Ares I
The Ares I was a planned US launch vehicle. It was specially developed for the launch of the Orion spaceship and, together with it, should replace the space shuttle as a manned rocket. In its last planned configuration, the Ares I was able to carry up to 24.5 tons in low earth orbit. Together with her sister rocket Ares V , she was part of the Constellation program of NASA , which was, however, terminated before completion due to financial constraints.
technology
The Ares I has two stages. The first stage is a five-segment solid rocket derived from the space shuttle booster , which would have been produced by Alliant Techsystems . This would have burned a mixture known as Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant (APCP) of ammonium perchlorate as oxidizer and aluminum , generating a thrust of around 16 meganewtons. Once ignited, the solid fuel stage can no longer be switched off and would have brought the rocket to an altitude of around 50 km during its burn time of 126 seconds. At this height, the first stage would have been cut off and a system of five parachutes would have ensured safe watering in the Atlantic. There they would have been recovered and dragged back to the launch site, where the segments would have been separated from each other. If the regulations had allowed it, they would have been sent to the home plant near Brigham City, Utah, for reprocessing for reuse on a later flight. Such segments are transported by rail.
The second stage is a scaled-down version of the space shuttle's outer tank . It is primarily made of an aluminum - lithium - alloy manufactured and contains two smaller tanks for the fuel, wherein the upper tank before the start of liquid hydrogen (329 m³ at 20 K ), the lower liquid oxygen (108 m³ at 90 K) would have been filled. These substances would have powered the J-2X engine , which would have propelled the rocket into low Earth orbit. After the end of the fire, the payload would have been suspended either directly or with an individual third stage. The tank should be built by Boeing in the Michoud Assembly Facility and transferred to the launch site by sea. The engine manufactured by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne would only have been assembled there.
In the manned configuration, a rescue rocket powered by solid propellants would have been at the tip of the rocket, which would have accelerated the crew capsule away from the rocket quickly in the event of danger.
Launch system
The only launch site was the Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center .
Development history
The first proposals for a rocket using a solid rocket as the first stage and a second stage based on liquid fuel date back to 1995. At that time, Lockheed Martin was carrying out a design study on future potential rockets on behalf of the Marshall Space Flight Center Show similarities with the current appearance of the Ares I.
Ten years later work began on realizing such a rocket. The rocket was originally developed with a four-segment first stage and a modified space shuttle main engine as a drive for the second stage. After an initial check of the results, however, it was found that the solid rocket could not deliver enough thrust to launch the rocket. This problem was compensated for by adding the fifth segment and reducing the weight of the maximum payload. Furthermore, for reasons of cost and functionality, it was decided to replace the SSME, which alone costs around 55 million US dollars and would have had to be modified for ignitions during the flight, with the J-2X engine, which costs only about half and is restartable .
On January 4, 2007, NASA successfully completed the System Requirements Review, a test in which the rocket was tested for the conditions of the Constellation program. At the same time it became known that the intertank section of the second stage had been replaced by an intermediate floor in order to save weight.
The order for the production of the flight computers was awarded to Boeing on December 12, 2007. The first ignition of the five-segment booster took place on September 10, 2009.
On February 1, 2010, the project was stopped along with the Constellation program.
Completed and planned launches
Main article: List of Constellation missions
The first test launch of Ares IX for a suborbital flight was planned for October 27, 2009 12:00 UTC . After several takeoff delays due to weather conditions, the first flight took place on October 28, 2009 at 15:30 UTC. A main rocket with four active and one passive SRB segment was used, which carried an inactive second stage and payload dummies from the launch complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center to an altitude of 46 kilometers, accelerating to Mach 4.7 and testing the stage separation. During the test, the ground control processes should be refined and basic data on the functionality of the hardware and software should be obtained. In particular, realistic data on the system- inherent problem of SRB self-resonances should be obtained in the early implementation phase.
After the deletion
The second test ignition of the five-segment booster took place on August 31, 2010.
ATK announced at the beginning of February 2011 that, in cooperation with EADS Astrium , the 5-segment booster developed as the first stage for the canceled Ares I and an EPC of the Ariane 5 modified by Astrium as a second stage would be a new launch vehicle called Liberty for the commercial transport of astronauts wants to develop for NASA. NASA announced that it would help the consortium develop the rocket.
Technical specifications
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| Ares I | |
|---|---|
| Takeoff mass ( t ) | 907 |
| Height (m) | 99 |
| Launch site | LC-39 |
| Payload ( LEO ( t )) | 25.49 |
| 1st stage | |
| Type | Solid |
| Length (m) | 52.73 |
| Diameter (m) | 3.66 |
| Mass ( t ) | 801 |
| Thrust Ø ( kN ) | 16014 |
| Burning time ( s ) | 126 |
| fuel | APCP |
| 2nd stage | |
| Type | Liquid fuel |
| Engine | J-2X |
| Length (m) | 25.6 |
| Diameter (m) | 5.5 |
| Mass ( t ) | 156 (empty 17.5) |
| Thrust Ø ( kN ) | 1308 |
| Burning time ( s ) | approx. 465 |
| fuel | LOX / LH 2 |
Web links
- Project website NASA (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Statement by Charlie Bolden, NASA administrator. (PDF) NASA, February 1, 2010, p. 4 , accessed on February 1, 2010 (English).
- ↑ NASA's Ares I First Stage - Powering the Ares I Rocket for liftoff. (PDF; 698 kB) In: NASA Facts. NASA, May 2008, accessed April 13, 2009 .
- ↑ NASA's Ares I Upper Stage - Powering the Second Phase of a Rocket's Journey to Space. (PDF; 487 kB) In: NASA Facts. NASA, May 2008, accessed April 13, 2009 .
- ↑ NASA: NASA and ATK Successfully Test Ares First Stage Motor , Sept. 10, 2009 (English)
- ↑ Irene Klotz: NASA postpones Ares rocket test flight. Reuters, October 27, 2009, accessed October 27, 2009 .
- ↑ Booster DM-2 successfully tested , Aug 31, 2010.
- ^ ATK and Astrium Unveil the Liberty ™ Launch Vehicle Initiative for NASA's CCDev-2 Competition ( Memento of July 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Date: February 8, 2011 Retrieved: February 10, 2011
- ↑ Liberty as the successor to Ares I? February 8, 2011; Retrieved February 10, 2011
- ^ Liberty rocket emerges from shadow of defunct Ares 1 . February 8, 2011; accessed: February 10, 2011
- ^ "Liberty" rocket, Nasa participates in the transatlantic space project. Spiegel Online , September 14, 2011; Retrieved September 15, 2011
- ↑ a b NASA - Ares I Upper Stage (PDF; 487 kB)
- ↑ NASA - Ares I First Stage (PDF; 848 kB)
