Space Station. The crew also will prepare the orbiter docking system and a suite of rendezvous tools they’ll use during Tuesday’s approach to the station. International Space Station Commander Mike Fincke and flight engineers Yury Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus are scheduled to spend today getting ready for the arrival of Discovery, which is delivering Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata to take over for Magnus; she’ll come home with the shuttle crew later this month after some four months in orbit. Along with the S6 Truss element and another set of U.S. solar array wings, Discovery’s crew is delivering a new distillation assembly to get the station’s water recycling system up to full operation for a doubling of the station’s crew size later this summer.
STS-119 Official Crew Portrait
Spaceboosters Online Store
STS-119 Report #02
The astronauts on board space shuttle Discovery plan a day of orbiter inspection on their way to deliver a new set of solar arrays to the International Space Station. The crew was awakened at 9:13 a.m. CDT to the sounds of “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, played for Pilot Tony Antonelli. First up for Antonelli and Commander Lee Archambault is a planned firing of the shuttle’s orbital maneuvering system engines to refine its approach to the station for Tuesday’s planned docking at 4:13 p.m. Then, Antonelli joins Mission Specialists Joseph Acaba and John Phillips to begin inspection of critical elements of Discovery’s heat shield. The astronauts use the shuttle robot arm to lift the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) from the starboard sill of the payload bay and move it into position to examine the reinforced carbon-carbon panels that line the leading edges of both wings and the orbiter’s nose cap. Data gathered by the OBSS sensor packages is transmitted to Earth for review by specialists looking for evidence of damage caused by debris during the shuttle’s Sunday evening climb into orbit. Also on tap for Monday are checkouts of the spacesuits to be worn by Acaba and Mission Specialists Steve Swanson and Richard Arnold during the three spacewalks they’re to conduct from the International Space Station. The crew also will prepare the orbiter docking system and a suite of rendezvous tools they’ll use during Tuesday’s approach to the station. International Space Station Commander Mike Fincke and flight engineers Yury Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus are scheduled to spend today getting ready for the arrival of Discovery, which is delivering Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata to take over for Magnus; she’ll come home with the shuttle crew later this month after some four months in orbit. Along with the S6 Truss element and another set of U.S. solar array wings, Discovery’s crew is delivering a new distillation assembly to get the station’s water recycling system up to full operation for a doubling of the station’s crew size later this summer.
STS-119 Official Crew Portrait
Spaceboosters Online Store
Spaceboosters - STS 119 Mission Report #1
7 p.m. CDT Sunday, March 15, 2009Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
03.15.09
STS-119 Status Report #01
Space shuttle Discovery blasted off Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center on the first shuttle flight of the year, lighting up the skies along the Eastern seaboard on a mission to deliver a fourth and final set of U.S. solar arrays that will put the International Space Station into full-power status. Commander Lee Archambault, Pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata began their journey at 6:43 p.m. CDT. Less than nine minutes later, Discovery and its seven crew members reached their preliminary orbit and began to stow gear and prepare for the opening of the shuttle’s cargo bay doors. At the time of Discovery’s launch, the International Space Station flew 220 miles above Tasmania just south of the Australian continent. The station crew, Commander Mike Fincke and flight engineers Yury Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus, watched the launch on a special television feed from Mission Control. Wakata will become a station crew member Tuesday evening to begin a three-month stay shortly after docking. He will replace Magnus, who will return to Earth aboard Discovery to end her four-month stay in space. Wakata is scheduled to spend a little more than three months on the orbital complex. Discovery took flight after engineers fixed a gaseous hydrogen leak in a vent line for the shuttle’s external tank that forced a postponement last Wednesday. Today, there were no issues as Discovery was fueled for the start of its 36th mission under cloudless skies. During the 13-day flight, Swanson, Arnold and Acaba will rotate assignments on three spacewalks. The first, by Swanson and Arnold Thursday has them assist with installation of the 16-ton S6 truss element and its solar arrays onto the end of the station’s starboard truss. Discovery’s crew will deliver a replacement distillation assembly for the station’s water recycling system, and help the Expedition 18 crew prepare for doubling of the station’s crew size later this summer. The crew will begin a sleep period just after 1 a.m. Monday and awaken at 9:13 a.m. The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wakeup, or earlier if events warrant.
