Constellation: March 2009 Archives

credit ITT/Space Foundation / caption: What does ITT know?

What does ITT know? Is Ares I crew launch vehicle going to get solid rocket boosters? I am guessing that this is an Exploration Systems Architecture Study trade space reject - this blog post is just a bit of fun I haven't got the time to actually check it

But at least it isn't an EELV, I'm not sure that would be good customer relations even now Michael Griffin is no longer NASA administrator - twice as safe remember!

Go through to the extended portion of this blog post to see a larger version of the portion of the picture above that features the Ares I-like rocket

NASA's first Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV) five-segment solid rocket motor (SRM) firing test has been delayed by up to six-months from 2 April to September at the latest or August

Ares I uses an SRM for its first stage and its prime contractor Alliant Techsystems (ATK), which provides the Space Shuttle Programme's four-segment motor, won the development contract in 2007

Asked why there was a possible six month delay ATK says: "[We] need to be sure the first test is right and there is no critical path impact," meaning the CLV's development will not be set back by the delay

ATK had planned to test after DM-1 its demonstration motors DM-2 and 3 in August and September, which are now likely to be delayed toward the end of the year if not to 2010

credit NASA / caption: Ares' mobile launcher comes together

Enjoy this picture of the Ares I crew launch vehicle's mobile launcher (ML), more can be seen here at Kennedy Space Center's online image gallery

For scale check out the lime green portaloo (as we call them here in the UK) next to the nearest "leg" of the ML

Today NASA (in fact right about 30min ago) is/was having a handover ceremony for the Space Shuttle Programme's (SSP) Mobile Launch Platform (MLP) 1. It is to become part of the Constellation programme and be modified for the Ares I-X launch, delayed from April to 11 July this year. SSP will continue to use MLP2 and MLP3 for its Shuttles

credit NASA / caption: even if you're the acting something surely you're not unable to do anything?

Jeff Foust's Space Politics qoutes NASA Johnson Space Center director Mike Coats from the 19 March Space Transportation Association (STA) breakfast meeting (I was surprised about this, I usually get STA invites and my DC colleagues attend when they can but I knew nothing about this) as saying that NASA employee's are frustrated at the lack of an Obama administration space policy and that acting administrator Christopher Scolese (pictured above) feels limited by what he can do because of this and the fact that he is only the acting administrator

In some respects this point of view makes sense and can even be sympathised with but for Hyperbola it raises some questions and misses the reality of the situation, whereby there are Congressionally appropriated funds and as we say in journalism, "follow the money"

credit The Everett group / caption: Whomever funded this could you please bring this survey to Obama's attention?

Jeff Foust twittered about this survey, carried out by the Everett group, and anyone wondering what the US taxpayer thinks what NASA's core mission should be (something president Barack Obama wants to navel gaze about apparently) need only read this

credit:NASA / caption: Originally designed in 1993 the electromechanical thrust vector control remains on the shelf

It didn't last that long and this procurement, which Hyperbola has had a peculiar interest in, had the potential to deliver mass reductions for the Ares I crew launch vehicle first-stage but on Friday 13 March (oh no!) the electric thrust vector control (TVC) was quietly cancelled

The purpose of this amendment is to cancel Solicitation No. NNM08261607R.   Proposals may be re-solicited in the future after further programmatic decisions are made.

credit JAXA / caption: this low res picture shows a possible future JAXA Selene-X lunar lander

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has released infromation about the latest meeting for the global exploration strategy, agreed in 2007. Its International Space Exploration Coordination Group met for the third time in Yokohama, Japan from 10-12 March

credit change.gov / caption: Obama's space policy is still rhetoric

Many scientists will no doubt be cheering the fact that US president Barack Obama has confirmed that he will be greenlighting the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer mission, adding one more flight to the shuttle manifest, not that the manifest on nasa.gov is showing it yet

And well done to Orlando Sentinel's Mark Matthews for putting the question to Obama about the impact of Shuttle's shutdown on the Florida economy, quantified as 28,000 direct and indirect jobs by Matthews. Sadly Obama's response shows that despite the president's fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget proposal for the agency the space programme is some way off from having a clear cut future

credit Lockheed Martin / caption: the heat shield has become a very tall tent pole in the Orion tent, so to speak

In the next few weeks NASA is to announce its selection for the heat shield material for the Orion crew exploration vehicle's (CEV) crew module. The space agency has told Hyperbola that assuming "all materials and work is completed" the press release could be published this month, so maybe it will actually be April but either way it is a decision that is at least 14-months late

NASA Engineering and Safety Center's (NESC) Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) has been in development since mid-2007 and had originally planned a flight test in September 2008. The agency has told Hyperbola that its launch is scheduled for no earlier than 27 March this year

The US space agency describes MLAS as

a less-well-developed concept that does have the potential to help Constellation. [The 27 March launch] will be the first demonstration in a passively stabilized LAS on a vehicle in this size and weight class. We will get aeroacoustic data from the faired capsule in flight that will give us a better idea if there are potentially harmful noise levels. In addition, data from the parachute element will help validate simulation tools and techniques for Orion's parachute system development.

credit: Battelle /caption: Is this an insight into the Altair lunar lander LDAC-3 design?

New Altair project office manager Kathy Laurini revealed to Flight and this blog NASA's thoughts on how to use landers more efficiently and now it seems Kriss kennedy, Lunar Surface Systems (LSS) Project Office Altair integration lead and habitation manager, has helped Battelle reveal a little bit more about the state of play with the son-of-LEM (Gary Spexarth works at JSC but I couldn't find an online document that confirmed which project office he worked with, Altair or LSS)

credit NASA / caption: what will that comms antenna look like in the end?

We hear a lot about the Ares I crew launch vehicle and not a lot of good so NASA's Project Orion team and its Lockheed Martin contractor are probably happy for that unloved rocket to be a lightning rod for those who aren't too keen on Constellation on the whole. But in a recent edition of Johnson Space Center's 8th Floor News email circular a little bit of Orion history was revealed