Stennis Space Center
John C. Stennis Space Center prepares for the 21st
century on the heels of an ambitious and unprecedented year for
the men and women in rocket propulsion testing, commercial remote
sensing, and Earth system sciences.
All major test stands are now occupied with rocket engines
for the Space Shuttle, the X-33 and X-34, larger, more powerful
hybrid rocket motors, hydrogen peroxide engines, and other new
rocket engines being tested for private industry. Expansion,
improvements, and modifications to the test stands have been
completed to accommodate increased testing activities.
For the first time in Stennis' history, the center is the
site of an engine assembly facility. The Boeing Company, in an
unprecedented government/industry partnership, opened the RS-68
Engine Assembly Facility in March 2000 that will produce the
latest large, liquid-fueled engine developed at Rocketdyne Propulsion
& Power, a division of Boeing. The new assembly facility
is located at the former Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant at
Stennis. The RS-68 is a 650,000-pound thrust engine that will
power the Delta IV family of expendable launch vehicles.
The single-engine test phase for the XRS-2200 Linear Aerospike
Engine, the engine that will power the X-33 Advanced Technology
Demonstrator, was completed in May 2000. The linear aerospike
engine set a new duration record of 290 seconds in an abbreviated
test at Stennis.
Modifications to the test stand will be made to accommodate
the next phase of testing on two aerospike engines in a flight
configuration, as they will be mounted on the X-33 vehicle. The
dual engine testing will begin in late summer 2000.
Stennis' E-3 test facility is running at full pace, with both
of its testing cells occupied. The facility has tested new hybrid
and hydrogen peroxide rocket technology propulsion systems, including
a small-scale hybrid rocket motor positioned horizontally in
cell one. Testing was also performed in cell two on a low-cost,
upper-stage propulsion system that uses hydrogen peroxide as
the oxidizer propellant.
The first test firing of the 250,000-pound thrust hybrid rocket
motor, the largest hybrid rocket motor yet tested at Stennis,
occurred in July 1999. Longer duration tests were also conducted
on the motor, designed and constructed by a consortium of aerospace
corporations.
The Hybrid Sounding Rocket (HYSR) passed its first ground
test at Stennis in February 2000. The HYSR project was performed
under a Space Act Agreement managed by Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The HYSR, produced by Lockheed
Martin Michoud Operations in New Orleans, is designed for suborbital
space and atmospheric science missions and will also be used
as a flyable testbed for small-scale experiments.
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An ignition
system test of the XRS-2200 Linear Aerospike Engine for the Lockheed
Martin X-33 prototype vehicle was successfully conducted. The
ignition system serves as a kind of "pilot light" to
ignite the combustible propellant and oxidizer and literally
"light" the engine. |
NASA's Commercial Remote Sensing Program (CRSP) at Stennis
is continuing to explore new ways of doing business to develop
faster, better, and cheaper methods of acquiring data for scientific
research and to make the results available to the public. The
CSRP and its partners, have recently developed a new website
devoted to sharing the practical uses of Global Positioning System
(GPS) technology, called the GPS Application Exchange. The GPS
Application Exchange was developed at Stennis by NASA, members
of the U.S. GPS Industry Council, and the RAND Corporation. The
website can be found at http://gpshome.ssc.nasa.gov.
From aiding the visually impaired in France to improving the
efficiency and safety of taxicab service in Australia, GPS has
the ability to touch our everyday lives. Using survey systems
that incorporate GPS measurements, researchers developed models
of the riverbeds and the water discharged into the waterways.
These models will be used to develop plans to alleviate damage
caused by flooding in Bangladesh.
An agreement reached between Stennis and the Wolf River Conservation
Society, Inc. has provided a new champion for conservation management
in southern Mississippi. This partnership will investigate how
emerging commercial space technologies can help preserve the
Wolf River, Mississippi's first officially designated scenic
river. It is the Society's responsibility to manage the easement,
promote the river's scenic and recreational value, and collect
baseline information on plants and animals within the easement.
Stennis will use the easement and the surrounding watershed
as a testing site for new remote sensing technologies and products.
The first such products to be tested over the Wolf River will
be produced from images taken with IKONOS--the first commercial,
high-resolution Earth observation satellite. Products will be
created from IKONOS images that can address the conservation
management needs of the Society. As NASA tests other products
in a similar fashion against the Society's needs, the Wolf River
could become one of the most often-imaged locations in the South.
The Earth System Science Office (ESSO) continued its study
of the world's oceans in partnership with the Naval Oceanographic
Office, also located at Stennis.
Scientists from the ESSO sailed from Pusan, South Korea, to
Singapore to gather data from the South China Sea on phytoplankton--microscopic
ocean plant life. The data will be used to calibrate and validate
ocean color algorithms taken by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view
Sensor (SeaWiFS) satellite. Subtle changes in ocean color indicate
various types and quantities of marine phytoplankton, which has
both scientific and practical applications. The SeaWiFS project
will develop and operate a research data system that will process,
calibrate, validate, archive, and distribute data received from
an Earth-orbiting ocean color sensor.
ESSO research scientists also helped the U.S. Navy and the
University of West Florida's (UWF) Archaeology Institute uncover
prehistoric American Indian shell middens--dump sites--and historic
sites.
Using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a team composed of members
of UWF's Archaeology Department and the U.S. Navy's Coastal System
Station, was able to locate artifacts and map nine midden sites
used as refuse heaps by Native American tribes in the Florida
area between 900 and 1200 A.D.
With a full slate of engine testing, the development of new
applications for remote sensing, and a flood of Earth science
data pouring in, it is clear that all engines are go at Stennis.
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Airborne Terrestrial Applications
Sensor (ATLAS) imagery of the Wolf River was acquired at 4-meter
resolution from the NASA Stennis Learjet on April 18, 1999. |
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