J-2X Progress: Mission-Duration Test

By William Greene, MSFC, Ala.

Five hundred seconds is exactly eight minutes and twenty seconds. Nope, that's not rocket science. But that was what I had to keep in mind as I watched the stopwatch application on my smart phone during the last J-2X test. Eight minutes and twenty seconds. That seems like a really long time when you're counting every second.

Let me set the scene.

At the NASA Stennis Space center you have collected the directors from seven of the ten NASA field centers around the country. You have representatives from the NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. You have a live feed being picked up by NASA TV and broadcast into the living rooms of thousands or millions of dedicated NASA TV junkies. You have dignitaries in suits and technicians and test conductors in jeans and Hawaiian shirts (test-day tradition), reporters with notepads and cameras from every paper and television station in the greater New Orleans and southern Mississippi area, and, sitting in his ceremonial throne, the Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler of the International Order of Friendly Sons of the Raccoons.

Well, okay, that last part about the Exalted Mystic Ruler is just fictional (bonus points to anyone who gets the 20th-century cultural allusion without Google help), but that's the way that it felt. This was test A2J008, the seventh planned hot-fire test of the very first development engine and it was time to play show-and-tell.

Does everyone remember show-and-tell in elementary school? You bring in something that you think is neato or special and, by getting up in front of class and talking about it you reveal something about yourself and you accidentally practice public speaking and presentation. Once, when I was seven years old, I brought in my new baby brother, or, well, my mother did so at my behest. I wish that I could remember what I said about him. I imagine it was something like, "He's short, cranky, and smells funny." Today, at least he can say, he's taller than me.

J-2X is our new baby brother -- of a sort to carry forward the analogy -- and we're showing him off to the world. Through the first six hot fire tests of engine E10001, we accumulated a total of 225 seconds of test time. For test A2J008, on November 9th, our show-and-tell for the world, we scheduled a test lasting 500 seconds, which is the mission duration requirement for the engine. Here is what I saw during the test, while holding the stopwatch, standing out in the field in front of the test control center:

Can't see anything? Okay, I’ll expand the picture in pieces starting on the left.

This is the hydrogen burn stack. All of the excess hydrogen coming from the facility or from the engine before, during, and after the test needs to be burned off. This is all bleed flows and waste flows that you cannot avoid when dealing with a cryogenic propellant. If you let hydrogen accumulate anywhere around the facility, then "BOOM" you're eventually going to have an explosion. Talk to the guys who work out in the test areas and they'll tell you plenty of tales of such things. What is amazing as you're standing out in that field to watch the test is the radiation heat coming off that thing. It was a chilly day and yet you almost feel like you're going to end up with a sun-tanned face. It feels like the sun while you're on the beach except that as warm is it makes your front side, your back side is still chilly from the blustery November breeze. Kind of an odd sensation being both overheated and chilly at the same time.

In the middle of the picture is a sign for anyone who was born without that instinctual reflex for self-preservation. While it would seem obvious to me to not walk in front of a roaring rocket engine throwing out a plume reaching hundreds of feet in the air, the fact that they have a sign like this suggests to me that for someone, somewhere, at some time, this was not so obvious. An unfortunate thought…

And, on the right-hand side of the picture, in the distance, is test stand A-2 with the engine firing. In the middle of the picture below, there is a tiny, very white spot in the middle of the test stand. That's the flame coming directly out of the engine nozzle. In the bottom right corner of the picture below you can just see the edge of one of the liquid hydrogen barges. For both liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, for extended duration tests, the propellant tanks on the test stand are not quite big enough to hold all of the necessary propellant. So, during the test you actually transfer propellants from these barges into the test stand tanks. So, the engine is draining the test stand tanks while you are simultaneously re-filling them from the barges. With all of this going on, you start to appreciate the coordination necessary to pull off one of these tests.

When you're standing there being halfway cooked by the burn stack, several hundred feet away, the roar from the engine is nearly deafening. Many people wear hearing protection. Others of us are aging rock-n-roll fans. I honestly don't think that anyone gets a complete sense of how powerful these machines are until they see, hear, and feel one of these tests. All of the performance numbers in the world simply do not have the same visceral impact as when the engine lights and the initial sound wave runs over, around, and through you and you watch the flame bucket fill with billowing, thick, white steam. Even twenty years after having seen my first test in person, I still cannot help but stand there like a bedazzled goof and say to myself, "Wow."

Here, below, is a picture of the test from the other side of the stand. Why is this important (other than the sign on the fence clearly advertising what you're looking at)? Because this is the side from which all of the non-NASA folks, some of the NASA dignitaries as well – including an astronaut representative – and the local press corps watched the test.

