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Information on the White Sands Missile Range is given in viewgraph form. Navy programs, test sites, rocket programs, research rockets' booster capacity, current boost capabilities, ordnance and payload assembly areas, commercial space launch history and agreements, and lead times are among the topics covered.
The operation of the White Sands Missile Range Fast Burst Reactor is discussed. Space radiation studies in radiobiology, dosimetry, and transient radiation effects on electronic systems and components are described. Proposed modifications to increase the capability of the facility are discussed.
This report describes the facilities being made available for sounding-rocket experimenters at the White Sands Missile Range. As a result of the transfer of the SPARCS Program from Ames to Goddard, facilities had to be made available to accommodate the integration and preparation effort previously performed at Ames. This facility will provide total support at White Sands Missile Range for the solar rocket experimenter. In addition to the solar physics that can be done, there is no restriction that would prevent other scientific disciplines from taking advantage of the facilities.
In locations where workforce is exposed to high relative humidity and light winds, heat stress is a significant concern. Such is the case at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Heat stress is depicted by the wet bulb globe temperature, which is the official measurement used by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. The wet bulb globe temperature is measured by an instrument which was designed to be portable and needing routine maintenance. As an alternative form for measuring the wet bulb globe temperature, algorithms have been created to calculate the wet bulb globe temperature from basic meteorological observations. The algorithms are location dependent; therefore a specific algorithm is usually not suitable for multiple locations. Due to climatology similarities, the algorithm developed for use at the Dryden Flight Research Center was applied to data from the White Sands Missile Range. A study was performed that compared a wet bulb globe instrument to data from two Surface Atmospheric Measurement Systems that was applied to the Dryden wet bulb globe temperature algorithm. The period of study was from June to September of2009, with focus being applied from 0900 to 1800, local time. Analysis showed that the algorithm worked well, with a few exceptions. The algorithm becomes less accurate to the measurement when the dew point temperature is over 10 Celsius. Cloud cover also has a significant effect on the measured wet bulb globe temperature. The algorithm does not show red and black heat stress flags well due to shorter time scales of such events. The results of this study show that it is plausible that the Dryden Flight Research wet bulb globe temperature algorithm is compatible with the White Sands Missile Range, except for when there are increased dew point temperatures and cloud cover or precipitation. During such occasions, the wet bulb globe temperature instrument would be the preferred method of measurement. Out of the 30 dates examined, 23 fell under the category of having good accuracy.
Craters in natural materials at White Sands Missile Range, N. Mex., were produced by the impact of high-velocity to hypervelocity missiles traveling along oblique trajectories with kinetic energies between 2.1 and 81 × 1014 ergs. The oblique impacts produce craters 2 to 10 m across with morphologies and ejecta that are bilaterally symmetrical with respect to the plane of the missile trajectory. Rims are high and the amount of ejecta large in down-trajectory and lateral directions, whereas rims are low to nonexistent and ejecta thin to absent up-trajectory. Symmetry development and modifications of the symmetry are a function of target material, local topography, and angle of impact. Seven mappable units can be recognized in and around the craters. Three of these are ejecta: thick ejecta near the crater, thin to discontinuous ejecta at greater distances, and scattered ejecta at the greatest distances to the limit of throwout. These ejecta units may be absent on the up-trajectory side; if present, they are rarely as thick or continuous as on other sides of the crater. Three units are target materials: undeformed target material exposed in local patches through thin to discontinuous ejecta and everywhere between the fragments of scattered ejecta, tilted and broken target material exposed in upper crater walls, and shattered and fractured target material exposed on the up-trajectory crater wall. The seventh unit is slope material composed of talus and fallback within the crater. Development, character, and exposure of these units varies chiefly with the target material. Ejecta from the craters is chiefly broken but relatively undeformed target material that may range in size from very fine grained debris to large blocks. Where the target is porous, significant amounts of the ejecta are composed of sheared and compressed fragments, some coated with dark layers of mixed projectile pieces, powder, and fused metal mixed with crushed target