As part of NASA’s plan to revisit the Moon, Marshall Space Flight Center Engineers oversaw the freefall test of a 50,000-pound simulated rocket booster on the Arizona desert by U.S. Air Force test pilots. The Ares booster recovery parachute system successfully stopped the jettisoned booster from crashing. Testing for all components will continue throughout 2009, each with greater payload weight.
When the current Space Shuttles are retired, they will be replaced by the Constellation Program, which includes the Altair Lunar Lander, the Orion crew spacecraft, the Ares V launch vehicle and the Ares I rocket. Every component of the parachute system for the Ares I must be highly dependable, since NASA plans to recover and re-use the moon rocket’s booster stage after each mission.
To slow the Ares I rockets, small pilot chutes draw out the giant drogue chute, 68-feet in diameter, and designed to orient the booster vertically during descent. A cluster of three main parachutes then deploy to carry the booster to the ground, preventing lethal impact.
The test required a 50,000 pound substitute for the spent Ares booster, which Boeing records as the heaviest payload every carried by it’s C-17 Globemaster III, the airplane used to fly the test from 25,000 feet up at 175 knots.
The drogue chute successfully slowed the steel payload, and the main chutes deployed, leaving the dummy rocket free of damage and ready for re-use. The “fake booster” has adjustable space for additional weight to be added in subsequent tests, and will be used again for parachute testing at 70,000, 77,000, 85,000, and eventually 90,000-pound payloads.
Lead Pilot Major Mark Jones led the 9-man crew, mostly from the USAF 418th Flight Test Squadron. Co-Pilot Frank Batteas of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force base in California said the collaborative effort included participation from NASA, the Air Force, the Army and Boeing. Component subcontractors include ATK Launch Systems and the United Space Alliance.
"When you see that mammoth payload plunge Earthward and then slow as the chutes deploy, it is exciting to see it work,” says Batteas. “With each test there are many lessons learned which make it safer for the next test – and take us that much closer to the Moon."
Why the moon? Some critics say the moon is conquered territory, considering the United States put 12 men there for exploration and sampling between 1969 and 1972. However, scientists still don’t know as much as they would like about Earth’s lone satellite and insist that much remains unexplored.
To give some perspective, consider that the Moon’s surface area is about that of the North and South American continents combined. If you mapped the six Apollo landing sites over a map of the United States, it would include two landings in Texas, one in Alabama, one in north Georgia, one in Ohio and one in Wisconsin. If you combined all the hours/minutes the astronauts actually worked on the surface, it would come to about six days total.
Would you say you knew everything about America by spending six days in five states?
Reaching planet Mars may be contingent on the successful set up and operation of a permanent Moon base. Ares I will transport crew to the International Space Station by 2014, and the first lunar return is estimated for the year 2020.
Pictures:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/13mar_superchute.htm
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