So as to not keep you in any more suspense, the test came off perfectly. The full, planned duration of 500 seconds was achieved thereby effectively tripling out test experience to date. The coverage on NASA TV was good. The bigwigs clapped and cheered with infectious excitement right along the rest of us. And the press corps wore out their thesauruses trying to capture just a slice of the actual experience. It was a complete success on all fronts.

Congratulations to the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne J-2X development team, the NASA SSC test crew, and the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center project management team. While I had every bit of confidence that we'd be successful, with so many people watching our show-and-tell exercise, those 500 seconds -- eight minutes and twenty seconds -- ticking away on my stopwatch seemed like a whole lot longer. Whew! and Yahoo!

Apollo Presentation

Landon Wood, 10th Grade, Northville, MI

On October 21, 2011 I attended a presentation at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor about Apollo 15. This was the “all University of Michigan crew” mission. UM makes a big deal of this. Mr. Al Worden was the guest of honor, and spoke to the audience for about 20 minutes. He was very colorful and lively. Mr. Worden was the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 15 during its July 26, 1971 to August 7, 1971 flight. These were his key points:

• Apollo 15 was, at the time, cited by NASA as the most successful manned space flight ever.
• UM was very instrumental to his success.
• STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is extremely.
• The current administration is not following the best path as far as space and NASA are concerned, but the US will soon again embrace ambitious space projects, like going to Mars!
• Robotic missions are no match for manned missions. It does, though, make sense to send robots before sending humans.

Representatives (UM grads) from Lockheed Martin were also at this event. They had a booth dedicated to Orion – the next-generation crew exploration vehicle (CEV). I learned a lot about the special new safety features, e.g. the launch abort system. I also learned that budget cuts have caused a lot of cancellations and delays, and that these kinds of hurdles are to be expected.
This was a fascinating presentation, especially since Mr. Worden was part of this mission himself.

Advanced Space Academy

Hannah Mohr, 11th Grade

Have you ever wanted to take a trip to the ISS? Or maybe you want to be in Mission Control, making sure the mission goes according to plan and solving problems when it doesn't. Last summer, I attended Advanced Space Academy, a week-long space camp by Marshall Space Flight Center, where I got to do just that. True, it wasn't actually the ISS or Mission Control, but during the six-hour simulation, it certainly seemed like it.
I started the week by getting to know my teammates, who were all equally excited about space. Over the course of the week we listened to lectures about water purification systems, the Space Shuttle, launch fuel, life support systems, human health in space, DNA and genes, microgravity, and shuttle systems. We even got to hear Astronaut Robert Gibson talk about his time in space!
At camp I had four one-hour missions, during which I got to be the EVA (Mission Control person who communicates with astronauts during spacewalks), Flight Engineer (astronaut aboard the International Space Station), Mission Scientist (Mission Control person who communicates with the International Space Station), and Mission Specialist (astronaut who gets to go on spacewalks). Each mission was filled with anomalies; basically anything that could go wrong, did. After all four short missions were complete, we had a long six-hour mission; I was once again the Flight Engineer. For six hours my crew dealt any and every anomaly the staff could think of; “Houston, we have a problem” was the most cited quote of the day.
Another activity provided by Advanced Space Academy was the Engineering Challenge, which had three main parts. The first challenge was a heat shield. We had limited resources and budget to design a heat shield that would protect a raw egg from a blow torch for three minutes. We didn't know how the different resources would hold up, so we had to use all our knowledge and work as a team to come up with a feasible solution. The second challenge was simpler: use an assembly line to build a specified shape as efficiently as possible. The third challenge was the hardest of all: the Eggs-Prize. Each team had to build a rocket that would safely launch and land the payload—a raw egg. Since each team had to come up with the rocket design on its own, teamwork was essential. My team, Team Adventure, focused mainly on the safety of the “Eggstronaut,” and we succeeded at safely bringing him home. The icing on the cake was when, at graduation, Team Adventure was awarded first place in the Engineering Challenge.
Advanced Space Academy was tons of fun. I learned more about STEM subjects and met new people who shared my interests. The whole experience was amazing and solidified my desire pursue engineering. Thanks MSFC!!!

Superluminary Neutrinos Turn Out to be a Letdown

By Calvin Leung, 11th Grade, Fremont, CA

Last month, the OPERA team based in Italy announced they had measured neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. Following this announcement, the experiment has come under intense scientific scrutiny for errors that could be responsible for such startling results. One paper, New Constraints on Neutrino Velocities, published by Cohen and Glasgow, may finally ironically turn this breakthrough into yet another reinforcement of the concept that light sets for universe a universal speed limit.