material. For layered targets, the original stratigraphic sequence is crudely preserved and in inverted order in thick ejecta. Secondary impact craters are produced by the impact of ejected fragments when the surrounding surface materials are sufficiently weak. A wide variety of secondary impact crater relations may result. Secondary craters nearest the primary crater have blocks in them that are larger than or the same size as the crater they produced. Farther from the primary crater, the fragments are generally smaller than the secondary crater and are ejected from it. Excavation of four craters revealed a mixed breccia beneath the crater floor composed of missile pieces, sheared and compressed target material, and crushed debris. Banded, disaggregated target material and nonmixed breccia surrounded the mixed breccia, and these breccias were surrounded by a zone of conjugate fractures. Beneath the ejecta on the lateral and down-trajectory crater flanks, the target materials were tilted upward and broken. Up-trajectory, open fractures and downward displacement occurred in two of the craters. No displacement was observed for the other two. Beneath the down-trajectory rims of craters with distinct layering, overturned synclines were observed. Missile breakup and behavior during cratering are a function of target and missile properties. Missile breakup depends on missile velocity and is most extensive at high velocities, where the missile is fragmented, powdered, and partly fused. Burial of missile or its fragmented, powdered, and fused remains is greatest for porous targets and least for dense cohesive targets. For very porous targets, camouflet structures containing the fragmented missile may form. Least squares fit to the data on craters in dry to moist targets indicate V(a) = 10^(-11.433)E(p)^(1.205) where V(a) is the volume of the apparent crater and E(p) is the kinetic energy of the missile. This equation is consistent with expectations of the equations relating apparent depth and radius to kinetic energy. Extrapolation of displaced masses and kinetic energies for laboratory impacts with sand and rock converge near 10^(15) to 10^(16) ergs, where the extrapolations are near the data on missile impact craters, corrected for impact angle. Displaced masses of craters produced by missile impacts and by chemical explosives with small scaled depths of burial are about the same when the kinetic energies of the missiles (corrected for angle of impact) are equal to the TNT equivalent energy of the explosive. The problem of equivalent scaled depth of burst for an impact crater is complicated and not entirely resolved, however. Both missile impact craters and chemical explosive craters in water-saturated targets are larger than their counterparts in dry to moist materials. Data collected during the study of missile impact craters have helped resolve a number of problems in lunar research: (1) the soillike nature of lunar surface materials was predicted, (2) sizes of craters produced by artificial impacts were correctly predicted, (3) certain features imaged by Surveyor were found to be analogous to features associated with missile impact craters, {4) missile impacts were used in support of the Apollo passive seismic experiment, (5) craters seen in Apollo orbital photographs were found to be similar to some missile impact craters, (6) missile impact craters supplied data on sample collection and crater phenomenology used in training astronauts, and (7) some returned lunar samples are similar to coated, sheared, and compressed fragments ejected from missile impact craters.
This paper addresses the unique problems associated with launching the Black Brant V, VIII, and IX sounding rocket vehicles at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) and the significance of the introduction of the S19 to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility sounding rocket program in terms of launch flexibility, improved impact dispersion, higher flight reliability, and reduced program costs. This paper also discusses salient flight results from NASA 36.011UL (the first S19 guided Black Brant launched at WSMR) and the NASA Comet Halley missions (36.010DL and 36.017DL).
Friction measurement results obtained on the gypsum surface runways at Northrup Strip, White Sands Missile Range, N. M., using an instrumented tire test vehicle and a diagonal braked vehicle, are presented. These runways were prepared to serve as backup landing and retrieval sites to the primary sites located at Dryden Flight Research Center for shuttle orbiter during initial test flights. Similar friction data obtained on paved and other unpaved surfaces was shown for comparison and to indicate that the friction capability measured on the dry gypsum surface runways is sufficient for operations with the shuttle orbiter and the Boeing 747 aircraft. Based on these ground vehicle friction measurements, estimates of shuttle orbiter and aircraft tire friction performance are presented and discussed. General observations concerning the gypsum surface characteristics are also included and several recommendations are made for improving and maintaining adequate surface friction capabilities prior to the first shuttle orbiter landing.
