Triboelectrification

By Jim Gerard, KSC, FL

Those watching the launch countdown (and hold, and scrub) may have heard the term 'triboelectrification' used as a reason to postpone and finally scrub the launch. So what is triboelectrification? If you ever received static shock on a winter day after walking across the carpet, or watched how abalone clings after rubbing it on your head, you have experienced triboelectrification - the production of electrostatic charges by friction.

Specifically, NASA is concerned about a type of triboelectrification they refer to as "P-static" (the P is for precipitation). If the rocket ascends through a cloud, the water in the cloud can produce a corona of static that may interfere with telemetry coming from and to the rocket. In a worst case scenario, a malfunctioning and wayward rocket may not receive the destruct signal from the range safety officer at Cape Canaveral due to this corona.

NASA uses ground based weather observations, weather balloons, and observer aircraft provided by the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Station. Once they give the all clear, we can get under way!

By the way, the launch of Apollo 12 taught NASA the danger of turboelectric shock when the Saturn V was launched during a mild rain. As the Saturn booster sped through the rain clouds, it became the world's longest lightning rod. A bolt of electricity had struck the spacecraft and traveled all the way to the ground, 6,000 feet below, along the column of hot, charged gases of the Saturn's exhaust plume. The bolt knocked the Apollo spacecraft's power-producing fuel cells off line, and astronauts saw more warning lights then they had ever encountered in a simulation training. Even though Ares I-X is uncrewed, NASA is still understandably reluctant to again tempt such a fate.

Saturn V Launch Umbilical Tower struck by lightning from Apollo 12

Engineers

By Willie Costa

For some of us, it begins early on in life. We see a plane flying overhead with the grace and elegance of a bird, or maybe we go to an air show and hear the roar of the engines as jet fighters wheel and race overhead. Perhaps we see them in museums, calm and quiet and hinting at the glorious history that has come before us. Maybe we just see them on TV and become fascinated by what they can do. Maybe we take the stick in our hands and see for ourselves what it’s like to float 10,000 feet in the air with nothing between ourselves and the ground but our jeans and the thin plastic sheet of the cockpit. We all have different reasons, but the thing that unites us is simple:

We love things that fly.

I fell into engineering almost accidentally. As a pilot, I know firsthand how planes fly – and, more importantly, how they are supposed to fly. As someone who is never satisfied with the way things are, it was only natural that I be attracted to ways in which I could make things be the way I thought they should be. Engineering is what allows me to realize my dreams in physical form. But to actually be able to do what you want as a job – to get paid to do what you would gladly be doing anyway? Very little in the world can compare to that.

The road is long, the requirements hard, the demands extreme. But the payoff makes the struggle worthwhile. When you enter a design paper that does better than anyone thought it should, or when something you created takes off for the first time and flies exactly the way YOU said it would, the effort is worthwhile. The satisfaction you feel is immeasurable. Everything you touch seems lighter. Every sound becomes a song. Horns play in your shoes.

And you know that, come tomorrow, you get to do it all over again.
Engineering is unique in that everything we do, step by step, is in hard substance. The results of our efforts are put on display each and every day for all the world to see. We are not lawyers, architects, or doctors – we cannot argue away our mistakes, or cover them behind vines and shrubbery, or disavow that one of our mistakes ruined someone’s life. We simply cannot deny our responsibility. We cannot deny that we did it. Engineers are the ones who shape the world. We create what has never been, and make it work no matter what it takes and no matter the objections. We are fearless in the face of impossible odds. Others may make more money, but that is their consolation prize for being unable to do what we do. And one day, when we are gone and long since forgotten, the efforts of our lives will remain, quietly attesting to the skill with which we performed our craft. Our work makes us immortal.

It’s All About What You Say And How You Say It

By Michael McPeake, NASA Ames Research Center

Engineering is about doing great things in a group setting. It’s a group effort and it’s the group that succeeds. Hello, my name is Michael McPeake and I graduated from Purdue University in May with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. My senior design team tied for second place in NASA’s 2009 Fundamental Aeronautics Program design competition; as a result, I received an internship at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The work I did over the summer led to a part time position with a NASA subcontractor which is where I am currently working.

It seems rather surreal to be working at NASA. But looking back I can identify several things in my education that I found to be most useful. Team work and brainstorming experience during high school prepared me to take a more leadership position in group work at Purdue. I went to a project based learning high school, where science topics were taught through group projects instead of book assignments. Many high school physics courses use this teaching method to demonstrate fundamental physical principles. Communication courses are also very important in high school and college. Public speaking will force you to get familiar with public criticism, the same type of criticism that you may receive when pitching an idea to an engineering group.

