JOSH: In this building, the future of space flight is
coming together...literally. We go behind closed doors to
see the assembly of Ares 1-X. Next on Real World.
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JOSH: NASA is going old school with its next space vehicle...
a design that looks similar to the rocket shaped Apollo spacecraft
rather than the plane-like Space Shuttle. But make no mistake;
this new rocket ship will be packed with the latest NASA technology.
Part of a whole series of space vehicles
called Constellation, a prototype called Ares 1-X
will test this back to basics design.
Modules for the Ares 1-X prototype have been
created at NASA facilities nationwide.
They have all come together at Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
where NASA is assembling the Ares 1-X space vehicle
now and plans to launch a flight in 2009.
JON COWART: We’ve got parts coming from Glenn Research Center up in Cleveland,
Langley up near Hampton, Virginia.
Folks at Marshall are doing the avionics and roll control system.
JOSH: Jon Cowart is an Ares 1-X Deputy Mission Manager at Kennedy Space Center.
JON: So by spreading out that expertise and making sure
everyone’s fully engaged, you get a better product.”
JOSH: Math plays a central role in making sure all the
pieces will fit and work together properly.
With sections created in different facilities all over the country,
one miscalculation could delay the project for months, even years!
Engineers use TOLERANCES to insure that all the parts will fit together properly.
A tolerance is defined as the acceptable deviation from a dimension of an object.
NASA engineers measure tolerances in micrometers.
One micrometer equals one thousandth of a millimeter.
To get an idea of how small that is, a strand of human hair
is about 100 micrometers wide!
NASA needs these super tight tolerances to insure
the safety of astronauts and their equipment in space.
So all of the parts of Ares 1-X have been built with proper tolerances,
and are being assemble at Kennedy Space Center.
Some parts are small enough to be flown in by plane,
but others will have to be transported by truck.
Large, ring-like parts of the space craft, called SEGMENTS,
are the most challenging to move.
JON: We’ll have all the pieces here that we need...roll control system, avionics.
It’s all here. We begin that final integration, that final push to put it all together
and check it all out as one piece. And that’s the part that takes the longest.
JOSH: When fully assembled, Ares 1-X will be ready for its very first flight test.
JON: We don’t call ourselves a test-flight, we’re a flight test.
That meaning, we’re not exactly like an Ares 1
rocket, there’s a little bit of difference.
Most notably, we don’t have 5 full solid rocket motor segments. We only got 4.
And our upper stage has no propellant in it...no liquid hydrogen no liquid oxygen.
JOSH: But lots of other things about the Ares I-X
are designed to be just like the Ares I rocket that will take astronauts into space.
JON: We do have the mass in there to simulate the total weight that would be.
So we put all this together as a simulator and then we fly it.
We get the aerodynamic effect, which is what we’re really looking for.
We want to know aerodynamically and control wise, can we control this.
The algorithms will be very, very similar between our rocket and the real Ares 1;
the pressure, the strains, the temperatures...
Gather all that data and give it to the folks at Ares 1
for there critical design review so they can use it.
JOSH: How well Ares 1-X will soar through the atmosphere on lift off
will depend in part on aerodynamics...
how efficiently the air around the vehicle can be controlled.
A central formula to aerodynamics is called the drag coefficient.
Drag is the resistance an object experiences as it moves through air or water.
In a controlled area, like a wind tunnel,
we can monitor velocity, density and area.
Knowing these variables, we can measure the amount of
drag on an object as it moves through the air.
The drag measurement is used to find the drag coefficient,
a ratio that predicts how easily the object will move through the air
under different conditions.
To find the drag coefficient, divide the drag - D,
by the air density (r), times the area,
times half the velocity, squared.
Since drag is directly related to the size of an object,
if you double the area of an object, you double the drag on that object.
Scientists and engineers use the drag coefficient
to predict how a vehicle will perform at different velocities,
air densities, or altitudes.
The better engineers can control the airflow around Ares 1-X,
the easier it will be to control the spacecraft, after launch.
With all of the engineering and math behind the Ares 1-X,
NASA is one step closer to a new space vehicle that will
carry us to the moon and beyond!
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