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March
13, 2009: NASA and U.S. Air Force test pilots have
just dropped a 50,000-pound "dummy" rocket booster
on the Arizona desert--and stopped it before it crashed.
It's
all part of NASA's plan to return to the Moon.
"NASA's
new Ares moon rocket is going to have a reusable booster stage
that we plan to recover after each mission," explains
James Burnum of Marshall Space Flight Center. "To 'catch'
the booster before it crashes back to Earth, we need a super-reliable
parachute system."
Above:
A successful test of the "Ares super-chute" on Feb.
28, 2009. Credit NASA. [Larger
image]
Chief
pilot Frank Batteas of Dryden Flight Research Center helped
a NASA-led team test one of the super-chutes on Feb. 28th,
and he offers this account:
"We
flew at 175 knots at 25,000 feet, and dropped one of the heaviest
payloads a C-17 has ever carried – a 50,000 pound stand-in
for the spent Ares booster," says Batteas. "A lot
of things have to happen correctly for such a test to be successful.
A great deal of teamwork, among NASA, the Air Force, the Army,
Boeing, and others, goes into planning and executing events
both inside and outside the plane."
Burnum
adds, "not only is planning critical, but also the aircraft
pilot's skill and experience are paramount. The Air Force
saw to it that we were placed in very good hands. Batteas
was one of the very first test pilots for the C-17 and has
flown this aircraft for about 1000 of its 3000 total hours,
so he knows the plane like the back of his hand. This kind
of excellent support from the Air Force lets us concentrate
on our hardware. We don't worry at all about the plane or
piloting."
Above:
Chutes away! The Feb. 28th test begins high over the Arizona
desert. Credit: NASA [Larger
image]
The
Ares booster recovery parachute system consists of (1) a small
pilot chute, which pulls out the drogue chute; (2) a drogue
chute, and (3) three main parachutes. All three components
are being subjected to testing.
In
the recent test, the 68-foot diameter drogue parachute got
a chance to prove itself. Its ultimate job will be to slow
the Ares I rocket's jettisoned booster and orient it vertically
before the cluster of three main parachutes deploys to carry
the booster to splashdown.
The
drogue chute passed its test with flying colors. It slowed
the descent of its ungainly passenger – a 50,000-pound steel,
missile shaped test payload – sufficiently for the main parachute
to deliver it to good old terra firma in Yuma, Arizona for
recovery. Like the booster, the test payload will be reused.
"The
steel 'missile' used for testing has cavities for adjusting
the weight of the payload," says Franz Ravelo, C-17 Mission
Systems Engineer at the Air Force Flight Test Center in Edwards
Air Force Base, California. "We'll reuse it for future
Ares parachute testing with 70,000, 77,000, 85,000, and finally
90,000 pound payloads."
Above:
The end of a successful test. A 50,000-lb "dummy"
booster rests intact on the desert floor. [Larger
image]
The
Feb. 28th drop went off entirely without a hitch – well, almost.
"The
day testing was scheduled for, 80 mph winds were blustering
at 25,000 ft, causing a slip in the schedule," says Batteas.
"We ended up testing on my birthday, so I missed the
celebration they held for me back at Dryden," says Batteas.
"They did call me and sing 'Happy Birthday' to me over
the phone. And my wife saved me some cake."
He
didn't really mind working that day, though.
"When
you see that mammoth payload plunge Earthward and then slow
as the chutes deploy, it is very satisfying. It's
exciting to see it really work. And 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."
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Author: Dauna Coulter
| Editor: Dr.
Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
| end
notes |
| 1.
Engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., manage the team that conducted the
test. ATK Launch Systems near Promontory, Utah, is the
prime contractor for the first stage booster. ATK's
subcontractor, United Space Alliance of Houston, is
responsible for design, development and testing of the
parachutes at its facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
manages the Constellation Program, which includes the
Ares I rocket, the Ares V heavy-lift launch vehicle,
the Orion crew spacecraft and the Altair lunar lander.
Marshall manages the Ares Projects.
2.
The U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground provides the test
range, support facilities and equipment to NASA for
parachute testing. The Ares Flight test crew members
were from Edwards Air Force Base, California. The Ares
payloads were above the operational C-17 airdrop envelope
(maximum airdrop weight capacity) and therefore significantly
different from the payloads most operational Air Force
C-17 crews are familiar with, so a flight test crew
rather than an operational crew performed the mission.
The C-17 aircraft and flight crew, except for Frank
Batteas, were from the 418th flight test squadron at
Edwards. Here is a list of the flight crew members aboard
the C-17 that performed the parachute test:
-
Major Mark Jones, Lead Pilot, USAF, 418th Flight Test
Squadron
- Frank
Batteas, Co-Pilot, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
- Lt.
Tim Schmidt, Test Conductor, USAF, 418th Flight Test
Squadron
- Gary
Briscoe, C-17 Loadmaster, Boeing Company, 418th Flight
Test Squadron
- Staff
Sergeant Kevin Slagle, C-17 Loadmaster, USAF, 418th
Flight Test Squadron
- James
Fellows, Instrumentation Engineer, DOD Civilian, 418th
Flight Test Squadron
- Arlene
Sudduth, C-17 Mission Systems Engineer, Boeing Company,
418th Flight Test Squadron
- Garret
Gist, Video Data Engineer, ECIII Company, Yuma Proving
Grounds
- Franz
Ravelo, C-17 Mission Systems Engineer, DOD Civilian,
418th Flight Test Squadron
3.
Batteas is an attached air crew member of the 418th
since NASA uses the C-17 for some research experiments.
He is a research test pilot in the Flight Crew Branch
of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air
Force Base in California. Batteas became a pilot at
Dryden in 1998 after spending more than 20 years with
the U.S. Air Force. As a senior test pilot, he flies
a variety of aircraft for research projects. He has
more than 7000 hours of military and civilian flight
experience in more than 50 different aircraft types.
4.
The C-17 Globemaster III airplane was developed by Boeing,
formerly McDonnell Douglas.
5.
Parachute system testing is scheduled to continue through
2010. In fact, the system will be used to recover the
first stage of Ares I-X during that rocket's test flight
later this year. That flight will test and prove the
hardware, facilities, and ground operations associated
with the Ares I launch vehicle. Crew transportation
to the International Space Station via Ares I is planned
to begin no later than 2014. The first lunar excursion
is targeted for around 2020.
Ares
-- NASA home page
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Future: US
Space Exploration Policy |
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