Turns out that a particle which moves faster than light does emits a special type of electromagnetic radiation called Cherenkov radiation, which is responsible for the alien glow commonly associated with nuclear reactors. Cherenkov radiation is somewhat like a sonic boom—when a particle travels faster than light, the electromagnetic waves it emits “pile up” much like sound waves do in the case of supersonic aircraft. This shock wave excites electrons to a higher energy level, and the resulting drop back to the ground state causes the release of electromagnetic radiation. This jostling of electrons in the surrounding medium rapidly reduces the energy of the neutrinos to a terminal energy (somewhat like terminal velocity due to air resistance), and as a result, only a few neutrinos having more than terminal energy should reach Gran Sasso.
Since the OPERA team repeatedly failed to detect any Cherenkov radiation from superluminary particles, and an unusually high number of high-energy neutrinos were detected, Cohen and Glasgow conclude that said neutrinos could not have been moving faster than light.

An earlier article featured on this website cautioning readers to remain hopefully skeptical made an important point—the universal speed limit has been tested in countless experiments over the past century, and it is highly unlikely for a single experiment to overturn a century of experimentation.
A. G. Cohen and S. L. Glashow, New Constraints on Neutrino Velocities, arXiv:1109.6562.

Supernovae

By Aswini Krishnan, 10th Grade

Challenging but enjoyable, my experience in INSPIRE has marked my debut into the world of astronomy. Live Chats and activities have taught me plenty about solar flares, solar storms, planets, nebulae, galaxies, and infinite other things. However, one thing that I have learned about stands out among the others : supernovae. Why do these massive explosions occur? What all impacts do they have? Although they are extremely powerful and frightening, these explosions are nature's magnificent way of recycling.


Supernovae are basically huge stellar explosions that are energized by gravity. There are two basic types of supernovae. The first type occurs when a carbon-oxygen white dwarf from a binary star system releases matter. Piling up on the white dwarf, the core reaches a large density and sets off an uncontrolled fusion of carbon and oxygen. The second type occurs at the end of a massive star's lifetime. Exhausted, the nuclear fuel can no longer support the star and release nuclear energy; therefore, it cannot hold its own weight. Collapsing, it becomes a supernova. Supernovae scatter matter all around the interstellar medium; ultimately, these are the elements that compose new stars, planets, and everything on earth, including us. The most energetic explosions in nature, supernovae will always fascinate me and will fire up my curiosity for the many years to come.

Honoring Four Legends

By NASA Administrator Charles Bolden

Today I made these remarks during a ceremony in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, where leaders of Congress honored astronauts John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins with congressional gold medals:

"As we embark upon the next great chapter of human space exploration, we stand on the shoulders of the extraordinary men we recognize today. Those of us who have had the privilege to fly in space followed the trail they forged.

America's leadership in space and the confidence that we can go farther into the unknown and achieve great things as a people rests on the achievements of these brave men.

When, 50 years ago this year, President Kennedy challenged the nation to reach the moon, to 'take longer strides' toward a 'great new American enterprise,' these men were the human face of those words. From Mercury and Gemini, on through our landings on the Moon in the Apollo Program, their actions unfolded the will of a nation for the greater achievement of humankind.

Today, another young President has challenged us to reach for new heights and plan an ambitious mission to Mars. Just as we called on the four individuals we honor today to carry out our early achievements in space, we now call on a new generation of explorers to go where we have never gone before.

As we honor these heroes, I want to recognize the hundreds of thousands of dedicated NASA employees and industry partners who contributed to the incredible success of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs and all that has followed, and all that is yet to come.

I also want to thank our Congress. Our nation is a better place because of more than a half century of strong, bipartisan support for NASA's work in human exploration, science and aeronautics.

Five members of the most recent Astronaut Candidate Class are with us today to pay tribute to the Congressional Gold Medal honorees, and build on their accomplishments to make similar, lasting contributions to our nation's space program.

This new group of astronauts will redefine space exploration in the years to come and continue to honor the legacy of John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

It is a lasting legacy – a legacy that continues to unfold and transform our modern world.

The inspiration these four have provided to generations isn't something we can measure, but we can feel it in our hearts. As a nation, we would not be the same without them and their bravery, their sense of duty and dedication to public service and their great skill at thinking on their feet.

They changed the course of history and helped our nation to achieve the bigger things to which our greater nature aspires. We owe them our humblest gratitude.

On behalf of NASA and all the astronauts past and present, I congratulate and thank each of you – John, Neil, Buzz, and Mike, our Congressional Gold Medal recipients."

