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NASA NTRS2014

Morpheus Vertical Test Bed Flight Testing

NASA's Morpheus Project has developed and tested a prototype planetary lander capable of vertical takeoff and landing, that is designed to serve as a testbed for advanced spacecraft technologies. The lander vehicle, propelled by a LOX/Methane engine and sized to carry a 500kg payload to the lunar surface, provides a platform for bringing technologies from the laboratory into an integrated flight system at relatively low cost. Morpheus onboard software is autonomous from ignition all the way through landing, and is designed to be capable of executing a variety of flight trajectories, with onboard fault checks and automatic contingency responses. The Morpheus 1.5A vehicle performed 26 integrated vehicle test flights including hot-fire tests, tethered tests, and two attempted freeflights between April 2011 and August 2012. The final flight of Morpheus 1.5A resulted in a loss of the vehicle. In September 2012, development began on the Morpheus 1.5B vehicle, which subsequently followed a similar test campaign culminating in free-flights at a simulated planetary landscape built at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. This paper describes the integrated test campaign, including successes and setbacks, and how the system design for handling faults and failures evolved over the course of the project.

Hart, Jeremy↗
NASA NTRS2015

NASA Work Experience

I have had the opportunity to support the analytical laboratories in chemical analysis of unknown samples, using Optical Microscopy (OM), Polarizing Light Microscopy (PLM), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEMEDS), and X-ray Powder Diffraction (XPD). I have assisted in characterizing fibers pulled from a spacecraft, a white fibrous residue discovered in a jet refueler truck, brown residue from a plant habitat slated for delivery to the ISS (International Space Station), corrosion on a pipe from a sprinkler, and air filtration material brought back from the ISS. I also conducted my own fiber study in order to practice techniques and further my understanding of background concepts. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to participate in diverse work assignments, where I was assigned to work with other branches of the engineering department for 1-2 days each. The first was in the Materials Science branch where I participated in the construction of the plant habitat intended for use in research aboard the ISS. The second was in the Testing Design branch where I assisted with tensile and hardness testing of over 40 samples. In addition, I have had the privilege to attend multiple tours of the NASA KSC campus, including to the Astronaut Crew Quarters, the VAB (the main area, the Columbia room, and the catwalk), the Visitor Center housing the shuttle Atlantis, the Saturn-V exhibit, the Prototype laboratory, SWAMP WORKS, the Shuttle Landing Facility, the Crawler, and the Booster Fabrication Facility (BFF). Lastly, much of my coursework prepared me for this experience, including numerous laboratory courses with topics diverse as chemistry, physics, and biology.

Florida Tech↗
NASA NTRS2015

Lidar Sensor Performance in Closed-Loop Flight Testing of the Morpheus Rocket-Propelled Lander to a Lunar-Like Hazard Field

