NASA puts escape rocket to the test
4 Dec 2008
Flames shot more than 30 metres in the sky in a recent test firing of a launch abort motor for NASA's next generation spacecraft, the Orion crew exploration vehicle. NASA and the Orion industry team conducted the firing at the Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, facility in Promontory, Utah.
The abort motor will provide 100 tonnes of thrust to lift the crew module off the Ares I rocket, pulling the crew away safely in the event of an emergency on the launch pad or during the first 90 kilometres of the rocket's climb to orbit. The test firing was the first time a motor with 'reverse flow' propulsion technology at this scale has been tested. It also is the first test of its kind since the beginning of the Apollo programme.
'This milestone brings the Constellation Programme one step closer to completion of the Orion vehicle that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station in 2015 and return humans to the moon by 2020,' said Mark Geyer, Orion project manager at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston. 'The launch abort system must be ready to operate in many different environmental conditions, and tests such as this one are critical to assure this safety feature will protect our astronauts.'
The test firing was the culmination of a series of motor and component tests conducted this year in preparation for the next major milestone, a test scheduled for the early 2009 with a full-size mock-up of the Orion crew capsule.
The abort motor stands more than five metres tall and is one metre in diameter. During the firing, the motor was fixed upside-down in a vertical test stand with its four exhaust nozzles pointing skyward.
On ignition, the motor fired for 5.5 seconds. It has been designed to expend the majority of its propellant in the first three seconds, delivering the 100 tonnes of thrust needed to pull the capsule away from its launch vehicle in an emergency abort.
While similar to the Apollo programme's launch abort motor, Orion's abort motor incorporates today's technology into a more robust design. The launch abort motor uses a composite material case and an exhaust turn-flow technology instead of a tower, which results in weight savings, improved performance and improved success in crew survival during an abort. Instead of the rocket plume exiting downwards via a rear nozzle, the rocket fires upward—the rocket thrust enters a manifold and is turned 155 degrees and forced downward out four nozzles, creating a upward-pulling force.
Adapted from information issued by NASA.
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