For biographies of the astronauts, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio_former.html

Poll of the Week - Space Station

By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Education Specialist, KSC, FL

Here are the results of the past Poll of the Week:

Should NASA form another international partnership to go to Mars?
yes    90.9%    412 votes
no    9.1%    41 votes
Total 453 votes

An overwhelming majority selected the answer yes to forming an international partnership to send humans to Mars.  To tell the truth, it is the answer I was expecting!  Students today have grown up with the international collaboration of the ISS and seeing NASA work closely with ESA, RSA, JAXA and the CSA*.  It makes sense to continue those partnerships in an endeavor that would place humans on another planet.

The Discussion Board had a few comments about the poll, all positive.  Here are a couple:

Zachary B. said: Definately. We haven't the money or the level of technology to go to Mars quickly, but with the help of another country or several others we can more easily achieve this goal.

Katherine D. said: Absolutely yes, international partnerships bring different perspectives and experiences. The Russians, for example, have a great deal of experience designing space stations, and that experience in building structures designed for long-term habitation would be very useful when designing craft to go to Mars.

While the poll is closed, you can still leave comments and your opinion on the Discussion Board.  Watch the home page for a new poll later today!

*Europe, Russia, Japan, Canada

A Bundle of (Science) Joy

By Connor Hause, INSPIRE 12th grade, Gilbertsville, PA

NASA has been batting a thousand recently in terms of science probes and rovers. The Opportunity and Spirit rovers on Mars have/had been wildly successful. And this year alone NASA has launched such projects like Juno and GRAIL. Soon the Mar Science Laboratory, with its super-sized payload Curiosity, will depart for Mars. Although being at the top may seem good for the US, it could be considered detrimental in some way for science. Luckily, the Russians are planning to make a comeback.

Just this last Tuesday, the Russians have launched their most ambitious robotics mission yet: a sample return from Mars’ largest moon Phobos. The mission, Phobos Grunt, should reach Mars orbit by late 2012. There it will collect samples of regolith that will be launched back toward Earth. Scientists predict that Phobos should also have tiny bits of Martian soil on it from asteroid impacts blasting off the planet and into space. This is the ultimate prize. But why not go directly to Mars then? Mainly because the 0.38 G will give the return samples severe difficulties. Although I do not know for sure, I think a person could jump out of the gravitational field of Phobos, which is only 16 miles wide. If all goes well, the sample should be back by late 2014. The craft itself will stay behind to make further measurements and observations.

If all goes well, the Phobos Grunt spacecraft will reach Mars by late 2012.

The Russians even let two projects hitch rides on the spacecraft too. First is the Chinese Yinghuo-1 which is to be their first Martian satellite. It will stay in orbit for 2 years and study the planet’s atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetic field. Although the satellite will hopefully be of success, one can see this project is nowhere near as unprecedented as its two companions.

Lastly is the Planetary Society’s LIFE (Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment). It is well known that bacteria reproduce very quickly. For this reason they evolve pretty fast too. 18 years in a custom environment and you could have your own species. So the Planetary Society decided to fund a project to test life’s ability to adapt to most every environment and a theory called transpermia. This theory states that life can survive on a rock blasted off from meteor impact and be transported from one planet to another. The small biomodule containing to specimens was launched with Phobos Grunt and will hopefully return with the regolith samples for biologists and geneticists to study. For more information on the selection of the microorganisms, please visit:
http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/innovative_technologies/life/organisms.html

11 species, 31 tubes

Three great projects, too little time. Unfortunately, difficulties arose soon after the Phobos Grunt launch. According to the BBC, this is how it went down:

• The probe launches successfully on its Zenit rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
• It is dropped off 11 minutes later in an elliptical orbit some 345km above the Earth
• Two firings from the probe's hydrazine-fuelled cruise stage were planed over South America
• The first, lasting 11.5 minutes, should have raised the orbit of Phobos-Grunt to 4,000km
• A second burn, four hours into the mission, was to have sent the probe on a path to Mars
• Russian space agency officials say neither burn on the big cruise stage took place
• The probe remains in a low-Earth orbit while the anomaly is investigated by engineers
• If it is a software error, new commands could be uploaded to correct it
• Hardware failure would doom the probe unless a switch to a back-up system is possible

The Russians have until Friday the 11th to fix the issue before the projects fail. For the benefit of science, we all hope they succeed.

Sources:
Phobos Grunt image:
http://www.space.com/13545-russia-launches-mars-sample-phobos-grunt-spacecraft.html
LIFE capsule image:
https://planetary.org/special/life/index_email.html
Information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15631472
http://www.space.com/13545-russia-launches-mars-sample-phobos-grunt-spacecraft.html
http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/innovative_technologies/life/

Robots on the Court

By Aisha Rigert, 11th grade, from Lancaster, CA


It’s the last few seconds of the match, and he’s got only one chance to make it to the finals. He’s blocked left and right by the opposition, and his teammate is stumbling in his way, but racing toward the goal he goes. He shoots and scores for a twenty-point victory, and the crowd goes wild as the buzzer signals the end of the match!