Visit the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store
03.15.09
STS-119 Status Report #01
Space shuttle Discovery blasted off Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center on the first shuttle flight of the year, lighting up the skies along the Eastern seaboard on a mission to deliver a fourth and final set of U.S. solar arrays that will put the International Space Station into full-power status. Commander Lee Archambault, Pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists Joseph Acaba, John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Richard Arnold and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata began their journey at 6:43 p.m. CDT. Less than nine minutes later, Discovery and its seven crew members reached their preliminary orbit and began to stow gear and prepare for the opening of the shuttle’s cargo bay doors. At the time of Discovery’s launch, the International Space Station flew 220 miles above Tasmania just south of the Australian continent. The station crew, Commander Mike Fincke and flight engineers Yury Lonchakov and Sandra Magnus, watched the launch on a special television feed from Mission Control. Wakata will become a station crew member Tuesday evening to begin a three-month stay shortly after docking. He will replace Magnus, who will return to Earth aboard Discovery to end her four-month stay in space. Wakata is scheduled to spend a little more than three months on the orbital complex. Discovery took flight after engineers fixed a gaseous hydrogen leak in a vent line for the shuttle’s external tank that forced a postponement last Wednesday. Today, there were no issues as Discovery was fueled for the start of its 36th mission under cloudless skies. During the 13-day flight, Swanson, Arnold and Acaba will rotate assignments on three spacewalks. The first, by Swanson and Arnold Thursday has them assist with installation of the 16-ton S6 truss element and its solar arrays onto the end of the station’s starboard truss. Discovery’s crew will deliver a replacement distillation assembly for the station’s water recycling system, and help the Expedition 18 crew prepare for doubling of the station’s crew size later this summer. The crew will begin a sleep period just after 1 a.m. Monday and awaken at 9:13 a.m. The next shuttle status report will be issued after crew wakeup, or earlier if events warrant.
Visit the SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Hubble Photographs Another World
First Snap shots of a planet circling another star!!
Image above: Artist's concept of the star Fomalhaut and the Jupiter-type planet that the Hubble Space Telescope observed. A ring of debris appears to surround Fomalhaut as well. The planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the 200-million-year-old star every 872 years. Credit: ESA, NASA, and L. Calcada (ESO for STScI)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star.Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish."
Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS.
In 2004, the coronagraph in the High Resolution Camera on Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys produced the first-ever resolved visible-light image of the region around Fomalhaut. It clearly showed a ring of protoplanetary debris approximately 21.5 billion miles across and having a sharp inner edge.
This large debris disk is similar to the Kuiper Belt, which encircles the solar system and contains a range of icy bodies from dust grains to objects the size of dwarf planets, such as Pluto.
Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley, and team members proposed in 2005 that the ring was being gravitationally modified by a planet lying between the star and the ring's inner edge.
Circumstantial evidence came from Hubble's confirmation that the ring is offset from the center of the star. The sharp inner edge of the ring is also consistent with the presence of a planet that gravitationally "shepherds" ring particles. Independent researchers have subsequently reached similar conclusions.
Now, Hubble has actually photographed a point source of light lying 1.8 billion miles inside the ring's inner edge. The results are being reported in the November 14 issue of Science magazine."Our Hubble observations were incredibly demanding. Fomalhaut b is 1 billion times fainter than the star. We began this program in 2001, and our persistence finally paid off," Kalas says."
Fomalhaut is the gift that keeps on giving. Following the unexpected discovery of its dust ring, we have now found an exoplanet at a location suggested by analysis of the dust ring's shape. The lesson for exoplanet hunters is 'follow the dust,'" said team member Mark Clampin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Observations taken 21 months apart by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys' coronagraph show that the object is moving along a path around the star, and is therefore gravitationally bound to it. The planet is 10.7 billion miles from the star, or about 10 times the distance of the planet Saturn from our sun.
The planet is brighter than expected for an object of three Jupiter masses. One possibility is that it has a Saturn-like ring of ice and dust reflecting starlight. The ring might eventually coalesce to form moons. The ring's estimated size is comparable to the region around Jupiter and its four largest orbiting satellites.
