Ares I-X Flight Evaluation Tasks in Support of Ares I DevelopmentNASA s Constellation Program successfully launched the Ares I-X Flight Test Vehicle on October 28, 2009. The Ares I-X flight was a development flight test that offered a unique opportunity for early engineering data to impact the design and development of the Ares I crew launch vehicle. As the primary customer for flight data from the Ares I-X mission, the Ares Projects Office established a set of 33 flight evaluation tasks to correlate fight results with prospective design assumptions and models. Included within these tasks were direct comparisons of flight data with pre-flight predictions and post-flight assessments utilizing models and modeling techniques being applied to design and develop Ares I. A discussion of the similarities and differences in those comparisons and the need for discipline-level model updates based upon those comparisons form the substance of this paper. The benefits of development flight testing were made evident by implementing these tasks that used Ares I-X data to partially validate tools and methodologies in technical disciplines that will ultimately influence the design and development of Ares I and future launch vehicles. The areas in which partial validation from the flight test was most significant included flight control system algorithms to predict liftoff clearance, ascent, and stage separation; structural models from rollout to separation; thermal models that have been updated based on these data; pyroshock attenuation; and the ability to predict complex flow fields during time-varying conditions including plume interactions.
Document ID
20100034901
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Huebner, Lawrence D. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Richards, James S. (Bangham Engineering, Inc. Huntsville, AL, United States)
Coates, Ralph H., III (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Cruit, Wendy D. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Ramsey, Matthew N. (Willbrook Solutions, Inc. Huntsville, AL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
September 27, 2010
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Report/Patent Number
IAC-10-D2.6.6NF1676L-11307
Meeting Information
Meeting: 61st International Astronautical Congress