This probably sounds like a typical semifinals basketball game- excitement, suspense, and heroic triumph in the final seconds of the game. If you look a little closer, though, you’ll see that not everything is as it seems. The champion of our story is not a well-known NBA star, but a humble eighteen-inch-tall robot named Thumper. Instead of muscle and bone, he’s made of metal, plastic, and electrical wires. He’s got six AA batteries to power his brain. And he was built in less than three months by a team of ten high school students.


Yes, Thumper is a robot. And along with his team, PHI Robotics, he is competing in the 2009 FIRST World Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. Like a major sports event, this robotics tournament is an energetic competition between the top teams in the world, and it’s worth the hard work it takes to get there, too. It’s three long, exciting days of competition where members of one hundred robotics teams like PHI get to make new friends, compare robot designs, get a taste of real-world deadlines and competition, and just enjoy robotics.


Each day, teams arrive at the Georgia Dome and nearby convention center from 7:00 to 8:30 a.m., depending on the day’s schedule. That can include going through inspection, meeting with judges for an interview, competing in fast-paced matches, and scouting out other teams and their robots. The upbeat emcees, loud music, and excitedly chattering kids only add to the constant commotion. It’s a good thing that the competition day ends at around 5:00- by then, team members and parents, not just robots, need a chance to recharge their batteries!


For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is the international organization responsible for this thrilling event. FIRST is dedicated to doing just what its name implies: to encourage kids to be leaders in science and technology by introducing them to robotics in fun and exciting ways, such as the energetic competition just described. However, that's not their only goal; FIRST also wants to help kids grow in basic character traits such as confidence, integrity, and leadership.


In keeping with FIRST’s ideals, the FIRST championship differs from most sports events in a very important way: it’s instilled with all the values FIRST prizes, including honesty, collaboration, and respect. So even though every team wants to win, the rivalry is friendly, and teams are eager to help others, sometimes even ripping apart their own robots to lend others vital wiring or metal components. By promoting these kinds of values, FIRST teaches kids and young adults not only how to build robots, but also how to plan ahead, work together, and motivate themselves and others- valuable life skills that everyone should have.


FIRST is also exceptional in that it reaches a wide range of ages; you can start with your first FIRST robotics team when you are six years old and continue on through high school, or even apply for special college scholarships! Thumper and PHI Robotics, though, are part of FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), the division of FIRST that’s for teams of three to ten high school students. In FTC, each team builds a medium-sized robot in a little less than three months, based on a game that FIRST releases each September. In 2009, the game, HotShot, involved a twelve-foot square field with several different kinds of goals, including ones outside the field. Two alliances of two robots each competed against each other in matches that were two minutes and thirty seconds long. The object of the game was to get the most points by shooting three-inch wiffle balls into the three different types of goals.

This task may sound easy to you, but Thumper and PHI had to work hard to accomplish it- after all, they were competing against 1100 other teams across the globe to gain one of the few spots in the FIRST World Championship. Just experiencing that championship, though, was a reward more than sufficient for the months of faithful work team members put in to build Thumper. As a member of PHI Robotics, I can personally tell you that it was even more fun than I'd expected! Before I went to the competition, I knew it would be an incredible experience, but I had no idea how exciting meeting and competing with teams and robots from all over the world can be until I tried it.


That’s why I’m glad that robotics has recently become more popular- because it’s so rewarding, I want everyone to try it, and now that FIRST has made science and technology “cool,” more kids will want to. Though building a robot in three months while collaborating with nine other students is often challenging, it’s interesting and satisfying at the same time. I learned a lot during the action-packed weeks of planning and building at robotics meetings, and I'm sure that other kids who try it will learn a lot too.


It’s been several long months since the FIRST championship ended, but the first meeting of the new season starts tomorrow. Thumper is waiting expectantly for us to take him apart and reassemble him into a new robot, to accomplish our new task. I’d love it if you would join me- and the 250,000 other kids that are part of FIRST- next year by becoming part of one of FIRST’s robotics programs! Maybe I’ll meet you at a tournament- or even at the world championship. I hope to see you there!



For more information on FIRST and how to join a robotics team near you, visit www.usfirst.org.

Join High School Aerospace Scholars!

By Hallie Ford, Austin, TX, 12th Grade

Looking for a STEM opportunity other than those offered by the NASA INSPIRE program? If you are currently a high school junior living in Texas, High School Aerospace Scholars is looking for students with a passion for aerospace-related science to participate in semester long online lessons and compete for a week long internship at Johnson Space Center during Summer 2012. 