For the first time, a suite of three lidar sensors have been used in flight to scan a lunar-like hazard field, identify a safe landing site, and, in concert with an experimental Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) system, guide the Morpheus autonomous, rocket-propelled, free-flying test bed to a safe landing on the hazard field. The lidar sensors and GN&C system are part of the Autonomous Precision Landing and Hazard Detection and Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project which has been seeking to develop a system capable of enabling safe, precise crewed or robotic landings in challenging terrain on planetary bodies under any ambient lighting conditions. The 3-D imaging flash lidar is a second generation, compact, real-time, air-cooled instrument developed from a number of cutting-edge components from industry and NASA and is used as part of the ALHAT Hazard Detection System (HDS) to scan the hazard field and build a 3-D Digital Elevation Map (DEM) in near-real time for identifying safe sites. The flash lidar is capable of identifying a 30 cm hazard from a slant range of 1 km with its 8 cm range precision at 1 sigma. The flash lidar is also used in Hazard Relative Navigation (HRN) to provide position updates down to a 250m slant range to the ALHAT navigation filter as it guides Morpheus to the safe site. The Doppler Lidar system has been developed within NASA to provide velocity measurements with an accuracy of 0.2 cm/sec and range measurements with an accuracy of 17 cm both from a maximum range of 2,200 m to a minimum range of several meters above the ground. The Doppler Lidar's measurements are fed into the ALHAT navigation filter to provide lander guidance to the safe site. The Laser Altimeter, also developed within NASA, provides range measurements with an accuracy of 5 cm from a maximum operational range of 30 km down to 1 m and, being a separate sensor from the flash lidar, can provide range along a separate vector. The Laser Altimeter measurements are also fed into the ALHAT navigation filter to provide lander guidance to the safe site. The flight tests served as the culmination of the TRL 6 journey for the lidar suite and included launch from a pad situated at the NASA-Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway, a lunar-like descent trajectory from an altitude of 250m, and landing on a lunar-like hazard field of rocks, craters, hazardous slopes, and safe sites 400m down-range just off the North end of the runway. The tests both confirmed the expected performance and also revealed several challenges present in the flight-like environment which will feed into future TRL advancement of the sensors. The flash lidar identified hazards as small as 30 cm from the maximum slant range of 450 m which Morpheus could provide, however, it was occasionally susceptible to an increase in range noise due to heated air from the Morpheus rocket plume which entered its Field-of-View (FOV). The flash lidar was also susceptible to pre-triggering on dust during the HRN phase which was created during launch and transported by the wind. The Doppler Lidar provided velocity and range measurements to the expected accuracy levels yet it was also susceptible to signal degradation due to air heated by the rocket engine. The Laser Altimeter, operating with a degraded transmitter laser, also showed signal attenuation over a few seconds at a specific phase of the flight due to the heat plume generated by the rocket engine.

Roback, Vincent E.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Lidar Sensor Performance in Closed-Loop Flight Testing of the Morpheus Rocket-Propelled Lander to a Lunar-Like Hazard Field

For the first time, a suite of three lidar sensors have been used in flight to scan a lunar-like hazard field, identify a safe landing site, and, in concert with an experimental Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) system, help to guide the Morpheus autonomous, rocket-propelled, free-flying lander to that safe site on the hazard field. The lidar sensors and GN&C system are part of the Autonomous Precision Landing and Hazard Detection and Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) project which has been seeking to develop a system capable of enabling safe, precise crewed or robotic landings in challenging terrain on planetary bodies under any ambient lighting conditions. The 3-D imaging Flash Lidar is a second generation, compact, real-time, aircooled instrument developed from a number of components from industry and NASA and is used as part of the ALHAT Hazard Detection System (HDS) to scan the hazard field and build a 3-D Digital Elevation Map (DEM) in near-real time for identifying safe sites. The Flash Lidar is capable of identifying a 30 cm hazard from a slant range of 1 km with its 8 cm range precision (1-s). The Flash Lidar is also used in Hazard Relative Navigation (HRN) to provide position updates down to a 250m slant range to the ALHAT navigation filter as it guides Morpheus to the safe site. The Navigation Doppler Lidar (NDL) system has been developed within NASA to provide velocity measurements with an accuracy of 0.2 cm/sec and range measurements with an accuracy of 17 cm both from a maximum range of 2,200 m to a minimum range of several meters above the ground. The NDLâ€"TM"s measurements are fed into the ALHAT navigation filter to provide lander guidance to the safe site. The Laser Altimeter (LA), also developed within NASA, provides range measurements with an accuracy of 5 cm from a maximum operational range of 30 km down to 1 m and, being a separate sensor from the Flash Lidar, can provide range along a separate vector. The LA measurements are also fed into the ALHAT navigation filter to provide lander guidance to the safe site. The flight tests served as the culmination of the TRL 6 journey for the ALHAT system and included launch from a pad situated at the NASA-Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) runway, a lunar-like descent trajectory from an altitude of 250m, and landing on a lunar-like hazard field of rocks, craters, hazardous slopes, and safe sites 400m down-range just off the North end of the runway. The tests both confirmed the expected performance and also revealed several challenges present in the flight-like environment which will feed into future TRL advancement of the sensors. Guidance provided by the ALHAT system was impeded in portions of the trajectory and intermittent near the end of the trajectory due to optical effects arising from air heated by the rocket engine. The Flash Lidar identified hazards as small as 30 cm from the maximum slant range of 450 m which Morpheus could provide; however, it was occasionally susceptible to an increase in range noise due to scintillation arising from air heated by the Morpheus rocket engine which entered its Field-of-View (FOV). The Flash Lidar was also susceptible to pre-triggering, during the HRN phase, on a dust cloud created during launch and transported down-range by the wind. The NDL provided velocity and range measurements to the expected accuracy levels yet it was also susceptible to signal degradation due to air heated by the rocket engine. The LA, operating with a degraded transmitter laser, also showed signal attenuation over a few seconds at a specific phase of the flight due to the heat plume generated by the rocket engine.

