Re: OT: Ares engine test

On Sep 11, 2:29 pm, "Keith Willshaw"
<keithnospam@.kwillshaw.demon.co.uk> wrote:
"Andrew Swallow" <am.swal...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:Bo2dnbidxoC1ETfXnZ2dnUVZ8uydnZ2d@xxxxxxxxx

Jack Linthicum wrote:
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/10/nasa-atk-unleash-ares-engine-....

Now the USA has a bigger rocket engine it is cancelling the rocket.

Andrew Swallow

Not according to NASA , have you told them yet ?

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/index.html

Keith

This test was probably meant to influence the panel looking into
NASA's manned flight future. So far the panel has been leaning towards
commercially available rockets, despite none of those being man-rated.
From the local paper.

September 11, 2009

Ares I scores a victory with successful test fire

BY TODD HALVORSON
FLORIDA TODAY

NASA's besieged Ares I program scored a victory Thursday as
manufacturer ATK pulled off the first test-firing of the rocket's
first stage.

Stretched out in a horizontal test stand with hundreds of spectators
watching, the 154-foot rocket stage ignited with a bursting stream of
flame, generating 22-million horsepower and a towering pillar of
exhaust near Promontory, Utah.

The five-segment solid rocket motor shot flame at three times the
speed of sound. The temperature of its plume was 4,500 degrees
Fahrenheit, or two-thirds the temperature on the surface of the sun.

The two-minute test produced 3.6 million pounds of thrust.

"Amazing display of power," said Doug White, vice president of
advanced systems for ATK Space Systems.

NASA is developing the Ares I rocket to launch astronauts and
Orion space capsules on missions to the International Space Station
and the moon.

A Saturn V-class superbooster -- the Ares V -- is being developed to
launch lunar landers, habitats and other heavyweight cargo.

A presidential panel reviewing options for NASA's human space flight
program favors procurment of commercial rockets to launch astronauts.

No current commercial rockets are rated to fly people. But the panel
believes commercial rockets could be fielded faster than the Ares I
and for less money.

NASA is targeting March 2015 for the first piloted Ares I flight. But
the panel anticipates a two- to three-year delay.

The Ares I first stage is an upgraded version of four-segment shuttle
solid rocket boosters, which have chalked up 208 consecutive
successes.

The test-firing, rescheduled after it was called off last month when a
steering nozzle unit failed to start, was the first of seven planned
to qualify the first-stage for flight. The test booster was equipped
with 650 sensors designed to collect performance data.

"That was quite remarkable. This did exactly what we wanted to do,"
said Alex Priskos, first stage manager for NASA's Ares project office.
"We are confident we're going to get all the data we wanted to get out
of the test."

Former NASA astronaut Charlie Precourt was impressed.

"It's a very humbling experience when you think about harnessing the
kind of energy we just unleashed today," said Precourt, vice president
and general manager of space launch systems for ATK. "Our engineers in
the back room are ecstatic. The preliminary indications look
wonderful."

NASA and ATK plan to launch the Ares I-X test rocket Oct. 31 at
Kennedy Space Center. The prototype that will test flight control,
stage separation and parachute recovery systems.

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090911/NEWS01/909110319/1007/news02/Ares+I+scores+a+victory+with+successful+test+fire
.

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