Last year, I became a High School Aerospace Scholar (HAS) and completed 10 online lessons related to space travel and design as well as a final project during my spring semester of  junior year. Assignments are due about every two weeks and the grades you receive count towards your qualification for a summer experience at JSC. If you keep up with your work by turning assignments in on time and completing work with dedication, you have a good chance of getting to "intern" at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas-all expenses paid! 

What can you expect to learn through High School Aerospace Scholars? Though the curriculum is not as demanding as what you'll find on the INSPIRE website, assignments for the HAS program are mandatory to be able to apply for a summer experience at the end of the semester and require on average at least three hours to complete all parts of the assignment being asked of you. 

If you qualify to spend a week down at JSC you can expect to meet with former NASA engineers Norm Chaffee and Jerry Woodfill (both worked on the Apollo-era missions) and take a tour that not many other visitors get to experience of the Mission Control Centers. You'll visit Rocket Park, where the Saturn V rocket is housed, and the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, the largest indoor pool! (It's also known for training astronauts for space walks...)

In addition, students will be split up into four teams during their week at JSC and asked to plan out specific parts of a mission to Mars. Each team is crucial in collaborating to make the mission work, but ultimately responsible for their component of the mission. However, every night teams will compete against each other to earn "money" and whoever has the largest budget surplus is crowned the victor at the end of the week! Expect to get creative with the nightly competitions, that's where the fun is!

Sign up to be a High School Aerospace Scholar today! 

More info at: http://HAS.aerospacescholars.org

Robotics

By Wei Low, INSPIRE 11th Grade

This year, I received the opportunity to speak to the Prince William County School board. It was amazing to be able to speak to the school board on behalf of robotics at my high school. Because students from other schools and I spoke passionately about our experiences and achievements through participation in VEX Robotics Competition and FIRST First Tech Challenge Competition, the members of the school board were able to get a glimpse of what we can do. Robotics teams in the high school, middle school and elementary school level will become even more popular within my school system and hopefully achieve the kind of popularity that sports teams have. 

Opportunities like these contribute to the goal of expanding interest and knowledge in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) areas. Hopefully, other students in school systems all throughout the United States will be inspired to participate in robotics and just might get the opportunity to advocate robotics in front of the school board. Finally, because of my speech and other people’s speeches, the school board saw the necessity to approve over $40,000 from the budget to be dedicated solely to robotics.

J-2X Extras: Here Comes the Bride -- Vehicle Integration

By William D. Greene, MSFC, Ala.
I just got back into the office a few days ago after a long weekend in Philadelphia. My wife's niece got married. It was a beautiful venue and a moving service and good food, fabulous band, great party, and celebratory beverages flowed freely. Our niece looked gorgeous and her new husband was suitably handsome. A good time was had by all! Congratulations Ashley and Carmello!

And in the midst of all these festivities, an analogy came to mind regarding J-2X (well okay, perhaps not truly in the midst of the festivities, but certainly as part of the next-day hangover).  It's not a perfect analogy, but it kind of works on a couple of levels.  I am referring to engine-to-vehicle integration.  Here, follow my thinking...

The wedding itself is a great big project.  Everything needs to be figured out, from the biggest stuff (Where?  When?  Who to invite?) to the finest details (What food is to be served at the cocktail hour?  What are the different lighting schemes for the service and for the dinner?).  So too is the development and launch of a great big launch vehicle.  When the engine and the stage come together and the mission comes off as planned, it's beautiful.  Launch day is just like a well planned, well coordinated wedding.

Also, beyond just the singular event of the wedding day, there it the issue of everything that follows, i.e., the marriage.  And that is a matter of compatibility.  The most spectacular venue for the service and the best food for dinner and the grooviest band for the reception doesn't guarantee happily ever after.  Things have to work together on many levels in order for success to be found in a match, whether that's two people married or the engine and the stage coming together and successfully fulfilling a mission.

(Okay, so how's that analogy working for me?  Not bad, huh?)

So what's "vehicle integration"?  Well, it's lots of stuff.  On the one hand, it's the basic engine requirements.  After all, who says that J-2X ought to generate 294,000 pounds-force thrust at vacuum conditions?  It’s not as if us engine folks get to randomly pick a power level requirement out of thin air.  It comes from an integrated, comprehensive mission analysis of the vehicle.  While we like to think that the engine folks run the world, the truth is that without a vehicle and a mission to dictate requirements, we’d be nothing more than an expensive science project.