Roback, V. Eric↗
NASA NTRS2015

Flight Testing a Real-Time Hazard Detection System for Safe Lunar Landing on the Rocket-Powered Morpheus Vehicle

The Hazard Detection System (HDS) is a component of the ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology) sensor suite, which together provide a lander Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) system with the relevant measurements necessary to enable safe precision landing under any lighting conditions. The HDS consists of a stand-alone compute element (CE), an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and a gimbaled flash LIDAR sensor that are used, in real-time, to generate a Digital Elevation Map (DEM) of the landing terrain, detect candidate safe landing sites for the vehicle through Hazard Detection (HD), and generate hazard-relative navigation (HRN) measurements used for safe precision landing. Following an extensive ground and helicopter test campaign, ALHAT was integrated onto the Morpheus rocket-powered terrestrial test vehicle in March 2014. Morpheus and ALHAT then performed five successful free flights at the simulated lunar hazard field constructed at the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at Kennedy Space Center, for the first time testing the full system on a lunar-like approach geometry in a relevant dynamic environment. During these flights, the HDS successfully generated DEMs, correctly identified safe landing sites and provided HRN measurements to the vehicle, marking the first autonomous landing of a NASA rocket-powered vehicle in hazardous terrain. This paper provides a brief overview of the HDS architecture and describes its in-flight performance.

Avoidance↗
NASA NTRS2018

Flight Demonstration of Novel Atmospheric Satellite Concept

The major focus of the Phase II effort described herein is to develop and demonstrate an aircraft capable of autonomously sailing (i.e., to cruise without propulsion or external assistance), and thereby prove that the dual-aircraft platform (DAP) atmospheric satellite concept is potentially viable. This sailing mode of flight was identified as the number-1 enabling technology required for the stratospheric DAP concept (also known as Stratosat) in the NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concept) Phase I effort. No scientific demonstration of this technology has ever been done or documented to our knowledge. This report describes efforts to take a major step towards the sailing mode of flight capability using a single aircraft connected by cable to a moving ground vehicle which uses sufficient crosswind to cruise without propulsion while "pulling" the ground vehicle forward (i.e., without external assistance). The development of a prototype aircraft is described in terms of novel and key hardware and software elements. A specialized prototype aircraft is described, including a novel cable release mechanism, novel "lateron" control surfaces, and a highly-accurate onboard wind measurement system. Additionally, a novel means to safely connect the aircraft to the moving ground vehicle is described involving a fishing rod/reel and integrated load cell. All of these devices were designed and developed in-house and validated in flight testing. Software is developed to provide look-up tables that give the flight condition targets (i.e., 3-D position relative to ground vehicle, forward speed, aircraft orientation, etc.), based on current wind speed and direction. These tables are successfully validated in flight simulation and used onboard the aircraft. High fidelity analysis of the aircraft aerodynamics are described - required to produce accurate target sailing flight conditions. A novel wind tunnel measurement technique is developed to accurately assess the aerodynamics of the ultra-thin cable. A new specialized flight simulator is described which is utilized to develop and verify the flight software required onboard the aircraft, and to support training of pilots for flying the aircraft while tethered to a ground vehicle. The DAP flight simulator was developed within the Matlab-Simulink framework and included detailed treatment of aircraft/cable aerodynamics, cable dynamics, experimentally-derived propeller-motor thrust curves, actuator responsiveness, and realistic air turbulence. The specialized formation flight controller algorithm, developed using this flight simulator, and onboard the aircraft is described. Finally, a novel auto-tuning software is described and verified within the flight simulator that is shown to refine the sailing flight condition targets during flight using an optimization technique involving doublet maneuvers. Virtual flights using the auto-tuning software indicate that the prototype aircraft should be able to reach and hold sailing conditions despite moderate levels of turbulence provided there is sufficient mean wind available. An overview of the flight testing program is provided. Hundreds of short flights were conducted, primarily using a “dead” short runway at Deland Municipal Airport which permitted use of a moving ground vehicle. Additional flight tests at Space Florida’s Shuttle Landing Facility are also described. First year results from these tests in which the aircraft is controlled manually, demonstrated that excessive flight testing would be required for a pilot to learn to sail with visual cues. However, second year results from autonomous flight these tests included successful demonstration of the closed-loop autonomous formation flight capability (i.e., autonomously determine, reach, and hold the required 3-D location relative to the ground vehicle required for sailing). The next step of using the auto-tune software to autonomously refine the aircraft orientation targets to finally achieve sailing remains the primary goal of future work.