Regardless of whatever field you do get into, it is important to get as much experience as possible during college. Recruiters’ look for industry experience and then at academic performance. The easiest way of doing this is to volunteer for an undergraduate research position for one of your professors. Then when summer comes around apply for internships at a company you’re interested in working at. Keep in mind that whatever industry you get into, you will have to deal with being the odd person out for awhile. People are very careful about allowing newcomers into their industry, and as such some of the biggest obstacles that you will encounter are those created by people who are threatened by your presence. Don’t let anyone tell you who you are, where you are going or how you are going to get there. The STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) fields are growing and there many wonderful opportunities on the horizon.

The Ultimate Parachute Test

By Jennifer Morcone, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center public affairs office

How do you stop a 200,000-pound solid rocket motor from ending up at the bottom on the Atlantic Ocean? With the biggest, strongest rocket parachutes ever built of course! And they are snuggly packed in the forward section of the Ares I-X rocket, awaiting their debut performance. The Ares I-X flight will be the first full flight test of the Ares I first stage parachute system.

NASA and ATK have successfully conducted nine development tests of the parachute

system including the main cluster parachute test on May 20, 2009. Credit: U.S. Army

Yuma Proving Ground

NASA, ATK and other partners have successfully tested each element of the parachute system. In fact, over the last three years, the team has conducted three pilot, two drogue, three single main, and one main cluster parachute drop tests at Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Az.

But Ares I-X will be the best test of the whole kit and caboodle because of the unique flight profile.

"You simply can't drop 200,000 pounds out of a plane. The only way we can do drop testing is from a C-17 aircraft and there is a 90,000 pound load limit. The Ares booster weighs more than double that," said Ron King, Ares first stage deceleration subsystem manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Al. "And Ares I-X is the only test of the entire flight sequence from start to finish, or separation to splashdown as it will be."

On October 9, 2009 NASA and industry engineers dropped a 72,000 pound test payload

from the back of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft from an altitude of 25,000 feet, tying the

record for the heaviest load ever extracted from the aircraft during flight. This drop test

was designed to push the main parachute's canopy to its limit -- supporting a

250,000-pound dynamic load. The payload included the main parachute for the Ares I

rocket. Credit: U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground

The Ares deceleration system consists of three types of parachutes: (1) a small pilot chute which pulls out the drogue chute; (2) a 68-foot diameter drogue chute and (3) three 150-foot diameter main parachutes. Here's how the sequence goes:

The Ares I-X first stage separates from the upper stage at 124 seconds into the test flight, at an altitude of 130,000 feet. The vehicle's four tumble motors then fire to slow the first stage for its return trip to Earth and eventual recovery. At an altitude of about 15,000-feet the nose cone is jettisoned, immediately deploying the pilot parachute. The pilot chute will in turn deploy the 68-foot drogue parachute, which is the workhorse of the system and will re-orient the booster to vertical and slow it to acceptable conditions for main parachute deployment. At about 4,000 feet, the separation at the base of the forward skirt extension occurs, pulling out the three 150-foot diameter main chutes packed within. These majestic red, white and blue canopies slow the booster even more, carrying it gently to splashdown.

Artist concept of the Ares I-X first stage recovery sequence. Credit: ATK

"The velocity and re-entry environments we'll see on Ares I-X are a bit less than Ares I, but we will get a great deal of data to help us refine the final flight hardware designs," said King. "We can't wait to see our giant parachutes off the coast of Florida."


Jennifer Morcone, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center public affairs office

An Intern Experience

By Edric San Miguel

My name is Edric San Miguel. I am a senior from Granby High School in Norfolk, VA. Currently, I am a student intern at NASA Langley Research Center under the Langley Aerospace Summer Scholars (LARSS). I became involved with this NASA internship through my participation in the Fundamental Aeronautics Student Competition.

Just like any other NASA interns, I would describe my experience at NASA as phenomenal and life-changing. As a high school student, this experience gave me a chance to explore what Aerospace Engineers actually do at NASA before I even decide on what to major in for college. This motivated me to pursue a degree in Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Tech University.

All the NASA employees are very nice and helpful to one another. Before I started my internship, I felt intimidated by the thought of working with NASA engineers and college level students who know so much more that I do in Aeronautics. However, when I actually began working with them, I didn’t have any reason to feel intimidated anymore. They are always ready and willing to help. I was even able to do a presentation for the Aeronautics Research Directorate without being nervous. I am currently employed at NASA’s Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch (ASAB) under the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD). I am working with a group of interns and mentors on a modeling program that NASA is developing. This program will make it easier and quicker to model aircraft.