But beyond this, how do we interact with the stage?  I would suggest that there are four essential categories of interaction:
• Integrated analysis
• Boundary conditions
• Induced environments
• Operations

The first area, I've already discussed in part.  Integrated vehicle/mission analysis is used to establish the basic requirements for the engine.  Beyond that, though, you have other analyses such as contingency and hazards analyses that examine what happens if something goes wrong.  How should the vehicle respond if there is an issue with the engine or the stage or with how the engine and stage interact with each other?  So, in addition to defining upfront what the pieces should do, integrated analysis looks at how the actual, designed parts will interact under different circumstance.  Note that an output of integrated analysis often leads to the category of induced environments discussed below.

Next, you have boundary conditions and these are the most straightforward consideration.  In order to figure out what you need here, all you have to do is draw a box around the engine and see what stuff has to go into or out of the box to make the engine-vehicle combination work.  In fact, that's basically how we started in creating the Interface Control Document (ICD) for J-2X.  That's where you capture all of the agreements between the engine and the stage.  Here's a piece of that "what's crossing the box" diagram:

This diagram shows the fluids (liquids, gases) that cross the interface with the stage.  You have, of course, the propellant flows of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, but then you also have the propellant tank pressurization flows that are used by the stage to keep the tanks pressurized during flight.  There are also gases used for pneumatic control of the valves and to perform purges through different phases of the flight.  There is a dedicated line that handles high-pressure helium for spin-starting the engine.  And then there are drain flows back to the stage for disposal of excess hydrogen and oxygen.  This latter category is necessary for safety reasons since, for an upper stage engine, it's usually enclosed within the vehicle for much of the mission and you don’t want to build up an explosive mixture of fuel and oxidizer in the intertank area.

For each of these interfaces, we have to define throughout the different phases of the mission acceptable pressure ranges, temperature ranges, flowrates, and fluid qualities (purity, particulate contamination, etc.).  Both sides have to agree that these values at this interface will happen during the mission or else someone might make an erroneous assumption and either the engine or the stage could fail to perform.  Sometimes, we need to specify even more detail to ensure mission success such as the two-dimensional velocity profile of the propellants as they enter the engine.  Something like this can drive significant design effort on one side or the other (or both) so such details are rarely trivial.

Now, add to this one set of interface just for fluids additional interfaces for electrical power, control and data transmissions, and then the actual physical connections (including not just the forces and moments applied to these connections but the actual physical designs themselves in terms of dimensions and materials, bolt-hole patterns, and seal configurations).  After you’ve done all that -- fully negotiated and agreed to by both sides -- you then have an ICD, one of the bedrock documents in the life of any engine.  It's like a really, really detailed marriage license that goes on and on between the engine and the stage: who cuts the grass, who does the laundry, who sleeps on what side of the bed, who cleans the litter boxes, who opens the pickle jars, who has the remote control come football season…

The next area of consideration with regards to vehicle integration is induced loads.  In truth, these are really just another boundary condition, but we often break them out separately for convenience of tracking and documentation.  What we're talking about here are loads: structural dynamics, acoustics, and thermal loads.  Rocket engines and launch vehicles make lots of rumbling, roaring noise and lots of smoke and fire.  That’s part of what makes them kinda cool (right?!).  But it's also the kind of stuff that can cause damage if not properly accounted for in the design. 

Above is the output from an integrated analysis looking at thermal conditions of the engine during a stage separation event.  In this case, depending upon the design of the stage separation system, there were situations where the engine was getting exposed to damaging thermal loads.  In other words, the stage was imposing a load on the engine that jeopardized mission success, so the stage design was altered.  All of the elements of the vehicle have to live with the environments created by everyone else.  So, this is not too much unlike figuring out how to live together after getting married.  You learn, for example, that the combined environment of stogie smoke, an overgrown lawn, and blaring NASCAR on television apparently do not constitute the most congenial, constructive induced environment at home…

The last category in my simplified breakdown of vehicle integration is that of operations.  This comes down to who does what, when, and how.  Bringing together a whole vehicle requires quite a detailed set of instructions.  It's a lot more than "Insert tab A into slot B."  And the pieces that you're assembling come from several different project office and different contractors located all over the country.  So, on the one side of the issue is the technical matter of how you do the whole thing, but on the other side, just as importantly, you have the issue of who is responsible for performing the tasks.  With tasks come manpower, roles and responsibilities for facilities and tooling and, before you know it, meaningful expenses.  Thus, (ta-da!) you've got more negotiations and agreements and documentation.

So, engine-to-vehicle integration is, in the end, like a long, complex, heavily negotiated, analyzed, and documented marriage.  Perhaps then, other than the documentation part, it's probably like most successful marriages over the long haul.