Flight↗
NASA NTRS2023

Former SLF Fire and Rescue Building SWMU #120 Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Site Assessment Work Plan

This Work Plan documents the proposed field sampling activities for a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) Site Assessment at the Former Space Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) Fire and Rescue Building (FRB) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The Work Plan provides a background of the historical activities that occurred at the SLF FRB, and the limited environmental investigations performed at the SLF FRB. The proposed Site Assessment activities at SLF FRB includes the collection of soil samples from eight locations, the advancement of a soil lithologic boring to 60 feet below ground surface, the installation of a staff gauge in site surface water, the installation of four monitoring wells, perform direct push groundwater sampling at seven locations, and collect one surface water sample. Sampling details, depths, and locations are presented in the Work Plan. The Work Plan was presented to the KSC Remediation Team in the form of an Advance Data Package in February 2023. Following STRIVES approval, the SLF FRB PFAS Site Assessment Work Plan will be formally submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Howard Franklin Fowler↗
NASA NTRS2023

Fire Station #2, Former Sewage Treatment Plant #17, and Towway Area-SWMU 114 PFAS Site Assessment Progress Report Kennedy Space Center, Florida

This PFAS Site Assessment Progress Report (SAPR) presents the findings of the 2022 PFAS investigation conducted from November 2021 through August 2022 at Solid Waste Management Unit (SWMU) 114 located within Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. SWMU 114 includes area around Fire Station #2, Former Sewage Treatment Plant #17, the southern portion of the Shuttle Landing Facility Runway, Remote Launch Vehicle Hangar, and the Towway area. Fire Station #2 was constructed in 2008 and is currently active, housing fire station personnel and equipment, including aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). Releases of AFFF has occurred at SWMU 114. Previous environmental assessments have been performed at SWMU 114, including soil, groundwater, and surface water sampling for volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, total petroleum hydrocarbons, and metals. No active remediation has been performed at the SWMU 114. PFAS site assessment field activities were conducted at SWMU 114 from November 2021 through August 2022. During the 2021-2022 Site Assessment, 124 direct-push samples were collected from 27 locations, 17 surface water samples were collected from 15 locations, 41 groundwater samples were collected from 37 newly installed monitoring wells, five concrete samples were collected from four locations, and one asphalt sample was collected. Additionally, two soil borings were advanced to 60 feet for lithologic descriptions, ten staff gauges were installed, and one round of water level measurements were collected from monitoring wells and staff gauges for groundwater flow determination. All groundwater and surface water samples were analyzed for 25 PFAS analytes by USEPA Method 537M. Concrete, and asphalt samples were analyzed by synthetic precipitation leaching procedure (SPLP) PFAS analysis by USEPA Modified Method 537M. Groundwater results were compared to the most recent Regional Screening Levels (RSLs) published by USEPA for residential tap water (USEPA, 2022a) to determine the extent of PFAS contamination at SWMU 114 for six PFAS analytes (PFOA, PFNA, PFBS, PFHxS, PFOS, and GenX). Surface water results were compared to the FDEP surface water screening levels (SW SLs) (FDEP, 2020) for PFOA and PFOS. The PFAS investigation concluded that groundwater exceeding RSLs extends east and south to Banana Creek and west to approximately the center of the SLF runway. The extent of PFAS is approximated to the north, to an area between Sharkey Road and Astronaut Road, where samples below the RSLs do