NASA Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle Upper Stage Overview

By incorporating rigorous engineering practices, innovative manufacturing processes and test techniques, a unique multi-center government/contractor partnership, and a clean-sheet design developed around the primary requirements for the International Space Station (ISS) and Lunar missions, the Upper Stage Element of NASA's Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), the "Ares I," is a vital part of the Constellation Program's transportation system. Constellation's exploration missions will include Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles required to place crew and cargo in low-Earth orbit (LEO), crew and cargo transportation systems required for human space travel, and transportation systems and scientific equipment required for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Early Ares I configurations will support ISS re-supply missions. A self-supporting cylindrical structure, the Ares I Upper Stage will be approximately 84' long and 18' in diameter. The Upper Stage Element is being designed for increased supportability and increased reliability to meet human-rating requirements imposed by NASA standards. The design also incorporates state-of-the-art materials, hardware, design, and integrated logistics planning, thus facilitating a supportable, reliable, and operable system. With NASA retiring the Space Shuttle fleet in 2010, the success of the Ares I Project is essential to America's continued leadership in space. The first Ares I test flight, called Ares I-X, is scheduled for 2009. Subsequent test flights will continue thereafter, with the first crewed flight of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), "Orion," planned for no later than 2015. Crew transportation to the ISS will follow within the same decade, and the first Lunar excursion is scheduled for the 2020 timeframe

Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle Upper Stage Element Overview

This viewgraph presentation gives an overview of NASA's Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle Upper Stage Element. The topics include: 1) What is NASA s Mission?; 2) NASA s Exploration Roadmap What is our time line?; 3) Building on a Foundation of Proven Technologies Launch Vehicle Comparisons; 4) Ares I Upper Stage; 5) Upper Stage Primary Products; 6) Ares I Upper Stage Development Approach; 7) What progress have we made?; 8) Upper Stage Subsystem Highlights; 9) Structural Testing; 10) Common Bulkhead Processing; 11) Stage Installation at Stennis Space Center; 12) Boeing Producibility Team; 13) Upper Stage Low Cost Strategy; 14) Ares I and V Production at Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF); 15) Merged Manufacturing Flow; and 16) Manufacturing and Assembly Weld Tools

NASA Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle Upper Stage Overview

By incorporating rigorous engineering practices, innovative manufacturing processes and test techniques, a unique multi-center government/contractor partnership, and a clean-sheet design developed around the primary requirements for the International Space Station (ISS) and Lunar missions, the Upper Stage Element of NASA's Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), the "Ares I," is a vital part of the Constellation Program's transportation system

Foundation for Heavy Lift: Early Developments in the Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle

The Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV) is NASA's primary vessel for safe, reliable delivery of the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) and other resources into Earth orbit, as articulated in the U.S. Vision for Space Exploration.' The Ares V launch concept is shown. The foundation for this heavy-lift companion to the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) is taking shape within NASA and with its government and industry partners. This paper will address accomplishments in the Ares V Launch Vehicle during 2006 and 2007 and offer a preview of future activities

Foundation for Heavy Lift - Early Developments in the Ares V Launch Vehicle

The Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV) is NASA's primary vessel for safe, reliable delivery of the Lunar Surface Access Module (LSAM) and other resources into Earth orbit, as articulated in the U.S. Vision for Space Exploration. The Ares V launch concept is shown. The foundation for this heavy-lift companion to the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV) is taking shape within NASA and with its government and industry partners. This paper will address accomplishments in the Ares V Launch Vehicle during 2006 and 2007 and offer a preview of future activities

RS-25 for the NASA Cargo Launch Vehicle: The Evolution of SSME for Space Exploration

A key element of the National Vision for Space Exploration is the development of a heavy-lift Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV). Missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond are only possible with the logistical capacity of putting large payloads in low-earth orbit. However, beyond simple logistics, there exists the need for this capability to be as cost effective as possible to ensure mission sustainability. An element of the CaLV project is, therefore, the development of the RS-25, which represents the evolution of the proven Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) into a high-performance, cost-effective expendable rocket engine. The development of the RS-25 will be built upon the foundation of over one million seconds of accumulated hot-fire time on the SSME. Yet in order to transform the reusable SSME into the more cost-effective, expendable RS-25 changes will have to be made. Thus the project will inevitably strive to maintain a balance between demonstrated heritage products and processes and the utilization of newer technology developments. Towards that end, the Core Stage Engine Office has been established at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to initiate the design and development of the RS-25 engine. This paper is being written very early in the formulation phase of the RS-25 project. Therefore the focus of this paper will be to present the scope, challenges, and opportunities for the RS-25 project. Early schedules and development decisions and plans will be explained. For not only must the RS-25 project achieve cost effectiveness through the development of new, evolved components such as a channel-wall nozzle, a new HIP-bonded main combustion chamber, and several others, it must simultaneously develop the means whereby this engine can be manufactured on a scale never envisioned for the SSME. Thus, while the overall project will span the next eight to ten years, there is little doubt that even this schedule is aggressive with a great deal of work to accomplish

Exploration Launch Projects RS-68B Engine Requirements for NASA's Heavy Lift Ares V

NASA's Vision for Exploration requires a safe, efficient, reliable, and versatile launch vehicle capable of placing large payloads into Earth orbit for transfer to the Moon and destinations beyond. The Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV) will provide this heavy lift capability. The Ares V launch concept is shown in Fig. 1. When it stands on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center late in the next decade, the Ares V stack will be almost 360 feet tall. As currently envisioned, it will lift 133,000 to 144,000 pounds to trans-lunar injection, depending on the length of loiter time on Earth orbit. This presentation will provide an overview of the Constellation architecture, the Ares launch vehicles, and, specifically, the latest developments in the RS-68B engine for the Ares V

Bomb-produced radiocarbon validation of growth-increment crossdating allows marine paleoclimate reconstruction

The bivalve Pacific geoduck (Panopea generosa) has been used in the eastern North Pacific Ocean to create proxies for environmental factors such as temperature and oceanographic conditions. This type of research depends upon accurate age determination of Pacific geoducks, which historically was based on shell growth-increment counts. A recent study comparing age estimates generated by the dendrochronology (tree-ring science) procedure of crossdating to those estimated from growth-increment counts found a significant difference between the methods for geoduck older than 30 years. Compared to the traditional age determination method of counting growth increments, the crossdating method estimates a greater longevity in this species, with some individuals living in excess of 150 years. In the present study, the accuracy of each method was independently assessed using bomb-produced radiocarbon (C-14) techniques. Specimens whose birth years were estimated to be within the era of the bomb-produced marine C-14 increase and where the differences between ages estimated by the two methods were greatest were selected for C-14 analysis. The difference between age estimates from traditional growth-increment counts and those from crossdating was evaluated using their respective C-14 chronologies in comparisons to a reference chronology as a standard. The comparisons relied on Bayesian nonlinear models using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. This method of analysis showed that with a 50% probability geoducks were aged correctly when using the crossdating method, compared to the growth increment counts which had a 50% probability of underestimating the age by 4 years. Therefore, the crossdated age estimates were found to be more accurate than increment counts. Furthermore, these results provide new confidence in using Pacific geoduck biochronologies for paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Published by Elsevier B.V.Keywords: Age determination, Pacific geoduck, Bomb-produced radiocarbon, Bayesian models, Shell growth-increment counts, Crossdating, Panopea generos