The Sonic Boom Simulator of the Langley Research Center was used to quantify subjective loudness response to boom signatures consisting of: (1) simulator reproductions of booms recently recorded at White Sands Missile Range; (2) idealized N-waves; and (3) idealized booms having intermediate shocks. The booms with intermediate shocks represented signatures derived from CFD predictions. The recorded booms represented those generated by F15 and T38 aircraft flyovers and represented a variety of waveforms reflecting the effects of propagation through a turbulent atmosphere. These waveforms included the following shape categories: N-waves, peaked, rounded, and U-shaped. Results showed that Perceived Level and Zwicker Loudness Level were good estimators of the loudness of turbulence modified sonic booms. No significant differences were observed between loudness responses for the several shape categories when expressed in terms of Perceived Level. Thus, Perceived Level effectively accounted for waveform differences due to turbulence. Idealized booms with intermediate shocks, however, were rated as being approximately 2.7 dB(PL) less loud than the recorded signatures. This difference was not accounted for by PL.
Collection and interpretation of statistical data from Gemini 7 optical communication experiment for improving atmospheric models
Evaluation of atmospheric density data obtained by inflatable falling spheres
Sonic boom bow shock amplitude and rise time statistics from a recent sonic boom propagation experiment are presented. Distributions of bow shock overpressure and rise time measured under different atmospheric turbulence conditions for the same test aircraft are quite different. The peak overpressure distributions are skewed positively, indicating a tendency for positive deviations from the mean to be larger than negative deviations. Standard deviations of overpressure distributions measured under moderate turbulence were 40 percent larger than those measured under low turbulence. As turbulence increased, the difference between the median and the mean increased, indicating increased positive overpressure deviations. The effect of turbulence was more readily seen in the rise time distributions. Under moderate turbulence conditions, the rise time distribution means were larger by a factor of 4 and the standard deviations were larger by a factor of 3 from the low turbulence values. These distribution changes resulted in a transition from a peaked appearance of the rise time distribution for the morning to a flattened appearance for the afternoon rise time distributions. The sonic boom propagation experiment consisted of flying three types of aircraft supersonically over a ground-based microphone array with concurrent measurements of turbulence and other meteorological data. The test aircraft were a T-38, an F-15, and an F-111, and they were flown at speeds of Mach 1.2 to 1.3, 30,000 feet above a 16 element, linear microphone array with an inter-element spacing of 200 ft. In two weeks of testing, 57 supersonic passes of the test aircraft were flown from early morning to late afternoon.
This study investigates the reentry of the LifeSat vehicles into the WSMR. The LifeSat mission consists of two reusable reentry satellites, each carrying a removable payload module, which scientists will use to study long-term effects of microgravity, Van Allen belt radiation, and galactic cosmic rays on living organisms. A series of missions is planned for both low-Earth circular orbits and highly elliptic orbits. To recover the payload module with the specimens intact, a soft parachute landing and recovery at the WSMR is planned. This analysis examines operational issues surrounding the reentry scenario to assess the feasibility of the reentry.
The feasibility of actively guiding sounding rockets to reduce impact dispersion has been investigated. The theoretical probability of range safety thrust termination for several high performance rockets was combined with the cost of acquiring the extended range at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) to establish a guidance system price ceiling of $20K per flight. Guiding the Black Brant VC (BBVC) for the first five seconds of flight results in sufficient dispersion reduction to impact within the standard range boundaries at WSMR. The guidance system thrust level required to statically control the vehicle to a nominal-wind weighted trajectory for five seconds is between 150-200 pounds. A six-degree-of-freedom trajectory program with guidance simulation capability has been developed and the equations are presented.
The feasibility of actively guiding sounding rockets to reduce impact dispersion has been investigated. The theoretical probability of Range Safety thrust termination for several high performance rockets was combined with the cost of acquiring the extended range at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) to establish a guidance system price ceiling of $20K per flight. Guiding the Black Brant VC for the first five seconds of flight results in sufficient dispersion reduction to impact within the standard range boundaries at WSMR. The guidance system thrust level required to statically control the vehicle to a nominal-wind weighted trajectory for five seconds is between 150-200 pounds. A six-degree-of-freedom trajectory program with guidance simulation capability has been developed and the equations are delineated in this paper.