not fully bound SWMU 114. At least two distinct PFAS source areas are located near Fire Station #2 and along Towway, at S114-MW0007S, within SWMU 114. Groundwater head measurements indicate that flow at SWMU 114 is generally similar across the shallow and intermediate water tables. A northeast to southwest trending groundwater divide is located near the middle of Towway where groundwater southeast of the divide flows to the south and groundwater northwest of the divide flows to the west. The groundwater divide generally separates the two areas of higher PFAS concentrations. Surface water samples indicated concentrations of PFOS above the SW SLs in surface water bodies across the site. Further assessment and sampling are required to better understand the interaction between groundwater and surface water at SWMU 114. Concrete and asphalt samples collected confirm that a significant release of AFFF occurred near the stormwater pond northwest of Fire Station #2. Additional concrete samples surrounding Fire Station #2 and at the northwest and southeast edges of the SLF tarmac indicate elevated PFOS concentrations. These results indicate that discharges of AFFF in these locations have infiltrated into asphalt and concrete and may act as a continuing source of PFAS to groundwater and surface water after rain events. Additional direct-push samples are required to delineate PFAS at SWMU 114. Samples may need to extend beyond the Former SLF Rescue Building and Morpheous Test Site to delineate PFAS in groundwater. Monitoring wells should be sampled and gauged quarterly to determine if seasonal impacts are observable, especially in shallow wells near surface water features. Furthermore, surface water samples should be collected from additional ditches to further define the extent of surface water impacts at SWMU 114 and extending along the SLF runway. Staff gauges should be gauged quarterly with groundwater gauging to determine surface water flow and interaction with groundwater. The PFAS sampling results and path forward for SWMU 114 were presented to the KSC Remediation Team in October 2022. Once the PFAS SAPR is approved, it will be submitted to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Howard Franklin Fowler↗
NASA NTRS2014

Shuttle Flight Operations Contract Generator Maintenance Facility Land Use Control Implementation Plan (LUCIP)

This Land Use Control Implementation Plan (LUCIP) has been prepared to inform current and potential future users of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Shuttle Flight Operations Contract Generator Maintenance Facility (SFOC; SWMU 081; "the Site") of institutional controls that have been implemented at the Site1. Although there are no current unacceptable risks to human health or the environment associated with the SFOC, an institutional land use control (LUC) is necessary to prevent human health exposure to antimony-affected groundwater at the Site. Controls will include periodic inspection, condition certification, and agency notification.

Remediation↗
NASA NTRS1991

Space shuttle Mission Control Center upgrade

The Mission Control Center (MCC) is the facility that provides centralization of all mission operations in support of the shuttle from liftoff through landing. This facility serves as the focal point for real time flight control operations supporting the shuttle, spacelab, and selected payload systems. MCC upgrade accomplishments are as follows: replaced 5 mainframe computers and the associated input/output data interfaces; developed and installed a distributed data system with 81 workstations, 5 LANs, data drivers, and a fiber optic distribution subsystem; developed over 1.5 million lines of code to support new distributed system; developed new digital voice system which provides the MCC capacity to handle th Shuttle programs demands and growth potential to handle Space Station; replaced failing digital TV equipment with digital generation equipment; replaced obsolete center screen projector; and provided the platform for the multiprogram control center.