Kalas and his team first used Hubble to photograph Fomalhaut in 2004, and made the unexpected discovery of its debris disk, which scatters Fomalhaut's starlight. At the time they noted a few bright sources in the image as planet candidates. A follow-up image in 2006 showed that one of the objects is moving through space with Fomalhaut but changed position relative to the ring since the 2004 exposure. The amount of displacement between the two exposures corresponds to an 872-year-long orbit as calculated from Kepler's laws of planetary motion.
Future observations will attempt to see the planet in infrared light and will look for evidence of water vapor clouds in the atmosphere. This would yield clues to the evolution of a comparatively newborn 100-million-year-old planet. Astrometric measurements of the planet's orbit will provide enough precision to yield an accurate mass.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2013 will be able to make coronagraphic observations of Fomalhaut in the near- and mid-infrared. Webb will be able to hunt for other planets in the system and probe the region interior to the dust ring for structures such as an inner asteroid belt.
J.D. Harrington NASA Headquarters
J.D. Harrington NASA Headquarters
Ray Villard Space Telescope Science Institute
Sunday, 14 September 2008
NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour
NASA'S Space Shuttle Endeavour To Move To Launch Pad Sept. 18
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, Sept. 18, in preparation for shuttle Atlantis' mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
Endeavour will stand by in the unlikely event a rescue mission is necessary following Atlantis' launch, which is targeted for Oct. 10. After Endeavour is cleared from its duty as a rescue vehicle, it will move to Launch Pad 39A for the upcoming STS-126 mission to the International Space Station. That flight is targeted for launch Nov. 12.
On Thursday, Endeavour rolled over from Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building. There, Endeavour will be attached to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters to prepare for its move to the pad. The first motion of the shuttle toward the launch pad Sept. 18 is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. EDT.
The fully assembled space shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external tank and twin solid rocket boosters, will be delivered to the pad atop a crawler-transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The process is expected to take approximately seven hours.
Spaceman
Spaceboosters Online Store
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, Sept. 18, in preparation for shuttle Atlantis' mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
Endeavour will stand by in the unlikely event a rescue mission is necessary following Atlantis' launch, which is targeted for Oct. 10. After Endeavour is cleared from its duty as a rescue vehicle, it will move to Launch Pad 39A for the upcoming STS-126 mission to the International Space Station. That flight is targeted for launch Nov. 12.
On Thursday, Endeavour rolled over from Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building. There, Endeavour will be attached to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters to prepare for its move to the pad. The first motion of the shuttle toward the launch pad Sept. 18 is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. EDT.
The fully assembled space shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external tank and twin solid rocket boosters, will be delivered to the pad atop a crawler-transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The process is expected to take approximately seven hours.
Spaceman
Spaceboosters Online Store
Saturday, 19 July 2008
I'll Be Back, Schwarzenegger, NASA
Schwarzenegger Visits Ames Research Center
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and NASA Ames Research Center Director S. Pete Worden examine hyperwall-2, a state-of-the-art visualization system developed at Ames. Hyperwall-2 is one of the largest displays in the world and is used by scientists for data interpretation.
Schwarzenegger visited Ames July 14, 2008, for a behind-the-scenes tour and briefings about NASA's support to firefighters battling California wildfires. Ames scientists are partnering with colleagues at Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., to send NASA¹s remotely piloted Ikhana aircraft on reconnaissance flights using sophisticated visual and thermal sensors to provide up-to-the-minute information to firefighters in the field.
Image Credit: NASA/Eric James
Bye for now
Nick
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
NASA's Airbag Drop Tests in Full Swing
06.25.08
"Three...two…one…release!" shouts Scott Runnells, a NASA lead technician, prompting a 16,000 pound (7,257 kg) test apparatus to swing down to Earth from nearly 40 feet in the air.
Second generation airbag drop testing is underway at the 240-foot-tall (73 m) Landing and Impact Research Facility, also known as "the gantry," at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Engineers and technicians examine the impact on airbags after these pendulum swing drop tests to help further research on a contingency land landing system for Orion, NASA's new crew exploration vehicle.
Now under development, Orion will be America's next crewed spacecraft, designed to fly to the International Space Station and be part of the space flight system to conduct sustained human exploration of the moon. While it is early in the design process and plans could change, NASA currently is working toward a splashdown landing for Orion.