Overall NASA Langley Research Center is a wonderful environment to work at and it brings to mind all the scientific accomplishments from the past and the vision they have for the future.

Langley Research Center

By Dr. Elizabeth Ward, LaRC

To help the United States return humans to the moon in the 21st century, NASA came back to where it started the space program, Langley Research Center. Langley trained not only the Mercury 7 astronauts, but also the astronauts involved with Gemini and Apollo. Some of the first lunar landing test flights were conducted at Langley’s research facilities in the 1960s and in 2009, the Orion vehicle models are being tested at the same site. But Langley is more than a place where astronauts were trained and space vehicles are tested.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began with an act of Congress in 1958, less than a year after Sputnik I made its first orbit around the Earth in October of 1957. Prior to the space agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, NACA, led US research in aeronautics for both military and civilian application.

The oldest of the NACA research facilities, Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (now Langley Research Center), began its work in 1917 in partnership with the Army Air Corps (became the US Air Force). Over 90 years later, a fleet of F-22 Raptors sit at Langley Air Force Base along with NASA wind tunnels that have been used to test aircraft since the NACA days. Locally referred to as the “East Side,” NASA has facilities on both the Air Force Base grounds and on a West Side non-military tract of land adjacent to it.

In the Langley full scale tunnel such notable aviators as Howard Hughes, Charles Lindbergh, Orville Wright, and Amelia Earhart are pictured in a photo of the tunnel taken in the 1930s. Working on the same grounds in 2009, employees have a sense of the history and achievements of their predecessors. Engineers still come from all over the globe to use facilities at NASA Langley to ensure that aircraft designs are flight worthy. But Langley is more than its facilities or its history.

Langley’s strength today is its people…engineers, scientists, technicians, and support staff. In the past Langley solved some of the biggest problems of manned flight. Today its researchers continue to tackle big problems like making air travel safer, more environmentally friendly, faster, and quieter; gathering and analyzing data on global climate phenomena; and developing new materials and structures for space access.

But who will work here in the future? Who will continue to search for solutions to the big technical problems? We hope it will be some of you. As part of the INSPIRE program you have the rare opportunity to engage with some of the current NASA employees. Take advantage of it. Ask questions; find out what you want to know that can help you with a career choice or a college choice. If opportunities come along for you to apply for something at NASA or in school, go for it. In all things, do your best, but don’t think you have to have it all together or be perfect, because no one has it all together and no one is perfect. Just do what you love and be the best that you can be. It will serve you well now and throughout your lifetime.

LCROSS - What Happened?

By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Education Specialist

Last week, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, completed its 113-day mission by crashing into the surface of the moon. Preceding the satellite was the bus-sized Centaur booster stage that accompanied it most of the way. Many of you knew this was going to happen from the day it was launched piggyback with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on June 18. NASA predicted the impact would raise a could of debris 10 meters in altitude, rising over the limb of the moon, that would be visible to telescopes on earth.

I was at my telescopes eyepiece watching – a long shot to see anything as those of us on the east coast were already in daylight, but I was hoping the scientists had underestimated the effect of the impact. I remembered reading about the monks in 1178 AD who witnessed “two horns of light” while looking at the moon, which some astronomers speculate was the creation of crater Giordano Bruno. I thought if they could see that with the unaided eye, I might get to see something with my scope.

The time came, and went. Nothing to be seen. Did I miss it? Was I looking in the right place? Did I mess up the time? I went inside to check NASA TV and used the DVR to rewind back to impact time. Nothing there either. Meanwhile, I hear the scientist say that it was successful with data returned to earth. The bombing of the moon that had been trumpeted in the news was a fizzle.

This is one of the difficulties in communicating science to others. Predictions are made – most conscientious scientists will be conservative in their predictions, but often excitement tends to cause over speculation. We really did not know what would happen when the Centaur and LCROSS impacted the moon, although we did have a precedent. In1971, the Saturn V S-IVB third stage of the Apollo 14 mission slammed into the moon at 2.54 km/sec. It left a crater 35 m in diameter, ejecting debris for 1.5 km. Although smaller, the Centaur was traveling faster, and was predicted to evacuate a larger crater and produce a much larger plume. In fact, both of these events occurred, observed by LCROSS and LRO, just not from earth.

Sometimes science can produce a wonderful show that helps to motivate and interest the general public, and sometimes we get disappointed. Nature is fickle. There is a difference between what you see on a tour at Kennedy Space Center and what you see on the Jungle Cruise at the Magic Kingdom. The important thing is not the show, but the data returned. And in that respect, LCROSS was very successful.