Duffin, Pat↗
NASA NTRS2009

Observation Denial and Performance of a Local Mesoscale Model

Forecasters at the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) use observations from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) wind tower network and the CCAFS (XMR) daily rawinsonde observations (RAOB) to issue and verify wind advisories and warnings for operations. These observations are also used by the Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG) in Houston, Texas and the Melbourne, Florida National Weather Service office to initialize their locally run mesoscale models. SMG also uses the observations to support shuttle landings at the KSC Shuttie Landing Facility. Due to impending budget cuts, some or all of the KSC/CCAFS wind towers on the east-central Florida mainland and the XMR RAOBs may be eliminated. The loss of these data may impact the forecast capability of the 45 WS and SMG. The Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) was tasked to conduct a modeling study to determine how important these observations are to the accuracy of the model output used by the forecasters as input to their forecasts. To accomplish this, the AMU performed a sensitivity study using the Weather Research and Forecasting (NRF) model initialized with and without KSC/CCAFS wind tower and XMR RAOB observations. The AMU assessed the accuracy of model output by comparing peak wind forecasts with operationally significant wind advisory and warning criteria forecast by the 45 WS. To assess model performance when initialized with and without some of the wind tower and XMR RAOB observations, the AMU conducted a subjective analysis by displaying model wind forecasts graphically with the observations overlaid for comparison and they conducted an objective analysis by comparing the maximum peak wind forecast to the maximum peak wind observed within the KSC/CCAFS wind tower network. Data were collected for twelve warm season cases and eight cool season cases from June - September 2007 and November - January 2008, respectively. For each case chosen, the 45 WS must have issued a wind advisory or warning for the KSC/CCAFS area and the KSC/CCAFS wind towers must have recorded significant wind events, or winds greater than 18 kt.

Watson, Leela R.↗
NASA NTRS1974

A Functional Description of a Digital Flight Test System for Navigation and Guidance Research in the Terminal Area

A guidance, navigation, and control system, the Simulated Shuttle Flight Test System (SS-FTS), when interfaced with existing aircraft systems, provides a research facility for studying concepts for landing the space shuttle orbiter and conventional jet aircraft. The SS-FTS, which includes a general-purpose computer, performs all computations for precisely following a prescribed approach trajectory while properly managing the vehicle energy to allow safe arrival at the runway and landing within prescribed dispersions. The system contains hardware and software provisions for navigation with several combinations of possible navigation aids that have been suggested for the shuttle. The SS-FTS can be reconfigured to study different guidance and navigation concepts by changing only the computer software, and adapted to receive different radio navigation information through minimum hardware changes. All control laws, logic, and mode interlocks reside solely in the computer software.

Hegarty, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Dynamics stability derivatives of space shuttle orbiter obtained from wind-tunnel and approach and landing flight tests

A comparison was made between ground facility measurements, the aerodynamic design data book values, and the dynamic damping derivatives extracted from the space shuttle orbiter approach and landing flight tests. The comparison covers an angle of attack range from 2 deg to 10 deg at subsonic Mach numbers. The parameters of pitch, yaw, and roll damping, as well as the yawing moment due to rolling velocity and rolling moment due to yawing velocity are compared.

Freeman, D. C., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Orbiter Processing Overview

Footage of orbiter processing is shown. The Space Shuttle Discovery Landing Operations, Rollback to Orbiter Processing Facility After Landing, Orbiter Processing Facility, Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), Orbiter Rollover from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the VAB, Atlantis Orbiter Lift and Mate, Atlantis Rollout to Launch Pad 39, Payload Canister Door Opened and Payload Move into Payload Ground Handling Mechanism, Payload into Orbiter, Orbiter Payload Bay Door Closure, Launch Pad Processing at Launch Complex 39, Rotating Service Structure Rollback at Launch Pad, Discovery Lift-off and SRB separation is presented.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1972

