Mission Control Announcer: 11...10...9...
Ignition Sequence Start...
Narrator: NASA's Ames Research Center played a
critical role in the development and preparation
for the flight test of NASA's new spacecraft
called Orion.
Designated Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1,
the mission will provide critical data that will
enable engineers to improve Orion's design and
reduce risk for the astronauts
it will eventually carry.
One of the biggest challenges for Orion is that it
will re-enter Earth's atmosphere faster and
encounter more heating than any previously manned
missions including Apollo and the Space Shuttle.
Arc Jet Engineer 1: 5...4...3...2...1...
Arc Jet Engineer 1: 5...4...3...2...1... Arc Jet Engineer 2: West model's in...
Narrator: To test Orion's new heat shield made of
a material called Avcoat, Ames used its Arc Jet
facility to simulate the heating and airflow
conditions that occur during atmospheric re-entry.
During these tests, the Avcoat surface reached
temperatures of over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Ames developed a group of sensors that was built
into in the heat shield itself to monitor how well
it performs during EFT-1.
34 of these sensors will measure the near-surface
and internal temperatures of the heat shield as
Orion re-enters the atmosphere.
This will give engineers a complete data profile
of its performance, allowing them to see what
succeeded and how to make future improvements to
the thermal protection system.
To optimize the design of the Orion Crew Vehicle,
an 8-percent scale model was coated with pressure
sensitive paint and was tested in the Ames 11-foot
Unitary transonic wind tunnel.
This testing simulated airflow and temperature
changes the capsule will experience in flight
after re-entering the atmosphere.
The data collected is also essential to validating
the accuracy of computational models that simulate
the performance of space vehicles during re-entry.
The Orion Launch Abort System required testing in
the wind tunnels at Ames to better understand the
behavior of the system during a complex variety
of launch conditions.
The focus of the study was to determine the
interaction between the plume from the jets with
the airflow effects of separation from the rocket.
Another test used a 6-percent scale model of the
Launch Abort System in the 11-foot wind tunnel to
find ways of minimizing how loud the system would
be, during an actual flight.
Built in the 1960's to support the Apollo
missions, Ames' Horizontal Free Flight Facility
can fire models through a 75-foot-long test
chamber at speeds ranging from 500 to 18,000
miles per hour.
(Bang of gun firing)
Tests of the Orion capsule were essential to
understanding how well the vehicle will fly
through the air after re-entering the atmosphere,
but before the critical parachute deployment.
Ames also specializes in the use of computer
modeling simulations referred to as computational
fluid dynamics or CFD.
This work has been important to understanding the
turbulent wake behind the Orion capsule as it
slows down enough to deploy its parachutes.
Studies have also been conducted to optimize the
thermal heating performance of Orion by using an
Ames-developed software tool called
Data Parallel Line Relaxation or DPLR.
Engineers will compare their predicted results
with actual data from the Arc Jet tests and data
collected from the EFT-1 flight to improve the
DPLR code for future spacecraft design.
The scientists, engineers and researchers at Ames
are proud to have played a critical role in the
EFT-1 flight test as NASA continues to move
forward on its human journey to asteroids and
eventually to Mars.
(Roar of rocket engine)
(Electronic Sounds of Data) (Musical Tones)