Sounding rockets are suborbital launch vehicles capable of carrying scientific payloads several hundred miles in altitude. These missions return a variety of scientific data including; chemical makeup and physical processes taking place In the atmosphere, natural radiation surrounding the Earth, data on the Sun, stars, galaxies and many other phenomena. In addition, sounding rockets provide a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices used on satellites and other spacecraft prior to their use in more expensive activities. The NASA Sounding Rocket Program is managed by personnel from Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility (GSFC/WFF) in Virginia. Typically around thirty of these rockets are launched each year, either from established ranges at Wallops Island, Virginia, Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska; White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico or from Canada, Norway and Sweden. Many times launches are conducted from temporary launch ranges in remote parts of the world requi6ng considerable expense to transport and operate tracking radars. An inverse differential GPS system has been developed for Sounding Rocket. This paper addresses the NASA Wallops Island history of GPS Sounding Rocket experience since 1994 and the development of a high accurate and useful system.
Sounding rockets are suborbital launch vehicles capable of carrying scientific payloads to several hundred miles in altitude. These missions return a variety of scientific data including: chemical makeup and physical processes taking place in the atmosphere, natural radiation surrounding the Earth, data on the Sun, stars, galaxies and many other phenomena. In addition, sounding rockets provide a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices to be used on satellites and other spacecraft prior to their use in these more expensive missions. Typically around thirty of these rockets are launched each year, from established ranges at Wallops Island, Virginia; Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska; White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico and from a number of ranges outside the United States. Many times launches are conducted from temporary launch ranges in remote parts of the world requiring considerable expense to transport and operate tracking radars. In order to support these missions, an inverse differential GPS system has been developed. The flight system consists of a small, inexpensive receiver, a preamplifier and a wrap-around antenna. A rugged, compact, portable ground station extracts GPS data from the raw payload telemetry stream, performs a real time differential solution and graphically displays the rocket's path relative to a predicted trajectory plot. In addition to generating a real time navigation solution, the system has been used for payload recovery, timing, data timetagging, precise tracking of multiple payloads and slaving of optical tracking systems for over the horizon acquisition. This paper discusses, in detail, the flight and ground hardware, as well as data processing and operational aspects of the system, and provides evidence of the system accuracy.
The purpose of NASA's Constellation project is to create the new generation of spacecraft for human flight to the International Space Station in low-earth orbit, the lunar surface, as well as for use in future deep-space exploration. One portion of the Constellation program was the development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV) to be used in spaceflight. The Orion spacecraft consists of a crew module, service module, space adapter and launch abort system. The crew module was designed to hold as many as six crew members. The Orion crew exploration vehicle is similar in design to the Apollo space capsules, although larger and more massive. The Flight Test Office is the responsible flight test organization for the launch abort system on the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The Flight Test Office originally proposed six tests that would demonstrate the use of the launch abort system. These flight tests were to be performed at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and were similar in nature to the Apollo Little Joe II tests performed in the 1960s. The first flight test of the launch abort system was a pad abort (PA-1), that took place on 6 May 2010 at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Primary flight test objectives were to demonstrate the capability of the launch abort system to propel the crew module a safe distance away from a launch vehicle during a pad abort, to demonstrate the stability and control characteristics of the vehicle, and to determine the performance of the motors contained within the launch abort system. The focus of the PA-1 flight test was engineering development and data acquisition, not certification. In this presentation, a high level overview of the PA-1 vehicle is given, along with an overview of the Mobile Operations Facility and information on the White Sands tracking sites for radar & optics. Several lessons learned are presented, including detailed information on the lessons learned in the development of wind placards for flight. PA-1 flight data is shown, as well as a comparison of PA-1 flight data to nonlinear simulation Monte Carlo data.
Jimsphere wind profiles are documented for the following ranges and installations: Eastern Test Range, Cape Kennedy, Florida; Western Test Range; Point Mugu, California; White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; Wallops Island, Virginia; Green River, Utah; and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Profile information for 1964-1977 includes data summaries, computer formats, frequency distributions, composite listings, etc., for use in establishing and interpreting natural environment criteria for aeronautical vehicle design and engineering operations.