An investigation of the landing characteristics of the NASA-MSC August 1969 baseline orbiter configuration in ground effect

A 0.05 scale model of the NASA-MSC August 1969 baseline shuttle craft was tested in Texas A&M University's 7- x 10-foot low speed wind tunnel facility. The purpose of the test was to determine the landing aerodynamic characteristics of the shuttle craft vehicle in ground effect and to evaluate control surface hinge moments experienced in the cruise and landing operational phases of flight. Analysis of the final data will allow evaluation of vehicle flight stability in ground effect and estimation of vehicle control surface power system requirements.

Chambliss, E. B.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Cornering and wear characteristics of the Space Shuttle Orbiter nose-gear tire

Tests of the Space Shuttle Orbiter nose-gear tire have been completed at NASA Langley's Aircraft Landing Dynamics Facility. The purpose of these tests was to determine the cornering and wear characteristics of the Space Shuttle Orbiter nose-gear tire under realistic operating conditions. The tire was tested on a simulated Kennedy Space Center runway surface at speeds from 100 to 180 kts. The results of these tests defined the cornering characteristics which included side forces and associated side force friction coefficient over a range of yaw angles from 0 deg to 12 deg. Wear characteristics were defined by tire tread and cord wear over a yaw angle range of 0 deg to 4 deg under dry and wet runway conditions. Wear characteristics were also defined for a 15 kt crosswind landing with two blown right main-gear tires and nose-gear steering engaged.

Davis, Pamela A.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Construction bidding cost of KSC's space shuttle facilities

The bidding cost of the major Space Transportation System facilities constructed under the responsibility of the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is described and listed. These facilities and Ground Support Equipment (GSE) are necessary for the receiving, assembly, testing, and checkout of the Space Shuttle for launch and landing missions at KSC. The Shuttle launch configuration consists of the Orbiter, the External Tank, and the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB). The reusable Orbiter and SRB's is the major factor in the program that will result in lowering space travel costs. The new facilities are the Landing Facility; Orbiter Processing Facility; Orbiter Approach and Landing Test Facility (Dryden Test Center, California); Orbiter Mating Devices; Sound Suppression Water System; and Emergency Power System for LC-39. Also, a major factor was to use as much Apollo facilities and hardware as possible to reduce the facilities cost. The alterations to existing Apollo facilities are the VAB modifications; Mobile Launcher Platforms; Launch Complex 39 Pads A and B (which includes a new concept - the Rotary Service Structure), which was featured in ENR, 3 Feb. 1977, 'Hinged Space Truss will Support Shuttle Cargo Room'; Launch Control Center mods; External Tank and SRB Processing and Storage; Fluid Test Complex mods; O&C Spacelab mods; Shuttle mods for Parachute Facility; SRB Recovery and Disassembly Facility at Hangar 'AF'; and an interesting GSE item - the SRB Dewatering Nozzle Plug Sets (Remote Controlled Submarine System) used to inspect and acquire for reuse of SRB's.

Brown, Joseph Andrew↗
NASA NTRS1977

Space Shuttle Orbiter approach and landing program status

The approach and landing test (ALT) phase of the Space Shuttle program aims at assessing the Orbiter's subsonic aerodynamic flight and landing characteristics along with the support equipment, ground facilities, and the approximate hardware and software to be used in the terminal phase of orbital missions. The program also evaluates the performance of the Shuttle carrier aircraft (SCA) as related to the transport of the Orbiter to the launch sites during the stages of Space Shuttle operations. Results are presented for the SCA inert Orbiter flight testing and the program plans up to the completion of the ALT program. Emphasis is placed on testing the airworthiness of the mated B-747 Shuttle carrier aircraft and Orbiter, checkout of the Orbiter systems in captive flight, and launching the Orbiter with and without the tail cone installed. Major program milestones before the first manned orbital flight are summarized in graphic form.

Andrews, W. H.↗