The agency also is preparing for scenarios that could reroute the spacecraft during its return to Earth. In the event that a pad abort occurs -- and the crew module is rapidly propelled away from the Ares I rocket while still on the launch pad -- wind could catch Orion's parachutes in its descent and blow it back toward the shore.
"Although an unlikely scenario, the possibility of wind blowing Orion back to land from its intended water target during a pad abort can't be dismissed," Barry Bryant, project manager for the Orion Landing System Advanced Development Project, said.
For this reason, NASA is developing the contingency land landing system, which consists of two airbag assemblies called "leading edge airbags" that will wrap around the front edge of the Orion crew module.
"After a pad abort, you're really not sure if you're going to hit water or land, so if you have different landing architectures -- for example one hang angle for water and a different hang angle for land -- you don't know how to throw the switch on a pad abort because you can't be certain as to which [kind of] landing you're going to have," Bryant said.
This scenario led to NASA's goal of developing a singular landing system that will work for both land and water landings. Since Orion's intended landing site is water, the spacecraft will descend at an angle in its return to Earth. With the design of the airbags, the contingency land landing system will support a touchdown on land even though Orion is coming down at an angle.
"If we have a contingency land landing system that has a low risk of injury, now whether you land on water or land, you've got the same low risk for the crew," Bryant said.
"Now the people that make the decision about how to reenter in the case of an emergency situation don't have to add the choice between land or water to their complex, critical thinking because they've got a vehicle that can land in either spot," he said.
Although in the beginning stages, preparations for the development of a contingency land landing system are progressing quickly.
While the airbag drop tests were originally planned to provide research for a nominal land landing, NASA engineers are using the demonstrations to prove out the design and the fabrication techniques that will be used on contingency land landing airbags.
After second generation testing wraps up this summer, tests specifically for the contingency land landing system will begin.
Airbag vendors Airborne Systems and ILC Dover are working together to build a full-scale prototype of the contingency land landing airbag assembly and to demonstrate an in-house deployment.
Following further designs of the airbag assembly, NASA will test a contingency land landing airbag at the 72-foot (22 m) Vertical Drop Tower and the 20-foot (6 m) Vertical Spin Tunnel at Langley. Engineers will subsequently conduct full-scale drop tests similar to demonstrations being performed today -- only this time they will use the newly-designed leading edge airbags.
Emily Outen
NASA Langley Research Center
Bye for now,
Nick
SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store
06.25.08
"Three...two…one…release!" shouts Scott Runnells, a NASA lead technician, prompting a 16,000 pound (7,257 kg) test apparatus to swing down to Earth from nearly 40 feet in the air.
Second generation airbag drop testing is underway at the 240-foot-tall (73 m) Landing and Impact Research Facility, also known as "the gantry," at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Engineers and technicians examine the impact on airbags after these pendulum swing drop tests to help further research on a contingency land landing system for Orion, NASA's new crew exploration vehicle.
Now under development, Orion will be America's next crewed spacecraft, designed to fly to the International Space Station and be part of the space flight system to conduct sustained human exploration of the moon. While it is early in the design process and plans could change, NASA currently is working toward a splashdown landing for Orion.
The agency also is preparing for scenarios that could reroute the spacecraft during its return to Earth. In the event that a pad abort occurs -- and the crew module is rapidly propelled away from the Ares I rocket while still on the launch pad -- wind could catch Orion's parachutes in its descent and blow it back toward the shore.
"Although an unlikely scenario, the possibility of wind blowing Orion back to land from its intended water target during a pad abort can't be dismissed," Barry Bryant, project manager for the Orion Landing System Advanced Development Project, said.
For this reason, NASA is developing the contingency land landing system, which consists of two airbag assemblies called "leading edge airbags" that will wrap around the front edge of the Orion crew module.
"After a pad abort, you're really not sure if you're going to hit water or land, so if you have different landing architectures -- for example one hang angle for water and a different hang angle for land -- you don't know how to throw the switch on a pad abort because you can't be certain as to which [kind of] landing you're going to have," Bryant said.
This scenario led to NASA's goal of developing a singular landing system that will work for both land and water landings. Since Orion's intended landing site is water, the spacecraft will descend at an angle in its return to Earth. With the design of the airbags, the contingency land landing system will support a touchdown on land even though Orion is coming down at an angle.