LiveChat Roundup: Nov. 3, 2011

By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Education Specialist, KSC, FL

A solar storm could strike at any time and paralyze our nation by knocking out the electrical power grid and communication satellites we depend on.  But don't worry!  According to Dr. Sten Odenwald, an astronomer/mathematician from the Goddard Space Flight Center, we are developing tools and science to detect and counter the effects of such a storm.  Dr. Odenwald presented to 152 members of the INSPIRE Online Learning Community at last evening's LiveChat.  He led the participants through our current knowledge of the workings of the Sun's magnetosphere and how that interacts with the Sun' surface.  That interaction produces events we refer to as 'space weather'.  These events, such as flares and coronal mass ejections, can reach the Earth and cause an effect to its magnetic field.  These effects range from the beautiful aurora found in the polar regions to dangerous electrical system malfunctions that could occur anywhere.

You can access the presentation in the Live Chat Archive found on the OLC Home page.  We offer the chat in three formats: a Collaborate file, a Quicktime video and an MP3 audio file.  The archive files will be posted on Monday morning.  Students who view these archives are welcome to post questions for our speaker on the Discussion Board, and are eligible for 25 points by using the passcode (found at the end of the archive) to access the chat quiz.

Next week, our featured Center chat with Scott Anderson of the Marshall Space Flight Center on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and a look at the science on the International Space Station with Kennedy Space Center engineer Shiresh Patel on Nov. 10.

Coming up, there will be a special LiveChat with former astronaut and current NASA Associate Administrator of Education Leland Melvin on Thursday, November 17. Mr. Melvin will present about his time on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. This special chat will take place at 4 p.m. CT. We are asking that all questions be submitted before the event. Please submit your question where you post 'Sign me up' in the LiveChat sign up forum on the Discussion Board. We will read as many questions as we can during our time with Mr. Melvin. Only students who participate in the chat will have their questions read. Sign up now for all these exciting LiveChats!

Astronomy Club

By Andrea Boria, INSPIRE 11th Grade

My passion and interest in astrophysics, aerospace engineering and the opportunities that NASA INSPIRE has brought me I decided to create an Astronomy club in my school. With the permission of the principal, professors and counselors in my school the dream of creating an organization of students who are interested in planetary sciences became true. My intention creating this organization is to educate and motivate students who are interested in science, technology, mathematics and engineering, the teaches in my school have been helping me with the education and field trips such as the Arecibo Observatory, between others. NASA have motivated me to invent this organization, being part of NASA team is my dream and I would like to motivate people to feel the same, to have goals in your life and love what you are going to do in a future.

 Mission: The principal mission in the Astronomy Club is to increase interest and knowledge in planetary sciences, planetary systems, investigation of the Solar System, cosmology, between others.

Vision: Expand the horizons and knowledge in students about future careers. Promote NASA OLC and the opportunities that NASA have for high school students. Motivate students to study in STEM careers.

Planetary Name Game

By Cecilia Stoner, INSPIRE 11^th Grade

Have you ever sat listing the planets on a rainy day – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (and Pluto! that is, if you’re still stuck in the past) and realized that all of these names are tied together by the common bond of mythology?

Mercury was the messenger god in Roman mythology, said to be the swiftest and most reliable. It is also the planet with the quickest orbit around the sun. Coincidence?

Venus, named the goddess of love and such, merits her name for her allure in the evening and morning skies, brightly shining and welcoming the day or issuing in the enveloping night.

Mars was the god of war and most irate of the Olympians. The ancients viewed this planet of red, this warring sphere, as one that issued in a great fight.

Jupiter is the king of the gods and the largest planet. If you have ever chanced to listen to Gustav Holst’s symphony, The Planets, you will note the degree of majesty given to Jupiter, force yet calmness.

Saturn, a god perhaps better known from Greek mythology as Cronos, was the father of many gods in mythology including Jupiter and Neptune. In an ancient revolt Jupiter actually overthrew his father and became the supreme god. Likewise, Jupiter the planet is larger in size than the nearby Saturn.

Uranus varies in the usual naming sequence by coming directly from Greek mythology. Commonly known as the sky god, Uranus was husband to Gaia, or the Mother Earth, and from this pair came life as we know it.

Neptune, rightly named for the god of the sea, possesses a calming but eerie blue light of the oceans. This calm is broken by a great storm – the planet’s eye.

Pluto, the god of the underworld, deserves its name. A freezing, barren place, Pluto reflects the mystery associated with Hades.

If you want to delve in further to NASA’s name game, you can note that the prominent moons of Jupiter are named after the god’s many lovers and that the moons of Mars – Phobos and Deimos – are rightly the weapons of a god of war, fear and dread. The ingenuity of skywatchers past and present in linking the planets with classical mythology shows the greatness of both our classical myth and our universe.