"If we have a contingency land landing system that has a low risk of injury, now whether you land on water or land, you've got the same low risk for the crew," Bryant said.
"Now the people that make the decision about how to reenter in the case of an emergency situation don't have to add the choice between land or water to their complex, critical thinking because they've got a vehicle that can land in either spot," he said.
Although in the beginning stages, preparations for the development of a contingency land landing system are progressing quickly.
While the airbag drop tests were originally planned to provide research for a nominal land landing, NASA engineers are using the demonstrations to prove out the design and the fabrication techniques that will be used on contingency land landing airbags.
After second generation testing wraps up this summer, tests specifically for the contingency land landing system will begin.
Airbag vendors Airborne Systems and ILC Dover are working together to build a full-scale prototype of the contingency land landing airbag assembly and to demonstrate an in-house deployment.
Following further designs of the airbag assembly, NASA will test a contingency land landing airbag at the 72-foot (22 m) Vertical Drop Tower and the 20-foot (6 m) Vertical Spin Tunnel at Langley. Engineers will subsequently conduct full-scale drop tests similar to demonstrations being performed today -- only this time they will use the newly-designed leading edge airbags.
Emily Outen
NASA Langley Research Center
Bye for now,
Nick
SPACEBOOSTERS Online Store
Thursday, 22 May 2008
Phoenix Set for Challenging Mars Landing on May 25
NASA's newest Mars lander arrives at the red planet on May 25th 2008 to uncover clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the Martian arctic.
After a journey of 10-months and more than 400 million miles, Phoenix arrives at the Red Planet just before 8 p.m. EDT this Sunday, beginning its study of water and possible conditions for life in the Martian arctic
NASA News Releases
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA news briefings, live commentary and updates before and after the scheduled Sunday, May 25 arrival of the agency's Phoenix Mars Lander will be available on NASA Television and on the Web. Entry, descent and landing begins at 4:46 p.m. PDT on May 25, when the flight team listens for radio signals indicating that Phoenix has entered the top of the Martian atmosphere.
The spacecraft must perform a series of challenging transformations and activities during the seven minutes after it enters the atmosphere to slow it from 12,000 mph to 5 mph and a soft touchdown. The Phoenix team will be watching for radio signals confirming the landing at 4:53 p.m. More than half of previous international attempts to land on Mars have been unsuccessful. For a detailed schedule and landing timeline, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix
The deadline for U.S. journalists to request media credentials to cover the Phoenix mission from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is Tuesday, May 20. Foreign journalists requesting credentials must apply by Friday, May 16. Requests for media credentials must be made online at: https://eis.jpl.nasa.gov/media/index.html
Media wishing to cover the mission from the University of Arizona in Tucson, must apply online at: http://uanews.org/marsmedia
Briefings on mission goals, challenges, status and final trajectory adjustments will originate from JPL on Thursday, May 22, at 11:30 a.m. and on Saturday and Sunday, May 25-26, at noon. On landing day, May 25, live landing commentary will air on NASA TV.
A telecast of mission control -- without roll-in videos and interviews -- will run on NASA TV's Media Channel beginning at 3 p.m. Another telecast with commentary, interviews and videos will begin at 3:30 p.m. on NASA TV's Public Channel.
For more information on NASA TV and this coverage schedule, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.html Both telecasts will continue through landing and will resume at 6:30 p.m. during the period after landing when engineers anticipate the receipt of data and possible images confirming that Phoenix has opened its solar panels successfully. A news briefing at JPL will be held Sunday, May 25 at 9 p.m., following landing and the first possible downlink of images. Briefing updates at JPL also are scheduled on Monday, May 26 at 11 a.m. and on Tuesday, May 27 at 11 a.m. Daily news briefings will continue at 11 a.m. for several days following a successful landing. Mission control and the site for news briefings will then shift to the University of Arizona in Tucson after a determination that the spacecraft is in a safe condition for conducting science operations. The earliest possibility for moving the host site for mission news briefings to the University of Arizona's Space Operations Center is Wednesday, May 28. Mission briefings from Pasadena and Tucson will be carried on NASA TV unless preempted by other NASA events.
For NASA TV streaming video, schedules, and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
Bye for now,
Nick
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)